Parting Gifts – Screen of Distance

At the end of this year, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who’s ever listened to any of these, read a word I’ve written, or indulged my jabbering about a song or an artist in person.

This is the longest of these people-who-died playlists I’ve been doing for a few years. Part of that’s my age; as I get older – turned 43 this year – more of my heroes and inspirations succumb to age. Part of that is paying attention. As I tried to capture and stash that news on a spreadsheet, I was more aware of people passing. So, there isn’t a blurb for every song. That granular writing may come back, or this may be the format going forward.

More than anything, just like the other year-end items, hell, like everything I’ve ever put on social media, this is a gratitude exercise. Each of these 140-ish artists/producers/engineers/session players made work that moved me deeply, sometimes formatively: we start and end with two people who actively shaped my soundworld, the 45 King and drummer Tony Oxley, so pour a little out and do the Ed Lover dance at some point this evening.

I also want to take a moment and point out that streaming has limitations – yes I use it, and it’s definitely the easiest entry point/path of least resistance for this kind of thing. Still, especially for local music – I would have loved to include the spoken word artist Is Said or have more to choose from for Columbus jazz drumming icon Matt Wagner or singer-songwriter-guitarist Kim Crawford – but a lot of work falls through the cracks, and it should be acknowledged.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/a96917dd-845a-49c2-8bb9-736be75527b0

The 45 King, “900 Number” (45 King)
The Pointer Sisters, “Fire” (Anita Pointer)
The Pogues, “The Broad Majestic Shannon” (Shane Macgowan)
Tony Bennett, “Just One of Those Things” (Tony Bennett)
Earth Wind and FIre with the Emotions, “Boogie Wonderland” (Fred White)
Gangsta Boo, “Love Don’t Live (You Abandoned Me)” (Gangsta Boo)
10 Ahead, “Double Standards” (Kim Crawford)
Overkill, “Cold Hard Fact” (Sebastián Marino)
Charles Simic, “I Was Stolen by the Gypsies” (Charles Simic)
Bobby Hutcherson, “Love Song” (Dennis Budimir)
Dope Sagittarius, “Alive” (Luqman Brown)
Jeff Beck, “Blue Wind” (Jeff Beck)
Tom Russell, “Heart Within a Heart” (Thad Beckman)
Billy Bragg, “Sulk” (Gary Smith)
Screaming Trees, “Nearly Lost You” (Van Conner)
Chip Willis and Double Exposure, “I’m Gonna Gitcha” (Chip Willis)
The Commodores, “Nightshift” (Sheldon Reynolds)
Spencer Wiggins, “Lonely Man” (Spencer Wiggins)
Charlie Robison, “My Hometown” (Charlie Robison)
Royal Crescent Mob, “Timebomb” (Carlton Smith)
The Temptations, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” (Barrett Strong)
Isaac Hayes, “Walk on By” (Burt Bacharach)
Yellow Magic Orchestra, “Technopolis” (Yukihuro Takahashi)
De La Soul, “Ego Trippin’ Pt 2” (Dave Jolicoeur/Trugoy The Dove)
Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, “Samba Con Getchu” (Jerry Dodgion)
The Drifters, “I Don’t Want to Go On Without You” (Charlie Thomas)
Kenny Chesney, “El Cerrito Place (Keith Gattis)
Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns, “Don’t You Just Know It” (Huey “Piano” Smith)
God Bullies, “Long Way Home” (Dave Livingstone)
Gerald Fried, “Saturday Night (Gerald Fried)
Chuck Jackson, “Any Day Now” (Chuck Jackson)
Tom Verlaine, “At 4 a.m.” (Tom Verlaine)
Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, “Aung San Suu Kyi” (Wayne Shorter)
Original Cast of Company, “Sorry/Grateful” (Charles Kimbrough)
M.I.A., “Galang (Cavemen Remix)” (Steve Mackey)
Warren Zevon, “Bad Karma” (David Lindley)
Rodney Crowell, “Topsy Turvy” (Michael Rhodes)
Black Flag, “Rise Above (Spot)
The Raunch Hands, “Make It Stop” (Pete Linzell)
The Weirdos, “We Got the Neutron Bomb” (Dix Denney)
Parliament, “Up For the Downstroke” (Fuzzy Haskins)
Carlos Garnett, “Black Love” (Carlos Garnett)
Mele featuring Toure Kunda, “Talkin’ Drums” (Toure Kunda)
Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Gimme Three Steps” (Gary Rossington)
Teni featuring Mayorkun and Costa Titch, “Maitama” (Costa Titch)
Gordon Lightfoot, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot)
Bobby Caldwell, “What You Won’t Do For Love” (Bobby Caldwell)
Andy Woodson, “Everything and Nothing” (Matt Wagner)
Blind Boys of Alabama, “Almost Home” (Paul Beasley)
Virginia Zeani, “Donizette: Lucia de Lammemoor” (Virginia Zeani)
Special Consensus, “How Many Times” (Ron Spears)
Down Jones and the Industrials, “Indeterminsm” (Greg Horn)
Scott Johnson, “John Somebody Part I” (Scott Johnson)
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, “Ballad of the Spirits” (Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou)
Afro Celt Sound System, “Lovers of Light” (Simon Emmerson)
Ryuichi Sakamoto, “sonatine” (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
Don Cherry, “Complete Communion” (Karl Berger)
Fred Anderson Quartet featuring Kidd Jordan, “Boston 17:17” (Kidd Jordan)
Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights” (Ian Baimson)
Lucious Jackson, “I’ve Got a Crush on You” (Vivian Trimble)
Ahmad Jamal, “Poinciana” (Ahmad Jamal)
Sam Cooke, “Tennessee Waltz” (Peter “Chuck” Badie)
Mary Black and Seamus Begley, “Bruach na Carraige Baine” (Seamus Begley)
The Pop Group, “She is Beyond Good and Evil” (Mark Stewart)
NRBQ, “Well Oh Well” (Donn Adams)
Harry Belafonte, “Suzanne (Every Night When the Sun Goes Down)” (Harry Belafonte)
Fred Anderson and Harrison Bankhead, “Trying to Catch the Rabbit” (Harrison Bankhead)
Os Mutantes, “Trem Fantasma” (Rita Lee)
Mance Lipscomb, “Blues in the Bottle” (Chris Strachwitz)
Julius Hemphill Big Band, “For Billie” (Jack Wilkins)
Roger and the Gypsies, “Pass the Hatchet” (Earl Stanley)
The Saints, “Swing For the Crime” (Algy Ward)
The Smiths, “How Soon is Now” (Andy Rourke)
Stan Getz featuring Joao Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto, “Corcovado” (Astrud Gilberto)
Kaija Saariaho, “Maan Varjot for Organ and Orchestra” (Kaija Saariaho)
Ike and Tina Turner, “A Fool in Love” (Tina Turner)
Saint Vitus, “Dying Inside” (Mark Adams)
Reuben Wilson, “Blue Mood” (Reuben Wilson)
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, “Race With the Devil (Dickie Harrell)
Solomon Burke, “None of Us Are Free” (Cynthia Weil)
Clifford Jordan Quartet, “John Coltrane” (Bill Lee)
The Senders, “6th Street” (Philippe Marcade)
Blondie, “Hanging on the Telephone” (Jack Lee)
Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, “69 année érotique” (Jane Birkin)
Dwight Twilley, “Girls” (Dwight Twilley)
CoCo Lee, “A Love Before Time” (CoCo Lee)
George Winston, “Go ‘Way From My Window” (George Winston)
Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. “Do You Love Me” (Sheldon Harnick)
Lee Clayton, “Bottles of Booze” (Lee Clayton)
Doc Cheatham, “Wolverine Blues” (Jackie Williams)
Butthole Surfers, “Sweat Loaf” (Teresa Taylor)
Peter Brötzmann’s Die Like a Dog Quartet, “The Heart and the Bones” (Peter Brötzmann)
Julia Wolfe. “Stronghold: I.” (Robert Black)
Jim and Jesse, “Border Ride” (Jesse McReynolds)
Obits, “I Blame You” (Rick Froberg)
The Osborne Brothers, “Blame Me” (Bobby Osborne)
Andre Watts, “Liszt: Transcendental Etude No. 10” (Andre Watts)
Sinéad O’Connor, “Drink Before the War” (Sinéad O’Connor)
Randy Meisner, “Jealousy” (Randy Meisner and Sterling Smith)
Patrice Rushen, “Haw-Right Now” (Oscar Brashear)
The Kinks, “This Time Tomorrow” (John Gosling)
The Band, “The Shape I’m In” (Robbie Robertson)
Rodriguez, “Sugar Man” (Rodriguez)
Tristan Honsinger’s This, That, and the Other, “Waltz, Fantasies, and Traffic” (Tristan Honsinger)
Gloria Coates, “Perchance to Dream I” (Gloria Coates)
Dire Straits, “Brothers in Arms” (Jack Sonni)
Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again” (Bernie Marsden)
DJ Deeon, “Da Bomb” (DJ Deeon)
Timbaland and Magoo, “Luv 2 Luv U Remix” (Magoo)
Lettuce, “Phyllis” (James Casey)
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, “Akoko Ba” (Ralph Karikari)
Jimmy Buffett, “He Went to Paris” (Jimmy Buffett)
Steven Bernstein’s Millenial Territory Orchestra featuring Catherine Russell, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand” (Curtis Fowlkes)
The Penetrators, “Gotta Have Her” (Jack Lipton)
Toussaint McCall, “I’ll Laugh Till I Cry” (Toussaint McCall)
Jacki Byard Quartet, “Parisian Thoroughfare” (Richard Davis)
Steve Roden, “Words in the Shape of a Tree” (Steve Roden)
Len Chandler, “The Warmth of You Beside Me” (Len Chandler)
Vida Blue, “Most Events Aren’t Planned” (Russell Batiste)
702, “Betcha She” (Irish Grinstead)
Bush Tetras, “Punch Drunk” (Brooke Delarco)
Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, “Blue Anthem” (Carla Bley)
Amy Lavere, “Damn Love Song” (David Cousar)
Alicja-pop, “Yellow Moon” (Jared McStay)
Kool and the Gang, “Ladies Night” (George Brown)
Orlando Marin and his Orchestra, “Ritmo Bembe” (Orlando Marin)
RL Boyce, “Baby Please Don’t Go Lonesome Road” (RL Boyce)
Mars Williams and Tim Daisy, “Klangbrucke” (Mars Williams)
Larry McKenna, “But Beautiful” (Larry McKenna)
Killing Joke, “The Gathering” (Geordie Walker)
Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band, “Wasso (Mr. Boom Broken Mix)” (Mamadou Sanou)
Jean Knight, “Do Me” (Jean Knight)
Amp Fiddler, “I Believe in You” (Amp Fiddler)
Cecile Taylor and Tony Oxley, “Berlin Conversation 1” (Tony Oxley)