Yeah, yeah ... I know it's a short playlist. That's the point. I like to keep my playlists at around CD length, but since all these songs date from the late 60s and early 70s, I tried to approximate a vinyl album. I could go on and on about these songs, but they're all popular by now — staples, even — so you'll all have your own ideas about them. The playlist is the thing: With these 10 songs, ... [+]

Yeah, yeah ... I know it's a short playlist. That's the point. I like to keep my playlists at around CD length, but since all these songs date from the late 60s and early 70s, I tried to approximate a vinyl album. I could go on and on about these songs, but they're all popular by now — staples, even — so you'll all have your own ideas about them. The playlist is the thing: With these 10 songs, I hope to create (at least for myself) a nostalgic snapshot of my first five years on Earth — a time when my parents were young, married and falling apart outside the scope of my innoncent awareness. The first five songs were favorites of my young parents. I remember hearing them over and over ... "No More Mr. Nice Guy" was the first song I learned to sing; my father taught it to me when I was four or five. The last three songs, to me, carry a certain emotional undercurrent. Just before my parents split, my dad liked to play "Sister Golden Hair" for my mom, because she was so blonde and pretty. Now, she's gone. "Without You" takes me back to the day after they split: I remember my dad sitting all by himself in the darkened living room, playing it over and over, as if I wasn't even there. And, finally, "The Air That I Breathe" is suitably soaring and open-ended, as I had to get through the rest of my childhood, and the rest of my life, with the precious few good memories I had, of the days when we were all happy, together and way too young. --- Please enjoy this: ~ Brian [-]