Welcome to my weekly mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
And yes, in case you're wondering, we are back
after the short hiatus. A couple of weeks ago,
I posted an episode that kind of explains everything
that happened and why I took the break that I
did and did a little. quote unquote season break.
But now we are back for, if you want to call
it season two of my weekly mixtape, considering
the first season went three and a half years
and 150 episodes season, call it whatever you
want. I'm excited to be back talking music with
everyone again. And like I mentioned a few weeks
ago on the announcement podcast, we're going
to be doing things a little bit differently this
week. I do not have a guest. Some weeks I will,
some weeks I won't. It's going to be a little
bit of everything here at My Weekly Mixtape.
But this week, I don't have a guest. But what
I do have in front of me is a list of different
episode ideas that you, the mixtapers, have sent
in to me via email over at myweeklymixtape at
gmail .com, as well as on all of the social media
sites at... My Weekly Mixtape. You know I'm on
all of them. Come find me. Come connect. It's
great to hear from you, as well as the fine folks
over on the My Weekly Mixtape Patreon, which
is patreon .com forward slash My Weekly Mixtape.
So I've taken all of their answers to a simple
request. Send me in names of playlists. End of
story. They could be anything. They could be
something serious. They could be genres. They
could be topics. They could be something completely
ridiculous. They could be something heartfelt
and sincere. Send in your playlist names. And
you guys did that and then some. I have well
over a year's worth of playlist topics loaded
into an online randomizer. And what I'm going
to do tonight. is click spin on that randomizer
and whatever playlist comes up, I am going to
come up with a 10 song playlist based on that
title on the spot. I have no notes in front of
me. I am literally staring at a blank screen.
talking into a microphone and hoping for the
best. This could turn out to be a really fun
exercise or it can go into the other direction
and turn out to be a complete train wreck. But
you're going to be there listening with me and
hopefully enjoying this every bit of the way
as I hope to be. So with that out of the way,
I am so excited to be back at my weekly mixtape
doing what I love again. Let's waste no more
time with the pleasantries and get right into
this. I am going to click spin on this randomizer
and see what comes up. Of course, this is the
first time I'm doing this. So, of course, it's
going to be something that is insanely ridiculous.
So I first want to thank Matt Kennedy, my friend
over at the X Radio X podcast, who was a part
of the punk rock cover songs episode on season
one of the show. He sent in a six degrees of
Kevin Bacon. Now, you might be wondering, what
does he mean by that? He goes on to explain.
Each song has to share an artist who performed
on it, but are not otherwise from the same band
or artist. Dude, this is diabolical. This is
evil on so many levels, and I applaud you for
it. You are going to turn this into a train wreck
from day one. This might be a one and done season
two of my weekly mixtape, but I am going to give
this a try. With that being said. Six degrees
of Kevin Bacon stems from the movies. And in
the movies, there are always dozens upon dozens
of actors in the movies. So it's very easy to
take six movies and work your way through them
to get to Kevin Bacon. But we're talking about
music here. And bands don't have dozens and dozens
and dozens of musicians in them, unless you're
talking about maybe the early days of Rusted
Root, or some of the Motown bands, or I don't
know, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. But yeah, this
isn't a movie here. These are bands. So 10 songs,
I think I'm being set up for failure. Plus, it's
not 10 degrees of Kevin Bacon, it's 6. So what
I'm going to do is I'm going to take your playlist
idea and I'm going to become literal Brian here.
I am going to take it and do it literally. I
am going to do the ultimate six degrees of Kevin
Bacon musical playlist, just like in the movies,
only this time through music. Now, realistically,
I wouldn't even know where to begin. to get to
the Bacon Brothers. I don't even know if the
Bacon Brothers have had any guest musicians on
their albums. I am not well -versed in the Bacon
Brothers catalog. I know their music. I'm familiar
with their music. I've heard their music, but
I don't know all the band members and who they've
done stuff with. So Matt, what I'm going to do
with your topic is I'm going to reverse engineer
this. Because at the end of the day, yes, you
could do a six degrees of Kevin Bacon playlist
and end up on any artist. You can end up on a
Billy Joel. You can end up on a Tom Petty. And
that's all well and good. But you said Kevin
Bacon. So I want to end up on Kevin Bacon. However,
I don't see any universe that I'm going to be
able to sit here and talk my way through six
songs to get to Kevin Bacon. So I'm going to
reverse engineer it. And like I said, I have
no idea who's worked with the Bacon Brothers.
However, I do know this. Earlier this year, there
was a television series, The Bondsman, Helen
Back, and Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Nettles worked
together on it. So right there, I do have a collaboration
with a musical artist that I am familiar with.
Jennifer Nettles is from Sugarland. So I am a
big country fan. So this is a pretty easy place
for me to start. So what I'm going to do is I'm
going to start from the end of the playlist and
work my way back to the front. Six songs in reverse.
And then I'll read it as if I was actually clever
enough to go from the first song. to the 6th.
Now, I have heard the Bondsman Hell and Back
soundtrack, but pretty much like every TV show
and movie out there, I haven't seen it. However,
it's a country album, and it's Jennifer Nettles,
so of course I listened to it. It's got a lot
of great songs on it. I'll be perfectly honest,
my favorite song when I'm looking at it on Spotify
is the least popular song on the album. Our Highway
was a single. And it was pretty popular this
summer. But I'm going to go with something as
kind of a nod to you, Matt, for coming up with
this idea. Special kind of crazy. It is my favorite
song on the Bondsman soundtrack. And the song
just kind of kicks all sorts of ass. Their voices
work really well together. And to be honest,
you have to be a special kind of crazy to come
up with this idea. And I have to be a special
kind of crazy to try to attempt to make this
work. So as far as I'm concerned, it's kind of
poetic, it's fitting, and this is the way I'm
going to do it. So my first song, which is actually
the last song, so I'm working backwards here,
so this is going to be the last song on the playlist,
is Special Kind of Crazy by Jennifer Nettles
featuring Kevin Bacon. And God, I wish there
was a way I could have gotten here from track
one to this song, but if I don't reverse engineer
this, this is just never going to happen. So,
Jennifer Nettles, where do I go with her? That
one is actually really easy. Because the Bondsman
has that country sound to it, and she is a country
artist, the immediate thing that comes to mind
is the duet she did back in 2005 with Bon Jovi
on the Have a Nice Day album, Who Says You Can't
Go Home. It's the song that really broke Bon
Jovi. from the rock world into the country world.
And some people, I don't know, some people kind
of have a disdain for this song for that reason.
I'm not going to lie. Being a huge country fan,
I love it. I think it works. I love both the
solo Bon Jovi version as well as the version
with Jennifer Nettles. I think their harmonies
work really well on the track. I think the song
is ridiculously catchy. It was certainly a hit.
It reached the Billboard Hot 100, obviously a
lot more than the Jennifer Nettles and Kevin
Bacon collaborations did, but it gets me from
six to five in this strange countdown. And somehow
I've managed to keep it both in the six degree
of Kevin Bacon universe, as well as a serviceable
playlist universe, given the fact that that country
sound has kind of morphed from the two Jennifer
Nettles songs. So there you have, Bon Jovi, which
opens the door for me a little bit because obviously
you've got Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, even
the other members. They've all worked with different
musicians. So I'm not kind of tied into just
a singular artist. They've gone in different
directions. So that does help me here because
I can go back to the Blaze of Glory soundtrack
that Jon Bon Jovi did and maybe work some Jeff
Beck into the mix because he played on that album.
Or I can go super obvious because Bon Jovi just
released that legendary edition of their 2024
album Forever that features everybody from Jelly
Roll to Jason Isbell to The War and the Treaty
to Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Laney Wilson,
Marcus King, Avril Lavigne, Bruce Springsteen.
I mean, everybody's on that friggin album. So
that would make it real easy. However. Thinking
back to the My Weekly Mixtape catalog, I had
Desmond Child on for two episodes and we talked
a ton of Bon Jovi. And in that, we talked about
the song that Bon Jovi wrote and performed with
Cher on her self -titled album back in 1987.
And the song was the second single from that
album, We All Sleep Alone, the follow -up to
I Found Someone. The song was written by Desmond,
Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora, but the performance
itself on the album pretty much features all
of Bon Jovi because David Bryan's on there, Alex
John Sutch, Tico Torres, and Jon even sings some
background vocals on it. So right then and there,
there's my next place to go. So this is now track
four, Working Our Way Back. We had Kevin Bacon
with Jennifer Nettles. We had Jennifer Nettles
with Bon Jovi. And now we have Bon Jovi with
Cher on the We All Sleep Alone single. And I'm
not going to lie. I actually really love that
Cher album. It's probably my favorite by her.
I know it's got that 80s rock sound to it. I
found someone. I mean, it's got Desmond Child
written all over it. And it works for me. Now,
if this song isn't ringing a bell for you, or
if any of these songs aren't ringing a bell for
you, let me remind you, you can hear all the
songs that I'm talking about in this episode
over on the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com.
Now, Cher is an artist who's worked with, obviously,
a lot of people. Sonny Bono, you know, she's
done live stuff with Elton John and more modern
stuff with Miley Cyrus. I'm not going to lie,
the first place my mind went... was i got you
babe but not the sunny and share version i went
to the beavis and butthead version from the beavis
and butthead experience cd from the 90s however
how do you come out of beavis and butthead the
only other song on there is the one that's actually
the here's where i go really nerd on all of you
the bonus track after i got you babe is the come
to butthead reprise that features positive k
And I don't know a ton about Positive K's music,
although I did post on social media recently
because a lot of people don't know this. And
this is a total aside here that has nothing to
do with this episode. But maybe it'll blow your
mind. The woman in Positive K's I Got a Man is
actually just Positive K's voice. pitch bent
up to sound like a female Allah, the way the
chipmunks did it way back in the day. So if you
didn't know that there's your fun fact for now,
but coming out of positive K I'd be going down
a hip hop road coming from country. And the only
positive K collaboration that I can even think
of off the top of my head is an MC light song
that even the name escapes me right now. So I'm
not going to go down the Beavis and butthead
route, but for share, I'm going to go way, way
back. And it does include Sonny Bono because
he's a part of this too. Because on the Ronettes
Be My Baby, Cher and Sonny Bono are singing backup
vocals. So there we go from Cher being the lead
to Cher being the featured artist. taking us
down to number three in this walk down of six
degrees of Kevin Bacon in reverse. So what else
needs to be said about Be My Baby? It's an absolute
classic song by the Ronettes. Phil Spector doing
his thing. Jay Sweet and I talk a lot about Spector,
the wall of sound on some of the oldies episodes
that we've done in season one. I mean, the song
is included on endless best of lists, top song
lists. And if somebody with the musical prowess
of Brian Wilson considers the song to be his
favorite song of all time, I think that's pretty
much all that there needs to be said about the
run ads be my baby. And selfishly, what's also
really nice about choosing this song is the fact
that I can kind of cheat. Because, yes, Be My
Baby is one song. But when the lead singer goes
and interpolates that song for somebody else,
I think it counts. And one of my favorite songs
of all time is Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight.
That features the interpolation of Be My Baby
with not a sample, but Ronnie Spector. singing
as a featured artist. It was uncredited, but
she sang on that track. That was not a sample.
So as far as I'm concerned, it counts. And I'm
making up the rules as I go along here, like
I always do. So coming out of the Ron Ants Be
My Baby is the interpolation of Be My Baby taking
us into Take Me Home Tonight by Eddie Money in
that number two slot. Now, Eddie Money is not
somebody that I think of that has a ton of guest
spots. I love his music, though, man. Shaken,
Walk on Water, Two Tickets to Paradise. I love
Eddie Money. I listened to a lot of Eddie Money
growing up with my father. That was part of our
Friday night music nights. But also part of our
Friday night music nights came the random knowledge
that would come out of my dad every now and then
when a song would come on. And one of his favorite
songs was by Kenny Loggins. Now, where do Kenny
Loggins and Eddie Money come together? Believe
it or not, and I don't know, again, kind of like
the positive K thing, I don't know how many people
know this, but this is just one of the many worthless
pieces of music knowledge I have stuck in the
back of my head. Eddie Money sings backup vocals
on Kenny Loggins' I'm Alright theme from Caddyshack.
Yes, he sings background vocals as well as some
lead vocals during the breakdown. The whole ma
-ma -ma -ma -ma -man, it makes me feel good.
That's Eddie Money. And Eddie Money aside, this
is always going to rank as one of my favorite
Kenny Loggins songs. And I know there's a lot
of them. I could do an episode of my weekly mixtape
on Kenny Loggins just between. His solo stuff
as well as Loggins and Messina. And hell, I even
love the theme from Caddyshack too. Nobody's
Fool. That song kicks ass. But I'm Alright holds
kind of a real special place in my heart because
for years and years and years, and I mean, God,
well over a decade, my father had that as his
ringtone. And my girls know that song every time
it comes on. they know Papa Joe is getting a
phone call. And God, every time I hear it now,
it does bring a little bit of a smile to my face,
but it's also a little bittersweet because I
think that's him calling me to say hi. So when
I hear that song now, it's got an extra layer
of something special to me, but I'm all right.
Beyond that, it's just such a fun, fantastic
song. And believe it or not, musically, fits
into this backwards six degrees of Kevin Bacon
in kind of an interesting way. So there you have
it. That is the first song in this backwards
musical six degrees of Kevin Bacon. So taking
this backwards to the front, I had Jennifer Nettles
featuring Kevin Bacon, special kind of crazy.
Bon Jovi featuring Jennifer Nettles, who said
you can't go home. Cher featuring pretty much
all of Bon Jovi, We All Sleep Alone. The Ronettes
featuring Cher doing Be My Baby. Then Eddie Money
featuring Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes doing
Take Me Home Tonight. And then Kenny Loggins
featuring Eddie Money, I'm Alright. But in the
spirit of Six Degrees. of Kevin Bacon, let's
pretend the last nearly 20 minutes of my weekly
mixtape episode didn't happen. And if I was the
true musical genius that I hope and aspire to
be one day, I would have just started by saying,
let's go with Kenny Loggins and go the Yacht
Rock route. And let's go with Kenny Loggins'
I'm Alright theme from Caddyshack. And then I
would drop the Eddie Money knowledge. And then
from Eddie Money, we'd go into Take Me Home Tonight
featuring Ronnie Spector. And then you'd take
Ronnie Spector and go over to the Ronettes and
do Be My Baby and then drop that Cher bomb that
maybe not everybody knows. Even though, yes,
it's interpolation. It's a little bit of a gray
area. You know, whatever. I'm going with it.
Then you go. From Cher being as a part of Be
My Baby as a background vocalist into her self
-titled album featuring Richie Sambora, Jon Bon
Jovi, and the rest of the band on We All Sleep
Alone. Thank you, Desmond Child, for that interview
to give me that knowledge. Then you go from Bon
Jovi being the featured artist to Bon Jovi being
the main artist with Who Said You Can't Go Home
bringing Jennifer Nettles into the mix. with
Kevin Bacon doing special kind of crazy from
this year's The Bondsman Hell and Back soundtrack,
which is now streaming on Amazon. And I should
probably watch it because I've actually heard
the entire soundtrack a couple of times. I really
like it. Have not seen the show, which if you
ever listen to TuneStyles or Playlist Wars or
my weekly mixtape, really shouldn't surprise
any of you out there because. I can't even begin
to count the number of soundtracks that I own
and have heard but have never seen the movie.
Probably the most egregious one being Judgment
Night because that's one of my favorite soundtracks
of the 90s. Never saw the movie. Loved the soundtrack
front to back. But I digress. Matt of X Radio
X, there is your Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon playlist
here on my weekly mixtape. Thank you so much
for chiming in with that one. And thank you for
making this first episode of the random playlist
attempt. One for the ages. I honestly am still,
I'm pretty damn proud of myself for coming up
with this one. This is pretty cool. I'm excited
about it. And I hope I made you guys smile with
some of those song picks there. What would you
have done differently? Is there a way that you
would have gotten to a Kevin Bacon collaboration?
Musically through six degrees of separation,
because if there are other routes, because Matt
did say to me on Twitter that if I stayed somewhere
between Steve Lukather and Michael McDonald,
I could do okay with this. And somehow I avoided
both of them. So I would love to hear Matt from
you or anybody else, how you would get. to Kevin
Bacon through six songs. I think this was a lot
of fun. Thank you for chiming in with it. Thank
you for being a friend of the podcast. If you
haven't heard X Radio X, the music podcast, be
sure to check them out as well. Matt's been on
this show. We've also worked together on Playlist
Wars. I'm still waiting to guest over there,
guys. So just let me know when. I am game. I
would love to come on and talk music with you
guys, especially going down a... Covers Rabbit
Hole. You guys do some really fun cover songs
episodes over there. Keep up the great work.
And thank you so much for that incredibly fun
kickoff to this new era of my weekly mixtape.
Now, if you're out there listening and you have
playlist ideas that you want to send my way,
I am all ears and eyes. Hit me up. myweeklymixtape
at gmail .com or on any of the social media platforms
at myweeklymixtape. If you don't know the songs
that I've talked about in tonight's episode,
head over to the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com. I'm embedding a playlist so you can hear
the ultimate six degrees of Kevin Bacon musical
playlist in its entirety. It's only six songs,
but I'd love to hear what you guys think of it
and how you would get there differently. That's
what this conversation is all about. I thank
you all for listening to this episode. If you
like what you're hearing, you could support the
show over on Patreon at patreon .com forward
slash my weekly mixtape. Join the mixtaper community
there. I would love to have you. It's been an
absolute pleasure sitting behind this mic for
the first time. I'm sure you've heard my excitement
and joy throughout this episode, and I hope you've
gotten the same excitement and joy listening.
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degrees of Kevin Bacon tunes.