By tincanman
From now on if anyone tells me there is nothing unlucky about the number 13 I will suggest they put their hand up to curate a playlist of songs about it. I’m not saying the stress of being in the chair for a week this lean caused my sudden onset of boils this weekend, I’m just saying the timing is suspicious. Maybe it’s just an allergy and not a curse. Touch wood.
But as Maki pointed out, the beauty of a topic that doesn’t bury us in hundreds of tangential shouts is we have time to read up on stuff.
How else would amylee’s tumble down a rabbithole of unfinished and experimental songs labelled Track 13 turn up Queen’s “lovely. prog cod-Eno...worth a listen all the way through.”
Or give us history lessons, like Nicko’s discovery that Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery via Caetano Veloso’s 13 De Maio, and Naguchi relaying Woodie Guthrie’s description of the Ludlow Massacre – corporate America being naughty, who knew?.
No bar mitzvah songs, but lots that hinged on someone turning 13. I found looking back at a miscarriage in Dillon’s Thirteen Thirtyfive (barbryn) and a kid with a number for a name in Danzig’s Thirteen (happyclapper) especially poignant. It was also hard to ignore the desperation in Mudhoney’s Thirteenth Floor Opening (happyclapper). I think maybe I underestimate that band sometimes.
Keeping it light, Gabinete Caligari’s Doce Mas Uno (Maki) teaches us how to say 13 without saying 13, the Renegades imagine being the only man to survive an H bomb in Dickie Thompson’s 13 Women (Tarquinspodd). Yes, Shiv, it’s in the worst possible taste. And this is the best version of it.
And finally Uncleben serves us up Food’s Last Supper, experimental jazz seemingly as good a way as any to close the circle and bring us back to amylee’s Queen. I love me some emperor’s-new-clothes music that’s either sheer genius or pure twaddle, and unless you want me to curse you with a case of my boils, you will too.
The Lucky For Some A-List Playlist:
1) Queen - Track 13 (amylee)
2) Dillon - Thirteen Thirtyfive (barbryn)
3) Mudhoney - Thirteenth Floor Opening (happyclapper)
4) Danzig – Thirteen (happyclapper)
5) Gabinete Caligari – Doce Mas Uno (Maki)
6) Woody Guthrie – Ludlow Massacre (Naguchi)
7) Caetano Veloso - 13 De Maio (Nicko)
8) Renegades - 13 Women (Tarquinspodd)
9) Food - Last Supper (Uncleben)
Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
Colter Wall maintains his dignity, Jonathon Linaberry has 13 Kinds of blues, Lonnie Rashid Lynn says the The Thirteenth Amendment simply moved slavery from the fields to prisons, and Tom Waits decides to orphan himself:
10) Colter Wall - Thirteen Silver Dollars
11) Tom Waits - Bottom Of The World
12) Bones of J.R. Jones - 13 Kinds
13) Common – A Letter To The Free
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Unlucky for some: songs about the number thirteen. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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