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Okay I have had the idea for this post for over 4 years, is that enough procrastination for you. Back in the day I told the ninja that I wanted to create a list of the ten best rock songs about women that had the woman’s name in the title. He looked at me rather strangely and said: “how do you come up with this shit?”

I didn’t know then and I don’t know now, but at least it is an original idea, no? So without further ado, the first, the only, top 10 list of rock songs about women with their names in the title of the song.

Layla - Derek and the Dominos
Even if you look past the great back story of Eric Clapton pining for George Harrison’s wife this is the best song ever about a specific woman. Although those of us of a certain age have heard this song way too many times, there is nothing else in Rock history like Duane Allman’s heroin induced slide solos in the coda.

Angie - The Rolling Stones
Anngee, Annnnnnnngeeeeeee, you can’t say we’ve never tried. Okay, many people hate this song but I think it is a great example of Mick Jaggers fake cracker persona. Not as good as Wild Horses, but Wild Horses does not have a woman’s name in the title….

Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard
A very early rock-n-roll song by the inventor of rock-n-roll ( just ask him ) about this lady named Molly who sure liked to ball. This song has the same kind of energy as opening a bottle of coca-cola.

Roxanne - The Police
Even non Sting fans generally admit that this is a great song. Written about a prostitute fused with the heroine of Cyrano de Bergerac this song illustrates the early mastery of lyric and bass phraseology by Sting. If you listen closely the bass part changes throughout the song, as does his vocal phrasing - very nice.

Althea - Grateful Dead
One of Garcia’s best songs on an album that was recorded well after the Dead’s prime. This song single handedly raises Go to Heaven to tolerable status. I mean come on - “You may meet the fate on ophelia, sleeping and penchence to dream. Honest to the point of recklessness, self-centered in the extreme.” This is the perfect song to play for folks that think the dead is nothing but sloppy jam band.

Gloria - Them
G L O RIA - while this is far, far from Van Morrison’s best work, that is Van ( George Ivan Morrison ) the Man with Them singing this FM radio staple. Morrison wrote the words and music.

Jenny - Tommy Tutone
Okay, you may know this Tommy Tutone tune as 867-5309, but the official name is Jenny as are the first two words of the song. While this might not be a “great” song everyone knows that number…

Maybellene - Chuck Berry
Released in ‘55 on the Chess label this is Mr. Berry’s first single, which in and of itself makes it something special. This song is a rock-n-roll re-working of a traditional bluegrass song that is vintage Chuck Berry. And no offence to Little Richard, but I would say that Chuck invented rock-n-roll as we know it.

Maggie May - The Faces
Written by Rod Stewart and originally the B-side of a since forgotten track called “Reason to Believe” it was eventually released on the album Every Picture Tells a Story ( which is a better song by the way ). Maggie May is a classic story of the younger man and the older woman based on Stewart’s real life experiences. But Maggie May is not a real woman, the name comes for the traditional song about a Liverpool prostitute.

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Like Layla, this song is about an actual women Stephen Stills’ girlfriend,Judy Collins and her piercing blue eyes. I like the EEEEBE tuning that this song uses.

This is one of the first background type production music MP3 that I created way back in the day. I’ve always liked it and when I found the MP3 while digging around in all my old files I decided to post it so that maybe someone else could get some use out of it.

Feel free to use it as background music in your videos or any project that you have, or use it in your podcast, or, well anyway that you want - but if you do use it honor the creative commons license and give me some credit ( and a link to imjtk would be appriciated as well ).

Download SlowHip MP3 1:50 . 1.67 MB (1,753,908 bytes)

In the best news I’ve gotten today “The Search” - the new album from Son Volt, is set for release on March 6. By all accounts The Search is the band’s most daring and diverse album yet. The follow-up to 2005’s acclaimed ‘Okemah and the Melody of Riot,’ ‘The Search’ is a departure from the band’s alt-country laden records, employing an exceptional variety of sounds, melodies, and arrangements.

“Instrumentally, the electric guitar was the focus of the last record ‘Okemah’, but for ‘The Search‘ we wanted to try something new, ” says songwriter Jay Farrar. “This time, we utilized different instrumentation to fit each song — from guitar pedal loops to various keyboard sounds to horns.”

Listen to The Search Here

Listen to Circadian Rhythm Here

Listen to The Picture Here

So I find myself working on a podcasting solution for an old client that now wants to share a weekly 30 minute talk with the world and it got me thinking.

Podcasting is something that is so simple, but so often misunderstood. I remember only a little more then a year ago talking to otherwise intelligent, tech savy, people who asked me how a podcast was different then a mp3. I tried to explain to them about the metadata and subscription aspects of podcasts but I rarely convied the true power of podcasting.

Wikipedia says:

A podcast is a media file that is distributed by subscription (paid or unpaid) over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

Okay, fine - but what podcasting really does is allow the masses to simlplify the distribution of content they’ve created. The xml file that describes the media file allows everyone - itunes, thisblog, technorati - to learn about the latest mashup that you created in GarageBand, why you did it, when you did it, and where one might subscribe to the other media files that you are going to publish in the future.

Get a decent rss aggregator or podcast specific app ( even itunes ) and subscribe to a few active podcasts.

That being said, here’s a list of my favorite ( mostly ) talk radio type podcasts - try one or two, almost all of them are better then the standard mainstream media swill.

1. Free Talk Live - while not a pure-play podcast, this is easily the most important podcast on the net today imho.
2. The Onion Radio News - The Onion Radio News is a daily newscast from The Onion’s award-winning news team.
3. DiggNation - Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories.
4. Coverville - A Podcsts about cover songs. How can that be good? Tune in, find out.
5. Movies You Should See - Brtish movie reviews - an amazing amount of detail about the movies discussed even though they stray off topic so often.
6. The RU Sirius Show - A MondoGlobo Production…
7. Common Sense with Dan Carlin - Sometimes topical, sometimes historical, always worth listening to.
8. Rubyfruit Radio - Where it’s all girls, all the time.
9. MacNation - One Nation Under Pod.
10. Red Bar Radio - Listen to MIke D. harshly judge pop culture .

This is a compilation CD, showcasing 20 of Club Bootie’s favorite mashups from 2006. Compile in order with no gaps between the songs – perfect for parties! They are calling this the biggest bootleg mashup party in the world with the zip file containing all 21 mp3 tracks, plus artwork.

DeadHeads are known for their ability to identify the year of a bootleg by listening to just a few notes. But for even the most “dead”icated listener, the band’s 1976 New Year’s Eve concert presents a genuine challenge. Rarely does any Dead show display the essence of several distinct periods of their sound, but this release contains the best elements of three or four clearly defined eras, and the sum of the parts adds up to one of the most interesting and inspired concerts of the band’s 30-year performing career.

The three-disc set includes more than 180 minutes of music capturing the Grateful Dead playing in their Bay Area backyard at the peak of the group’s live prowess and just a few months before the release of the band’s ninth studio album, Terrapin Station.

Tune in for a taste: Windows Media or Quicktime

Ever find yourself needing a MP3 that sounds like the soundtrack of a seventies porno movie? Well if so, then you are in luck! I made this MP3 a few years ago and just came across it again.

Seventies Porno Soundtrack MP3 . 55 seconds . 550kb

Of course, if you do decide to use this for anything, please respect the creative commons license and give ole’ JTk credit.

Think Elvis Presley meets Van Halen, Hillbilly Casino singer Nic Roulette said as he left a message for drummer Andrew Dickson about auditioning. With a strong Rockabilly core, the Hillbilly Casino isn’t afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves.

To The Hillbilly Casino there are the obvious masters, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Brian Setzer/Stray Cats, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins. Yet don’t be surprised to hear some Social Distortion, Ramones, Hank Williams, Black Sabbath, George Jones, Jason and the Scorchers and Cheap Trick thrown in for good measure.

Here is another quirky mp3 that I created years ago that I am setting free:

quasiclassical.mp3 . 1:30 . 1.3 MB

The first part of it is mainly like long ooohs and then my virtual orchestra kicks in. Feel Free to do what you will with it as long as you follow the Creative Commons Attribution License.

I am not sure how this never got posted on TDB, but I guess better late then never…

The Dirty South finds Drive-By Truckers maturing into one of the most capable southern rock bands workin it today. While some of the fun of Hood and Cooley songs like Too Much Sex - Too Little Jesus has been replaced by the gritty realism of Puttin’ People on the Moon, it’s all good - DBT are now much more Steve Earl and much less Mojo Nixon. More grown up than their break out offering “Southern Rock Opera” and more consistent then Decoration Day The Dirty South seems to be a synthesis of both prove neither were flukes.

Even though it features 3 guitar players songwriting is what this CD is all about. More than songwriters Hood and Cooley are storytellers - and very good ones at that.. If you have ever lived in the southern side of tornado alley the imagery of Tornadoes will seem instantly familiar while Never Gonna Change celebrates the limitations of continuing to live the life you’ve been dealt come hell or high water.

Seemingly simple songs like Carl Perkins Cadillac stay away from the cliches that would be easy enough when writing songs about Sun Records in favor of lines like: “Damnit Elvis I swear son I think it’s time you came around, makin money you can spent is not what being dead is all about.” Jason Isbell’s Danko/Maunuel is a minor masterpiece a tribute to similar souls ( The Band’s Rick Danko and Richard Manuel ) a generation earlier, that drips with sweet melancholy and seems to examine if Isbell really wants to become like his heroes.

This CD features a nice range the greasy slide of Where the Devil Don’t Stay to the ballad blues of Cottonseed and the Neil Youngish Buford Stick. In fact, even with the irony about Neil Young/Southern Man/Sweet Home Alabama this CD reminds of of the best of what Crazyhorse was about in it’s prime - balls out rock-n-roll without sacrificing great songwriting and dynamics.

Over all one of the best CD’s of the year. And if you look at The Dirty South as part of a sort trilogy with their two previous releases you could make the argument that Drive-By Truckers are putting out the strongest Rock north or south of the Mason-Dixon.