Those of us in the Northeast, and certainly other parts of the country, are approaching that time of year when the sun may not be seen for days. Weeks even. After months of soaking up the warmth and rays, grey and dreary will shortly be upon us. This playlist is a tribute to the sun – may you show your face often in the coming months!
The first song that came to my mind when I decided to use the Sun as my theme was Velvet Underground’s Who Loves the Sun? The opening track to Loaded is as good as it gets.
Stevie Wonder has written more than his share of beautiful songs and You are the Sunshine of my Life is at the top of the list. You can almost feel actual sunshine coming through the speakers. Everyone knows the Beatles version of Here Comes the Sun backwards and forwards so I went with the lesser known Richie Havens version which is a little peppier.
Pink Floyd’s Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun didn’t feel completely right here so I cheated a little bit and went with the fantastic LCD Soundsystem tune All My Friends, which mentions the Floyd classic by name in its lyrics. Two of rock’s most classic tunes come next in Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love and Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone from the Sun followed by the Jerry Garcia/Dave Grisman/Tony Rice “Pizza Tape” version of the traditional House of the Rising Sun. Finally, a trio of quirkier tunes close out the list with Beck’s ultra-mellow Sunday Sun, TV on the Radio’s slightly frenetic Staring at the Sun and the always uplifting Soundgarden tune Black Hole Sun.
