Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Joining me tonight as guest curator is David
Rosen, host of the Piecing It Together podcast.
David, thank you so much for joining me on My
Weekly Mixtape. Yeah, thanks so much for having
me. I am really looking forward to this. I love
making myself a mixtape, and I think we got something
really cool here. Well, then let me start by
asking you my first -timers question, which is,
what does the word mixtape mean to you? Yeah,
you know, back in the day, of course, it meant
something. tangible and uh you know mix tapes
or mix cds even uh a little bit later on nowadays
i think it's kind of interchangeable with playlists
i mean i don't know about you but uh i'm kind
of lazy at this stage of my life and so uh yeah
they've made it very easy for us and uh you know
as a musician myself not exactly a big fan of
the streaming services but uh you know it certainly
makes it easier to put together a mix like this
and basically just picking songs that either
you love or that fit together, depending on what
kind of a mix that you want to make. Well, the
mix that we're going to make tonight is another
songs about episode. And that kind of episode
is where David and I chose a random object and
we craft a playlist dedicated to that object.
And tonight that object is guitars. So David,
what were you looking for in the songs you brought
to the discussion this evening? Yeah, I think.
For me, it was specifically like celebrating
the guitar. Like, I think that that was kind
of my entry point. And yeah, there's a lot of
different ways to do this because I know when
you first came to me, it was like specifically
song about a guitar. But then as soon as I started
making my list, and there's some certainly that
are about a guitar, but they started just being
about like, you know, the love of playing guitar,
the love of, you know, your guitar and what a
guitar can do for you and what you could put
out into the world. with a guitar so it really
became more about like celebrating guitars within
the actual song and the songwriting and the lyrics
and that was very much where I was going with
my pick of songs sometimes where the guitar is
used as an object within the storytelling of
the song sometimes it's the actual guitar that
is the piece of the song's affection if you will
or it's about the love of the instrument in general
Yeah, absolutely. So let's get down to business
because tonight, as I mentioned at the top of
the show, David and I are curating a songs about
guitars mixtape, and we're going to use the old
cassette deck approach. David, as my special
guest, will begin side A with his first song
choice, and then I'll add a song that I feel
best follows up that choice. We'll then flip
-flop choosing songs until we've mapped out 10
songs for side A. We'll then give our mixtape
a proverbial flip and we'll map outside, be only
this time I'll kick things off with David choosing
second. Our overall goal for this episode is
to craft the best songs about guitars mixtape
possible through only 20 songs. At the end of
the show, you can take our conversation to the
next level by visiting the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com to give our final mixtape a listen. via
the embedded playlist. And if you like what you're
hearing on the show, you can help me out by either
telling a friend, leaving the show a five -star
review wherever you're tuning in, or becoming
a Patreon mixtaper at patreon .com forward slash
myweeklymixtape. There you can enjoy ad -free
episodes of the show, become a future guest,
and so much more, such as chiming in on the weekly
episode topics, which several of the mixtapers
have done tonight. And I'd like to shout out
a couple. of those suggestions. Tom Hutchinson
chimed in with While My Guitar Gently Weeps,
saying it's his favorite Beatles song. However,
the version by Tom Petty, Prince and Jeff Lynne
for the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an
incredible cover and amazes him. It amazes me
as well. Chad LaMassa echoed Tom 100%. as he
was going to chime in with both of those versions
as well, but instead he added Lucille by B .B.
King. Sherry Thomas chimed in with Guitar by
Prince. Philip Bergman chimed in with Guitar
Man by Jerry Reed, Guitar Boogie Shuffle by The
Virtues, Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar by
Dwayne Eddy, and Yakety Axe by Chet Atkins. And
Seeker chimed in with Axe Grinder by the Hoodoo
Gurus, an Aussie psychedelic rock band, saying
they also have a 1985 album titled Mars Needs
Guitars. So a two for one there. I could dig
it. Once again, if you'd like to. join the Patreon
mixtaper family and chime in for future episodes,
you could do so as well at patreon .com forward
slash my weekly mixtape. And David, with that,
I'm officially going to press the record button
on our mixtape and pass the mic to you. Which
O2 or song about guitars are you using to kick
off tonight's playlist? This is the first song
that I thought of when you came to me with this
concept. And it is Tom Petty's Into the Great
Wide Open from the album Into the Great Wide
Open in 1991. This is a song about just going
out there into the world with your guitar and
crafting a path for yourself. And of course,
you know, starting out into a world of music.
And really when it comes to singing about a guitar,
like you have to be a musician who is like kind
of speaking to the experience that you had. taking
that leap basically and i mean there's kind of
no better song about that than this one from
tom petty and tom petty is just amazing and i
kind of think belongs on almost any mixtape well
considering he's my favorite artist of all time
i'm never going to argue that 1991's into the
great wide open is one of my favorite tom petty
albums i absolutely love the entire album it's
up there with wildflowers full moon fever and
dan the torpedoes for me but This is Tom Petty
at some of the storytelling best. He's done it
throughout his entire career. You think about
songs like The Last DJ. This is just an extension
of that. Surprisingly, though, this song was
only played live by Tom Petty and Tom Petty and
the Heartbreakers 134 times, according to setlist
.fm. And to put that into some perspective. Learning
to Fly has been played over 500 times live. So
this is kind of, even though it was a big hit,
it's kind of a deeper live cut for the band.
And obviously everybody remembers the smash hit
video on MTV with Johnny Depp as the Eddie character.
The only thing that truly bothers me about this
video and this song is that the video version
is longer. And you get some tasty Ben Montench
moments as well as some beautiful Mike Campbell
guitar licks that are missing from the original
studio version. So I'm hoping that Tom Petty
Estate at some point releases the video version
of this song because it's truly complete in that
version as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, that would
be great. I would love to get that extended video
cut at some point because, yeah. Any excuse to
get some of that extra musicianship from that
band, I'm down for that. Well, following up Tom
Petty, I mean, one of the first songs I thought
of when we talked about songs about guitars,
it's like, what's one of the first guitars you
think about when you think about guitars? And
for me, that would be B .B. King's Lucille. So
shout out to Patreon mixtaper, Chad LaMassa,
because he chimed in with this one. I am lockstep
with you. 1968 Lucille. And I'm going to go with
the title track. I mean, to hear the story of
why one of the most legendary guitars came to
be, who doesn't want to hear that? And here,
sure. Very much like Tom Petty in, into the great
wide open. This is BB King in storytelling form.
Only. Through this song, he's pretty much talking
to you as the song is playing. There's a lot
less of a melody to what he's saying, more than
a cadence and a rhythm as he's kind of giving
this poem about Lucille. And I don't want to
offer too much commentary on the story because.
the story of the guitar kind of lies the magic.
And if you've never heard it before, I don't
want to spoil that, especially coming from somebody
who hosts a movie podcast. I think you respect
to go spoiler free and it's really hard to spoil
a song. Yeah. But in this instance, when there's
a story in the song, that's where you can spoil
it. And I don't want to do that. However, I have
a personal Lucille story. In my early days in
radio, I worked in a radio network in New York
City, and I was given a stack of tapes to bring
to one of the studios. And as I'm carrying this
stack, it kind of covers right up to about the
tip of my nose, right underneath my eyeballs,
holding about maybe a dozen or so tapes. And
my boss is talking to me, so I'm stepping backwards
in the hallway slowly, hearing what she has to
say. And kind of working my way to get the tapes
to the studio. And as she's talking, I feel this
hand hit my right shoulder. And I hear, whoa,
whoa, whoa, young man. And I'm like, oh God.
And I kind of stopped short and I turn around
and it's BB King holding Lucille. Wow. I'm holding
these tapes. So I'm kind of like looking through
the top of the, so I kind of lower them as much
as I can. And my, my jaw's on the ground because
here's this legendary blues musician holding.
One of the most iconic guitars. And I said, Mr.
King, I am so, so sorry, sir. I am just, he's
like, you are doing your job, young man. However,
if you knock me down, I'll just get right back
up. But Lucille doesn't know how to take a fall
very well. And I was like, well, right. I backed
up and I'm like, after you, Mr. King. And he
walked by and he said, have a good day, young
man. And he went off into another studio. But
that was my moment and my brush with greatness.
And I felt like that was the perfect way for
me to start my contribution to guitars tonight.
Amazing. Amazing. I love it. Is Lucille, where
is Lucille now? Do we know that? I'm guessing
in some museum or something. The actual guitar.
I'm not sure. Yeah, I wonder. It's got to be
somewhere. I think everybody would want to see
that because that is, like you said, it's just
legendary. And it's one of the most important
guitar players of all time, his cherished guitar.
So it's got to be. Well, I hate to say it, but
because as we're talking, obviously we have the
internet. It's sold at a U .S. auction for $280
,000 back in 2019. Hopefully it's got a good
home. Hopefully they're going to do something
good with it. I hope so, too. But obviously you
can get the replicas out there. So at least there's
that. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Well,
we've got Tom Petty, my favorite artist of all
time. Lucille, one of my favorite guitars of
all time. Where do we go from here? We have to
go to a guitar pick. with the Tenacious D song,
The Pick of Destiny, from the soundtrack to the
album, The Pick of Destiny from 2006, the film.
And this is, honestly, when this song came out,
I was, I want to say, I was 25 at the time, and
it was probably the coolest song I'd ever heard
in my life at that moment. It's just Jack Black
being purely ridiculous and, of course, doing
one of these kinds of movie plot recap songs
where he's just kind of talking about like the
events of the movie itself. And it is just the
coolest, just most awesome riff. And we love
Jack Black as a singer as well. And just what
he brings to that song is incredible. But Cage
is just awesome on it. And yeah, singing about
basically this pick that was chipped off of The
Devil's Tooth, which is, of course, a play on
many of these classical blues tales. But it is
such a fun movie, such a ridiculous movie for
anyone who's a musician or into guitars. And
it is an awesome song. And I think it deserves
a place on here. Wow. I did not expect that coming
out of Lucille, but because he who is sleazy
is easy to please. I will take that pick any
day of the week. What a fun kind of cult comedy
classic. Oh yeah, absolutely. And if you're a
musician, it steps that up even higher. Definitely.
All right. I wasn't expecting to go there and
you went to something that it's kind of comedic,
the song. So this gives me an open door to put
in a song that I didn't know how I would ever
be able to include it in this list. Cause this
song is a little bit of an outlier. It's a punk
song, but it's a tongue in cheek punk song. And
there's a little bit of a comedic aspect to it.
But now that you've introduced comedy to the
mix, I easily know what I'm going with here from
1988 bills above. I am going to go with the dead
milk men's the guitar song. Now, this is the
album that most people will be familiar with
the name The Dead Milkman because of Punk Rock
Girl. It was a video staple on MTV. But four
songs later on the album is this masterpiece
of an ode to the guitar. And the song, like The
Pick of Destiny, doesn't take itself very seriously
at all. Sure. Repeating what's that sound coming
out of the hole in the wood at points just screaming
it. Over this tranquil, almost acoustic music
bed. It is a real goofy song, but every time
I'm playing the guitar and I'm kind of warming
up and tuning it, sometimes I will go, hey, what's
that sound? Coming out of the hole in the wood.
Like, it's just, it's a fun song and I had an
excuse to use it now. Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad
that you brought this one up because this is
a very fun, ridiculous song. It also reminds
me so much of just like walking around a record
store and just kind of like browsing vinyl with
my family. We have a record store here in Las
Vegas, Wax Tracks Records. And every time I'm
in a record store, you hear like these weird
little goofy songs like this. And this just totally
reminds me of that kind of song that you would
hear in that kind of setting. And it's a really
fun one. Yeah, the Dead Milkmen are one of the
more underrated punk rock groups based out of
Philadelphia. If anybody wants to go down a really
fun, sometimes not too serious, sometimes quirky,
and sometimes even offensive, depending on who
you are, rabbit hole, check out the Dead Milkmen.
But now, David, I'm throwing it back to you.
We've done a pair of really serious songs, followed
up by a pair of not so serious, probably comedic
songs. So where do we go from here? I guess we'll
go heartfelt because I'm bringing up Olivia Rodrigo,
a new artist, and her song Scared of My Guitar.
It's from the expanded, spilled edition of her
album Guts from 2023, which. This she is one
of my favorite like current artists right now.
I think she's doing like really, really great
stuff. She's got that kind of heart on her sleeve
kind of emotional thing that a lot of these kinds
of artists, these pop singers have nowadays,
but mixed with like a real serious musicianship.
And this is a song about how she's scared of
her guitar because. She knows that even though
she can lie to her boyfriend, who is right there
in the room with her, she can't lie to the guitar
while she's writing a song. And it's going to
get the truth out of her no matter what. And
it's a really clever song. You know, it's tough
nowadays to find new artists that you, like,
really connect with. And it's really exciting
when one comes along who is just so damn good.
And this is a fantastic album. And the regular
version of Guts was great. This extended version
added four more songs, and they're all really,
really good, too, this being one of them. and
uh yeah it's probably the newest song that we're
gonna have on this list i would encourage people
to check it out who you know maybe are like oh
it's not rock and roll i'm not gonna go check
out olivia rodrigo but i think you'll be surprised
if you check out her album you'll really like
it yeah my oldest is a big fan of olivia rodrigo
and i understand why i'm gonna give a hot take
here this might be my favorite olivia rodrigo
song period there's such a poetic beauty to the
song i mean the lyric so why is there a pit in
my gut in the shape of you which when you're
sitting there picturing her holding the guitar
it's a very visual description she's holding
the guitar in her gut but she's actually talking
about the pit of her gut like in her soul sure
but yeah so it's literal and figurative simultaneously
That adds an immediate punch to the opening.
The song's beautiful. And it's quite the pivot
from the Dead Milkman. But I like it. I like
it a lot. Absolutely. Absolutely. You got to
go around. That's part of what makes a good mixtape,
right? Yeah. So I'm going to stay in this kind
of serious mode here and go with another lyric
that really hits me from another female artist
who sadly, unfortunately, is no longer with us.
And the lyric I'm going with is, and she plays
along while I sing out my blues. And I'm going
to go with Amy Winehouse's Cherry. Now, that
was originally on her Frank album as a studio
cut. However, it's almost relegated to this kind
of like in -betweener track because on streaming,
it's just kind of slash. tacked onto the end
of you sent me flying. So I'm actually going
to go with the 2007 version. That's live from
shepherd's bush on the album. I told you I was
trouble live in London because the studio version
is only 90 seconds long. It's beautiful, but
it feels brief. It feels like a transitional
piece on that album. This live version opens
it up to a nice three minute and change song.
And the guitar solo adds this dynamic tension
because it feels as if almost the guitar is singing
back to her saying, I love you too, but through
the notes being played. So it's a very well -crafted
story that's being told. And I mean, at the end
of the day, God, Amy Winehouse's voice is just,
it's hypnotizing. What a beautiful song. What
a beautiful song and what a beautiful voice and
just gut -wrenching that we don't have anything
new from her. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, it's
a solid song. I had actually never heard this
song when you brought it up to me. And it's a
very good song. And it's interesting, like bringing
up a song like this along with something like
B .B. King's Lucille, which, you know, Amy Winehouse
being. Someone who, you know, her whole vibe
is like this whole retro thing and bringing back
these styles that weren't really in vogue at
the time when she came out. And she kind of brought
everybody along with her into celebrating all
this stuff. And I feel like just bringing back
the celebration of the guitar and a song like
a BB King Lucille is something that was like
clearly on her mind when she wrote this. You
don't think of Amy Winehouse as the guitarist
because she was always the front woman on the
stage, but she does play. And that part of it
is where the songwriting aspect of her came out.
But she's kind of telling the story of how she
presents her stories in music. And I think it's
just a. Perfect follow up to Olivia Rodrigo,
because they're both telling similar stories
about how the guitar is kind of part of their
voice. And I feel like lyrically, these two flow
very nicely back to back. Absolutely. All right.
Well, following that up, we are up to track seven.
What do you got? Well, actually, perfect that
it goes after that Amy Winehouse Cherry song,
because I was just saying about how Cherry was
probably inspired by Lucille. This one is from
one of my favorite artists, Ryan Adams, and it's
from his 2005 album Cold Roses. It's called Rosebud,
and it is inspired by Jerry Garcia's guitar,
Rosebud, which I love the idea of, you know,
an artist singing about their influences, basically.
And this is a song about like, you know, it's
kind of just like. almost a little silly ish
just like about like when i pick up my guitar
i don't really know what to sing or what to play
but i think about rosebud i think about jerry
garcia's guitar and i just start trying to play
like that basically and that's where the song
comes from and a lot of people would compare
that kind of cold roses era of ryan adams his
style and genre changes from album to album after
his like 20 something albums over the years but
that one is very grateful dead style And so it's
pretty obvious where his influence was at that
very moment. And I just think it's a fantastic
song. It's kind of a deep cut on the album, but
I wanted to include it here. I think you summed
up the track perfectly. You could hear the love
of the dead coming through this song and throughout
the whole album. But there's a production style
on this album that to me feels like. a tip of
the cap from Ryan Adams to Neil Young's harvest.
If you listen to Rosebud up against the song,
like out on the weekend or heart of gold, there's
this tone that kind of sits over the production
that it feels like they're from the same era.
And I think that, and again, I'm guessing, but
from listening to the lyrics on the album and
where Ryan Adams was coming from. I kind of get
the vibe that he was trying to make it sound
like a seventies era dead album, which does have
the same output and sound. If you think about
some of the acoustic songs on working man's dead
to Neil Young's harvest, there's like kind of
this sound of that era and it comes through shining
in this one. Absolutely. So following that up,
I think I know what I'm going to do. I am going
to go a lot newer with a song that came out in
the last now four years. And I remember during
COVID, there was not much new going on, but there
was a documentary that Bruce Springsteen put
out about his new album at the time, Letter to
You. And to me, that was like, oh, thank God,
something to watch that's like musical and fun.
And there's a part of that documentary that focuses
on this one song, House of a Thousand Guitars.
And that part to me was a very powerful part
of the documentary. The song is fantastic. It
feels like a classic Bruce Springsteen in the
E Street Band song. And Bruce Springsteen had
talked about this song to the Irish Times. And
I want to read this quote here because I think
it's kind of sums it up better than I could.
House of 1000 Guitars attempts to define the
world that I attempted to create with my audience
and my listeners from the beginning. It's a world
of value, of code, of honor, fun, and joy. And
that's a world I create when I walk on stage
at night and my audience walks through the door.
We live in that world for two or three hours,
and then we leave and take that world with us
and hope that it sustains us. for as long as
it can. The house of a thousand guitars is the
house we built. And within this house, these
things matter. That's why I picked the song.
Like, I mean, that's the love of music and the
love of the instrument and how it brings the
crowd and the fans and the musician and the artists
together. And to me, this song kind of celebrates
that. And I also want to say, if you're a Bruce
Springsteen fan, episode 53, there's the ultimate
Bruce Springsteen playlist with Jesse Jackson,
host of the Set Lusting Bruce podcast, who's
another proud member of the Pantheon podcast
family. I am not going to spoil, like the movie
thing I said, I'm not going to spoil if House
of a Thousand Guitars made the list, but it's
definitely in my bank of songs that I'm bringing
to the table. So if you like Bruce, you want
to go back. and check that one out. But following
up Ryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen's House of 1000
Guitars. I actually almost picked this song.
This is one on my mind, but I didn't. But I love
that quote that you brought up. And not very
surprising that Bruce Springsteen knows how to
articulate his love of music and of bringing
the crowd together and of guitars. He knows how
to kind of tell a story and how to celebrate
music. So, yeah, that's a great quote, though.
And yeah, Set Lusting Bruce, great podcast. One
of the first podcasts I ever guested on. Awesome.
Awesome. Very cool. Well, coming out, we've each
got one song left on side A. So what is your
last contribution for track nine? So I wanted
to mix things up a little bit and I got a hip
hop song in here. I've got the Fugees killing
me softly from 1996 is the score. When I first
was thinking about this one, I was like, maybe
I should go back to Roberta Flack. But then I
was like, actually, that was a cover, too. So,
you know what? Screw it. I'm just going to go
with the Fugees. And it's a it's a great song.
And it's, you know, obviously with the. You know,
strumming my pain with his finger line, you know,
fits in with our whole mixtape here. And, you
know, it is about somebody who is performing
music and how that makes somebody feel. And so
I think it fits well enough. And it's just a
great track and was a huge hit and deservedly
so. And it's always great when you hear this
song pop on. I'm always down to listen to this
one. I'm glad that you mentioned it was a cover
of Roberta Flack. But like you said, wait. That's
a cover. Most people don't realize that the song
was originally recorded by Lori Lieberman in
1972. But Roberta Flax was the first one that
charted and became that massive hit that it was.
But there's this interesting fact. It did not
appear on the Billboard U .S. Hot 100 because
it was never officially released as a commercial
single. which was a rule at that time. However,
it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100
airplay chart and number one on the Hot R &B
airplay chart. If you're into that whole wait,
that's a cover song kind of movement, episode
33 of the show, we do a whole dive into songs
that people don't know if they're, wait, wait,
that's a cover? That's a whole episode dedicated
to that. This year, there's been a lot of talk
about Lauryn Hill. Because the Miseducation of
Lauryn Hill topped Apple Music's 100 Best Albums
list. And I'll just say this. One, Miseducation
is an absolute masterpiece. A brilliant work
of art. And I absolutely love the album. But
lists like the 100 Best Albums are... Kind of
hard to quantify because the fact of the matter
is we're not talking factual things here. How
many records have been sold? How many streams
has happened? That's kind of putting together
a list based on fact. So here we're talking about
a collective group of people's opinions to kind
of put the list together. So while I love miseducation.
I think John Coltrane's A Love Supreme should
have at least been in contention for the top
spot and it didn't come anywhere near it. So
the one thing I'll say about this list, I love
that it brings up dialogue and musical conversations.
So if that's the purpose for it, then so be it.
It's creating musical conversations, but I'd
love to kind of hear more about how that list
was really compiled because as much as I love
the album, I question. why how where yeah sure
absolutely it's impossible and this comes up
all the time in the world of movies too it's
just trying to rank the definitive of all time
list it's just it's hard enough to make a list
of 10 songs about guitars that we want to uh
talk about yeah yeah well closing out side a
i wanted to just go with one that is an obvious
home run the song that a lot of people probably
have on their mind tonight an obvious pick one
of the biggest rock songs of all time released
as a single in 1958 and it was credited as the
first rock and roll hit about rock and roll stardom
we're going to go with the legendary chuck berry
And Johnny be good. In 2021, it ranked 33 on
Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all time,
as well as number one on their 100 greatest guitar
songs of all time. It also is included in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 songs that shaped
rock and roll. And to think if it wasn't for
Chuck's cousin, Marvin Berry and the Starlighters
calling Chuck during some. High school dance.
He may never have been inspired to write this
masterpiece. We were just talking about those,
you know, the rankings, the top 100 albums of
all time or whatever. Like, I think this is one
song that I can't imagine anyone complaining
about it showing up on a best songs list. It's
just who doesn't like this song? I've never met
anyone that doesn't. And obviously, if you don't
get the reference I made before, no. Go back
and watch Back to the Future. However, cover
songs, this will either get praise or venom,
but look no further than Judas Priest's version
of Johnny B. Goode from 1988's Ram It Down, as
well as to bring up another movie reference,
the soundtrack to the 80s comedy of the same
name, Johnny B. Goode. Oh, yeah. I forgot about
that movie. A lot of people did, but the song.
The song sticks out when you hear Rob Halford
belting out Johnny B. Goode at his stratospheric
levels. Nice, nice. Well, there you have it,
folks. Side A of our Songs About Guitars playlist,
which kicked off with Tom Petty's Into the Great
Wide Open, B .B. King's Lucille, Tenacious D's
The Pick of Destiny, The Dead Milkman's The Guitar
Song, Olivia Rodrigo's Scared of My Guitar, Amy
Winehouse's Cherry, Live from Shepherd's Bush,
Ryan Adams' Rosebud, Bruce Springsteen's House
of a Thousand Guitars, Fuji's Killing Me Softly,
and Chuck Berry's Johnny Be Good. Head over to
myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs we've
discussed in this mix through the playlist embedded
on the episode page. Now, David, why don't you
tell people a little bit about piecing it together
as well as how they can connect with you and
the show? Absolutely. Thank you so much. You
can find Piecing It Together on all of the podcast
apps, and I'm very, very active on social media
at PiecingPod. But what Piecing It Together is,
is a podcast about movies and what movies inspired
them. Me and guests. from all over the world
for the past over six years now. We will take
a look at a new movie and kind of use it as a
jumping off point to discuss other films that
deal with similar ideas, themes, filmmaking styles,
whatever it may be that we think. might make
these other movies an influence on this new release
and Yeah, it's been a really fun ride I'm now
doing these live episodes of the show where I
do it right there in a movie theater with a panel
of three guests right after the movie plays and
Hoping to continue to build that out but I do
weekly episodes of just the regular one -on -ones
and it's something that has been a really fun
ride for movie fans and You end up with a big
list of other films to check out that deal with
these similar ideas by the end of the conversation.
I'm also a musician as well. You can find my
albums under my name, David Rosen. I have...
I think eight at this point, albums out. I lost
track. But a whole bunch of albums of instrumental
music. It's all kind of a mix of electronica,
industrial, new age, alternative rock. I also
score films, so that film score kind of vibe
to it as well. So you can check out my albums.
My most recent one is actually called More Content,
a kind of tongue -in -cheek play at the era that
we're living in right now. Yeah, you can find
them on all the streaming services under my name,
David Rosen. Well, kicking off Side B, I am going
to first make an admission of guilt. I feel like
I've been a little selfish in this episode because
between BB King's Lucille and my opening track
for Side B, I am taking up 30 minutes of our
listeners' time musically. However, it's a very,
very... Well spent 30 minutes of music, if you
ask me, because, you know, between B .B. King's
Lucille and the title track to 1976 is 2112 by
Rush. That's 30 awesome minutes. Now, without
getting too deep into the woods of this song,
Rush's fandom site actually sums up the story.
quite well so again without spoiling the ending
of the song if you haven't heard it yet in the
year 2062 a galaxy -wide war results in the union
of all planets under the rule of the red star
of the solar federation by 2112 the world is
controlled by the priests of the temples of syrinx
who determine the content of all reading matter
songs pictures every facet of life A man discovers
a guitar and learns to play different music.
When he goes to present to the priests of the
temples, they destroy the guitar. He goes into
hiding and dreams of a world before the Solar
Federation. Upon awakening, dot, dot, dot. Listen
to the 20 -minute masterpiece and find out for
yourself because... rush knows how to tell a
story if you're a rush fan episode 52 the ultimate
rush playlist with fellow pantheon podcast network
made steve from the something for nothing a rush
fan cast episode will have a lot more to fill
that rush void in your life but when i think
about a song that's built around a guitar as
part of the story The way you started off into
the great wide open as the guitar being part
of Eddie's story. Here we've got Rush and 2112.
That is a hell of a story in this song. Yeah,
I've never been a big Rush guy. Like, I don't
dislike them. I've just never dug into their
music or anything. So I wasn't really familiar
with this, aside from just knowing it was a Rush
song title. So I just didn't really know what
it was going in. And as it was playing out, I
was like, where is this going? This is a crazy
song. But yeah, it's a cool song, though. And
one of these days, I think I'm going to have
to... like finally go on the rush journey and
like dig in. Cause I always like everything I
hear from them. I think you'll be blown away
to be honest. It's one of those things that sometimes
when you hear certain songs picked out here and
there, they make sense in that moment. But when
you hear them in the rush catalog and in the
album space, the songs take on bigger meanings.
And I think that's what makes rush fans. So intense
about their love of the songs because within
the albums the songs really do take on a higher
meaning yeah absolutely i i could totally see
that i could see you know especially for a group
like that that it's once you dig in like it just
keeps enveloping everything and you just kind
of can't get it back out well what are you now
i've given you 20 minutes here to think about
your next pick so sure sure yeah as the song
is finally winding down yeah And we are hearing,
attention all planets of the Solar Federation,
we have assumed control. Where are you going
from here? We are going to, I think, one of the
most obvious picks for this list. And that is
Foreigner's Jukebox Hero from 1981's Spore. This
is just, it's such an obvious song for like a
celebration of the guitar. This song paints such
a picture of someone who has... head hung low
and you know in the rain and he hears that band
playing and then he hears that one guitar and
then it just changes his life it is just it goes
right along with Tom Petty which I started the
first A -side with a guitar being kind of that
catalyst for changing your life and taking you
on a journey I think it's a great song it's a
fun song it's a totally singable song honestly
and another thing I don't remember if it was
Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but there was a moment
when those games were like super, super popular.
And I feel like this was probably the single
most played song on one of those games. Everybody
would always pick this song and it was always
just such a blast to play along to. Well, I know
that Patreon mixtaper David Lee Smith is a huge
Guitar Hero guy. I actually watched him on YouTube
play Eruption. on the hard level on guitar hero
and just absolutely annihilated like ridiculous
he'll know the answer to that question so david
when you're listening to this chime in and let
us know and i'll follow up on social media the
song reached number 26 on the billboard us hot
100 i actually thought it was a top 20 hit so
i was surprised by that fact and another interesting
fact about the song thomas dolby plays the main
synthesizers on the track, and the story's lead
singer, Ian Lloyd, and Robert Mutt -Lang are
singing background vocals on the track. I also
like the fact that in kind of a nod or a similar
fashion of 2112, there's this kind of storytelling
in the song. You know, kid gets sold out of show,
kid hears guitar, kid has epiphany, kid learns
to play guitar, kid becomes rock star. you know
the jukebox hero it's that old story absolutely
and i'm not going to spoil the ending this too
has an ending to it that i could spoil so i'm
not going to do that even though you probably
know jukebox hero i don't want to spoil the ending
of jukebox hero so what i'm going to do is move
on to the next track and i'm going to cheat because
it is my show and every now and then i could
cheat and i'm going to cheat here because technically
on streaming This is broken out as two songs,
but growing up listening to this album on vinyl,
if I hear the flamenco guitar opening to little
guitars in little guitar intro, I want to hear
the entire little guitar song. However, if the
little guitar song starts and I don't hear the
flamenco acoustic guitar intro, I feel like I
got cheated. So I am doing a twofer on this going
with little guitars intro into little guitars
because. It's just kind of wrong to separate
them. And we're doing a guitar episode. So I
feel like mentioning Eddie just has to happen
at some point. Sure. And I'd be remiss. I sound
like I'm a promo whore tonight and I apologize,
but episode 46. the ultimate Van Halen playlist
with Eric Senich of the Van Halen News Desk and
Patreon mixtaper Cactus Pete. It's a feature
film length episode of the show because Van Halen
needed that kind of time. And I won't spoil if
this song made the cut or not, but how could
it not make the cut tonight? It's a song about
guitars with some of the most amazing guitar
work ever. So little guitars. Great song. Great
pick. This is one of those picks on this list
that like, you know, I think about it and I'm
like, you know, of course Van Halen had to have
something that would fit here. But a lot of like
favorites that you would think have a song about
guitars. I was like, God, they got to have something.
And they just there wasn't anything. And so I'm
glad Van Halen has a song that could fit this
list, because how could you not have them on
this list? Like you said. Right. So we got Eddie
on the list. We got Chuck Berry on the list.
We got foreigners jukebox here. So we're checking
off some of the big boxes. What do we have next?
We've got Dire Straits, which we got to also
include on this list. We're going to go with
Sultans of Swing from the self -titled Dire Straits
album, 1978. For some reason, I remember not
liking this song when I was a kid. And just later
on in life, I was like, what the hell was I thinking?
Like this song just absolutely rules. I will
say, though, that it exists in this level of
cool that just doesn't really work nowadays,
but worked so well back then. And I think that's
part of its charm, though, and I think part of
what makes it so great. And it fits in with all
the storytelling. It fits in with songs about
guitar players and what they can do with the
guitar. And it's just an absolutely killer track.
From their self -titled 1978 masterpiece. I mean,
I love the story behind this song. And that story
is that Mark Knopfler went to a bar in Ipswich
on a rainy night. And this, we'll just call it
not so great band, was finishing up a set for
like the bartender and like two people at the
bar. When they ended, apparently the singer unironically
said. Good night and thank you. We are the Sultans
of Swing. Amazing. Mark thought that was hysterical
because, as he puts it, and I quote, Sultans
they were not. Now, there's a reason this song
is covered all the time by aspiring guitarists
on TikTok and on YouTube short videos because
this is an insanely hard guitar solo to tackle.
Sure. when you're trying to match the tone that
Mark brought to this song. If you add distortion
to the song, some of the notes you could kind
of bridge together easier than the way that Mark
pulls it off with that clean, crisp, tight tone.
So this song is almost a trap when you think
like, oh, that can't be that tough to play. But
when you listen to it and you realize he's playing
it clean, it's ridiculous. There's no room for
mistakes whatsoever. And I mean, that's why he's
up there when we talk about some of the best
guitar players. And I am going to cheat again.
I am sorry, My Weekly Mixtape listeners, but
Brian Colburn is going rogue tonight. You just
picked Mark Knopfler. However, you picked Dire
Straits. And I found a loophole to cheat. And
I'm going to take that loophole because I want
to talk about Mark Knopfler again. I'm still
on a high because just a few episodes ago, episode
70 .5, the bonus episode, I had Guy Fletcher
from Dire Straits on the podcast to talk about
Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes Going Home theme
from Local Hero. And Guy talks about, because
we kind of go through a lot of Mark Knopfler's
career and Guy's with Dire Straits in the episode,
the 1991 duo album of Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler
called Neck and Neck. And he talks about this
song on that episode, which is why I'm. promo
whore Brian again, apparently. But I'm going
to go with one that Patreon mixtaper Philip Bergman
chimed in with the original, which was Chet Atkins'
Yakety Yak's. But I'm going to go with the one
from 1991's Neck and Neck that features Mark
Knopfler and lyrics on this version because it
adds, again, a little bit more of a storytelling
vibe to it. and it's a cheat, but it's pretty
cool to come out of Mark Knopfler into Mark Knopfler
with a legend like Chet Atkins, who's really
kind of the, he's the star of this song because
it's his original, which is a remake from a song,
Yakety Sax. However, it's a Chet Atkins tune
that Mark is kind of sitting back on, on this
duo album. And I feel like. it's a good cheat
to go dire straits into a feature of Mark and
I can't get enough of Mark's guitar playing anyway.
So there you go. Yeah, absolutely. This is a
fun pick. And I was trying to kind of place it.
Like I was trying to imagine when this song came
out, like guitar nerds at the time must've just
like, it must've blown their minds hearing this.
It blows my mind to this day hearing it. Yeah.
All right, what are we going to follow up the
pair of Mark Knopfler tracks with? A great songwriter,
let's put it that way. I'm going to go with Jason
Isbell's Something to Love from his 2017 album,
The Nashville Sound. This is just a fantastic
song that closes out the album and it's really
basically about passing down music from generation
to generation. In the lyrics to the song, he's
talking about how he learned a love of music
from his family, sitting out on the porch and
learning chords and learning to play and learning
to sing. And now he's passing that down to his
child. And it's just a real celebration of music
and a beautiful song. And I think it beautifully
closes out the album, which is one of his best
albums, I think. as far as like we're talking
celebrations of the guitar i think this does
that while also celebrating the art of songwriting
as well which you know of course is just so tied
together with the exact same thing Believe it
or not, I've never heard a Jason Isbell song
that I don't like, but I've never done a catalog
dive of all of his albums. I really need to do
that because when you talk about a lyric, I know
you brought this up in the story, but the lyric
itself, we made music on the porch on Sunday
nights, old men with old guitars smoking Winston
lights. Amazing. So vivid. Yeah. It paints the
picture. And it's just such a vulnerable open
sound in this song. And he is such a gifted songwriter.
Yeah. And I think that's what I'm going to tap
into to follow it up because you scooped my favorite
songwriter of all time with the first song of
the episode. So I'm going to go with my second
favorite singer songwriter of all time. Okay.
And this is a guy that, I mean. When I discovered
his music, I didn't even realize I'd already
known his music. Because he's the songwriter
to Bonnie Raitt's Thing Called Love and the co
-writer to Jeff Healy Band's Angel Eyes, along
with Fred Kohler. I'm going to go with John Hyatt
and the title track to 1993's Perfectly Good
Guitar. A few nights before I shipped off to
college my freshman year. I was getting ready
to pack and I'm kind of just flipping through
the channels trying to find something to put
on as I'm packing. And I stumbled across John's
live from Austin, Texas performance. And all
I know is I stopped packing and I just sat there
and watched the entire thing. And I instantly
became a fan of his entire vibe, just everything
about him. When it was over, I finished up packing
and my folks said, you know, before we head out
tomorrow, is there anything you need that we
got to hit before we whisk you off to college?
And I said, I just watched this really awesome
special on TV and I got a long drive ahead of
me. I'd love to grab this CD for the ride. And
before we left, they took me to the music store
and I grabbed 1993's Perfectly Good Guitar. My
first drive down to college is filled with memories
from this album. And you don't want to smash
a perfectly good guitar. This is a song about
anti -guitar violence. And I think that's a message
that needs to be put out there. Because at the
time of this song, Garth Brooks, who was massive,
completely blowing up, was making it a point
to smash guitars at the end of his shows. Well,
93, I feel like everybody was. Oh, sure. And
like grunge and punk. But this was mainstream
country. This was a completely different audience.
But actually, no matter what genre we're talking
about here, stop. This is a PSA of epic proportions.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I got to admit, I am
not really familiar with John Hyatt that much.
Like I heard this song and. Hearing you describe
your love of John Hyatt songwriting. I really
want to take the dive now because I found this
song to be like super silly, but really great.
It's, you know, almost borders on novelty in
a way, just because of how it's just like this
kind of silly idea of like, like you said, a
PSA almost like do not smash guitars. So now
I want to hear like some of his other songwriting
and see like where that vibe takes him. Well,
I'll tell you this. You're a movie guy. You host
a movie podcast. Have you ever seen the Disney
movie that came out? I want to say it was 2003
or 2004. The live action The Country Bears. You
know, it's funny. One of my friends who likes
a lot of like movies that don't necessarily have
the best reputations was just telling me that
he loves that movie and that I need to watch
it. So do I. And a lot of the soundtrack is written
by John Hyatt. including the closing song, which
is just a beautiful track. He is a masterful
songwriter that just for some reason, like if
you know who John Hyatt is, you know exactly
what I'm talking about. Why he wasn't bigger
is beyond me because there were other artists
that were able to take his songs to new heights.
Even when BB King and Eric Clapton put out their
duo album, riding with the King, riding with
the King. John Hyatt song. Oh, there you go.
There you go. Wow. All right. Yeah, I'm going
to have to dive in. I got to listen to more for
sure. You do that as I'm diving into Jason Isbell.
And now I'm throwing it back to you to follow
up that pair of amazing singer songwriters. What
do we got next? Well, I'm going to Prince for
my next pick here. Prince, another guitar god
to add to this list with the song Guitar from
a late era album, 2007's Planet Earth. Who doesn't
like Prince? But I was always more of a Michael
Jackson guy myself, to be honest. But this was
one of the songs that I was just like, oh, you
know what? Hell yeah, I'm into this. And of course,
who doesn't love the classic Prince stuff? But
I mean of the later era stuff. But this is just
a killer song. And I hadn't heard it in years.
But it was kind of in the back of my mind when
we started this exercise here. And I was like,
I wonder how that song Guitar by Prince holds
up. And I went back and listened to it. And I
was like, it's Prince. Of course, it's great,
you know, and it's a great concept for a song
telling this girl that, you know, he loves her,
but just not like he loves his guitar. I mean,
it's it's a great like kiss off of a song. Great
attitude, you know, and it's just a really fun
one. And it's got that sense of humor to it.
And it's also got some great freaking guitar
playing. Of course it's Prince. I mean, that
goes without saying, I don't think there's any
Prince song where you're like, well, you know,
that Prince song with the mediocre guitar playing,
but this one is just on another level. Shout
out to Patreon mixtape or Sherry Thomas who chimed
in with this one. This song ranked number 39
on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 best songs
from 2007. So it was definitely recognized and
it charted in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, and the UK, but not in the US. I
kind of think we got it wrong. I think the US
got it wrong because this is a great, great track.
Yeah, absolutely. I think I saw him in 2007.
Actually, I was promoting this. I was I was working
for a label at the time and promoting bands.
And yeah, we were promoting this and I got to
see him. And of course, amazing, amazing show.
But yeah, I don't know why this one just didn't
quite take off at this kind of era in his career.
Just wasn't nothing was really like connecting
exactly. Yeah, that's unfortunately a musical
bucket list that I won't be able to check off.
But man, just a another worldly talent and i
think i'm gonna go back to this talent and again
i'm not cheating this time because we're gonna
talk about it of course we're gonna talk about
it we have to talk about it but once again shout
out to a patreon mixtaper we are really checking
off the boxes and in sync with the Patreon mixtapers
tonight. That doesn't happen all the time, but
we are in lockstep tonight. Tom Hutchinson, he
chimed in with both the Beatles and the Tom Petty
Prince version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
However, we've talked about Tom Petty and we've
talked about Prince, so I feel like it's probably
fitting to bring George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Yeah. Into the discussion tonight and go off
of 1968, the Beatles or the white album. Rolling
stone ranks at one 35 on its list of the 500
greatest songs of all time. Seventh on the 100
greatest guitar songs of all time. And number
10 on its list of the Beatles, 100 greatest songs.
And in 2008, it ranked number 42 in guitar worlds,
2008 list. of the 100 greatest guitar solos.
Now, the guitar is not the literal focus of the
song, but the emotions that the lyrics are conveying
are spoken through the lens of the guitar, so
to speak. And to me, that's a really interesting
way to tell the story. And it's, I think, one
of the more powerful George Harrison moments
in his time with the Beatles saying like, I could
write some like you get to all things must pass
through while my guitar gently weeps. This is
George Harrison flexing his songwriting muscles
here. Absolutely. Yeah. And I've never been a
big Beatles guy. Like, you know, this is another
one where it's like, of course we all love a
lot of their songs, but this was always the best
I felt. And especially the covers, like it's
just a great song that has been brought to life
in all these amazing ways. You mentioned some
of them already, but like whenever you hear a
cover of while my guitar gently weeps, like you
could kind of know whoever it is, they're going
to put some kind of spin on it and they're going
to connect with it. And it's, It feels like a
song that just means a lot to anybody who picks
up a guitar. Well, David, we are down to one
last song and I get to turn it over to you. You
started the evening and now you get to close
out the evening. What is going to put the cherry
on top of our songs about guitars Sunday? Well,
a lot of the picks that I made kind of stretched
the original premise in a lot of different ways.
But this one is 100 % on the money. Exactly what
you asked me to do. Songs about guitars. It's
James Taylor, Me and My Guitar. Nice. It is from
1974's Working Man. And I mean, this is it. This
is just a song about an amazing songwriter. Writing
about his guitar, basically, and why he loves
it, why he loves writing songs with it, why he
loves spending time being a musician and why
he chose this life, you know, and it's a great
song. And I think it's a really integral part
of a playlist like this. You're definitely going
to score points with my wife on this one. James
Taylor is one of her all time favorites. I've
heard all of his albums through her. This is
definitely a top five James Taylor song for me
personally. It's fun. It's funky. The storytelling
is incredible. Two kind of lyrics that stick
out to me in this song is he hops up on my knee
singing, get down pops. It's song time. Like
how vivid is that? And then my favorite lyric
in the song, which I think really sums up the
evening as a whole, but pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain. It's me and my guitar.
And there you have it, folks. Side B of our Songs
About Guitars playlist, which kicked off with
Rush's 2112, Foreigner's Jukebox Hero, Van Halen's
Little Guitars. Yes, I'm throwing the intro in
as well. Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing, Chet
Atkins and Mark Knopfler's Yakety Axe, Jason
Isbell's Something to Love, John Hyatt's Perfectly
Good Guitar. Prince's guitar, The Beatles' While
My Guitar Gently Weeps, and James Taylor's Me
and My Guitar. Head over to myweeklymixtape .com
to hear all the songs we've discussed in this
mix through the playlist embedded on the episode
page. Well, David Rosen, piecing it together,
thank you so much for joining me tonight on My
Weekly Mixtape. This has been a lot of fun. Thank
you so much for having me. And remember, you
can find My Weekly Mixtape on almost all the
social media haunts at My Weekly Mixtape. You
can also head to MyWeeklyMixtape .com to check
out the full catalog of My Weekly Mixtape episodes.
And finally, if you like what you're hearing
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That's all for this week. Thanks again for listening,
and until next time, enjoy the tunes.