Daily Dance Songs So Far

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To Hell With The Past

Today I danced for the first time since Halloween and I’d not danced for a bunch of days before that.  Oh well.

Here’s pics of me (dressed up as Joni Mitchell) dancing in a Karaoke room.  (thanks Jessica)  This is at Insa in Brooklyn where several of my work mates and I gathered to play on Halloween.  Fun Fun.

So today, 11/8/17, I got back on the daily dance horse and danced to Oily Way by Gong which DJ Uncle Ray played on his Radio Valencia show, Uncle Ray’s Psychedelic Soul, episode #141 Prog vs. the World.  I’d just eaten a big breakfast so, I have to say I didn’t go all out.  Rays’ show is great and apparently I really like Prog Rock.

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Nevermind The Past (or I’ll catch up later, maybe)

I was trying to post lists from the first few months of the year to catch up to the recent past and I’m not catching up and it was getting me down.  So, this is the past two weeks and nevermind the intervening months! 

(Tumblr thinks nevermind is two words.  Since when?  Nevermind is it’s own word!)

A few weeks ago the New York Times Magazine did their whole issue on 25 songs that . . I forget.  Are really good.  Or define our times.  Or something.  The issue is not in front of me now, but in any case the point is that they dispensed with their regular columns and articles like the advice one, and the medical mystery article, and the economic page, and it was only articles about specific songs.  It has come in very handy as inspiration for dance a day songs!  I have skipped a couple.  I am not interested in the band that only writes songs about serial killers.  And F.U.B.U is 8 minutes long, and that’s too long for a dance a day song.

Many of those songs are in weeks that I have skipped, but this post is about the past two weeks; 9/6/17 - 9/20/17.  Nine of the days in this time span I did not dance!  I didn’t realize I’d been skipping so many days until I looked back over my calendar where I write down the songs.  So phoo.  I’ll do better next week.

9/6 nothing

9/7 Book Main - Micia Levi and Oliver Coates.  Evil sounding and beautiful too.  Machine-y and mournful.  I’m thinking about using it as closing music for the play that I’m doing at New Jersey Repertory on October 1st, Breaking in the New Boss.  It’s a very sad play about racism and factory work.

9/8 nothing

9/9 Today - Jefferson Airplane.  I didn’t like this song as much as I remembered liking it.  Somehow it seems more dumb than I recall.  It is pretty . . . 

9/10 Mourn at Night - Ka.  This guy is a fireman in Brooklyn and he records rap songs inspired by his youth in his home studio in his down time.  This one is sad.  I found myself curling up in sadness as I danced; I could hear his old and continuing grief.

9/11 and 12 nothing nothing

9/13 A Woman’s Face - Rufus Wainwright  Text by William Shakespeare.  Apparently Wainwright has recorded a number of these.  This one is lovely.

That night also, though, I danced to  some other songs at Insa, a karaoke place I’ve gone to a couple of times now with my work mates.  So much fun!  I didn’t write those songs down that others sang and I danced and I don’t recall what they were.  There were several.  One was a Madonna song.  

9/14 - 19 nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing.  Sad sad, bad bad.  Such a loss!  Six whole days of no dancing.  Days I’ll never get back.

9/20 Copper Canteen - James McMurtry  growly guy murmuring in the middle states feeling the squeeze.  Another of his songs, Painting by Numbers may be good for the opening of the play I mentioned above.

Four of these songs are from the NYT magazine.  Am I getting old or something that I find out about music from magazines?

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April 2017 In this post I admit I sometimes forget or otherwise skip a day

Help On The Way - Bela Fleck and Group

Kiss - Prince

didn’t dance

didn’t dance

I’m Feeling Good - Meklit Hidero

didn't dance

Gloria - Patti Smith

didn’t dance

Please Don’t Stop - Richard Bona

Dream On - Postmodern Jukebox, Morgan James

Don’t Go - Yaz

Tug of War - (I didn’t write down who this song is by, I don't remember why)

Come Sail Away - Styx

Technochek Collison - Slavic Soul Party

To Whom It May Concern - Mark Stewart, Ethyl at the Grand Canyon Music Fest

Father and Daughter Reunion - Paul Simon

didn’t dance

didn't dance

1999 - Prince, and also the PSFC Annual Staff Party! Lots and Lots of Dancing!

Girl I Loved - Lourde

Jason Mraz’s I Won’t Give Up - Vitamin String Quartet

One - U2

didn’t dance

Clowns - Harsh Crowd

While My Guitar Genlty Weeps  - Jake Shimabukuru

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March 2017

Choosing a song each day is sometimes obvious but sometimes not.  I often go to youtube and see what music it suggests to me.  Sometimes I look up an artist in particular or someoneI know.  Sometimes I decide I’m going to use one of my cd’s and choose something from my collection.  Sometimes I look of facebook and see if particular friends who post about music have posted something.  Sometimes I find something there and write it down for use the next day.  So often I’m dancing to music I’ve never heard before which is fun because I really have to listen with my body to follow along. 

Firecracker - Zircus

     Zircus was a band in the 90′s that I loved and saw a lot.  My dear friends Ray Wilcox, Catharine Clune, Josh Pollock, Sean O’Melvinney (this I know I’m spelling incorrectly.  Please correct me!) and Chris Enright played all over San Francisco and elsewhere and I went to see them often and danced danced danced danced danced and it was wonderful.  I played these songs off a cd that Ray made of everything they recorded which I’m super glad I have.

Pounding - Arthur Lee Mage

Kashmir - cover that doesn’t really say who covered it

Royal Garden Blues - Bob French Original Tuxedo Jazz Band and Friends 

Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home - Bob French etc

She’s An Angel - They Might Be Giants

The Beauty At The Bottom Of The Sea - Randy Craig

Who’s Loving You - The Jackson Five

My Baby - The Pretenders

Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About - Bonnie Raitt

Money Changes Everything - Cyndi Lauper

6th Track on Ruben Gonzales’s cd - Rubem Gonzales

Gimme Shelter - cover Maxayan

September Song - Karma Mayet Johnson

        Karma is an astonishingly muti-talented and amazing person.  Poet, songwriter, actress, teacher and conduit of spirits.  I feel blessed to count her among my friends.

Echo of The Two Step - Julian Kytasty

Route 66 - Nat King Cole

Sad Lover’s Waltz - Ed’s Redeeming Qualites

Is You Is - Joe Jackson

Teach Your Children Well - Crosby Stills and Nash

Rollspin - Ferron

Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd

Don’t Know Why - Nora Jones

Confidence Man - Empire View

Where Is My Mind - The Pixies

Imagine - John Lennon

The Lion’s Den - Orphan Town

Be - Lenny Kravitz

Being Alive - Steven Sondheim

        This is a song I am working on with my singing teacher.  In this case I didn’t sing it to myself I found it on youtube and danced to that.  It’s good to listen to other versions of songs I’m learning.  I like singing this song even though I resist the idea it poses that one is not truly alive unless one has a life partner which is what it says.  I’m single and I’m alive and I love it!

Tubthumping  - Chumbawumba

      https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dunstanbruce/i-get-knocked-down-the-untold-story-of-chumbawamba  One of the band members was trying to make a film of them since they were anarchist activists but their super popular song sounded like a vapid party.  It doesn’t look like that film ever got made which is a bummer.

That’s it for March 2017.  

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January through February 2017

Every day I dance to a song.  It started as a New Year’s resolution.  Now it is a thing I do. I’ve danced to a whole song almost every day this year and I expect to continue for the rest of my life.  This blog is a list of the songs I have danced to so far.

Solar Distress - Gen Ken Montgomery

Wondrous Stories - Yes

You Say You Want A Revolution - The Beatles

Changes - David Bowie

Take A Little Piece Of My Heart - Janis Joplin

Golden Brown - The Stranglers

Since Last Wednesday - Highasakite

Gravity - Ricki Lee Jones

Love Is My Religion - Bob Marley

Ungava Part 2 (Way Out Ungawa) remix - Pusilama

Mercy Mercy Mercy - Cannonball Adderly

I’m Gonna Be Strong - Cyndi Lauper

The Monkey - Dave Barthlolomew

The Great Beyond - REM

Psycho Killer - Talking Heads

Joy To The World - Three Dong Night

I Can’t Wait - The Replacements

Leaving Soon - Meklit Hidero

I’ve Gotta Go Now - Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger

Simply Beautiful - Ganessa James and Cheney Sims

Straight To Cuddley’s Chest - Fat Man Reddin Section

Melting Grid - Julie Byrne

Happy Noodle vs. Sad Noodle - Logan Whitehurst

Human Behavior - Bjork

Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses

                 My music playing devices all broke at once.

Clarity and Harmony - Miriam Eusebio.  This is a song I made up from several affirmations that I wanted to remember.  I sang it through a couple of times and danced along.

The Shepherd - Raife Von Williams.  This is a lovely song I’ve worked on with my singing teacher.  Again, I sang it myself and danced to it.

Stronger Together - Mariel Berger.  This is a protest song that Mariel wrote for The Moon Choir of which I am a part.

Ambient Sounds.  This was a great day.  There were a lot of sounds in my apartment; the radiators were making rhythmic-ish clanks, the refrigerator was humming, there was rain or wet snow tinkling on the fire escape, sparrows were chirping, my upstairs neighbor walked back and forth in shoes, a siren passed on 5th Avenue . . . .

My Alarm 

The Shepherd again.  I forgot I’d done it and did it again.

              I fixed my devices and bought a boom box

Living Room - Pairs Combo

Darn That Dream - Chet Baker

Time-and-a-half Gavotte - Prokofiev, Tango #9

Aint Got No - Nina Simone

Train - 4 Non Blonds

You Are The Everything - REM

I Do Not Know Where This Flesh Belongs - The Fledgelings

Walking On Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves

Running Wild - Sarah Lynch

Tried To Be True - Indigo Girls

Raggy Waltz - Carmen McRae and Dave Brubeck

Fun House - Ralph Carney

Ladytron - Roxy Music

Come To Me - Zircus

Love Takes It’s Toll - Circus