Marianne Faithfull - Come and Stay With Me

Among other things, nice-sounding twelve-string guitar.

The Seeds - Can't Seem to Make You Mine

Johnny Nash - Hold Me Tight

An early Jamaican hit in the USA.

Catherine Russell - Darktown Strutters' Ball

This song is now almost one hundred years old - this version was recorded last month.

R.E.M. - Gardening at Night

Early early music by those Athenian boys.

RIP Julian Bond

He was inadvertently responsible for one of the most surreal moments of my life. In the fall of 1996 I was on my way to an 8:00 class at the University of Virginia, wending my way completely alone through the paths behind the buildings on the Lawn, turning corners often, when I suddenly came across another lone figure, dressed in a nicely tailored overcoat and laughing at something said by an unseen person in the Mercedes into which he was leaning. He noticed me and looked a little perturbed. My brain was racing trying to figure out why his face seemed so familiar, when I realized I'd seen it many times before but only when mediated by a TV screen or printed page. I nodded, he relaxed and turned back to the car, and I went on to class. He taught at UVA, so it made sense for him to be there, but wow anyway.

Steely Dan - Your Gold Teeth

Later extensively reworked as "Your Gold Teeth II" a few albums later. There are so many things I like about this song I'll forego mentioning them. Just listen.