Next up for these year playlists is 1951, featuring two tracks each by Hank Williams and Howlin' Wolf, other familiar names like Elmore James and Flatt & Scruggs, and my fave rendition of "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" by the wonderful Maddox Brothers and Rose.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0v159nmQHrd1ASGPc5d1Fmf

#playlist #Year1951

"Year playlist" numero tres is 1940. Big band swing meets solo folk with three famous jazz orchestras, three tracks by the absolute hero Woody Guthrie (and two by his sometime collaborator and folk blues giant Lead Belly), along with some early piano blues by Champion Jack Dupree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nz3WeHGtjg&list=PLfQclYkh2u0sge1dF6H47PsHTB73Qwb3k

#playlist #Year1940

Next "Year Playlist" is 1974. Which means lots of funk from James Brown, his associates like Maceo Parker & Fred Wesley, plus Patti LaBelle, the Ohio Players & more.

From the rock side of the ledger, it’s 1974 so it's gonna be from the margins. Two middle-aged rockabilly sides from Charlie Feathers & the best of pub rock with Nick Lowe fronting Brinsley Schwarz. Then some junkshop glam from the UK & meatball rock from Canada filling out the dozen.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0tlC1msT4PwooxTeyvxg9nf

#playlist #Year1940

The year playlist for this week is 1960, a year at the heart of the period when old conventional wisdom said there was nothing good coming out music-wise.

Blues, R&B, C&W, and most notably a pile of rock n roll instrumentals (including the first song ever to reference LSD) proves that wrong.

Ike & Tina Turner, Elmore James, Marty Robbins, Link Wray, and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates are among those to help cement 1960's credentials.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0szfpS5CtucMB23Z1aTwnqC

#playlist #Year1960

This week's Year Playlist is 1983, reflecting music I played on my college radio show back then, including stuff I became aware of during my first stint in London.

Starting off with hip hop, it veers into a hodgepodge of pop/rock/indie released that year. Less than halfway through, it's taken over by what nowadays fits in the umbrella term “garagepunk”. Back then, it would've been split into garage rock, trash, cowpunk, hardcore, goth, folkpunk, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0s6HNp283KYLdu7gM3BRHUL
#playlist #Year1983

Back to nearly a century ago w/the next Year Playlist: 1930. That means two songs by the grandfather of country Jimmie Rodgers, pop & jazz standards from Fred Astaire and King Oliver, and a surfeit of old-timey folk, blues, and trad music. Benny Goodman, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Carter Family are well known, but the eerie gothic drama of Geeshie Wiley and the fast fiddle reel of Eck Robertson & Family are also worth a few listens.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0vqy6VcDJrw0wcvBzTIVDuO

#YearPlaylist #playlist #Year1930

I must stay true to basing these #YearPlaylists on the aggregated playlists from my 2018-19 internet radio show. It’s been fine so far, but when I get to certain years, there are way too many tracks for a playlist.

IMO, a playlist should be between 10 and 25 songs (at least 30 minutes and no more than 90 minutes - the length of most cassette tapes).

This wasn’t a problem with the #YearPlaylists so far: 1927, 1951, 1940, 1974, 1960, 1983, & 1930. The longest one had 23 songs.

But for years like 1966 or ‘77, I have four times that many that I must include. I'm not going to make five-hour playlists, so there’ll have to be some Part 1, Part 2 stuff.

#YearPlaylist: 1966 - Part 1

There’s a certain vibe here, so don’t bother unless you enjoy loud, clanging (& clearly horny) teen bands, snarling about society’s pressure blowing their minds--that sort of thing.

Sample songs:

Bad Girl
Blowing My Mind
Dirty Books
Going All the Way

Yep, 18 tracks of garagerock at its most primitive, interrupted briefly by ‘66-style soul (Carla Thomas), blues (Howlin’ Wolf), rock ‘n’ roll (Bo Diddley), & pop (David Bowie).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0shVQixdDyHortTzqz_sr0y

#Playlist

#YearPlaylist: 1949

It's 1949 so here's a city/country mix of jump blues, hillbilly boogie, a back mountain murder ballad, some of the first recorded bluegrass, and a dash of New Orleans gumbo.

Personal faves Hank Williams and the Maddox Bros. & Rose are here alongside Louis Jordan and John Lee Hooker (recording under a pseudonym).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0te3siKwx04bSf8GlW-BVnp

#Playlist

#YearPlaylist: 1956 Part 1

Out of 21 cuts, 17 not surprisingly are of the rockabilly persuasion, including multiple contributions from Joe Clay, Johnny Burnette, Carl Perkins, and a young Roy Orbison.

The youthful vitality is infectious, but after so much of it, it's just as well the set ends with Howlin' Wolf and Otis Rush, who sound like the whiskey-drinking adults in the room next to a bunch of manic teenagers on bop pills.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0sYZTjpHLG6dKjvTbDavkmW

#Playlist

#YearPlaylist: 1977 Part 1 (A to E)

I like punk rock and I cannot lie

(What can I say, it’s a vibe)

Songs/vibes include:

Ain’t Nothing to Do
Antisocial Disease
Blank Generation
Boredom
Born to Lose

But Willie Williams, The Commodores, and Candy McKenzie prove there was other music in 1977

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0vcixCai6pIw2yUZD-SPOcf

#Playlist
#Year1977

#YearPlaylist: 1988

A short one. Prob because in 1988 I was back in university as a “mature” student & became a parent, hindering music discovery.

Some of these I heard for the 1st time on mixtapes I got in the mail from my old record shop comrade in London. He knew I was missing out & went out of his way to keep me informed with batches of new releases on cassette.

All hip hop, with 1 exception, this playlist is dedicated to Jace the Ace Face.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0tJSH5b9JIagu4oC2u4Cdit

#Playlist
#Year1988

#YearPlaylist: 1929

It's an understandably rustic mix this time, with half of the recordings coming from the famous Anthology of American Folk Music. Ethel Waters and Jimmie Rodgers bring the more polished sounds, while Memphis Minnie and Cannon's Jug Stompers account for 4 of the 17 songs.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0s6tNJjwhgSg_KZ6HsbUzZs

#Playlist
#Year1929

#YearPlaylist: 1969 Part 1

This year's (part 1) playlist has some classic rawk:

Born on the Bayou
Gimme Shelter
Kick Out the Jams

And a hunk of funk:

Butter (For Yo' Popcorn)
Cissy Strut
Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky
It's My Thing

And it starts and ends with tracks from (Iggy and) The Stooges' debut

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0vHaDj2C6EdBwoinrQ05QFY

#Year1969