Friday's Playlist: Happy New Year and Fuck 2020

Finally, the new year is upon us. We all agree that 2020 was shit, and sadly there are no do-overs. So let's wipe the slate clean, shall we? Start fresh. Let's say this year is going to be at least a little better than last year. Can we try that? 

I know, it's off to a bad start. Politics, violence, hunger, terror and still  that goddamn pandemic... OK, can we at least pretend? Or can we fake pretend? Just for today. 

In that spirit, here's a morbid little playlist for you: this playlist is comprised of a bunch of musicians who died in 2020. Unfortunately not an exhaustive list by any means. Just something we threw together with what's in our collection. We're pretty happy with how it flows, the sequencing works quite well. 

Looking at the names in this playlist, a few things come to find: first, we've lost quite a few legends this past year. From Eddie Van Halen to Neil Peart to Peter Green to Little Richard to McCoy Tyner, 2020 hasn't been kind to music. Second, we've paid quite a heavy price for that virus: John Prine, Manu Dibango, Toots Hibbert... Third, some bands have been hit quite severely: King Crimson has lost no less than three alumni this year, although with a band with such a high turnover the ratio is always going to be higher. And last, while death is always sad and you can't really rank tragedy, some deaths are even more crushing than others: seeing someone like Justin Townes Earle go so young, in such a tragically preventable fashion, was truly heartrbreaking.

On this note, we conclude our Friday's Playlist series. This also serves as the last entry for the blog, since concerts are a thing of the past. The site will remain up for a while, and may be re-activated if things ever go back to normal but right now this seems like a good way to end things.

Happy New Year!

Note: this is a massive playlist and in order to have access to all of the tracks you need to play it in the Apple Music app, as the web version is limited to a hundred songs. Subscribe HERE if you need an account or click on the logo below.

Little Richard - Tutti Frutti - Little Richard (Vocals, Piano): 1932-2020

The Arrows - I Love Rock & Roll - Alan Merrill (Vocals, Bass): 1951-2020

The Sweet - Hellraiser - Steve Priest (Bass): 1948-2020

Riot - This Is What I Get - Louie "L.A." Kouvaris (Guitar): 1954-2020

UFO - Doctor Doctor - Pete Way (Bass): 1951-2020

Molly Hatchet - Boogie No More - Steve Holland (Guitar): 1954-2020

Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride - Leslie West (Guitar, Vocals): 1945-2020

Lucifer's Friend - Ride the Sky - Dieter Horns (Bass): 1946-2020

Uriah Heep - Rainbow Demon - Lee Kerslake (Drums): 1947-2020

Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom - Adam Schlesinger (Bass): 1967-2020

Quiet Riot - Metal Health - Frankie Banali (Drums): 1951-2020

UFO - Lettin' Go - Paul Chapman (Guitar, Keyboards): 1954-2020

Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers - Born to Lose - Walter Lure (Bass): 1949-2020

SNFU - She's Not On The Menu - Chi Pig (Vocals): 1962-2020

Junkyard - Hollywood - Clay Anthony (Bass): 1965-2020

Corrosion Conformity - Clean My Wounds - Reed Mullin (Drums): 1966-2020

Falling in Revers - Popular Monster - Derek Jones (Guitar): 1984-2020

Power Trip - Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe) - Riley Gale (Vocals): 1985-2020

Death - Suicide Machine - Sean Reinert (Drums): 1971-2020

Cynic - Uroboric Forms - Sean Malone (Bass): 1970-2020

Children of Bodom - Children of Bodom - Alexi Laiho (Guitar, Vocals): 1979-2020

Van Halen - Runnin' with the Devil - Eddie Van Halen (Guitar): 1955-2020

Uriah Heep - Easy Livin' - Ken Hensley (Keyboards): 1945-2020

Iron Maiden - Aces High - Martin Birch (Producer): 1948-2020

Rush - La Villa Strangiato - Neil Peart (Drums): 1952-2020

King Crimson - Radical Action (To Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind)/Meltdown/Radical Action II - Bill Rieflin (Drums): 1960-2020

Pauline Anna Strom - Freedom at the 45th Floor - Pauline Anna Strom (Synthesizers): 1946-2020

Silver Apples - Oscillations - Simeon Coxe (Synthesizers): 1938-2020

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express - Florian Schneider (Synthesizers, Programming, Vocals): 1947-2020

Throbbing Gristle - Unity - Genesis P. Orridge (Synthesizers, Programming, Vocals): 1950-2020

Gang of Four - At Home He's A Tourist - Andy Gill (Vocals & Guitar): 1956-2020

Cardiacs - Is this the Life? - Tim Smith (Vocals, Guitar): 1961-2020

King Crimson - Cirkus - Gordon Haskell (Vocals, Bass): 1946-2020

The Stranglers - Golden Brown - David Greenfield (Keyboards): 1949-2020

The Outfield - Your Love - Tony Lewis (Vocals, Bass): 1957-2020

Midnight Oil- Blue Sky Mine - Bones Hillman (Bass): 1958-2020

Silver Sun - Golden Skin - James Broad (Vocals, Guitar): 19.. -2020

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You - David Roback (Guitar): 1058-2020

Primal Scream - Don't Fight It, Feel It - Denise Johnson (Vocals): 1963-2020

Bad Company -If You Needed Somebody - Brian Howe (Vocals): 1953-2020

King Crimson - Cat Food - Keith Tippett (Piano): 1947-2020

Patti Smith Group - Birdland - Ivan Král (Guitar, Keyboards): 1948-2020

The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You - Matthew Seligman (Bass): 1955-2020

Love as Laughter - French Heroin - Sam Jayne (Guitar, Vocals): 1974-2020

Roxette - It Must Have Been Love - Pelle Alsing (Drums): 1960-2020

Royal Philharmonic Orchestraconducted by Antal Dorati - This Is How Things Stood (From Sergei Prokoviev's Peter & the Wolf) -  Sean Connery (Narrator): 1930-2020

Kenny Rogers & the First Edition - I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) - Kenny Rogers (Vocals): 1938-2020

Kaleidoscope - Life Will Pass You By - Chris Darrow (Bass, Vocals): 1944-2020

The Spencer Davis Group - Time Seller - Spencer Davis (Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica): 1939-2020

The Pretty Things - Rosalyn - Phil May (Vocals): 1944-2020

The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina - Steve Martin Caro (Vocals): 1948-2020

The Turtles - Grim Reaper of Love - Jim Tucker (Guitar): 1946-2020

Emitt Rhodes - Fresh as a Daisy - Emmit Rhodes (Vocals, Various Instruments): 1950-2020

Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons - Sherry - Tommy DeVito (Vocals): 1928-2020

The Dovelles - Bristol Stomp - Len Barry (Vocals): 1942-2020

Christophe - Aline - Christophe (Vocals, Piano): 1945-2020

Suzy Delair - Avec son tralala - Suzy Delair (Vocals): 1917-2020

Juliette Gréco - Déshabillez-moi - Juliette Gréco (Vocals): 1927-2020

Helen Reddy - I Am Woman - Helen Reddy (Vocals): 1941-2020

Mac Davis - In the Ghetto - Mac Davis (Vocals): 1942-2020

Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders - The Game of Love - Wayne Fontana (Vocals): 1945-2020

Chad & Jeremy - A Summer Song - Chad Stuart (Guitar, Vocals): 1941-2020

Ian Whitcomb - You Turn Me On - Ian Whitcomb (Vocals) 1941-2020

Trini Lopez - If I Had A Hammer - Trini Lopez (Guitar): 1937-2020

Fleetwood Mac - Black Magic Woman - Peter Green (Guitar): 1946-2020

Amboy Dukes - Journey to the Center of the Mind - Steve Famer (Guitar): 1948-2020

Isaac Hayes - Walk On By- Harold Beane (Guitar): 1946-2020

Rance Allen - Lying on the Truth - Rance Allen (Vocals, Guitar): 1948-2020

Lucky Peterson - Lifetime - Lucky Peterson (Vocals, Guitar, Piano): 1964-2020

Henry Gray - Mojo Boogie - Henry Gray (Piano, Vocals): 1925-2020

Little Charlie & the Nightcats - My Next Ex-Wife - Charlie Baty (Guitar): 1953-2020

Malo - Suavecito - Jorge Santana (Guitar): 1951-2020

 Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa - Manu Dibango (Vocals, Saxophone): 1933-2020

Mory Kanté - Yéké Yéké - Mory Kanté (Vocals, Kora): 1950-2020

Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come - Hux Brown (Guitar): 1944-2020

Toots & the Maytals - Pomp & Pride - Toots Hibbert (Vocals): 1942-2020

Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash (Vocals): 1940-2020

Lambert, Hendrixks & Ross - Moanin' - Annie Ross (Vocals): 1930-2020

The Clayton Brothers - Touch and Go - Jeff Clayton (Saxophone) - 1954-2020

Bill Evans - Suicide is Painless - Johnny Mandel (Composer): 1925-2020

Claude Bolling & Alexandre Lagoya - Suite for Classical Guitar and Jazz Piano Trio Finale - Claude Bolling (Piano): 1930-2020

MCoy Tyner - Satin Doll - McCoy Tyner (Piano): 1938-2020

Stanley Cowell - Equipoise - Stanley Cowell (Piano): 1941-2020

Pat Metheney Group - Épisode d'Azur - Lyle Mays (Piano): 1953-2020

Lee Konitz & Jimi Giuffre - Palo Alto - Lee Konitz (Saxophone): 1927-2020

Tony Allen - Get Together - Tony Allen (Drums): 1940-2020

Paul Bley - Albert's Love Theme - Gary Peacock (Bass): 1935-2020

Miles Davis - So What - Jimmy Cobb (Drums): 1929-2020

Jimmy Heath - For Minors Only - Jimmy Heath (Saxophone): 1926-2020

Wallace Roney - Why Should There Be Stars - Wallace Roney (Trumpet): 1960-2020

Miles Davis - Trevere - Steve Grossman (Saxophone): 1951-2020

Sun Ra & his Astro-Infinity Arkestra - Danny Ray Thompson (Saxophone): 1947-2020

Sun Ra & his Arkestra - Where Pathways Meet - Eddie Gale (Saxophone): 1941-2020

Art Blakey - Cubano Chant - Càndido Camero (Percussions): 1921-2020

Ryo Kawasaki - Trinkets & Things - Ryo Kawasaki (Guitar): 1947-2020

Kool & the Gang - Jungle Boogie - Ronald Bell (1951-2020): Saxophone, Vocals

Toshinori Kondo - Dub Deep Inside - Toshinori Kondo (Trumpet): 1948-2020

Tower of Power- You Got To Funkifize - Rocco Prestia (Bass): 1951-2020

Was (Not Was) - Knocked Down, Made Small - Sweet Pea Atkinson (Vocals): 1945-2020

Chynna - Seasonal Depression - Chynna (Vocals): 1994-2020

King Von - I Am What I Am - King Von (Vocals): 1994-2020

MF DOOM - I Hear Voices (Pt. 1) - Daniel Dumile (Vocals): 1971-2020

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Get Up and Jump - Jack Sherman (Guitar): 1956-2020

Earth, Wind & Fire feat. the Emotion - Boogie Wonderland - Pamela Hutchinon (the Emotions, Vocals): 1959-2020

Bohannon - Let's Start the Dance - Hamilton Bohannon (Vocals, Drums): 1942-2020

The Pointer Sisters - Yes We Can Can - Bonnie Pointer (Vocals): 1950-2020

Tami Lynn - I'm Gonna Run Away From You - Tami Lynn (Vocals): 1942-2020

The Supremes - He's Seventeen - Barbara Martin (Vocals): 1943-2020

Charley Pride - Just Between You And Me - Charley Pride (Vocals, Guitar): 1934-2020

The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels (Vocals, Fiddle): 1936-2020

Hal Ketchum - Small Town Saturday Night - Hal Ketchum (Guitar, Vocals): 1953-2020

K.T. Olson - 80's Ladies - K.T. Olson (Vocals): 1942-2020

Billie Joe Shaver - Live Forever - Billie Joe Shaver (Vocals, Guitar): 1939-2020

Jerry Jeff Walker - Mr. Bojangles - Jerry Jeff Walker (Vocals, Guitar): 1942-2020

Bryan Lee & the Jump Street Five - The Blues Is - Bryan Lee (Vocals, Guitar): 1943-2020

Holy Modal Rounders - Hey, Hey Baby - Steve Weber (Guitar, Vocals): 1943-2020

Tony Rice - Freeborn Man - Tony Rice (Guitar, Vocals): 1951-2020

Elyse Weinberg - Houses - Elyse Weinberg (Vocals, Guitar): 1945-2020

Statler Brothers - Flowers on the Wall - Harold Reid (Vocals): 1939-2020

Paul Simon - Homeless - Joseph Shabala (Vocals): 1940-2020

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues - Justin Townes Earle (Vocals, Guitar): 1982-2020

Steve Earle - Someday - Bucky Baxter (Pedal Steel Guitar): 1955-2020

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers (Vocals, Guitar): 1938-2020

John Prine - Angel from Montgomery - John Prine (Vocals, Guitar): 1946-2020

Vera Lynn - Well Meet Again - Vera Lynn (Vocals): 1917-2020

Ennio Morricone - The Untouchables End Title - Ennio Morricone (Composer): 1928-2020