Uh oh, the 40th anniversary of Woodstock is about a month and a half away. Did you remember? If not, it’s probably due to the distinct lack of buzz, seeing as there is no official concert scheduled, although boosters keep adding “as yet” in hopes that original co-producer Michael Lang will manage to put together a show in New York’s Prospect Park.

A handful of mostly lame events are planned for different parts of the country, and a tour called Heroes of Woodstock — featuring Mountain, Jefferson Starship, Tom Constanten (repping Grateful Dead) and others — has 16 dates on the books (none in the Southeast). In all, though, it would seem as if folks have other things on their mind than memorializing the watershed cultural event.

That doesn’t mean it’s a complete wasteland. Sony Music has released a well-thought-out group of reissues called The Woodstock Experience, five two-CD packages pairing a classic 1969 album and a complete Woodstock performance. Sony catalog artists Santana, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane and Sly and the Family Stone got the treatment.

Thirty-three acts performed at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair from Aug. 15-18, 1969, including such long-forgotten names as Quill, Sweetwater, Keef Hartley Band and Bert Sommer. (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Byrds and a handful of lesser-knowns declined invitations. Jeff Beck, Iron Butterfly and Joni Mitchell canceled.)

Only a handful of the performances have been immortalized, mostly via the 1970 film Woodstock and its soundtrack. And Sony can legitimately boast three of them in this collection: Sly, Santana and Joplin. Winter did not make it into the movie and while Jefferson Airplane were represented with two songs in celluloid, their set has not earned the same historical cachet as the top three.

Let’s have us a closer look at these twofers. I’ve ranked them on their merit as live performances.

Sly and the Family Stone. The runaway winner. Sly’s 50-minute, nine-song show is a balls-out party from the opening “M’Lady” to the closer “Stand!” The group’s rhythm tracks have a collective propulsion that has as much to do with Larry Graham’s rumbling bass and the interlocking guitars as it does with drums. Deep, deep funk — with rock crunch. Sly and company find just the right blend of scripted performance and in-the-moment spontaneity.

A band has to be really tight to play this loose. They accelerate the pace of “Everyday People,” giving it a gospel-tent fervor. The sing-along during “I Want to Take You Higher,” one of Woodstock the film’s crescendos, benefits from the leadup tune “Music Lover” and Sly’s spoken set-up. Even the song “Love City,” in my view a second-tier Sly tune, has an uncommon crackle. The set’s companion CD, Stand!, is a terrific bonus, the best Sly album this side of Greatest Hits.

Santana. The band’s self-titled debut, which is the companion CD in this twofer, was released in May ’69 and reached No. 4 on the charts in late September, so it’s safe to say that a scintillating performance at Woodstock played a big part in putting Santana on the map.

The group’s use of Latin rhythms must have been an exotic treat for the hippie hordes in upstate New York. Santana plays a fairly rote version of the hit-to-be “Evil Ways,” but excels in the dynamic Latin jams, especially “Soul Sacrifice,” with its relentless groove, roil of hand percussion, monster riff and hair-raising guitar solo.


Janis Joplin. The damaged blues-rock songstress had made her bones two years earlier at the Monterey Pop festival. A few months before Woodstock she left the sub-par Big Brother and the Holding Company, went solo and transformed her show into kaleidoscopic R&B revue, heavy on the horns. I generally find Joplin’s vocals akin to a razor blade scraped against a rock, but I’ll give her credit for the unhinged energy and commitment she puts into her ragged performance.

Of all the live CDs in this series Joplin’s most effectively captures the flavor of Woodstock. Before closing with “Ball and Chain,” she launches into a spacey speech, in which she says, “Music’s for grooving, man, and music’s not puttin’ yourself through bad changes. You don’t have to take anybody’s shit, man, just to like music. So if you’re getting more shit than you deserve, you know what to do about it.” Uh, OK. If Joplin’s caterwauling in her Woodstock set wears you out, load up the companion CD, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, where she tones it down considerably.

Johnny Winter. Very few people knew of the reed-thin albino when he took the stage and pumped out an hour of raucous Texas blues, boogie and early rock ’n’ roll. Winter’s set thrust him into pantheon of late ’60s guitar heroes. He played fast, and fast was much revered in that era. As his career has worn on, Winter has spewed so many notes that it’s devolved into chattering, but at Woodstock he brought a lot of slides, slurs and bends into play. His bottleneck work on “Mean Town Blues” still raises goosebumps.

Winter, joined mid-set by his brother Edgar on sax and keyboards, played a show in front of a few hundred thousand people in much the same way he would’ve performed at a roadhouse outside Fort Worth. The second album in the package is Winter’s self-titled debut.

Jefferson Airplane. The San Francisco band’s ensemble vocals always sounded precariously held together, even on this set’s companion CD, the stridently anti-war Volunteers. At Woodstock, the singing came unglued. Grace Slick’s pitch wavered and her already shrill voice turned into a yelp.

The blend of instruments is mushy — and not just because of the recording quality — and the guitars consistently slide out of tune. The rhythms wander, and the extended jams — especially on “Wooden Ships” — come off as rudderless noodling. The band gets a foothold near the end of the set with a sharp “White Rabbit,” but by then it’s too late.

Bob Dylan
Together Through Life

Despite leaning heavily on the signature instrument for the bratwurst-and-polka crowd, Bob Dylan’s new album, Together Through Life, manages to wring rhythm and soul from an overgrown squeezebox.

David Hidalgo of Los Lobos plays accordion on each of the album’s 10 tracks and much of the backing band’s beat reminds us of the best work by Hidalgo’s group. Hidalgo adds great Flaco Jiminez touches to Dylan’s new songs, and at times Together Through Life sounds as if we’ve wandered into a Ry Cooder album.

But it’s Bob Dylan, of course. That blown-speaker growl of his is unmistakable, and although this is an album of purported love songs — what else would the title Together Through Life suggest? — nothing is ever so simple or straightforward in Dylan’s world. And, for that matter, when was the last time he wrote a conventional love song?

Case in point: “My Wife’s Home Town.” A stock-in-trade tuneslinger from Tin Pan Alley might come up with a rhapsodic reverie about visiting the place where his beloved grew up. But not Dylan. The refrain on this tune is “Hell is my wife’s home town.” And then . . . and then . . . a couple of times during the song, Bob . . .  cackles.  In his 47-year recording career, has he ever cackled before?

In short, Bob’s having fun here.

“My Wife’s Home Town” offers clues to the Rosetta stone for the album: Chess Studios, 1954. Except for the accordion, the tune’s instrumental track sounds identical to that of Muddy Waters’ “I Just Want to Make Love to You.” Chess seems to be the blueprint for many of the songs — Chess mixed with some Doug Sahm/Augie Meyer Tex-Mex bordertown blues.

By my count, Dylan has made 15 masterpieces, the most recent being Love and Theft in 2001. Modern Times (2006) was a great, jumping record but a bit shy of his highest standard. It contains some excellent songs — “When the Deal Goes Down,” “Nettie Moore,” “Ain’t Talkin’,” among them — but did not quite achieve the epic and apocalyptic stature of Love and Theft.

Together Through Life is much like Modern Times: superbly performed (by Bob’s usual band, plus Hidalgo), with songwriter Dylan in great form (often in collaboration with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter), and with the sort of drive and funk that can even get a rhythmically challenged Midwesterner dancing.

It all started with a request from director Olivier Dahan (“La Vie En Rose”), who asked Dylan for a song for his new movie, My Only Love Song. Dylan came up with “Life is Hard,” by my estimation the weakest song on the album. But that inspired him to write nine other meditations on love. Despite the presence of the instrument on which Frankie Yankovic’s career is based, there is much dance funk on Together Through Life.

Angry Young Bob will always exist as an icon of popular culture. But Dylan’s most interesting and satisfying artistic period may be the last 10-12 years, when he has shown how a great artist can age majestically. This album again reminds us Dylan is an amalgamation of all of his influences. Together Through Life, like all of his recent albums, is both a paean to and a tour of the spectacle of American music.

Together Through Life is available as a single disc or as a three-disc limited edition: Disc Two is a an hour-long episode of Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour from XM Radio and Disc Three is a DVD of an interview between Dylan and  Roy Silver.

—William McKeen

Here’s a taste of the new album, “I Feel a Change Comin’ On,” No video, though, just a still of the album cover.

Black Crowes – War Paint Live
Clutch – Slow Hole To China (remastered rarities)
Rivers Cuomo – Live at Fingerprints
Omar Kent Dykes w/ Jimmy Vaughan – Big Town Playboy
Bob Dylan – Together Through Life (regular and deluxe edition with bonus Theme Time Radio Hour CD and DVD!)
Esquivel – Infinity in Sound, Volumes 1 & 2
Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella (Best of Ben Folds/Ben Folds Five as performed by University a cappella groups. Selected and produced by Ben with his own a cappella versions of Effington and Boxing.)
Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know (members of Black Sabbath, you know?)
Mike Jones – The Voice
Kool Keith & H Bomb – Stoned
Bettye Lavette – Tell Me a Lie (1982 Motown release)
Ben Lee – Rebirth of Venus
Los Straitjackets – Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets (CD package includes exclusive trading cards featuring the secret identities of Los Straitjackets along with info on their superhuman characteristics. Comic book panels detailing the adventures of LS provide clues to how the heroes acquired their now legendary powers!)
Moderat – Moderat
NOFX – Coaster
Lee Scratch Perry – Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered
DJ Premier – Rare Play, Vol. 2
Sun Ra featuring Pharoah Sanders (includes 45 minutes of unreleased material)
Tommy: Rock Opera (1972 release with Winwood, Rod Stewart, Sandy Denny, Ringo and Richard Harris!)
Tosca – No Hassle
O.V. Wright – Memphis Unlimited (1973)
Wussy – Wussy (former Ass Ponys frontman Chuck Cleaver and co-writer Lisa Walker work with producer John Curley [Afgan Whigs]. Four stars from Rolling Stone and Spin. Favorable reviews from Village Voice, Time Out New York, Magnet, Boston Phoenix and No Depression.)

VINYL
Miles Davis, 180gram reissues – Bitches Brew, In A Silent Way, Nefertiti, Sketches of Spain
Bob Dylan – Together Through Life (two 180gramLPs; includes CD copy of album)
Gomez – New Tide
Monks – Black Monk Time; also Early Years 1964-1965 (Vinyl Fever is your Monks headquarters- we have limited edition Monks trading cards, too!)

DVDs:
Rivers Cuomo – Not Alone
Wilco – Ashes of American Flags (We had it early for Record Store day and it sold out. This is actual release date.)

It’s 420. Another chance for a songlist. This one I think should be kinda special, since there’s been 420 songlists since the dawn of mankind. Or since people started making lists and smoking pot and using “420″ as code for pot-smoking. Ironic that by the time I get this thing up, it will actually be right around 4:20 p.m.

For those who are curious, the origins of the number 420 are smoke-shrouded in urban legend. I found a few things today in honor of the unofficial holiday, but my fave is the thoughtful piece by the Huffington Post on the meaning of 420. Not so surprising that the Grateful Dead were at least partially responsible for 420’s propagation into pot culture. Here’s an excerpt:

It was Christmas week in Oakland, 1990. Steven Bloom was wandering through The Lot – that timeless gathering of hippies that springs up in the parking lot before every Grateful Dead concert – when a Deadhead handed him a yellow flyer.

“We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais,” reads the message, which Bloom dug up and forwarded to the Huffington Post. Bloom, then a reporter for High Times magazine and now the publisher of CelebStoner.com and co-author of Pot Culture, had never heard of “420-ing” before.

The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: “420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late ’70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb – Let’s Go 420, dude!”

Bloom reported his find in the May 1991 issue of High Times, which the magazine found in its archives and provided to the Huffington Post. The story, though, was only partially right.

It had nothing to do with a police code — though the San Rafael part was dead on. Indeed, a group of five San Rafael High School friends known as the Waldos – by virtue of their chosen hang-out spot, a wall outside the school – coined the term in 1971. The Huffington Post spoke with Waldo Steve, Waldo Dave and Dave’s older brother, Patrick, and confirmed their full names and identities, which they asked to keep secret for professional reasons. (Pot is still, after all, illegal.)

Check out the rest of that here.

Now, onto the real reason for this post — music about smoking pot.

Being a connoisseur of pot … music, I can tell you there are plenty of classics — pretty much most songs by Bob Marley (his album, Kaya, is a Jamaican word for cannabis); “Smoke Two Joints” (first done by the Toyes in ‘83, then covered famously and with much radio play by openly pot-loving Sublime); Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,” with the classic declaration of “Everybody must get stoned”; Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It” (don’t criticize it!); the ever sexy, soulful “Mary Jane,” by Rick James; “Panama Red,” by the New Riders of the Purple Sage, about the sticky icky that used to come from Latin America; Dash Rip Rock’s “(Let’s Go) Smoke Some Pot,” which I’m particularly fond of since 98ROCK played it once a week every week during the hour I listened while getting ready in the wee hours for school in the mid-90s; “One Toke Over The Line,” a Top 10 hit in ‘71 that put Brewer & Shipley on the map while landing them on Nixon’s Enemies List and getting them banned by the FCC. All these are great and known by us all to a certain degree.

I will say this before I share my list — a few days ago, after hearing Afroman’s “I Got High” for the first time in several years, I decided that, by and large, it’s a lame excuse for a pot song. More than anything, it’s representative of a small portion of pot smokers — the slackers who’d slack with or without smoking pot — and not the 90 percent of the rest of the population of regular imbibers. I’m sorry, but you can’t blame smoking pot for being a loser, and that’s just what this very song does.

Here are some of my own favorite 420 songs. Enjoy. Add your own. Play some on your way home. Or, more appropriately, while when you get home and are getting ready to hit a fatty. And in case you were wondering, I excluded Cypress Hill altogether because frankly, those guys are annoying as fuck, no matter what they rap about.

1. “Makisupa Policeman” by Phish, a classic reggae number with a different weed reference in every version. My personal favorite: “Woke up this morning. Looked at the clock…. It was 1:11. Rolled over. Kadafi, in my bed……. So I smoked a joint a with him.”

2. “I do not sniff the coke (I only smoke Sensimilla!)” by Pato Banton, his long lyrical story about being offered cocaine, and a pretty fun number I got to see when he played Skipper’s Smokehouse in February.

3. “I Got Stoned (And I Missed It),” by Shel Silverstein. A bit like the Afroman song, but more playful and innocent. Nothing about missing child support payments or running from the cops or having to sleep on the sidewalk. Geez, Afroman, you really know how to bring a person down…

4. “Don’t Bogart Me” aka “Don’t Bogart That Joint,” originally by the Fraternity of Men, appeared on the Easy Rider soundtrack, and was re-done by Little Feat and Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise. Couldn’t make a list like this without it. Could have been included in the aforementioned classics, but I like it so much, I had to snag it for a fave.

5. “Burn One Down,” by Ben Harper. Not my favorite artist in the world, but I like his peace-loving sentiment and this song is particularly good. Favorite lyrics: “My choice is what I choose to do / And if I’m causing no harm / It shouldn’t bother you / Your choice is who you choose to be / And if your causin’ no harm / Then you’re alright with me / If you dont like my fire / Then don’t come around / ‘Cause Im gonna burn one down / Yes I’m gonna burn one down.”

6. “We Don’t Stop,” by Michael Franti, more political than Harper and with a stronger activist message, an end to the drug war, and the beginning of drug pea. : “The war on pot is a war that’s failed / A war that’s building up the nation’s jails/ Bush war one and Bush war two/ They got a war for me, they got a war for you!”

7. “How to Roll a Blunt,” by Red Man. The title is self-explanatory. And so’s the song.

8. “(I’m in Love With) Mary Jane,” by Coolio (which rips off Rick James’ original love song to Ms. Mary Jane.

9. “Marijuana Boogie,” by Manu Chao. ‘Cause I like this dude, he pretty much references smokin’ weed in every song, and this one’s a real fun number

10. “Marijuana in Your Brain,” by Lords of Acid. Had to includes something industrial, right? I grew up with it (yeah, I was once a Castle regular, so what?), so I just couldn’t avoid including it.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a tongue-in-cheek marijuana propaganda video so scandalous that YouTube took it down. (It’s really not scandalous at all, but I guess if you complain to the right people…)

Marijuana is evil

This Saturday marks the second annual Record Store Day, a national salute to the more than 700 indie music stores located across the country and the positive impact they make on their communities. In honor of the event, several Bay area stores are offerings specials and carrying limited edition, exclusive Record Store Day releases.

Daddy Kool gives 10 percent off all new albums and 20 percent off all used inventory, and hosts some yet-to-be-announced activities.

Other area stores, like Sound Exchange, Mojo Books & Music and Vinyl Fever, have stocked up on an array of exclusive Record Store Day releases available only at indie stores. Amid the offerings are an array of split 7”-ers, including a double 7” of live tracks from Atlanta and Edinburgh by Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams, and a split 7” featuring covers of songs from Warner Bros.’ back catalog – Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs performing Madonna’s “Borderline,” and The Black Keys doing Captain Beefheart’s “Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles.” Guided By Voices re-releases its Hold On Hope LP with three bonus tracks, My Morning Jacket offers a limited run CD and double 10″ vinyl release recorded live in Louisville at Ear X-tacy record store, and Wilco makes its forthcoming concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, available solely to indie stores and on its website on Record Store Day. Other exclusive RSD vinyl releases come from Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Mastodon, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Jane’s Addiction, The Stooges, Modest Mouse, Slayer, The Decemberists and Black Kids, among many others.

Mojo Books & Music offers all manner of freebies and releases, 10 percent off everything in the store, spins by DJ Sam Esser, and live performances by Have Gun, Will Travel, Surfer Blood, and an acoustic set by Drew Cutler of Lush Progress.

Vinyl Fever takes it a step further and offers a collection of 3,500 unusual, collectible records from thousands of LPs the store recently snagged from a music industry veteran, which includes 61 Apple label albums by non-Beatles groups. DJs will be playing select cuts from the vintage albums, and Vinyl Fever also hosts a live in-store performances by New Roman Times. free DeLosa’s pizza and PBR, hourly drawings with prizes, and a special guest appearance by Tampa Tribune music critic Curtis Ross. Bring nonperishable food donations for America’s Second Harvest of Tampa Bay.

Sat., April 18: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Vinyl Fever, 4110 Henderson Blvd., Tampa, 813-289-8399; 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Daddy Kool, 538 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-822-5665; 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m., Mojo Books & Music, 2558 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, 813-971-9717; and 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sound Exchange, Tampa, 813-978-9316. Call the individual stores for more info.

We all know the standard classic mixtape love songs – “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton,” Lionel Richie’s “Endless Love,” Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady,” “I Will Always Love You,” (Dolly or Whitney, you pick the version), “At Last,” by Etta James, most of the Beatles’ early catalog. But what about modern, 21st century love songs, i.e., those that came out after January 1, 2001?

Up until I started preparing this, I never really thought much about it, but surprisingly, I came up with a wealth of ideas, almost too many. The songs I thought up are not necessarily traditional ballads (though there are several), are not always romantic or saccharine or even very nice, do not always offer bold statements of devotion or everlasting ardor. But in each, the meaning is clear even if it isn’t always spelled out clearly.

“Fell in Love with a Girl,” The White Stripes, White Blood Cells (2001)
The song made stars of pasty, Detroit-based indie alt blues duo Jack and Meg White, both because it was nice and short and tasty raw, and because it has a really cool Lego video. Check it out, if you haven’t already seen it a few dozen times.

“The Purple Bottle,” Animal Collective, Feels (2005)
Not your average love song by any stretch, or even an average song – it is Animal Collective, after all. But this is the song that made me fall in love with this band and it happens to be about love:

“Can I tell you that you are the purple in me?
Can I call you just to hear you, would you care?
When I saw you put your purple finger on me
There’s a feelin’ in your bottle
Found your bottle, found your heart
Gives a feeling from your bottled little part”

“Michael,” Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand (2004)
The fourth single off Franz Ferdinand’s debut made certain male fans uncomfortable with its homoerotic lyrics (”Michael, you’re the boy with all the leather hips / sticky hair, sticky hips, stubble on my sticky hips / Michael, you’re the only one I’d ever want”) despite them being written and performed by an alleged straight man. From a 2004 New York News article: “[Lead singer] Alex Kapranos has said he’s a bit surprised that ‘Michael’ is the song people most want to ask about since it’s so straightforward. He told the story behind it to the magazine Boyz: ‘It was one night when me and the band were out with friends from Glasgow, and we went to this warehouse dance party thing called Disco X. It was a very debauched night and these two friends got it together in a very sexy way.’”

“Touch Me, I’m Going to Scream Part 1,” My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (2008)
Never has such a dramatic demand been delivered so tenderly and sexy casual as Jim James when he sings “Touch me I’m going to scream if you don’t.”

“Fidelity,” Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope (2006)
A perfectly lovely ballad by one of today’s great songstresses. Here she is being wonderful:

“Plastis Wafers,” of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping (2008)
So many of Montreal/Kevin Barnes songs are about the ups and downs of love. This one’s particularly close to my heart and has some of my all-time favorite lyrics, like “I confess to really being quite charmed by your feminine effects / you’re the only one with whom I would role play Oedipus Rex,” and “You give me such a rush, make my whole body blush, I don’t care if they say you’re just my crutch I know you’re not, you’re the only good thing I’ve got,” and, the most poetic, “When you’re dead I’ll search for you, like Orpheus, I’ll find you, some way”

“Sweethearts on Parade,” M. Ward, Transistor Radio (2005)
M. Ward’s crushed velvet vocals are sublime in any song, but in this one, they are colored with a particularly exquisite longing.

“One,” Raz Ohara & the Odd Orchestra, Raz Ohara & the Odd Orchestra (2008)
A down-tempo, loungy number with bossa nova rhythms and Raz’s voice like caramel, smooth and rich and tantalizing.

“You Know I’m No Good,” Amy Winehouse, Back in Black (2006)
It’s dark and heavy soul, about a woman who loves her man but keeps cheating on him time and time again, in the end really only cheating herself since he always seems to know when she’s done wrong. “You say what did you do with him today? / And sniff me out like I was Tanqueray.”

“She’s the One” Caribou, Andorra (2007)
Dreamy psychedelia has never been so touching. Here’s Caribou doing the song for The Pink Room:

“Maple Leaves,” Jens Lekman, When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog (2004)
The cutest Swede to ever write pop music offers this clever little ballad.
“I think you’re beautiful
but it’s impossible
to make you understand
that if you don’t take my hand
I lose my mind completely
Madness will finally defeat me

She said it was all make-belief
but I thought you said maple leaves
and when she talked about the fall
I thought she talked about the season
I never understood at all”

“Sweetheart in the Summer,” Ween, La Cucaracha (2007)
An easy, cheesy little roots number with lyrics like “She’s a sweetheart in the summer / Summertime is here again / She’s a sweetheart in the summer / and I hope it never ends.”

“1 2 3 4,” Feist, The Reminder (2007)
This song was everywhere for a while and I can’t help but like its adorable message. According to WikiPedia, The Reminder was selling 6,000 copies per week, “1234″ 2,000 downloads before the Apple iPod Nano commercial featuring the song aired. After the commercial, the song surpassed 73,000 total downloads and reached No. 7 on Hot Digital Songs and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100; The Reminder jumped from No. 36 to No. 28 on the Billboard 200, with sales at 19,000. Time writer Josh Tyrangiel named it among his Top 10 songs of ‘07, calling it a “masterpiece” and lauding Feist for singing it “with a mixture of wisdom and exuberance that’s all her own.”

Some other great ones:“Skinny Love,” Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (2008), a melancholy ode; “Be Gentle with Me,” The Boy Least Likely To, The Best Party Ever (2005), a saccharine, blissful number about a boy who’s been hurt and needs his new lady love to take it easy; “Spread Your Love,” Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, B.R.M.C. (2001), a crunchy rock number with the classic lyric, “Spread your love like a fever”; “Die Die Die,” Dr. Dog, We All Belong (2007), a stabbed-in-the -gut number with the anguished heart-been-broke line, “I don’t want to die in your arms, I just want to die”; “All I need,” Radiohead, In Rainbows (2007), in his usual brooding manner, Thom Yorke strips away all romantic notions and says it plain (check out the video below of Radiohead performing “All I Need” on Nigel Godrich’s show, From The Basement); “Famous Flower of Manhattan,” The Avett Brothers, Four Thieves Gone (2006), a song that uses floral metaphors to present a story about a city girl and the man who wants to sweep her away to the countryside; and “Paris 2004,” Peter Bjorn and John, Writer’s Block (2007), a blissful ditty about a couple in love in Paris.

Here are some CL Staff picks:

“Breathe (2 a.m.),” Anna Naylick, Wreck of the Day (2005)
-Jamie O.

“Dance With My Father,” Luther Vandross, Dance with My Father (2003)
-Eric

“Falling Slowly,” the Oscar-winning song by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from Once soundtrack (2007).
“My Phone’s on Vibrate for You,” Rufus Wainwright, Want One (2003)
-David

“Someday Baby,” Bob Dylan, Modern Times (2006)
-(Wade’s suggestion if he were still here)

I know there’s a huge swath of songs I’ve forgotten or didn’t even know about, so enlighten me, please:

A simple poll today. Do you care about the Grammys, airing tonight?

For an event whose most-cited moments include Milli Vanilli’s 1990 Grammy for Best New Artist and the Bob Dylan soy bomb dancer, we’re guessing probably not.

Vote below the jump.

OK, here’s my list. Stay tuned for Top 10s by Snider and Leilani.

1. Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway)
On Little Honey, alt-country queen Lucinda Williams returns to the more focused, rock-oriented sonics of her breakthrough 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. In doing so, she reveals a newfound sexual confidence (”Honey Bee”) and celebrates domestic bliss (”Tears of Joy”). The singer/songwriter also manages to mine pathos for humor on the superb Elvis Costello duet “Jailhouse Tears.” Williams can still break your heart, though. “Little Rock Star” plays like a much-needed note to Amy Winehouse, penned by a sympathetic female singer who has already survived the perilous, do “whatever it’ll take to get them to listen” phase. Williams closes Little Honey with a fun treat: A surprisingly awesome swamp-rock cover of the AC/DC road warrior anthem “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna to Rock ‘n Roll).”

2. Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III (Cash Money)
Lil Wayne’s stoned, whisper-y flow and high-drama delivery is spellbinding. The dude opens his mouth, and you listen, hanging on each dazzlingly whack rhyme. On Tha Carter III, Weezy’s scattered-brain brilliance is in top form – as is the big budget production that dutifully follows Weezy’s serpentine flow like a hypnotized lover. The New Orleans native’s boasts, observations and musings are weirdly striking at nearly every turn (”I’m a young millionaire, tougher than Nigerian hair.”) Wayne still bulks at straight story telling, but to fault him for this would be like dissing Dali or Picasso for rebuking realism.

3. My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges (ATO)
Genre-hopping indeed rock outfit My Morning Jacket’s juiciest disc to date features a smattering of styles, all of which are rendered outstandingly natural by the Louisville band. There are moments of extreme sadness (”Librarian”) and utmost silliness (”Highly Suspicious.”) Leader Jim James’ versatile voice convincingly sells everything from guitar-blazing, kick drum-intensive arena rock (”Aluminum Park”) to somber country-pop (”Sec Walkin.) Unlike other ultra eclectic offerings, Evil Urges never comes across as show-y. You just get the sense that My Morning Jacket is doing what they love. And doing it damn well.

4. Robyn: Robyn (Konichiwa/Cherry Tree/Interscope)
This year former Swedish pop tart Robyn finally witnessed the U.S. release of her 2005 self-titled disc. Britney and the rest of our countrys’ brain-dead blowup dolls blew Robyn away in terms of sales, but the woman born Robin Miriam Carlsson in 1979 proved the most compelling of the bunch. By far. Over thick disco beats, jittery high hat, deep space bleeps and icy strings, Robyn subverts pop platitudes. She exudes sexiness, smarts, poise and vulnerability in a way rarely seen in a world where hottnes is defined by Paris Hilton.

5. Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia)
The magnitude of Dylan’s late-career resurgence is brought into sharp focus here with a collection of “rare and unreleased” tracks recorded between 1989 and 2006. The two-disc set is a dud-free treasure chest featuring previously unreleased gems like the Time Out of My Mind outtake “Red River Shore” (an epic folk tale with spiritual overtones), the unreleased 2005 lament “Can’t Escape From You” and the superior Oh Mercy session version of “God Knows.” Another testament to Dylan’s genius is hearing drastically different “alternate takes” that are every bit as fascinating as the ones that made the final cut. Sequenced judicially, Tell Tale Signs plays like a stellar double-album by popular music’s most vital elder statesman.

6. Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple (Downtown/Atlantic)
Gnarls Barkley blew people’s minds with their 2006 debut St. Elsewhere. Its synthesis of producer Danger Mouse’s R&B-rap-future funk-fusion and Cee-Lo’s confessional vocals were unlike anything on the market. The duo’s follow-up, The Odd Couple, lacks a chart-shattering single like “Crazy.” But on balance, the new album is every bit as absorbing as its predecessor. With Danger Mouse’s spooky production egging him on, Cee-Lo continues to explore his fragile psyche and emotional well being, making for a mesmerizing foray into what we’ll call nocturnal soul.

7. The Hold Steady: Stay Positive (Vagrant)
The Hold Steady’s booze-y brand of classic rock for the indie set gets expanded, and frontman Craig Finn’s mouthful vocals become clearer, on Stay Positive, the Brooklyn band’s latest collection of gutter reports and tales of sing along song redemption. It’s a more polished Hold Steady. But a band this splendidly raw benefits from professional touches like pushing the vocals and occasional guitar solo up in the mix. And on “Joke About Jamaica,” we’re treated to the revival of the talk box. Ironic bullshit? Not to my ears.

8. Sonny Landreth: From the Reach (Landfall Records)
For nearly two decades, Sonny Landreth has been one of the most respected guitarists on the planet. But the Louisiana-based artist is also a capable singer/songwriter, and on From the Reach the slide guitar virtuoso shows he’s capable of a studio album that does more than frame his axe achievements. A cohesive blend of bayou rock, blues, jazz and touches of prog (”The Milky way Home’), the disc is a gripping showcase of excellent musicianship and emotive songs. Famous friends Jimmy Buffett, Eric Clapton, Robben Ford, Dr. John, Eric Johnson, and Mark Knopfler all make guest appearances – but no one outshines Landreth, who is at the top of his game here as a triple threat entertainer.

9. Metallica: Death Magnetic (Warner Bros.)
Rick Rubin miraculously returned Metallica to its thrash glory this year, which means the best metal act of the 1980s again reigns supreme. Metallica’s trademark recipe of whiplash-inducing riffs, slippery machine gun rhythms, and burly vocals about the innate horrors of the human existence results in a timeless mode of escapism. Especially for the male species. Glad to have ya back, fellas.

10. Jamey Johnson: That Lonesome Song (Mercury)
With a mighty pen and a gruff, expressive voice that straddles the line between George Jones and Waylon Jennings, singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson has become a key player in the latest movement to return Music City from Rascal Flatts fluff to the mature, sad country songs popularized by the so-called Nashville “outlaws” of the 1970s – most famously, Willie & Waylon. Johnson isn’t afraid to show his manly emotions on songs like the poignant, cocaine cautionary tale “High Cost of Low Living” or while singing about his WWII vet granddaddy (without getting sappy) on “In Color.” And on “Women,” Johnson has a hoot poking a little fun at the fairer sex. It’s country. The way it should be. Johnson performs tonight at Dallas Bull in Tampa.

• Top 20 songs of 2008.

• Honorable mentions: more best songs of 2008.

What will acoustic funk favorite Christie Lenee perform from '68?

WMNF’s Flee is straying from his typical tribute show tradition. Instead of having a diverse lineup of local acts honor a single artist he has asked all the bands listed below to cover a tune from 1968 for the community radio station’s upcoming New Year’s Eve bash.

Songs I would like to hear from that year? How about killer renditions of The Rolling Stones’ “Factory Girl,” The Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” and The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.” Seriously, that would be a rad setlist!

Rewind: The WMNF Tribute to the Music and Songs of 1968 w/ Boon/Christie Lenee (pictured)/Crabgrass Cowboys/Ted Lukas/Johnny Zoom/Lush Progress/Midnight Bowler’s League/Rancid Polecats/Roppongi’s Ace/Talk to Mark, Wed., Dec. 31, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa.

• 12/19 Update: Top 10 albums of 2008.

• 12/17 Update: Check out “Honorable mentions: More best songs of 2008.”

OK, here’s my list. Look for the CL music team’s Top 10 album lists to be posted Dec. 22-24, to coincide with our Top 10 issue that streets Christmas Eve.

Also, I’ve been seeing M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” popping up on other best-of lists. The song topped my 2007 tally, so I decided to leave her off this year’s – or else the Sri Lankan sensation would have definitely given Weezy a run for his cash money.

1. “Mr. Carter,” Lil’ Wayne (pictured) w/Jay-Z
Lil’ Wayne, the self-proclaimed greatest rapper on earth, lives up to the claim on this amazing free-word association with a world-class hook. Weezy’s distinctive Nawlins locution is wonderfully raspy as he bounces from brilliantly wacky pop-culture references (”Hector Camacho Man Randy Savage”) to outstanding boasts like: “Two words you never hear, ‘Wayne Quit?’/ ‘Cause Wayne win, and they lose/ I call them April babies, ’cause they fools.” Jay-Z’s guest verse is boss, but it’s Weezy’s dramatic delivery and mad genius lyrics that make this song my top pick for ‘08.

2. “Highly Suspicious,” My Morning Jacket
Genre-hopping rockers My Morning Jacket’s foray into funk is a stone-cold winner. Frontman Jim James pulls a Prince, singing falsetto about sexy mysteries like “peanut butter pudding surprise” – without a discernible hint of irony. Oh, yeah, and the thumping, make-you-wanna-hump backbeat is irrepressible.

3. “Slapped Actress,” The Hold Steady
This isn’t the first song in which the indie rank’s fiercest bar band name-checks Ybor City, but it is The Hold Steady’s finest. And that’s saying something considering the gutter glory of “Killer Parties.” On “Slapped Actress,” the band has concocted a guitar-centric, articulate rush of adrenaline that rises and falls like a first-rate arena-rock offering – minus the gloss and lyrical goofiness.

4. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul?,” Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green has evolved from an ace rapper to one of the most talented soul singers of his generation. Green’s voice is ragged but right, his phrasing and expressiveness sublime. Credit Danger Mouse for draping Green’s raw vocal in subtle, plucked strings and restrained, hypnotic beats.

5. “Jailhouse Tears,” Lucinda Williams w/Elvis Costello
Williams is the trailer park gal with good sense scolding her “three-time loser” boyfriend (Elvis Costello) in this humorous white trash exchange that also manages to tug at the heartstrings.

6. “Bang! Bang!,” The Knux
The Knux brothers offer a super-catchy cautionary tale about life in their native New Orleans. Unlike Weezy, though, their jubilant sound is more indebted to Outkast – and New Wave – than anything from the Cash Money stable.

7. “White Winter Hymnal,” Fleet Foxes (pictured)
Not since the Beach Boys’ prime have vocal harmonies sounded this sweet. Like a church choir singing its way through an enchanted Pacific Northwest forest, this song is spirits-lifting escapism at its finest.

8. “You Stood Me Up,” Benji Hughes
Like Beck before he got all psychedelic and serious on us, Benji Hughes offers a detailed account of a chick ditching him for another dude. We feel ya, man. And dig those grabby, old-school synth runs.

9. “My Home Is Nowhere without You,” Herman Düne
Spanish guitar, delicate percussion, mariachi horn and angelic background singers frame this gorgeous valentine. It’s emotive, but not over-sung, in English by sharp-eyed Frenchman David-Ivar Herman Düne.

10. “I Got Mine,” The Black Keys
The song starts off as a crushing, garage-rock kiss-off then pulls the listeners into a delightfully trippy carnival tunnel (thanks Danger Mouse) before the guitar fury and raging vocals return with even more face-melting force.

11. “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” Randy Newman
Pop music’s crown prince of sarcasm sends up the Bush administration by arguing things could be worse. In doing so, he mentions “Hitler, Stalin, men who need no introduction.”

12. “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution,” The Black Crowes
Just when you thought the Crowes had lost their way on the jam-band circuit, the sibling act returns with a ballsy rocker bolstered by the slashing slide guitar playing of North Mississippi Allstar Luther Dickinson.

13. “Red River Shore,” Bob Dylan
An outtake from Dylan’s 1997 Grammy-winning masterstroke Time Out of Mind, this lovesick epic finds the singer searching the world over for the one fair maiden who brought him solace. On the final verse, he ponders the ways of Jesus, and salvation in general. “Well, I don’t know what kind of language he used,” Dylan somberly intones over mournful accordion. “Or if they do that kind of thing anymore.”

14. “Ur So Gay (And You Don’t Even Like Boys),” Katy Perry (pictured)
Girl-kissing Katy Perry gets sweet revenge with a hilariously savage attack on her indie-rock ex in this horn-enhanced pop ditty. Best line? “You walk around like you’re oh so debonair/ You pull ‘em down, and there’s really nothing there.”

15. “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,” Kathleen Edwards
In this breezy country-rock delight, the Canadian singer/songwriter bemoans playing second fiddle to her frontman boyfriend. In doing so, she manages to work formerly feared NHL enforcer Marty McSorley into the song. Very cool.

16. “Rock ‘N Roll Train,” AC/DC
Big, heavy riffs and taut rhythms that swing. It’s AC/DC, back near the top of their game, which means no other contemporary hard-rock act can touch ‘em.

17. “High Cost of Living,” Jamey Johnson
In the style of Waylon Jennings and George Jones, Nashville singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson confesses to a coke habit that nearly cost him everything. This is real country. The way God intended it.

18. “Smiling Underneath,” Ani DiFranco
The sonics are spooky and moody, but the message is one of pure love and devotion. DiFranco tells her man that with him by her side she can stand anything, even a “flaming Christmas wreath” around her neck. Hot stuff.

19. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” Vampire Weekend
What the hell was Paul Simon thinking when he left this off Graceland?

20. “She Left Me for Jesus,” Hayes Carll
A new twist on a timeworn country tradition: His woman left him … But not for Bubba, for Jesus! And now Carll’s gonna kick J.C.’s ass. Blasphemous? Sure. But funny. Very funny.