16 Golden Gems: Songs Jason Loves

Check it out, gold-plated chains with quartz and turquoise stones. Sounds like the perfect excuse for a list of my favorite “golden” “gems” from my music collection!

Hey, Meh contributor @JasonToon here. OK, yes, “songs I like” seems like the laziest possible theme for a weekend playlist. But there’s a reason: starting next week, these playlists of mine will no longer be the main event on the Meh front page every Sunday. I love doing them and I’m always gratified by the response from you guys. After 60 playlists, it just feels like a good time to let something else fill this space.

BUT: the weekend playlists will continue, either in the forum or as an occasional front-page feature. We’re still figuring that out. In the meantime, I wanted to take this chance to get 16 songs on the Meh front page that I was never able to cram into a themed playlist. It’s a microcosm of my taste: lots of melodic rock, '60s pop, and punk, a little country and soul, and a couple of left-field things that caught my ear, also compiled in a YouTube playlist. You’ve never wondered what a radio station programmed by me would sound like, but here’s the answer anyway.

The Exciters - “Blowing Up My Mind” (1969)
Let’s start this right with an absolute psychedelic-soul stormer. Can you find the bonus fart joke in the lyrics?

Bruce Springsteen - “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)” (1979)
The best Chuck Berry imitation Bruce Springsteen ever pulled off.

Tanya Tucker - “Delta Dawn” (1972)
This Southern Gothic hymn is creepy and affecting even if you have no idea how old Tanya Tucker is on this recording. Then you find out she was just 13!

The Monkees - “Sometime in the Morning” (1967)
Just lovely. One of Mickey Dolenz’s best vocals on one of Gerry Goffin and Carol King’s best songs.

Royal Headache - “Down the Lane” (2012)
My favorite (or should that be “favourite”?) Australian band working today. Check 'em out if you like good music.

Mahmoud Ahmed - “Abbay Mado” (1974)
The king of Ethiopian soul. I used to call him the African Otis Redding, but that feels like it diminishes both men.

Ivans Meads - “The Sins of a Family” (1965)
An obscure Manchester mod band achieves a moment of transcendence with this organ-laced domestic melodrama written by P.F. Sloan of “Eve of Destruction” fame.

Magnetic Fields - “You and Me and the Moon” (1995)
The most joyous song in Stephin Merritt’s miserabilist-inclined catalog.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - “Mama Don’t Like My Man” (2010)
The late Sharon Jones proves she’s just as spine-tingling without a massive horn section.

The Cyanide Pills - “Outta Nowhere” (2013)
The purest expression ever of the life-changing moment when a frustrated kid discovers punk rock: “So exciting / Are we dancing or are we fighting? / It hit me right between the eyes.” Ex-teen-punks like me love this stuff.

Tom T. Hall - “The Little Lady Preacher” (1971)
A masterpiece of storytelling, capturing the tension between the torment of romantic longing and the torment of Hell in perfectly turned understatements like “I told her in a way that I’d been praying for her too.”

The Nerves - “When You Find Out” (1976)
Obsessive “nice guy” resentment set to an irresistible jangle and sway. I love the petulance of the guy telling the object of his disaffection that when “I’ll be gone” when she realizes he was really the one all along. “It’s gonna be pretty hard on you… I hope there’s still something you can do.” Yeah, sure, buddy.

Paul Mauriat & His Orchestra - “Love is Blue” (1968)
No lyrics to quote for this one because it has no lyrics. I don’t even know what this is, I just know it keeps me listening for its next ridiculous twist on a lovely melody. If only all “easy listening” was this listenable.

The Chi-Lites - “We Are Neighbors” (1971)
My rational mind knows this is the Chi-Lites doing an obvious Sly & the Family Stone rip. My ears love it as much as anything by Sly, and my heart aches for the “we are neighbors, whether we want to be or not” message. I wish it felt dated.

Tacocat - “Crimson Wave” (2014)
The flow of menstruation puns is heavy on this ultra-catchy classic from Seattle’s grrrl-punk charmers. “Communists in the summer house” is a new one to me.

The Zombies - “This Will Be Our Year” (1968)
Always worth believing.

Ah, I love those songs. And I love the support I’ve gotten from weekend playlist fans in the Meh forums. Thank you! You guys remain one of the most interesting, generous communities on the whole Internet. Keep your eyes open for news about where these playlists will pop up in the future. We now return you to your regularly scheduled writeups.

Jason also likes the songs in our past weekend playlists:

• My Favorite Songs That Suck
• The World Inside the Paradise Garage
• Chicano Rock
• Ska’s Second-and-a-Half Wave, 1985-1992
• Scopitone Party: The Original Music Videos
• Weekend playlist archive