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Lee’s Favorite Songs of 2024

Every year on my birthday (January 10), I post on Facebook a playlist of my favorite songs from the previous year. Here are the liner notes for that playlist:

Stevie Wonder – Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart. A powerful new song by Stevie Wonder. I started and ended this playlist with songs that were a salve for me during difficult times. Can we fix our nation’s broken heart? Spoiler: no.
La Santa Cecilia – Alma Bohemia. Another amazing song by this great LA band featuring the powerful vocals of La Marisoul.
The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High). A catchy blues-dance song by the Akron, Ohio band, fronted by Dan Auerbach.
Librarians with Hickeys – Hello Operator. Infectious power pop from another Akron, Ohio Band. Librarians with Hickeys are on the great LA powerpop label Big Stir Records. They deserve to be better known than they are.
Hermanos Gutiérrez – Barrio Hustle. Atmospheric instrumental guitar music by two Ecuadoran-Swiss brothers. It is if The Good, Bad and the Ugly were scored by a surf rock band from somewhere in Latin America.
Shelby Lynn – Over and Over. I have long loved the country-soul singer-songwriter Shelby Lynn, who put out another a great album in 2024. The horns on this song are amazing.
Pink Sweat$ – Bloom. Acoustic R&B that recalls Bill Withers while always sounding contemporary. Thanks to my nephew Ben for turning me on to Pink Sweat$.
Kasey Chambers – Backbone (The Desert Child). This Australian country singer-songwriter is another longtime favorite of mine. Her 2024 album is all equally as good as this song.
Moreno Veloso – Brasil Pandeiro. Brazilian superstar Caetano Veloso’s son releases a gentle samba in the tradition of his father’s music. I love this song.
Beyonce – Texas Hold ‘Em. There is no doubt that Beyonce’s album Cowboy Carter is the record of the year. The only problem for me was choosing which of the great songs on that album to put on this playlist. I considered Ya Ya and Bodyguard, but ultimately went with Texas Hold ’Em in part because it was the most country sounding of the three songs.
Market – Well I Asked You a Question. This catchy, quirky rock song is by Brooklyn singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/engineer-/producer Nate Mendelsohn. I am proud to have known Nate his whole life. He is making great music. Check out his 2024 album Well I Asked You a Question.
Margo Price and Mike Campbell – Ways to Be Wicked. This rocker is by the country singer-songwriter Price and the guitarist Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Ways to Be Wicked Sounds like it could be a lost Heartbreakers song.
Aaron Frazier – Payback. The drummer and vocalist from the soul band Durand Jones and the Indications has a smooth falsetto and usually sings pretty soul ballads. Not this time. Payback rocks.
Maria Bethania – Sabado em Copacabana. Caetano Veloso’s sister Maria Bethania is a star and a great vocalist in her own right. This is a beautiful Brazilian torch song.
Chetes and Calexico – Polvo de Estrellas. Mexican Rock-En Español Singer Chetes – aka Luis Gerardo Garza Cisneros – sings with the Tucson, Arizona “desert noir” rock band Calexico. Povlo de Strellas is a bitter-sweet song about endings. The title of the song means “Stardust,” so it gets extra credit for the Hoagy Carmichael reference.

How RAC-CA Can Contribute to the Progressive Movement Winning Governing Power in 30 Years

I haven’t been posting for the last few years. I am still reading (my favorite recent novel is The Bee Sting by Paul Murray), listening to music (my favorite recent album is Speak to Me by jazz guitarist Julian Lage), and watching movies (my favorite recent film is The Beast, a French film directed by Bertrand Bonello), but I haven’t had time or energy to write about them here. Hopefully, I will resume posting soon. But no promises.

I wanted to note here that I posted a paper I wrote for an organizing seminar run by Hahrie Han’s P3 lab. The paper discusses three things: 1) what the progressive movement should do to win governing power in California in 30 years, 2) what RAC-CA, the social justice arm of the Reform Jewish movement in California should do to contribute to that thirty-year project, and 3) a look at a new housing campaign that is a model of what I propose in the first two sections.

You can find this paper by clicking on the link above entitled “Writings About Community Organizing.” Happy reading!

He Belonged to Me

April 21, 2020 – Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince (2020) CBS

Prince Rogers Nelson died 4 years ago today. He was the first music superstar my age that I followed and loved. I discovered Prince in 1981, six months or so after the release of Dirty Mind, his third album. I loved Dirty Mind — it is still probably my favorite Prince album — it was vital, rocking, soulful, funky and very, very sexy. He played all the instruments on the album. I became a devoted fan, buying his next album Controversy the day it came out and sitting 12th row at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. The intimate auditorium was electric — everyone thrilled to the concert, and it still is one of the best shows I have ever seen. The Time opened for Prince, and they may have been even better that night than Prince and his band. I also skipped class to go alone to the first showing of Prince’s first and best movie Purple Rain, a 10:00 am matinee.

I have followed Prince through the years, buying his records and seeing him when a could, at venues large — sitting in the last row of the Worcester Centrum for the Lovesexy tour — and small — standing behind Ron Wood and his 25-year-old girlfriend, 8 feet from Prince and his Jimi-Hendrix-syle power rock trio in the Conga Room, a small club in Los Angeles. Prince was my age — or so I thought when I discovered him, it turned out his publicists shaved a couple of years off his age. My other favorite musicians are all substantially older than me. I always felt Prince belonged to me in a way that other favorites didn’t because we grew up together, because I watched him become a star.

This concert tribute special was filmed in January. The weakest performances in this concert are the ones that most closely mimicked the original Prince songs — and even these performances are not bad. H.E.R. was a revelation — trading guitar licks with Gary Clark Jr. on Let’s Go Crazy and playing piano and singing her heart out on The Beautiful Ones. Other strong performances included Clark doing The Cross, Beck doing Raspberry Beret, St. Vincent doing Controversy, and Miguel doing I Will Die 4 U. Sheila E. presided over the whole thing. My favorite moment of the night was the reunion of the original members of The Time, including Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, doing a medley of their hits. They were a great band then, and they are a great band now.

The Prince tribute special airs again, this Saturday night, April 25th. Don’t miss it.

A Sip of Scotch to Marv Talan

April 12, 2020 – Marv Talan’s Funeral (2020) Ira Kaufman Funeral Home Website

Today, I watched the funeral of my cousin Marv. He passed away after a long illness. He was 93 years old. Marv was married to my mom’s first cousin Bev Talan (nee Steinman), so he was my first cousin once removed. The funeral was in Michigan, and it was attended in person by only a handful of people: Bev, his three daughters Wendy, Linda and Jody, and a few grandkids. I, like many other relatives and friends, watched the funeral live-streaming on the Ira Kaufman Funeral Home’s website.

Everyone who spoke at the funeral talked about how charming and kind Marv was and how he connected so easily with people of all ages. I can attest that the speakers spoke truthfully. I had meaningful and memorable conversations with Marv when I was a young adult — something I was not always able to do with people a generation older than me. Marv always seemed like he genuinely cared about me and could relate to what I was going through, despite our difference in ages. In their later years, Bev and Marv wintered in Scottsdale. My strongest memories of Marv are when I would see him and Bev when I was visiting my mother and her husband Dick in Scottsdale.

My mom and Dick were not big drinkers, but there was always a nice bottle of single malt scotch in their house. Eventually, I realized Marv bought them the bottle of scotch, knowing they would never drink any of it, so he would have something to nice to drink when he came over. Once I realized the scotch came from Marv, I made a point of sharing a drink with Marv when I visited in the winter. After Marv could no longer travel to Scottsdale, I would drink from Marv’s bottle and think of him. I still replace Marv’s bottle of scotch when it is empty, even though he is no longer there to drink it. I will always think of it as Marv’s bottle.

My understanding is that Marv didn’t die of COVID-19, though Bev and his three daughters all have had it (they are fine now). Marv is the first person I have known personally who has passed away during the pandemic. For me, his death is a marker of many more losses to come. His was the first, but definitely not the last, funeral that I will watch on video because I can’t attend in person. This brave new world we live in is increasingly full of loss. I am bracing myself for what is to come. Meanwhile, I drink a sip of single malt scotch from Marv’s bottle in memory of my cousin.

Stylish Then and Now

April 4, 2020 – Diva (1981) Criterion Channel

This thriller was stylish in 1981, and it is stylish now: opera, mopeds, Paris, a cool loft, murder, and corruption. Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, who also directed Betty Blue, a movie I liked back in the day that may soon make an appearance in this film festival diary. It was a nice world to disappear into for a while.

Fake News

April 1. 2020 – Talking instead of watching

Wendey (reading from the internet): “It says they have canceled all sales of liquor in California.”

Lee (thinking to himself): Panic! I don’t think I can survive this pandemic without alcohol.

Wendey (reading further): “Oh, never mind. It was an April Fool’s joke.”

Lee (thinking to himself): I need a drink.