Tampa Calling

It’s a rainy Monday and I have a shit-ton of work to do this week. My former employer McClatchy just announced widespread layoffs, leading to the dismissal of an editor I highly respected and worked with directly and indirectly — and drank with off the clock on his dime, and attended a couple shows with that we both enjoyed — for several years at the Bradenton Herald. A talk with another former editor confirmed that the smell of death permeates every news room in the nation.

Others have it worse, I know, but that’s not much comfort. Is it? Anyway, whenever I feel myself slipping over to the dark side, which has been the case today, I put on something like the compilation I recently made called “Mellow My Mind.” It’s mostly ’70s stuff. A great decade for laid-back songs that celebrate being on the losing end. Here are 10 tracks from it. Not exactly uplifting (except for Rev. Green’s glorious gospel number), but soothing, like brown whiskey.

Top 10: Mellow songs

1. “Jesus Is Waiting,” Al Green

2. “These Days,” Gregg Allman

3. “Roll Um Easy,” Little Feat

4. “A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold” (Live at Massey Hall), Neil Young

5. “Handbags & Gladrags,” Rod Stewart

6. “Hickory Wind,” The Byrds

7. “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” Willie Nelson

8. “I Forgot to Be Your Lover,” William Bell

9. “Love Is a Losing Game,” Amy Winehouse

10. “Long Way Home,” Tom Waits

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