Well, I’m ready for this week to end. My post-election blues were worsened when news broke on Thursday of the passing of Leonard Cohen (pictured), a man whose music and lyrics have greatly inspired me. On this episode we’ll sprinkle in covers of his songs performed by R.E.M., John Cale, Ian McCulloch, Lloyd Cole, Coil, Straitjacket Fits, Peter Astor, and others. And we’ll try to work out some electoral kinks to tunes from The Clash, X, House of Freaks, Codeine, Morrissey, McCarthy, Mekons, Guided by Voices, Minutemen, and more. I’ll let Cohen wrap this up: “It’s coming to America first / The cradle of the best and of the worst / It’s here they got the range / And the machinery for change / And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst / It’s here the family’s broken / And it’s here the lonely say / That the heart has got to open / In a fundamental way / Democracy is coming to the USA.”
Playlist
- Leonard Cohen — Everybody Knows
- Robyn Hitchcock And The Egpytians — Somewhere Apart
- X — The New World
- Minutemen — This Ain’t No Picnic
- The Disco Zombies — Punk-A-Go-Go
- The Clash — Clampdown
- Ian McCulloch — Lover Lover Lover
- Peter Astor — Take This Longing
- Straitjacket Fits — So Long Marianne
- The Mountain Goats — Deianara Crush
- Violent Femmes — Look Like That
- Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers — New Kind Of Neighborhood
- Biff Bang Pow! — She Haunts
- Aztec Camera — Oblivious
- World Party — Private Revolution
- Lloyd Cole — Chelsea Hotel
- Johnny Cash — Bird on a Wire
- John Cale — Hallelujah
- Cardinal — Silver Machines
- Codeine — Hard To Find
- J Church — I Can’t Be Nice To You (Slow Version)
- Morrissey — We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
- McCarthy — Governing Takes Brains
- Pulp — Joyriders
- Coil — Who By Fire
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — Avalanche
- R.E.M. — First We Take Manhattan
- Mekons — Empire Of The Senseless
- Necessaries — My Baby’s Explosive
- Nikki Sudden And The Jacobites — Basement Blues
- Guided By Voices — Awful Bliss
- Hearts On Fire — Hidden Heart
- House Of Freaks — 40 Years
- Leonard Cohen — Waiting For The Miracle