Thank You for the Music, the Endless Music

Some of the (musical) things I’m thankful for:

The guitar solo on “Why Does Love Have to Be So Sad?” by Derek and the Dominos
Jeff Tweedy’s vocals on the live version of “Jesus, Etc.” from Kicking Television
Tom Waits’ ballads
The live version of “It Makes No Difference” from The Band’s The Last Waltz
“God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys
The beats the Beastie Boys use in their songs
The Beatles
“Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards” by Billy Bragg
Howlin’ Wolf’s vocals on “Built for Comfort”
How much of Bo Diddley’s work still sounds fresh
Blind Willie McTell’s voice
“Atlantic City”
All the different solos on “Kitty’s Back” from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Live at Hammersmitth Odeon ‘75
The intensity of Buddy Holly (listen to “Oh, Boy!” and try to argue)
The perfection of “What Do I Get?” by the Buzzcocks
The lameness of Canned Heat’s “Amphetamine Annie”
Captain Beefheart’s originality
Chuck Berry (even “My Ding-A-Ling”)
The Clash and London Calling
My memory of the first time I heard “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby” by Counting Crows
“Mother’s Lament” by Cream
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The epic that is Weird Al’s “Albuquerque”
Every time that Neil Young sings lead on Cosby, Stills, Nash & Young
“Pusherman” by Curtis Mayfield
The ridiculousness of David Bowie
Young, Loud & Snotty by the Dead Boys
The lyrics of the Decemberists
Ella’s scatting
My Aim is True, Get Happy!!, Armed Forces and This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley
The Everly Brothers
The fact that Sinatra sounds amazing at 3:13 a.m.
That on one album, Zappa will sound amazing while on another, he’s terrible
All Things Must Pass by George Harrison
Hank Williams
The guitar playing of Hubert Sumlin
The fierceness of Husker Du
Jimi Hendrix’s guitar playing
The fact that John Cale is still totally overshadowed by Lou Reed
That Johnny Cash’s version of “John Henry” was the first one I ever heard
The Kinks
Lightin’ Hopkins’ guitar work
The humor in a Louis Jordan song
That maybe I haven’t given Lynard Skynard enough credit…
High Time by MC5
Miles Davis Quintet
How “Ice Cream Man” from the Modern Lovers’ Live never ends
The ridiculousness of the Mountain Goats…but in a totally different way than Bowie
Muddy Waters’ voice
Neil Young
Finding “new” artists—aka, artists not recording in the 1960s (Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, etc.)
Nearly everything Nick Cave has recorded with the Bad Seeds
“Dry Your Eyes” by Neil Diamond from The Last Waltz
Once More, With Feeling
Every song recorded by Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett
How Patti Smith only has one album worth your time: Horses
“East/West” by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Graceland by Paul Simon
Bob Dylan
“Where Do You Go To My Lovely?” by Peter Sarstedt
David Thomas from Pere Ubu
The ultimate guilty pleasureness of Phish
Pixies
The fun in listening to The Queers
OK Computer by Radiohead
The Ramones making a sub-par song like “Do You Wanna Dance?” sound fantastic (oh, and “Beat on the Brat”)
How lonely the Replacements’ Let It Be sounds on a Saturday night
Blank Generation
Richard Thompson (why isn’t he more popular?!?!?)
The sloppiness of the Rolling Stones’ great albums: Let It Bleed, Exile on Main Street, etc.
“Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke (his voice, too)
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ outrageousness
The distortion in a Sonic Youth song
The noise in a Stooges song
Every song that Sufjan Stevens plays the banjo on
“(Nothing But) Flowers” by Talking Heads
“Marquee Moon” by Television
The fact that Traffic is really lame except for a few songs (“John Barleycorn” and “The Low-Spark of High-Heeled Boys” come to mind as classics)
The Velvet Underground
That Van Morrison’s “St. Dominic’s Preview” is my top-played non-Dylan song on my iPod
Live at Leeds by The Who (mostly for two songs: “A Quick One…” and “Substitute”)
“Good Lovin’” by The Young Rascals

There are many more, but those that I've thought about recently. Happy Thanksgiving!