An American Music Mix
I am a member of two Mix CD clubs. They're great! You get 12 people together and each month someone is responsible for sending the other 11 members a mix. You get new music, new perspectives, all for the price of the effort it takes to make one of these yourself and the subsequent packaging and postage.
For various reasons, I wanted to put together a mix of American music for my latest mix. Partly, I was trying to understand what American music means to me, and what kinds of songs and sounds I find distinctly American. To a large extent, I found that American music to me is very often sad sonofabitch music. I'm guessing that that's just me, but American suffering takes on so many interesting forms, that it makes sense that it's so well represented in our music. Don't worry, there's also lots of songs about places in America, partying, thinking about partying, and thinking about how much better partying used to be back when we were younger. Also, there's "Uptown Girl"!
Most of the decisions were carefully made, and I do feel the need to explain myself, as you will find commentary about all of these songs, below.
My arguments are for these songs, not against anything I might have left out, as I'm sure I left out many songs you might think are essential. Feel free to comment below and let me know what I missed.