The National - Bitters & Absolut.

I have a story about this song here.

Also, lyrics:

___

Sweetie, you don’t look so good
your bottom lip is bleeding.
I cut it on your collarbone
go on, go back to sleep.

Sugar, who were you thinking of?
you woke me with your breathing.
Honey, how am i supposed to tell?

If I were a spy in the world inside your head
would i be your wife in a better life you led?

Thought I saw you on the stairs
of this american century.
I went up through all the years
you were years ahead of me.

Remember when you dipped your hand?
I never saw it coming.
You took the wind out of me.

If i were a spy in the world inside your head
would i be your wife in the better life you led?

I’d do you better than you do
I’d do you better than you ever will
When I am on bitters and absolut…

The Long Winters - Scared Straight

From Live at the Showbox (DVD/CD set). This track and two others from same are available free from the label here; you can also find more at the band’s site.

By now this track (along with others by same, since purchased) has become incredibly dear to me. The back story has too many layers to confer here, but at the beginning of the song, when John Roderick (@johnroderick on Twitter, well worth following even without considering his band) says “How’s it going, Seattle? We’re the Long Winters and we’re from here,” my ears curl around the words and I imagine myself there, in that city I miss so terribly. I go back to June of 1993, when its skyline first disappeared from view, because I was reluctantly following my insane girlfriend to Fargo, ND of all places (fucking Coen Brothers stole my movie title), a few months following which I ended up in FBI custody in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport which is another story entirely, but suffice it to say, I’ve never healed from the visceral regret of Seattle being ripped away from me, or me from it. Still, somehow, this song helps.

Common - Go!

This song makes me want to, well, go.

(Not in the peeing myself way though. Like, it’s all about hope and stuff.)

The Temptations - Cloud Nine.

“It’s a dog-eat-dog world/ And that ain’t no lie.”

Related: So grateful for friends whose laughter, music, and coffee helps me get through.

Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women: Going Down To The River

Among other tangential associations I have with this group (formed in 1987), one of the members is the mother of a friend, though I’d still feel an affection for them even if this weren’t so. This is from their final album.

This track is free right now at Amazon. More tracks at the group’s site.