Almost Independence Day, so we played many of the usual selections for the Fourth of July, as well as celebrating so many facets of the U.S.A. — Parties! Dancing! Surfing! Living! (As well as some “Tears of Rage”).
But there were a lot of birthdays to cover, especially in the temporary absence of the Allison Transmission, including Audra McDonald (53), Carla Olson (71) and Vince Clarke of Erasure (63). But also George M. Cohan (born on the third of July — on this day in 1878), Andy Fraser of Free (1952), Judith Durham of The Seekers (1943), Johnnie Wilder Jr. of Heatwave (1947) and Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex (1957).
A longer set of songs gave some examples of the thousands of songs played on by guitarist Tommy Tedesco of the Wrecking Crew, born this day in 1930, from surf classics to Elvis Presley to “Guantanamera” and “Green Acres.”
Closed with some surprising music from the actor Alan Arkin who died Thursday at 89; from his time in the folk trio The Tarriers, that had a couple of Top 10 hits in the 1950s, and the kids’ group The Baby Sitters from the early ’60s. Plus a couple of songs from more recent years, a duet with Ann-Margret from their 2017 movie “Going in Style” and a very dark ditty about death he did with Harvey Schmidt, “Wonderful Way to Die.”
Here’s the link to the whole archived program; the setlist follows.