I was born in 1962. This playlist begins in 1965 and ends in January of 2023 (though the song was actually released as a single in late 2022). I tried to think back to the first songs I remembered hearing that made some sort of impression on me. In compiling the entire list, with few exceptions, for the sake of variety I tried not to repeat artists. There was no clearcut criteria for what made the cut other than the song making some sort of impression me. Some are hit/signature songs, others are deep cuts. This is still a work in progress that once complete would go on a series of TDK SA 90s, my tape of choice back in the day.
Petula Clark “Downtown”
Jewel Akens “The Birds and the Bees”
Royal Guardsmen “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”
Alice Cooper “Be My Lover”
Grand Funk Railroad “Rock n’ Roll Soul”
Black Sabbath “War Pigs”
Grateful Dead “Casey Jones”
Beatles “Should Have Known Better”
Kiss “Rock n’ Roll All Nite”
ZZ Top “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers”
Waylon Jennings “Ain’t No God in Mexico”
Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen "Country Casanova”
David Allan Coe “Longhaired Redneck”
New Riders of the Purple Sage “Panama Red”
Old & In the Way “Midnight Moonlight”
Earl Scruggs Revue “Sally Gooding” (Live)
Goose Creek Symphony “Talk About Goose Creek and Other Important Places”
Pure Prairie League “Falling in and Out of Love/Amie”
Led Zeppelin “What Is and What Should Never Be”
Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”
Lynyrd Skynyrd “Swamp Music”
Jimmy Buffett “The Captain and the Kid”
John Prine “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)”
Mother’s Finest “Mickey’s Monkey”
Nantucket “Heartbreaker”
Cheap Trick “Surrender”
Rush “Xanadu”
Hank Wilson (Leon Russell) “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
Little Feat “Willin’
Rolling Stones “Before They Make Me Run”
Van Halen “Eruption/You Really Got Me”
Peter Tosh & Mick Jagger “(You Gotta Walk and) Don’t Look Back”
Mike Cross “The Lord’ll Provide”
Fabulous Knobs “Long Dark Night”
Glass Moon “Solsbury Hill” (Peter Gabriel)
Arrogance “Your Sister Told Me”
Guy Clark “Texas Cookin’”
Dire Straits “Romeo and Juliet”
Neil Young and Crazy Horse “Thrasher”
John Lennon “(Just Like) Starting Over”
Bob Marley & the Wailers “Babylon System”
Toots and the Maytals “Pressure Drop”
Jimmy Cliff “The Harder They Come”
U2 “Two Hearts Beat as One”
R.E.M. “Laughing”
Elvis Costello and the Attractions “Everyday I Write the Book”
Lone Justice “Ways to Be Wicked”
Guadalcanal Diary “Trail of Tears”
Steve Earle “Someday”
10,000 Maniacs “Like the Weather”
The Connells “Fine Tuning”
10,000 Maniacs with Michael Stipe “Candy Everybody Wants”
The Replacements “Achin’ To Be”
World Party “Put the Message in the Box”
Pearl Jam “Black”
Edie Brickell and New Bohemians 'Circle"
Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and George Harrison “My Back Pages”
Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock”
Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire”
Counting Crows “Perfect Blue Buildings”
Southern Culture On the Skids “Voodoo Cadillac”
Dick Dale & the Del-Tones “Misirlou”
Donna the Buffalo “The Ones You Love”
Tony Joe White “Polk Salad Annie”
Whiskeytown “Dancing With the Women at the Bar”
Gourds “Meat Off the Bone”
Son Volt “Drown”
Wilco “She’s A Jar”
Uncle Tupelo “I Got Drunk”
Slobberbone “I Can Tell Your Love is Waning”
Billy Bragg & Wilco “Remember the Mountain Bed”
Trailer Bride “Graveyard”
Backsliders “Yep!”
Big Star “Thirteen”
Patty Hurst Shifter “For the Record”
Otis Redding “Shout Bamalama”
Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová “Falling Slowly”
Nada Surf “Your Legs Grow”
Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar “These Roads Don’t Move”
Megafaun “Darkest Hour”
Mount Moriah “The Reckoning”
Ryan Gustafson “Soul Train”
Courtney Barnett “Avant Gardener”
Wussy “Teenage Wasteland”
Hiss Golden Messenger “Heart Like A Levee”
Lydia Loveless “Somewhere Else”
Angel Olsen “Sister”
Big Thief “Masterpiece”
Sharon Van Etten “Serpents”
Frazey Ford “Done”
Will Stewart “Dark Halls”
Erika Wennerstrom “Time”
Jake Xerxes Fussell “Raggy Levy”
Alvvays “Archie, Marry Me”
Margo Cilker “That River”
Julia Jacklin “Head Alone”
Drive-By Truckers “Wilder Days”
H.C. McEntire “Soft Crook”
