Sleepless Dissidents: A New Playlist Series

Fellow Still-Sheltering Observers of the Ever-Raging Inferno Known as 2020: How ya been? Ah. Alive. Good. Me? Same.

Yes, you’re right: It has been a scalding hot minute since I last laid a playlist on you. I’d like to say this was my plan all along, and that the previous mondo mix — Emergency on Planet Earth, and hey, thanks, I too think it’s the best of the bunch so far — was designed to provide enough fodder to keep your boomboxes blasting through Independence Day.

The real reason for the drought, however, was a complete lack of inspiration brought on by a bereft feeling that burrowed soul-deep as the events of the past couple months transpired. That is, specifically, the very necessary unrest over systemic racism in this permanently stained country of (not really) ours combined with the very unnecessary (but at least avoidable?) rise in covid cases. That volatile cocktail turned my insides out. Perhaps you’ve experienced the same sensation.

It certainly hasn’t seemed like an ideal time for sharing frivolous Spotify lists. For weeks no music I turned to has proved capable of meeting my first-purpose demand: healing psychic wounds. Here and there and now and then a song might distract entertainingly for 3-5 minutes. Then it would end and I’d feel emptier. Eventually I tuned out almost everything. Started reading (and rereading) Albert Camus, while alternately charting another course to fill up my spotty knowledge of cinema’s French New Wave.

The details of what led me from there back to here, where I’ve concocted a new playlist series that has been exorcising the sadness and anger out of me almost daily, are probably as mundane as they are ineffable. We welcomed an adorable 2-month-old tuxedo-grey kitten named Harvey Milk into our lives … we began to keep new-parent, up-all-night hours, unsettlingly extending our already nocturnal ways … I was once more reminded of King Crimson’s unusual, arresting attempt at a 1984 dance single, “Sleepless” … and how that song tends to yank me down rabbit holes … my mind drawn to far-off vistas of intangible thoughts by Adrian Belew’s floaty words and his strange guitar interplay with Robert Fripp … my body sprung into action by Tony Levin’s terrorizing slap-bass bottom and his militant drum interplay with Bill Bruford … and THEN I remembered that I’d left that track dangling atop the remnants I set aside for the next LCKDWN20 rundown … and how strong it sounds when stitched to the snaky groove of Thomas Dolby’s “Dissidents” …

Minimum sleep, because there’s too much work to do …

Maximum dissent, because so much has gone wrong …

I returned to where I left off, and Sleepless Dissidents emerged.

I don’t want to say too much about it — well, too much for me, anyway — because, cliché as this is to say, the music really does the talking, as so much of it always has. Apparently what I needed was to reconnect to a certain righteous fury inside it. My complacency had bundled me up so tightly, I hadn’t realized I could no longer adequately feel the heat from that eternal flame.

Think of this four-part series as both a conversation I’m (still) having with myself and an example of the dialogue I hope everyone everywhere is engaging in, whether with friends and family, or online frenemies, or merely the voices in your head when late at night they get louder than unruly neighbors. My guiding principles in determining which songs fit best, which ones say what needs to be said vs. which ones say something about the guy who’s pushing all this on you, has been this: What would I want my son Sam to hear to help him understand the overdue reckoning that has begun? What else can I include to illustrate where his old man’s head is at?

By now, if you’ve been playing along, you’re aware of my playlisting quirks. I like concept; it gives me structure as much as devising 10 sides of vinyl does. Thus, Sleepless Dissidents is a cyclic journey through the seasons. That explains why racial matters don’t immediately emerge in Spring; why Summer is contentious from the get-go, courtesy of Sly Stone; why Autumn will in some way touch on the all-important election; why Winter may wind up noticeably somber. (Those speculative seasons are half-done. No, I’m not waiting until actual fall/winter to finish them.)

You’ll also recognize some names from prior playlists; I do adore a good company of players, and love even more the impressionistic through-lines that can come from using multiple tunes from the same source. To that end, each season features one embedded twofer, a salute to particular songwriters that decade after decade continue to shine as beacons of smart, meaningful, passionate protest music. For Spring, that designation goes to the Australian band Midnight Oil, led by rocker-turned-politician Peter Garrett. For Summer, it’s Bob Marley. (Also worth noting are the one-per-season selections from the brilliant and prolific duo They Might Be Giants, another example of Sam outreach.)

I feel strongly that these are the most diverse and equitable assortments I’ve ever pulled together. That was, admittedly, my aim: to let the struggle be told most boldly by those who have in fact struggled, without shutting out my own sensibility or identity. If there are points in this sonic journey where you would have selected something/someone else, or might have preferred a different balance and placement of artists of color within this white dude’s creative construct, well … ultimately we can only express what we ourselves know and feel. I encourage you to do the same. Speak your truth. Nothing changes if we don’t. Now, of all times, we must empathize, enlighten and evolve — and emphatically.

SLEEPLESS DISSIDENTS 1: SPRING

Side 1

King Crimson, “Sleepless (Tony Levin Mix)” (1984)
The Mothers of Invention, “Trouble Every Day” (1966)
Curtis Mayfield, “(Don’t Worry) If There Is a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go” (1970)
Talking Heads, “Making Flippy Floppy” (1982)
Thomas Dolby, “Dissidents” (1984)

Side 2

Steely Dan, “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)” (1975)
Local Natives, “Dark Days” (2016)
Grizzly Bear, “Losing All Sense” (2017)
Still Woozy, “Lava” (2019)
Lily Allen, “Fuck You” (2009)

Side 3

Soul Coughing, “Disseminated” (1996)
Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, “Hard Times” (1976)
Sam Phillips, “American Landfill Kings” (2018)
Kanye West featuring GLC and Consequence, “Spaceship” (2004)
Solange featuring Lil Wayne, “Mad” (2016)

Side 4

Gorillaz, “Tomorrow Comes Today” (2001)
Joni Mitchell, “The Jungle Line” (1975)
Tune-Yards, “Colonizer” (2018)
Jamila Woods featuring Saba, “Basquiat” (2019)
Steel Pulse, “Ku Klux Klan” (1978)

Side 5

Marvin Gaye, “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” (1971)
Dead Prez, “Propaganda” (2000)
Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1971)
Childish Gambino, “This Is America” (2018)
Joyner Lucas, “I’m Not Racist” (2017)

Side 6

Randy Newman, “Rednecks” (1974)
They Might Be Giants, “Dead” (1990)
Yaz, “In My Room” (1982)
Eurythmics, “Here Comes That Sinking Feeling” (1985)
Elastica, “Connection” (1995)

Side 7

The Lords of the New Church, “Open Your Eyes” (1982)
Sleater-Kinney, “Entertain” (2005)
Amanda Palmer with Missy Higgins, Brian Viglione and Jherek Bischoff, “Beds Are Burning” (2020)
Midnight Oil, “Read About It” (1982)
Midnight Oil, “Power and the Passion” (1982)

Side 8

UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke, “Rabbit in Your Headlights” (1998)
Brother Ali, “Dear Black Son” (2017)
Aphex Twin, “IZ-US” (1997)
LCD Soundsystem, “Someone Great” (2007)
Yes, “Perpetual Change” (1971)

Side 9

Tame Impala, “Solitude Is Bliss” (2010)
MGMT, “When You Die” (2018)
Crumb, “Locket” (2017)
Whitney, “Giving Up” (2019)
Mild High Club, “Homage” (2016)

Side 10

Supertramp, “Hide in Your Shell” (1974)
Elton John, “My Father’s Gun” (1970)
Aretha Franklin, “Border Song (Holy Moses)” (1972)
H.E.R., “I Can’t Breathe” (2020)
Tricky, “Hell Is Round the Corner” (1995)

SLEEPLESS DISSIDENTS 2: SUMMER