H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y

If you’ve been reading this here blog for a while, you may have seen me mention my friend, the musical sherpa, Clay. Well last August, Clay gave me one of the best birthday presents I’ve gotten in my entire life: a generous starter collection of 45’s, cradled by a 7-inch Peaches record crate. This is a short video of my reaction upon being given this gift. There was tons of great stuff in there — everything from Queen to Radiohead and back again — and in the nine months since, I’ve had lots of fun exploring and expanding this collection (probably too much fun on the expansion front, but WHATEVER). So for Clay’s birthday, I’ve done the only reasonable thing — I’ve assembled a tactical playlist from my seed set of 7-inch records entitled “H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y” (you’ll see why), accompanied by a quick, solo game of Adjective Battleship for each one. Let’s do dis!

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H

1. Sleigh Bells — “Holly” [Soundcloud]

Adjective Battleship: Construction worker whistle back atcha!

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H-A

2. Pink Floyd — “Any Colour You Like” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Fashionably late guitar craves attention.

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H-A-P

3. Beastie Boys — “Peanut Butter & Jelly” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Take notes, Blue Ivy Carter.

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H-A-P-P

4. Parliament — “Presence Of A Brain” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: “Monster Mash” hits the lounge.

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H-A-P-P-Y

5. Matisyahu — “Youth” (live version) [Soundcloud/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Bon Jovi backs up rappers?

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H-A-P-P-Y B

6. Gil Scott-Heron — “B Movie” (live) [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: “Ain’t” ain’t just for southerners.

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I

7. James Brown — “It’s Too Funky In Here” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Z’that a flute or people?

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R

8. The Band — “Rag Mama Rag” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: I miss Levon. Real bad.

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T

9. MGMT — “Time To Pretend” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Genuine depth. I’ll be damned!

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H

10. Santana — “Hope You’re Feeling Better” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Love me some mean organ.

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D

11. The Who — “Dogs Part Two” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Baja Men clearly took notes.

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A

12. Weezer — “Are Friends Electric” (Gary Numan cover) [YouTube]

Adjective Battleship: Serious synth; feedback’s having fun.

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H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y!

13. Paul Simon — “You’re Kind” [Spotify/iTunes]

Adjective Battleship: Unintentionally perfect playlist closer.

***FIN***

Happy birthday, Clay! A CD of the playlist is on the way.