NELSON RIDDLE ORCHESTRA . . . . . Route 66 Theme (opening theme) . . . . . Route 66 and Other Great TV Themes/More Hit TV Themes
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS . . . . . Walk A Lonely Road . . . . . Realism
NANCY SINATRA & LEE HAZLEWOOD . . . . . Some Velvet Morning . . . . . The Hit Years
THE POSTMARKS . . . . . All You Ever Wanted . . . . . Memoirs at the End of the World (Dig)
XTC . . . . . Garden Of Earthly Delights . . . . . Oranges & Lemons
TAKEN BY TREES . . . . . Watch The Waves . . . . . East of Eden
JOHN LENNON . . . . . Watching The Wheels . . . . . Double Fantasy

JOHN LENNON . . . . . I’m The Greatest . . . . . Anthology
SPOON . . . . . Written In Reverse . . . . . Transference
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS . . . . . Turpentine . . . . . Momofuku
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS . . . . . Hold On To Yourself . . . . . Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
ROXY MUSIC . . . . . Out Of The Blue . . . . . Country Life
WATSON TWINS . . . . . Modern Man . . . . . Talking to You Talking to Me
GIANT SAND . . . . . Stranded Pearl . . . . . proVISIONS
JOHNNY CASH . . . . . I’m On Fire . . . . . Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska

R.E.M. . . . . . Living Well Is The Best Revenge . . . . . Accelerate
THE SOFT PACK . . . . . Answer To Yourself . . . . . The Soft Pack
BUZZCOCKS . . . . . Harmony In My Head . . . . . Operators Manual
BRENDAN BENSON . . . . . I’m Easy . . . . . Lapalco
VISQUEEN . . . . . The Capitol . . . . . Message To Garcia
ASH . . . . . Burn Baby Burn . . . . . Free All Angels
SUPERGRASS . . . . . Grace . . . . . Life on Other Planets
IAN HUNTER . . . . . England Rocks . . . . . Shades of Ian Hunter: The Ballad of Ian Hunter & Mott the Hoople
THE SEX PISTOLS . . . . . Holidays In The Sun . . . . . Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
ART BRUT . . . . . DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake . . . . . Art Brut vs. Satan

JOE HENRY . . . . . Civil War . . . . . The Hissing of Summer Lawns
JONI MITCHELL . . . . . Harry’s House/Centerpiece . . . . . The Hissing of Summer Lawns
ST. VINCENT . . . . . Black Rainbow . . . . . Low
DAVID BOWIE . . . . . Sound And Vision . . . . . Low
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG . . . . . Trick Pony . . . . . Irm
BECK . . . . . Paper Tiger . . . . . The Information
ELTON JOHN . . . . . Madman Across The Water . . . . . Madman Across the Water

When I heard the news that J.D. Salinger had died, I have to admit that the first thing that came to mind was Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon. Like millions of others, I loved The Catcher in the Rye, but for some of us the book became infamous because of the major role it played in Chapman's pyschosis. Holden Caulfield was upset by the phoniness he saw in the adult world; Chapman latched onto that and it became entwined with his feelings of insignificance. He was a Beatles fan as a child, but came to see Lennon as a phony by the end of the '70s. His anger at Lennon combined with his belief that he would receive much attention for the killing led to his being outside the Dakota on December 8, 1980. Clearly, the idea of fame and noteriety is central to the story—Salinger rejected all that's attached to it for the second half of his long life; Lennon also let it all go during his five years as a "house-husband," but then moved back into the arena when he released a new album months before he was killed; and Chapman was seeking it when he took aim at Lennon as the former Beatle walked through the entrance to his building. So we heard a song from John Lennon's final record, one that reflects his pleasure at removing himself from the spotlight, and all of the tunes that preceded it in this opener were connected to that idea of changing one's situation and/or finding yourself within the world you inhabit.

The next set began with another Lennon tune that popped into my head recently, this after I heard the new Spoon track that followed, which has a piano rhythm that bears a strong resemblance to the song that first appeared on an old Ringo Starr album. After Spoon we heard from Elvis Costello & the Imposters looking back with some regret on a bad time that had a negative affect on a relationship, and that led to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds living through something like that in the present. The dread and menace in that one is also present at the beginning of the Roxy Music tune that followed, at least until "out of the blue love came rushing in." We finished with a trio of tunes that also feature ruminations on romance, starting with a new one from the Watson Twins with a nice sense of forward momentum into one with a dusty Southwest appeal by Giant Sand and then on to www.giantsand.com/www.johnnycash.com/ covering Bruce Springsteen.

The more I listen to the new Soft Pack album, the more I like their brand of high-energy rock & roll that makes up most of the tunes on the disc. This entire section was full of that kind of stuff, starting with R.E.M. from their most recent disc, and then after the Soft Pack moving on to the Buzzcocks with one of their early pop-punk gems followed by Brendan Benson sounding an awful lot like that Manchester quartet. Visqueen added a bit of crunch to the mix, and then we heard a couple of turn-of-the-century favorites from Ash and Supergrass before moving back 25 years or so for one from Ian Hunter that he wrote celebrating the punk explosion happening in England at the time. (The next year he reworked it to spotlight Cleveland, one of his favorite American cities.) The Sex Pistols were certainly poster boys for that period, and then we finished with Art Brut celebrating some of the mundane joys of everyday life.

The final section kicked off with Joe Henry highlighting a particularly combative couple and followed it with Joni Mitchell's cutting depiction of suburban ennui and angst. St. Vincent followed with one that comes from a beautifully dark place, and then we heard David Bowie reveling in the electric blue solitude of his room. The track from Charlotte Gainsbourg's new Beck-produced album has a similar density, and then we heard from her producer with a tune that samples the work of her dad. That one always conjures up the title track from an early Elton John disc with the Paul Buckmaster strings knifing through it, and that's where this show shut down.

Here's another one from R.E.M.