Willie Simpson

Month: May 2011

  • R.E.M., It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

    Part 67 is all about the Apocalypse, the end of the world AS WE KNOW IT, because as you know, the world is supposedly ending on Saturday according to some radio host in Denver or something.  What better way to ring in the end of all things then with R.E.M.’s 1987 alternative rock classic, “It’s…

  • The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon

    Part 66 of my countdown is the Kinks again, this time with “Sunny Afternoon,” from Face to Face.  This is a boozy depressed sunny pop song about the downside of being a rich famous rock star.  The tax man took all his money, his girlfriend left and stole his car, and Ray’s got nothing left…

  • The Top Ten Most Played Songs on my iPod

    Did you know that when you plug your iPod into your computer, iTunes can arrange your iPod’s mp3s by plays, from most played to least? It’s pretty fascinating to see what you’ve been listening to exclusively, and how many thousands (yes thousands of times) you’ve clicked play on certain songs. Well, I’d thought it’d be…

  • Mama Cass, Joni Mitchell, Mary Travers, I Shall Be Released

    I have a special super group performance for part 65 of my youtube countdown.  It’s Mama Cass Elliot of the Mama’s and Papa’s fame, Mary Travers of Peter Paul and Mary fame, and Joni Mitchell of, uhh, Joni Mitchell fame, all together on some TV show singing the Bob Dylan penned “I Shall Be Released”…

  • Cream, Tales of Brave Ulysses

    Part 64 of my youtube countdown introduces Cream, or “the late great Cream” as John Lennon once said in 1968.  That’s right, Cream was a streaking comet of psychedelic blues perfection, blasting through the pop music charts from 1966 to 1968 selling 35 million albums in just two years!  Cream was considered the world’s first…

  • Skip James, Chris Thomas King, Hard Time Killing Floor Blues

    Hi, its part 63 of my youtube countdown is completely awesome.  Big set up I know, but I got “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” a legendary blues song written and performed by delta bluesman Skip James, and Chris Thomas King, who helped make the song famous for its inclusion in the “O Brother Where Art…

  • Biggie Smalls, Warning

    Part 62 takes us back to Biggie and his incredible album Ready to Die with the song “Warning.”  This is a messed up perfect rap song about Biggie boasting about his awesomeness through the glass onion of revenge.  The video is a lot like the song, Biggie on the phone rapping to himself, well in…

  • The Rolling Stones, Like a Rolling Stone (Live)

    Part 61 of my youtube countdown rocks on with the Rolling Stones performing Bob Dylan’s classic “Like a Rolling Stone,” from their 1998 Bridges to Babylon tour.  The Rolling Stones have performed this song for decades, I guess a bit ironically, as an unofficial band anthem, though not really.  I mean, did they just want…

  • The Beatles, I Should Have Known Better

    Part 60 now, and for this slice, I have the Fab Four back again with a clip of them performing “I Should Have Known Better,” from their movie and record of the same name, A Hard Day’s Night.  This is simply one of my favorite songs of all time.  And I mean that with total…

  • Ween, The Mollusk

    For part 59 of my youtube countdown, I have another video from Ween’s amazing 1997 record, The Mollusk. The song, appropriately enough, is “The Mollusk” itself.  This song is a beautiful story about a semi-creepy older man talking to a boy at the beach about a magical mollusk he found by the shore.  It’s a…