This Week's Playlist & Podcast

This week on the Idiosyncratic History of Rock & Roll, we drew our playlist from some of the artists and tunes mentioned by Amy Rigby in her memoir Girl to City as being influential in shaping her own musical tastes and output.  It’s an eclectic mix of influences as you can see from the list below, and by clicking here you can listen to a recording of the full program. Amy Rigby has been a long time favorite, and a mainstay on my playlists since I started doing my shows 20 years ago—her book is highly recommended for both its insight into the author’s artistic and personal development and its evocation of the music scene in downtown New York at the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Crocodile Rock, Elton John

Leavin’ On a Jet Plane, Peter, Paul & Mary

The Rain, the Park & Other Things, Cowsills

Easy Come Easy Go, Bobby Sherman

The Girl I Knew Somewhere, Monkees

Stuck Inside of Memphis Blues Again, Bob Dylan

Walk on the Wild Side, Lou Reed

Gasoline Alley, Rod Stewart

Who Are the Mystery Girls? New York Dolls

I Can Dream if I Want To, Mink DeVille

You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory, Johnny Thunders

Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Ramones 6 (Rocket to Russia) p. 46

Anarchy in the UK, Sex Pistols

Hey Little Girl, Dead Boys

The Modern Dance, Pere Ubu

Blank Generation, Richard Hell & the Voidoids

Identity, X-Ray Spex

Typical Girls, Slits

Gary Gilmore’s Eyes, Adverts

She Is Beyond Good and Evil, The Pop Group

Everybody’s Happy Nowadays, Buzzcocks

Broken English, Marianne Faithfull

Middle of the Road, Pretenders

Fairy Tale in the Supermarket, Raincoats

Glow in the Dark, Bongos

Karate Party, Reivers

Tell Her, True Believers

Amplifier, dBs

Are You From Dixie, Blue Sky Boys

Take Me Back Again, Rose Maddox

Misery Loves Company, Porter Wagoner

The End of the World, Skeeter Davis

If You’ve Got the Love (I’ve Got the Time), Jason & the Nashville Scorchers

I Went Walking, Rank & File

Working Man’s Blues, Lone Justice

Just a Little is Enough, Last Roundup

Only a Dream, Shams

Love Me With Your Mind, Shams

Knapsack, Amy Rigby

All I Want, Amy Rigby

Dancing with Joey Ramone, Amy Rigby