Love For Lyle

I first heard Lyle Mays on the radio one Sunday morning in 1979, on Bill Ayres' radio show. American Garage had just come out, and Bill was talking to Pat, and they played The Epic, and I became a Pat Metheny and fusion fan. 30 albums and countless bootlegs later, I still am.

I saw PMG dozens of times, starting in the early 80s. Lyle was unquestionably the foundation of the band, a great straight jazz player plus a synth wizard. Pat has done many projects since the Group was active, and they're all great, but PMG was definitive, the sound of a generation, fusion that mattered.

Thanks Lyle. You'll be missed.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6dHTw7FpFbfBNKgyzBSLD6?si=o4DGkJBIQ7-5uNCjHrgukw

Southside's School of Classic Soul for Suburban White Kids

Over yonder on setlist.fm, there's a way to download all the songs from all the setlists an artist has ever played. I wanted to see how many songs Southside Johnny has ever covered, so I downloaded this and then removed the Jukes original tracks. There were over 750 cover tunes left! Amazing.

I did a little old-school linux software hackery to turn that list into a playlist that Spotify could digest. Then I dug through to find the coolest (and sometimes the absolutely most obscure) old soul tunes, like Weak Spot, a song they pulled out at the Pony on Feb 27, 2016 -- a great, great show that was an homage to a similar soul-covers late night set from their record release show of May 30, 1976 (One of my most prized bootlegs. Shhh.)

Anyway, here's the result. One of my favorite setlists ever. Thanks, Southside, for the musical education.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1nGedLkr7TvJBos1Ra9LrM?si=pdoOpB3URcmMPDlc4MBIxw