My Show, My Music (Edited with links to iTunes Store)

Before I actually got this radio show, I picked out music for it. Seriously. But hell, you know me. I do the sports stuff for money. I’d write about music for free (which, BTW, is why I can’t do it, because that biz wants you to do it for free, and I’m too grown for that).
When I started here, we had two CD’s that everyone at the station used. I won’t say there was anything wrong with them, but the music on there just didn’t make sense when my voice was coming behind it. They also sounded like each song was intended to reach the same person. That left a lot of people out.
Had to come up with some middle ground — something that sounded like me, but other people could get into. The way I saw it, the tracks didn’t need be but so familiar. They just needed to have a universal appeal to the sensibilities of everyone listening to the show.
So I figured there was only but so much rap that could be used. It’s a bit polarizing, and the target demographic in sports talk radio is 25-54. No need to offend unnecessarily over music when we could find a middle ground.
I decided to go as heavy on funk and ’70s soul as I could. If it was good enough to be sampled and start another movement, it was good enough for this. Plus, everybody likes a killer bass line. The other stuff doesn’t even matter that much usually. But I figured that approach — plus a few classics across genres — would allow me to have a sound that was genuinely me, but also genuinely you, too. And while most sports talk host probably don’t give a kitty about their music, I do. Part of the show was sharing who I was, and one thing about me — I love listening to music. Plus, I think the song is the most efficient mode of expression ever invented. Sharing the sound was sharing me, without throwing it in your face or having to say a word.
So yeah, this was a big part of coming up with the show. Spent weeks getting the tracks right, finding the right sections to use — and messed up on that, too — and finding the perfect, relatively obscure tracks that I knew would make people e-mail and ask what we just played.
Anyway, here we go. There’s so significance to what’s on each disc. I didn’t want there to be blocs on the discs where you had a run of the same artist, so I just reordered the tracks alphabetically by track name in my iTunes (a decision that, curiously enough, I thought of using some principles of OLS regressions…don’t ask), then burned five discs with 40 tracks. The hyperlinks on the days will take you to an iMix at the iTunes Store.
Monday
A Tribe Called Quest, “Electric Relaxation”
Alien Ant Farm, “Attitude”
Audioslave, “Cochise”
Black Sheep, “The Choice is Yours”
Bob Marley, “Concrete Jungle”
Bob Marley, “Easy skanking”
Bob Marley, “Africa Unite”
Bobby Womack, “Across 110th Street”
Boogie Down Productions, “The Bridge is Over”
Commodores, “Brick House”
Eric Clapton, “Cocaine”
Funkadelic, “Cosmic Slop”
Gangstarr, “DWYCK”
Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”
Green Day, “Brain Stew”
Isley Brothers, “Between the Sheets”
James Brown, “Cold Sweat”
James Brown, “Blind Man Can See It [#][*]”
Jimi Hendrix, “Come On, Pt. 1”
Johnnie Taylor, “Cheaper To Keep Her”
Living Colour, “Desperate People”
Lucy Pearl, “Dance Tonite”
Maxwell, “Dancewitme”
Maze, “Before I Let Go”
Meters, “Cissy Strut”
Michael Jackson, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”
O’Jays, “Darling Darling Baby”
Ohio Players, “Ecstasy”
OutKast, “Dracula‚Äös Wedding (Feat. Kelis”
Parliament, “Chocolate City”
Prince, “D.M.S.R.”
Rolling Stones, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Rolling Stones, “Brown Sugar”
Shuggie Otis, “Aht Uh Mi Hed”
Slick Rick, “Children’s Story”
Smokey Robinson, “Cruisin'”
Stevie Wonder, “All I Do”
Temptations, “Ball of confusion”
The Beatles, “Come Together”
War, “The Cisco Kid”
Tuesday
Al Green, “Here I Am (Come And Take Me)”
Bob Marley, “Get Up, Stand Up”
Bobby Byrd, “I Know You Got Soul”
Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth”
Commodores, “Gonna Blow Your Mind”
Commodores, “Gimme My Mule”
Doors, “Five to One”
Dramatics, “Get Up & Get Down”
Eric B. and Rakim, “Eric B. is President”
Faith No More, Falling to Pieces”
Faith No More, “Evidence”
Funkadelic, “Freak Of The Week”
Funkadelic, “Hit it and quit it”
Gangstarr, “Ex Girl to Next Girl”
Gil Scott-Heron, “Gun”
James Brown, “Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose”
James Brown, “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine”
Jay-Z, “heart of the city (aint no lov”
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, “Funk Beyond The Call Of Duty”
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, “Feel The Spirit Of My Guitar”
King Floyd, “Groove Me”
Lakeside, “Fantastic Voyage”
Lauryn Hill, “Everything Is Everything”
Maze, “Golden Time Of Day”
Metallica, “Enter Sandman”
O’Jays, “For the Love of Money”
Ohio Players, “Fire”
Otis Redding, “Hard To Handle”
Parliament, “Flash Light”
Pink Floyd, “Have A Cigar”
Prince, “Head”
Prince, “Erotic City”
Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter”
Stevie Wonder, “For Once in My Life”
The Beatles, “Glass Onion”
The Clash, “The Guns of Brixton”
Too Short, “Gettin’ It”
U2, “Even Better Than The Real Thing”
U2, “Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me”
Wilson Pickett, “Hey Jude”
Wednesday
Al Green, “Love And Happiness”
Average White Band, “A Love of Your Own”
Bill Withers, “Make Love To Your Mind”
Bob Dylan, “Hurricane”
Bob Marley, “I Know”
Bob Marley, “I Shot The Sheriff”
David Bowie, “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City”
Funkadelic, “I’ll Stay”
Funkadelic, “Loose Booty”
Funkadelic, “Let’s Make It Last”
Gil Scott-Heron, “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”
Grandmaster Flash, “The Message”
Green Day, “Longview”
Jackson 5, “It’s A Moving Violation”
James Brown, “I Can’t Stand Myself (When You Touch Me), Pt.1”
James Brown, “I Got Ants In My Pants, Pt. 1”
Jimi Hendrix, “If 6 Was 9”
Jimi Hendrix, “I Don’t Live Today”
Johnnie Taylor, “Last Two Dollars”
Lou Rawls, “You’re Gonna Miss My Lovin'”
Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Saturday Night Special”
Marvin Gaye, “I Heard It Through the Grapevi”
Muddy Waters, “Mannish Boy”
Musiq Soulchild, “L’ Is Gone”
Ohio Players, “I Want To Be Free”
Pink Floyd, “Let There Be More Light”
Prince, “Let’s Work”
Prince, “It”
Rick James, “Mary Jane”
Shuggie Otis, “Inspiration Information”
Sleepy Brown, “Me, My baby And My Cadillac”
Sly and the Family Stone, “I Get High On You”
Stevie Wonder, “Master Blaster”
Stevie Wonder, “Maybe Your Baby”
Stevie Wonder, “Jesus Children of America”
The Roots, “I Don’t Care”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
Willie Hutch, “I Choose You (Soundtrack/The Mack)”
Willie Hutch, “Mack Man (Got to Get Over)”
Wilson Pickett, “In The Midnight Hour”
Thursday
A Tribe Called Quest, “Scenario”
Al Green, “Right Now, Right Now”
Aretha Franklin, “Rock Steady”
Average White Band, “Pick Up the Pieces”
Black Sabbath, “Paranoid”
Branford Marsalis, “Mo’ Betta Blues”
Curtis Mayfield, “Move On Up”
Earth Wind and Fire, “Shining Star”
Earth Wind and Fire, “Serpentine Fire”
Eric B & Rakim, “Paid in Full”
Erykah Badu, “Penitentiary Philosophy”
Five Stairsteps, “Ooh Child”
Funkadelic, “Nappy Dugout”
Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Tel”
James Brown, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag, Pt. 1”
James Brown, “The Payback”
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, “Miss Frisco (Queen of The Disco)”
Junior Walker & The All Stars, “Shotgun”
Lou Rawls, “Natural Man”
Marvin Gaye, “Right On”
Michael Jackson, “PYT”
neil young, “rockin`in the free world”
Otis Redding, “Satisfaction”
OutKast, “Roses”
OutKast, “Movin’ Cool”
Oysterhead, “Mr. Oysterhead”
Pharcyde, “Passin Me By”
Rage Against the Machine, “Renegades of Funk”
Roots, “The ‘Notic”
Spinners, “Rubber Band Man”
Staples Singers, “Respect Yourself”
Stevie Wonder, “Sir Duke”
Stylistics, “People Make the World Go ‘Roun”
Sugar Hill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight”
The Roots, “Silent Treatment”
The Roots, “The Seed (2.0)”
U2, “Mysterious Ways”
UB40, “Red Red Wine”
Wilson Pickett, “Mustang Sally”
ZZ Top, “Sharp Dressed Man”
Friday
Alien Ant Farm, “Smooth Criminal”
Barry White, “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything”
Bob Marley, “Work”
Bob Marley, “War”
Bob Marley, “Wake Up And Live”
Brand New Heavies, “Wake Me When I’m Dead”
Brand New Heavies, “Soul Flower”
Brand Nubian, “Slow Down”
Brothers Johnson, “Brother Man”
Brothers Johnson, “Right On Time”
Brothers Johnson, “Runnin’ For Your Lovin'”
Commodores, “Young Girls Are My Weakness”
Funkadelic, “I Got A Thing… (1970)”
Funkadelic, “I Bet You (1970)”
Funkadelic, “Who Says A Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?!”
Jackson 5, “(You Were Made) Especially For Me”
Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”
Jimi Hendrix, “You Got Me Floatin'”
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, “Superman Lover”
Ohio Players, “Skin Tight”
Parliament, “All Your Goodies Are Gone”
Paul Simon, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, “They Reminisce over You (T.R.O.Y.)”
Prince, “Uptown”
Puff Daddy & the Family, “Victory”
Run-DMC, “Walk This Way”
Smokey Robinson, “The Tracks of My Tears”
Soft Cell, “Tainted Love”
Stevie Wonder, “You Can’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover”
Stevie Wonder, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”
The Band, “Up On Cripple Creek”
The Beatles, “The Word”
The Beatles, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
The Undisputed Truth, “Smiling Face Sometimes”
Time, “777-9311”
U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
Uri Cane – Ahmir Thompson – Christian McBride, “Trouble Man Theme”
Van Morrison, “Wild Night”
War, “The World Is A Ghetto”
War, “Where Was You At”