This week’s “Imperial Bedroom and Other Chambers” tour from Elvis Costello got us wanting to hear the recorded versions of much of what he played.
His posing of the question “Where are the strong and who are the trusted?” in “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?” led to our moment of discontent and the election at large, featuring about half of the “30 days 30 songs” effort online, with new topical songs from Aimee Mann, Death Cab for Cutie and others, as well as songs about Presidents past. Woody Guthrie was represented three times, in his own song and in two with music provided by contemporary rockers, from Wilco and Billy Bragg to U.S. Elevator, who put music to newly-found Guthrie lyrics criticizing the racist real estate practice of Trump’s father.
Closed out with a lot less Blaster than I had planned.
Here’s what I played on the radio tonight:
Friday Night Rock, 11-4-2016, 9:30 p.m.-1 a.m., Radio CPR, 101.7 FM, Washington, D.C.
- “The Town Where Time Stood Still,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Lipstick Vogue,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Hand in Hand,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “The Loved Ones,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Tears Before Bedtime,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Shabby Doll,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Human Hands,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “The Long Honeymoon,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “You Little Fool,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Pidgin English,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Almost Blue,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Kid About It,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “…And In Every Home,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Beyond Belief,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Man Out of Time,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Town Cryer,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “You’ll Never Be a Man,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Shot with His Own Gun,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “This House is Empty Now,” Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach
- “On Your Way Down,” Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint
- “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?” Elvis Costello and the Attractions
- “Can’t You Tell?” Aimee Mann
- “Million Dollar Loan,” Death Cab for Cutie
- “Same Old Lie,” Jim James
- “Demagogue,” Franz Ferdinand
- “World Leader Pretend,” R.E.M. (live)
- “Backwards Blues,” Adia Victoria
- “Trump is On Your Side,” Moby and the Homeland Choir
- “Old Man Trump,” U.S. Elevator (featuring Mac McCaughan and Tim Bluhm)
- “Despierta,” Filthy Friends
- “No Guns No Guns,” Mirah
- “Little Situation,” Blake Hazard
- “Mr. Tangerine Man,” Wesley Stace (live)
- “I Had a Dream,” Loudon Wainwright III
- “Make America Great Again,” The Long Winters
- “Before the Wall,” Kyle Craft
- “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” R.E.M.
- “V.O.T.E.,” Chris Stamey & Yo La Tengo
- “Elected,” Alice Cooper
- “Gimme Some Truth,” John Lennon
- “Vote!” Little Steven
- “Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt,” Jesse Winchester“
- James K. Polk,” They Might Be Giants
- “Woodrow Wilson,” Vic Chesnutt
- “Jimmy Carter,” Blue Mountain
- “Jimmy Carter says ‘Yes,’” Gene Marshall
- “Christ for President,” Wilco and Billy Bragg
- “McKinley’s Gone,” Flatt and Scruggs
- “Campaigner,” Neil Young
- “Jesse,” Grandmaster Flash
- “World Destruction,” Africa Bamabaattaa and John Lydon
- “President Kennedy,” Sleepy John Estes and Ry Cooder
- “The Wall Street Part of Town,” Ry Cooder
- “The 90 and the 9,” Ry Cooder
- “Washington Talkin’ Blues,” Woody Guthrie
- “Money & Corruption / I Am Your Man,” The Kinks
- “Common Man,” The Blasters
- “American Music,” The Blasters
Friday Night Rock returns Nov. 11 on Radio CPR, 101.7 FM in Washington, D.C. or online worldwide at www.tinyurl.com/radiocpr