Here’s the start of my 2024 “DJ Rushton in Public” playlist on Spotify. Last year’s got to 155 songs. I’m debuting this year’s on January 22, 2024 with seven songs, which I’ll talk about below.
James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)
I start off with a different version of I Got You that I’ve never heard before. A bit more subdued (well, sorta) and with an organ. I knew it was different, and Shazam showed the correct graphic so I could find it on Spotify.
Band of Skulls - So Good
Heard at Target. Never heard of this band before. It’s the kind of “anonymous pop” that stores play. I’ll take this any day over a lot of the things I hear.
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - The Tears of a Clown
The version I heard in public sounded thicker, like it had been remastered, or maybe it was the sound system. Is this Smokey’s best vocal? It was where I heard it.
Capital Cities - Safe and Sound
Well crafted cheese pop at the grocery store. Hooks galore. Post disco. That trumpet. It runs out of ideas quickly and has to repeat, but at least it doesn’t do the half-step up thing.
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
This song is 40 years old. I played it on the radio in high school when really nobody listened to The Smiths. The whole catalog of The Smiths is still worth experiencing from start to end, which I did in real time in the 80s. I’ve always loved Morrissey being a mouthy troublemaker, and Johnny Marr’s “Set the Boy Free” was an excellent “book on CD” I heard last year.
George Strait - You’re Stronger Than Me
How can you not love classic country? This stood out in the store. The recording is from around 2000, but it sounds like it’s straight out of 1962 when Patsy Cline recorded it. Great tune and quite a performance.
Stephen Bishop - On and On
Was never into this kind of soft rock, but I had to endure it on the AM radio at the dentist office while getting fillings as a kid. Heard this at the casino recently. Hadn’t heard it in forever. I thought it was a Fender Rhodes throughout, and the electric piano might be that, but the main thing going on in the background is a pedal steel guitar that is seriously restrained in the mix and is quite a combination of mellow/psychedelic. It was the 70s, after all, the decade of quaaludes.