It's official! Not only is Labor back in power but Oasis is reuniting(!) and set to play their first concerts in July of 2025, starting in Cardiff and ending in Dublin. To dovetail with the news, I present you with the Britpop anthems that will transport you back to the halcyon days of the mid-1990s.
Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit on the 1997 Vanity Fair cover. Photograph by Lorenzo Agius.
You'll notice that there are two repeats here. The first is Keane's lush and gorgeous anthem that could be utilized by any nature non-profit: "Somewhere Only We Know." Then a redux of said song by fellow Brit, Lily Allen. I honestly don't know which is better so I included both. Also a song so nice I listed it twice is James's "Laid." For this I actually give the candle to New York Indie poppers, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, for their heavily electrified version.
Spice Girls (L-R) Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm (Mel C), Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Melanie Brown (Mel B) pose for a photo at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on June 28, 2007 in London, England. Getty Images
There are also quite a few ragers on here like Oasis's "Live Forever," Suede's "Beautiful Ones" and Republica's "Ready to Go." For our foreign language addition, I included "Dacw Hi" by Welsh outfit Super Furry Animals. The one sleeper that I seem not to remember is Travis's "Closer," just an absolute gem.
Parts of me wanted to stay in Boston forever. The Hub, afterall, is awash in charm and leisure: nearby beaches and mountains, a small but brave theatre scene, a tapestry of dessert establishments and independent film houses galore; enough diversion in which to spend your time. Notice, however, what I didn't include in Boston's advantages: the MBTA. With major lines shutting down for weeks at a time, the T's checkered performance pushes citizens off the tracks and onto 93 South and we all know how traffic does wonders for societal cohesion and individual blood pressure.
In London, there's more here here.
"The Old Smoke," with its two-thousand-year-old history, pioneered the modern railway. Boosterism by Prince Albert certainly helped move things along (as evidenced by this clip at timestamp 3:18 of Victoria on PBS), leaving London with a legacy of options in getting around. For the modern Transport for London (TFL) includes:
675 Bus Routes 🚍
11 Tube Lines 🚆
9 Branches of the Urban-Suburban Rail Elizabeth Line
6 Newly-Named Overground Routes
5 Dockland Light Rail Routes 🚈
5 River Bus Routes 🌊
3 Branches of the Croydon Tram 🚋
and
About two dozen national rail operators emanating out from one of London's rail terminals 🚃
Anyone who knows me knows that I am anti-car and pro-train and thus London has proved an embarrassment of riches. As seen from ten thousand feet up, you can imagine every trek via bus, foot or train as a little circuit or nine million little circuits criss-crossing and intermingling. Whatever the image, moving around the city is a great way to get my bearings in this inaugural month. Tomorrow the first of September will mark thirty days. Call it the Thomas in London Chapter 2.0.
I am making haste with the roll-out of August's playlist because the positive vibes command it and the positive vibes are many. Think about it: the world has come together in peace for the Paris Olympics ("Summer in Paris" by DJ Cam) and the games highlight a global desire to clean up city rivers. Politically, there is much excitement in the anglosphere at least. British voters kicked out the wretched, sleazy Tories, ushering in one of the largest Labour majorities in decades with homeboy prosecutor Keir Starmer at the helm. On the American front, X and Tik-Tok have reached maximum memification with Kamala Harris who brings a gust of fresh air to a nominating contest that looked like a sad replay of Grumpy Old Men.
I mean, c'mon, the Olympics are in Paris!
So things are looking up! And they better be. Too many wars and pandemics and inflation horror stories. Humanity needs positive storylines too. This August playlist gives a nod to California ("Coastal California, 1985" by Math and Physics Club, "California" by The Lagoons,and "Sunshine Type" by Turnover) which is fitting since the vice president had cut her political teeth in The Golden State. Our nation's most populous state is not ashamed of its hedonism so I've added "Feel It" by Viji, "Make You Mine" by Family of The Year, and "Good Time" by Brazilian Girls. And old-skool Dean Martin ballad "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" sounds like it was written in a Palm Springs bungalow.
Ok so the album came out in 2008 but Obama 2008 uplifting vibes are what we are looking for.
There are more than a few nostalgic tracks for different generations peppered onto the playlist here. Herman's Hermits "I'm into Something Good" is a shout-out to the Baby Boomers while late Gen Xers and Elder Millennials have "Steal My Sunshine" by Canadian outfit, Len as their 1999 keepsake. "Bruises" by Chairlift evokes The Moldy Peaches who helped frame the soundtrack to the 2007 film Juno.
And for the second time this year, "Martha My Dear" by The Beatles appears on one of Tommy's Top playlists because a.) it's simply the best Beatles track as well as the band's most baroque and b.) the fact that Paul McCartney wrote this masterpiece about his dog cements both his legacy as a brilliant songwriter and a decent-hearted man.
The lightly-political, feel-good anthem Ride with Me by wunderkind drummer, Aaron Frazer is befitting of the year 2024 when half of the world's people get to flex their democratic rights. Aaron Frazer, you heard it here first, is a rising light to look out for (he also has mad swag and the talent to back it up).
This kid is going places
As for the foreign language selection, give Venasque by Ian Pooley a listen for the lush beats and the French lyricism.
I'm not gonna lie; I had fun with this one. May the vibes continue to shift in the direction of good times for all!
I think it's important to know a wide swath of people of different backgrounds, ages, and beliefs. From my circle of close friends, acquaintances, and family members, I have collected those who are hard-core aetheist to red-hot Pentecostal. But for anyone who knows me well knows I keep tripping and falling towards the celestial end of the spectrum, against my better judgment. We're talking dozens of mystical encounters that have no known human provenance nor explanation. And the more I age, the more I return to my Catholic roots, especially moved by The Marianist tradition. Another strain that had caught my fancy on our honeymoon in Paris was the Symbolism movement that I first encountered at the Musee D'Orsay. For Symbolism, I finally found an organizing language for all these encounters I have had throughout my life. Heady stuff!
So for July's playlist, we will surround ourselves with angel vibes and mermaid sightings.
Jimmy Carter, God bless him, created what was then called "National Black Music Month" in 1979, the year of my birth. This factoid along with my negligence of Black History Month (I just had to go with the 60th anniversary of the Feb Fab Four), has led me to the studio to shower praise where praise is due. For this year's "African American Music Appreciation Month," I struggled on limiting the number of artists to twenty-six. (I could have easily conjured one hundred musicians and we would still just be getting started!). In this slim selection, due to my self-imposed numbers game, I had to skip whole genres like jazz, funk, disco and electronic dance music. You will also notice missing name tags in the list like Wu-Tang Clan (too violent), Rhianna (too successful) and Biz Markiy (too goofy). I also switched out Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made of Sand" for John Legend's "All of Me." Legend's spare piano ballad still gives me goosebumps.
Illustration by Mark Harris from The Texas Monthly
For our foreign language contribution, we have MC Solaar, one of France's most popular hip-hop artist, who sings in both Spanish and French in track number three. Whitney Houston also represents with her moving ballad about practicing self-love. West coast hip-hop also represents here with fave artists Snoop and 2Pac. On the east coast, I seem to have developed an affinity for Philadelphia groups like the Roots and the Cross Movement, the latter a Christian hip hop outfit.
Trading card photo of The Del-Vikings.
Going back to yesteryear, I give credit to The Del Vikings for being one of the earliest racially-integrated groups in 1950s doo-wop. Peppered throughout the playlist are examples of neo soul and contemporary R&B, twin genres that I fancy. On that tip, check out DurandJonesand theIndications along with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
Enjoy the music. And enjoy the Juneteenth holiday!
"April is the cruellest month" wrote T.S. Eliot in "The Wasteland," arguably kicking off the Modernist poetry movement with these choice words. The modernists were full of cynicism and thoughts of urban alienation and experiments in stream of consciousness. Because, why not? World War I had made orphans out of many children, widows out of many wives, and cripples out of many men.
But the rainy month has also welcomed Shakespeare (April 23rd) into the world along with red-headed Aries NatashaLyonne (April 4th), two of my favorite geniuses and two of the twenty-five people I want on a roadtrip.
She's the Best.
And then April saw mayhem which resulted in good: The first shots of the Revolutionary War rang out at Lexington and Concord (April 19th). And the Good Friday Agreement was signed on April 10th.
But forget about the violence and the infamy and the diplomacy.
Back to Mr. Tom Stearns Eliot---he scribbled that heartbreaking line not to be a surly hipster, but to show the reader what the Buddha taught: that all things beautiful and precious and delicate and strong would soon perish with time. Whereas that fact free the Buddha's mind, it left Mr. Tom and the rest of us mortals with a sense of despair.
So this month's negative playlist belongs to shocked divorcees and jilted lovers. Nothing quite stings like rejection, or worse, abandonment. As Duffy (a sensitive cancer, born on June 23rd) sings "my love for you has turned to hate." Let my April playlist be the break-up album where all the plump and dewey roses turn to compost and nourishments for the next batch of beauties. Tis a month to affirm one's anger and honor one's despair. In April we witness beauty bursting forth while keeping in our pocket the knowledge that in due time that beauty will fade.
But the winter has been long so let's take a different tack. Heed the words of one pale and frail recluse who noticed the blue-jays and robins and finches returning to her backyard. ""Hope" is the thing with feathers," penned poet Emily Dickinson (born December 10th, the rare reclusive Sagittarius---still waters run deep).
The birdwatching Sagittarius of Western Mass
So, ever the optimist,in the spirit of Miss Dickinson I've included one or two ballads that she would fancy. The great majority, however, belong to heartache and the crotchety Mr. Eliot. Because there is no greater balm than sad music on repeat.
Aaaaahh, February, the beloved runt of the Gregorian calendar. A short month long on contrasts. How can we fit everything into you? You have the oddest and most pagan holiday (Feb 2nd) fast-tracking Bill Murray for sainthood and throwing poor Saint Valentine (Feb 14) in with the late winter sales and treating him like some two-bit neighborhood matchmaker who everyone scorns when a relationship falls apart. Then you have the crimson wrapping of Valentine's gifts laying like a bloody scarf against the whiteness of the year's largest snowstorms. Kind of looking like the flag of England pictured below:
Two themes stand before us during the year's shortest month. The most important is Black History Month, of course, and that celebration deserves its own playlist which is to be published at the end of the week. But another theme is that this month, sixty years ago, a little band from Liverpool, England stepped foot on American soil on the seventh of February and played live on the Ed Sullivan Show on the ninth. Over seventy million people were watching, sixty-nine of them teenage girls and the last million acting just like them. Looking at old news and concert clips, this ravenous army of adolescent females make the early nineties Blockheads (like my sister) look like Mickey Mouse hour. C'mon, "Hanging Tough" versus "Can't Buy Me Love?" The verdict is clear.
So call this month "Fab February" or those Liverpudlian Lads the "Feb Four."
There are two things to remember about the Beatles: the first is they were incredibly prolific in their rather compact time together as a band (twelve studio albums in ten years). And the second is that because of their popularity and enormous skillset, there was a lot of controversy and studio intrigue attached to The Beatles that took on some rather ghoulish overtones. The band kept their noses clean for the most part. They didn't court the devil like Jagger and the Stones or have members with debilitating mental illness like The Beach Boys. They were NOT a party to catastrophes like Altamont but they also missed the boat on Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival.
And yet no band quite captured the 1960s quite like The Beatles. Did they lead the decade or did they merely reflect it? Or did they reign over the 1960s from afar like some mischievous Greek Gods. Or mop top muses from Merseyside.
The "Paul is dead" found widespread favor across college campuses in 1969 after DJ Russ Gibb based in Michigan spent the hour exploring it and gathering clues from Beatles fans and WKNR FM listeners. And there was no shortage of clues some of which Lennon strategically planted in various songs for continued publicity. Songs such as Glass Onion on the White Album and Strawberry Fields Forever on The Magical Mystery Tour were pored over obsessively. No lyric or Beatlemania artifact was off-limits. Teenage boys and girls held a concrete focus as they played records backwards, breathless as they would be over a Ouji board or a spiritualist church gathering in the 1890s. Album covers were a rich fertilizer for clues. The date of Paul's demise was itself very specific not like the clumsy and ill-advised rumors during the pandemic like the superior benefits of ivermectin and how computer chips in the COVID vaccines can cross the skin/blood/muscle barrier. Yes, this one had real legs, so much so that national newspapers covered the story.
Armchair investigators even agreed on the date of Paul's death by car accident: the 9th of November, otherwise known as the Day of Fate in German history. It was actually the date I returned to America ("back in the USSR USA 🇺🇸"). It also squares with the date that John met Yoko. Also John was obsessed with the number 9. It kept surfacing in his life through birthdays, special dates and harbingers on the street. After a reporter found Paul tucked away on a Scottish farm with his family and wrote about it, some of the rumors declined. On the record, John Lennon was livid, according to this excellent Rolling Stone magazine article. Rolling Stone reporter, Bob Sheffield, wrote "John Lennon, calling the same Detroit radio station on October 26th, fumed, “It’s the most stupid rumor I’ve ever heard. It sounds like the same guy who blew up my Christ remark.”'
The exact quote as captured by British jounalist, Maureen Cleve, for the Evening Standard:
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
But when a managing editor provocateur and the head editor provocateur of Dateline Magazine, a progressive teen tabloid that took on controversial issues, John's quotes were repeated for maximum impact in the rag and copies delivered to college campuses around the country. Word spread across the Bible Belt and churchgoers, even teen fans, took part in book burnings. Promoters cancelled concerts and The Beatles were so shaken that they never toured again. McCartney, rightly, saw the phenomenon as "hysterical low-grade American thinking" and compared the Bible Belt Bonfires to Nazi book burnings. Lennon eventually gave an awkward apology on live television while low-key defending his right to free speech.
The mayhem also overshadowed the release of Revolver, what the band and eventually many music critics, deemed the Fab Four's most mature work to date. Harrison nearly quit the group but stayed on the promise that the band only focus on studio work.
Twelve Studio Albums + Twenty-Five Top Tracks
And it's a wonderful thing that Harrison made this demand. Twelve. That is the number of studio albums the Beatles made in ten years. How is that number not a reflection of Christ?
It should be noted that the twelve albums were released in the UK while America ran away with seventeen. Don't be surprised at the seventeen. While it may seem that America was blessed with more Beatles songs that the rest of the world never got to experience, it's more likely that because of our hyper-capitalist system, fewer Beatles tracks were divvied up over more items to purchase. The Brits caught on quickly to the ways of the American system. Actually, I take that back; they virtually created it.
Critics and fans often divide the trajectory of those ten years into early, middle-apex, and late-stage Beatles and Beatlemania.
Early Beatles features a lot of doo-wop, soul, rockabilly, pop, country, and especially skiffle music, a genre of British-runaway of early American jug band music that relied on homemade instruments made famous by Donnie Lonegan. The harmonica in early Beatles featured prominently and was often played by John. JL, in my humble opinion, had the best singing voice and you can distinguish his vocals in a group chorus. Early Beatles sentiment and lyrics were a time of puppy love and asking girls to the prom, that sort of thing. The earliest Baby Boomers would have been eighteen years old in 1964 when the Beatles first played on the Ed Sullivan Show that February.
How did the Beatles catch the global imagination as they did or at least the Western marketplace? If you listen to early diamonds like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You," the answer, or one critical part of the answer, is piercing. "The Scream" from both these white and presentable musicians and the droves of teenage girls, especially in America, allowed a catharsis and sexual awakening, nineteen years after the close of World War 2.
Never before had white musicians yelled and screamed from the stage. The Beatles' raw talent, melody, harmony, age, presentation, hard work, and good timing certainly helped their cause. From these things and the arc of history and the reality of demographics, we can hear the celebratory scream as the only natural response.
One non-screaming track of early Beatles but an infectious sing-a-longer.
You're Going to Lose That Girl: Scene in the Film HELP!
Their middle period contains their best work, many music fans and critics argue, for this is the apex of Beatles mountain. Each of the gems above have battled for best album ever. The sitar, a twangy, whistling guitar-like instrument originating from India, was perfectly introduced to Western audiences on Rubber Soul's "Norwegian Wood" by George and then makes an "all-out excursion" on Revolver's "Love You To," a track totally in the hands of George. This was the introduction of the Indian-inspired "raga rock" to a mass American audience.
Rubber Soul is a terrific album but it almost sounds like a set of men's rights anthems. "Run for Your Life," for example, is a straight-up call for domestic violence. George's "Think for Yourself" is all spit, vinegar, and cynicism and this is an excellent article on how it changed pop music forever. Rubber Soul is like John, George, Paul, and Ringo all getting dumped by their girlfriends at the same time. Even the cover looks a little dark and sinister. They look like four hooligans who you wouldn't want to meet in a back alley.
Perhaps though this darkness is the right reprieve after five albums of cotton candy. Rubber Soul also contains some of the edgiest material as well as the most musically elegant tracks to date. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," "Nowhere Man," and "If You Won't See Me" stand out as faves.
Sargent Pepper's can speak for itself. It is lush and fun and orchestral. It placed The Beatles as pioneers in Baroque Pop and became the soundtrack for The Summer of Love with its June 1967 release. This one contains mellodramatic ballads like "She's Leaving Home" and the mystical "Within You Without You." I agree with one Wikipedia editor who wrote, "A key work of British psychedelia, Sgt. Pepper is considered one of the first art rock LPs and a progenitor to progressive rock. It incorporates a range of stylistic influences, including vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde, and Western and Indian classical music."
Late-Beatles Finale
The Beatles, in their late-stage, operated in a state of tension at the end of their tenure. Partly this was the result of natural ageing; men start to branch off into romantic relationships and suddenly the girlfriend becomes a wife (in many heterosexual instances), along with the house, the mortgage, the kids, and all the attendant responsibilities with each. The stakes are raised. People get grumpy and have less tolerance. Differences are highlighted. The skillset of most men in their 30s increases greatly, however, and they trust their ear and their guts and their experience. And these were not mortal men. We're talking about The Beatles: Saint John, Saint Paul, Saint George, and Saint Ringo. Whatever happened to that fifth Beatle? He was walking in the desert barefoot somewhere when he looked back ("Don't Look Back in Anger) at what he left behind and immediately turned into a pillar of salt.
But when lovers break off into discrete dyads, the band can suffer, even dissolve. Drugs, pride, and artistic differences played a part. It was supposed to be Bros before Onos!
The only double album, entitled simply The Beatles (colloquially referred to as The White Album) is considered the first post-modern musical album ever made----lots of irony and self-referential lyrics (I hate this condescending side of the Beatles). While "Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a generally happy, sometimes maudlin (think "She's Leaving Home") album of baroque cosplay, The White Album is a different beast. It's post-modern pastiche. How can one album contain George's brooding, dark "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with Paul's loving ode to his childhood dog, an English Sheepdog pictured below named Martha. "Martha My Dear," I think is my favorite Beatles song. It is an opulent, orchestral piece of Baroque musical art and it's devoted to a childhood dog. What's not to love?
Following The White Album was Yellow Submarine which sounds almost like it was meant for kindergarten. Then we end the studio albums with diamonds Abbey Road and Let It Be.
Not bad for twelve studio albums released in just six years.
----------------
In Eighth grade, I set out to read every Beatles biography I could get my hands on as well as purchase all of the Beatles albums in sequence. I needed to know that cultural touchstone. In my library career, two of my colleagues, Gregg and Ashley, and me are putting on a monthly trivia event. The Beatles lend themselves to trivia. So if you are in Woburn on the late afternoon of the 23rd of March, come to our trivia event. One of my categories: Meet the Beatles.
Song
Album
Release Date
Across the Universe 🎧 🦄
8 May 1970, Worldwide, Let It Be, Apple
And I Love Her 🔥 🦄
10 July 1964, UK Release, A Hard Day's Night, Parlophone
And Your Bird Can Sing🔥 🎧 🦄
5 August 1966, UK Release, Revolver, Parlophone
Don't Let Me Down - Remastered 2009 🔥
11 April 1969, UK Release, Single, B-Side to Get Back, Apple
Eleanor Rigby 🎧 🦄
5 August 1966, Revolver, Worldwide, Parlophone (UK) and Capitol (US)
Getting Better
1 June 1967, Worldwide, Parlophone/Capitol
Hello, Goodbye
27 November 1967 (Included in American version of Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol Records)
Here, There and Everywhere
5 August 1966, Revolver, Worldwide, Parlophone (UK) and Capitol (US)
If I Fell
10 July 1964, UK Release, A Hard Day's Night, Parlophone
I'll Follow the Sun
4 December 1964, UK Release, Beatles for Sale, Parlophone
I'm Looking Through You 🦄
3 December 1965, EMI's Parlophone Records
I Want to Hold Your Hand 🔥
29 November 1963, UK Parlophone Release, A-Side Single with This Boy
Lovely Rita 🔥 🎧 🦄
1 June 1967, Worldwide, Parlophone/Capitol
Martha My Dear 🎧 🦄
Double Album, UK Release on 22 November 1968, Apple Records
Obla di Obla Da 🦄
Double Album, UK Release on 22 November 1968, Apple Records
Penny Lane 🔥
Released 13 February 1967 (Included in American version of Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol Records)
Please, Please Me
22 March 1963, UK Release, EMI/Parlophone
She's Leaving Home 🎧 🦄
26 May 1967, Worldwide Release, Parlophone/Capitol
Sie Liebt Dich
March 1964, West Germany Release, Single, A-Side is "Komm gib mir deine hand," Odeon Records
Think for Yourself 🦄
3 December 1965, EMI's Parlophone Records
This Boy
29 November 1963, B-Side Single, UK EMI/Parlophone Release
Two of Us 🎧
8 May 1970, Worldwide, Apple
With a Little Help from My Friends
1 June 1967, Worldwide, Parlophone/Capitol
You Never Give Me Your Money 🎧 🦄
26 September 1969, Worldwide, Apple
You're Going to Lose that Girl
6 August 1965, Worldwide, Parlophone
You Won't See Me
3 December 1965, EMI's Parlophone Records
TK's 7 Favorites
TK's Remaining Top 12
Most Soulful 🔥
Oddest/Strangest/Most Progressive 🦄
Best Compositions 🎧
The Ones That Needed to Be Pruned
Blackbird 🔥
22 November 1968, UK Release, Double Album, The Beatles (The White Album), Apple Records
Do You Want to Know A Secret?
22 March 1963, UK Release, EMI/Parlophone
For No One
5 August 1966, Revolver, Worldwide, Parlophone (UK) and Capitol (US)
Komm gib mir deine hand
March 1964, West Germany Release, Single, B-Side is "Sie liebt dich," Odeon Records
Let It Be
8 May 1970, Worldwide, Apple
Rocky Raccoon 🦄
Double Album, UK Release on 22 November 1968, Apple Records
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