Because obsessing over the dates of old pictures isn't enough, I'm now making year-based playlists of music.

Some of these real early ones will be short, other years may take awhile to put together and be kinda long.

Here is 1927, with multiple tracks by Dock Boggs and the Carter Family, plus singles by Uncle Dave Macon, Blind Willie Johnson, Victoria Spivey, and more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nShTt6rBYDM&list=PLfQclYkh2u0uisdG6LvxmuoLPeY80FQv8

#playlist #Year1927

Dock Boggs – Danville Girl

YouTube

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

1951

YouTube

"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

Cabbage Greens No 2 - Champion Jack Dupree

YouTube

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

1974

YouTube

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

1960

YouTube

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

1983

YouTube

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

1930

YouTube

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

1966-1

YouTube

#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

1949

YouTube

#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

1956-1

YouTube

#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

1977-1

YouTube

#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

1988

YouTube

#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

1929

YouTube

#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

1969-1

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1941-1943

Not enough 1941/42/43 tracks on my old show for "year playlists" but I have to include them in this thread so it's a multiyear job.

One reason there ain't much is because of the 1942-44 recording ban for union members.

Not sure how tracks here swerved the ban - but I note that some were done for movies.

There's 2 versions of Blues in the Night (viral song in the early '40s) and 2 tracks by the Andrews Sisters (Shoo Shoo Baby for the win).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0uvSOO2q2_IB7GJTxubbmfa

1941-1943

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1971

What a year. I know there's even books about this being the best year for albums or something, but it was no slouch for singles either.

A few classics by legends, tons of funk, soul, reggae, underground rock, and even a country song.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0twHNzbsjAYRXFhbGJ-6gLe

#Year1971

1971

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1992-93

Since I only played two things from '93 on my old show, they get squeezed into this 1992 playlist.

It's a strange one because almost every track is either hip hop or hip hop-adjacent, or garagepunk produced or inspired by Billy Childish.

Well, that's not counting a few indie and R&B outliers by the Breeders, Morrissey and En Vogue.

There's also four whole tracks off of Luscious Jackson's debut record! (hip hop adjacent)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0vGZ_3mERi6euH3KNBt4RPf

#Year1992
#Year1993

1992-1993

YouTube

Couldn't actually find Minute Man by Thee Milkshakes on YT, except as part of a full album posting. So that's why I moved it to the end of the playlist.

If you really want to hear Minute Man, which is a great Link Wray-style instrumental, it starts at 17:59 in the video. (i.e. here, in this link):

https://youtu.be/y-baNRUVRd8?t=1079

Thee Milkshakes - Still Talking Bout...1992 Full Album

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1963 Part 1

What a year!

Lots of surf & other instros by The Blazers, Ronnie Kae, Link Wray, Dick Dale, Gary & Larry, Lonnie Mack, The Citations, & Neil Young's first group, The Squires. There's also vocal groups: the Chiffons, Crystals, Ronettes, Beatles & Beach Boys.

Plus various strands of R&B from Sonny Boy Williamson II, Bob & Earl, Derek Martin, and an early Rolling Stones demo, with some early ska from Lord Tanamo and Clancy Eccles.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0voZeZi0oFKpf3vCUFQgwlN

#Year1963

1963-1

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1953

There's three icons here in Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, and Hank Williams.

But in addition to the latter's posthumous release - "Angel of Death" - my faves are the Davis Sisters ("Rock-a-Bye Boogie"), LC Smith ("Radio Boogie"), Rufus Thomas ("Bear Cat") and Guitar Slim ("The Things That I Used to Do").

Also, the first version of much covered "Iko Iko", originally called "Jock-A-Mo", by Sugar Boy and His Cane Cutters.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0svC9t7JCm_YeRzqLRquTKs

#Year1953

1953

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1976

In addition to much #YearZero punk from a parade of likely suspects, there's also proto-punk from the Runaways and the 101ers, pop from ABBA and Bryan Ferry, one-hit wonders from Wild Cherry and Chris Spedding, and funk from the JBs.

A few obvious reggae classics from Dillinger, Clint Eastwood, and Junior Murvin are sprinkled throughout the noiselist.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0v2PRLM3Spg1FI1zGtgADQc

#Year1976

1976

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1981 Part 1

LA, NY, DC, SF, Chicago, London, Coventry & Manchester are the collective provenance of this list's 19 records from 1981.

But LA accounts for half, from Gun Club, X, Black Flag, The Bags, & TSOL--most of which contribute more than one.

If there's an outlier, it's the one hit--Kids in America by Kim Wilde--but it doesn't really sound out of place alongside the US punk and UK post-punk records that account for the the balance.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0uzOhuGrGjDSWrhGQ68qcyX

#Year1981

1981-1

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1958 Part 1

Extremely rocking set of half a dozen pre-surf intros, featuring both twangy guitar and sax, with a similar quota of rockabilly, plus R&B, pop/jazz and folk in smaller doses.

Roy Brown, Laura Lee Perkins, Chuck Berry, and the Collins Kids are probably my faves.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0tdre074AnUqfcOsM6g5s8Z

#Year1958
#Playlist

1958-1

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1967 Part 1

I am so grateful that Dublin Digital Radio was perfectly happy to have someone do a show that played music recorded between 1925 and 2019, from across many different genres.

That's how I did it on the show, with years all mixed up, but now I'm replaying them in year batches.

Here is part one of 1967.

Genres this year include ska, garage rock, pop, psychedelic rock, blues, soul, country, folk rock, and funk.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0s36H0BuQy9-0RiQxAaWA-L

#Year1967
#Playlist

1967 Part 1

YouTube

#YearPlaylist: 1970

Featuring the Turtles, and Kermit the Frog

Alice Cooper, and Jerry Reed

Bob Marley, and Wanda Jackson

Plus some other big names, and some not so big names.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0vTKE3iYESGuuIkUhcI74v8

#Year1970

#YearPlaylist: 1932-1935

I feel like a failure, not having enough records to have individual year playlists for this period. My rules don't allow me to fill in the gaps, I must use the playlists from my old show.

It starts out with a topical Depression-era pop song, followed mostly by jazz but there's a few other things in there.

My faves are It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Aint Got that Swing), Garbage Man Blues, and Rye Whiskey.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0vCnVD4f_oy7AZV2C9LQrip

#Year1932
#Year1933
#Year1934
#Year1935

#YearPlaylist: 1984 Part 1

I bet my 1984 playlist doesn't look like yours.

Apparently, for me 1984 was all about the all-women garage punk band from LA called The Pandoras, who appear 4 times.

In a similar vein, The Sting-rays, my friends from London, appear twice.

But, so does Shinehead, one of the first artists to mix reggae with hip hop.

#Year1984

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0tzzOuA8eIsmoOiHPyARqPx

#YearPlaylist: 1957 Part 1

Two songs from the American Graffiti soundtrack reflecting that early doo wop-influenced northern version of rock n roll, but much more southern rockabilly as usual for this time period.

The last number by Johnny Horton is a particular fave.

Fats Domino, Billie Holiday, Elmore James, Slim Harpo, and Huey "Piano" Smith complete the ranks.

#Year1957

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0uj1NZX2EfEVmkPPOxsAhDw

I posted 1979 Part 1 in June but apparently didn’t include the link. 😟 uh oh!!!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQclYkh2u0v-5GXgvZcUVbsUAvab8wb6

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