JCC Amph The JCC mixtape, Part II (now complete!) - full playlist link in OP

Okay, this looks fun, I genuinely love a lot of country music, and I'm gonna listen to it tomorrow, but there are fully twenty George Strait songs I'd pick before I got to Here for a Good Time. Baby Blue very nearly got on my list last time. But he's a class act of a singer, man. Got so many great songs.

 

That was one of my favorite playlists so far in this round. Kudos on it, mnj.

I wanted to find something to vote for other than Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald ... I kept an open mind, I listened to and enjoyed the other songs. But in the end. I just love that song so much, and the FODEUSS tie-in just makes it too much to not vote for it.

 

Two year old memes decided my vote well before I even listened.

 

I heard Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald performed in a restaurant a few weeks back by an Irish expat that looked like Santa Claus in flip-flops, who moved to Toronto, currently living in south Florida, with his MacBook’s camera set up so his friends in Vancouver could watch.

Anyway, that’s the one I voted for. Can’t go wrong with Gordon Lightfoot.

 

Lot of good stuff on this list. The run of The Pilgrim through John Henry is non-stop excellence.

As already mentioned, that's not one of my favorite George Strait songs, though he always gives a good performance. And Rivers in the Desert was coming up super-strong until the singing started and then I was out. But the only one I didn't like at all was One Night in Bangkok and I know it's from a musical, so I guess I'm missing context.

But, yeah, that five song run in the middle there is exceptional. And then Big Iron is right up there as well.

So I went with Meatloaf, which is something I don't think I've ever said before in reference to either the singer or the food item. Some would call that cheese; I call it big emotion and I found the darn thing genuinely moving. "You've been through the fires of Hell/and you've got the ashes to prove it;" that's a genuinely great lyric. The closest competition was John Henry and Big Iron. They're both masterpieces of production really; John Henry more obviously, but Big Iron is just country at its smoothest. And they're both examples of country doing something that country just really does better than any other genre: unspooling a story in pure narrative.

 

“The angels had guitars even before they had wings/ if you hold them to a chorus you can get through the night.” Is one of my personal favorites too from Rock and Roll Dreams come through.

Rivers in the Desert has an instrumental version that plays earlier in the the game, which might be more to people’s taste but the lyrics kicking in as the protagonist faces down the guy that basically ruined his whole life is just such a “**** just got real” moment that I felt I had to include it like this.

 

Yeah, the Meat Loaf song hit me in a way I didn’t expect it to, and it almost got my vote because of it. I’m usually not a sucker for songs with inspirational messages like that, but over the past few months, I’ve had a couple dear loved ones go through life changing health crises, so it hit different. But I couldn’t bring myself to vote against Big Iron.

The George Strait and Alan Jackson tracks aren’t nearly my favorite songs from either artist, but those two are so good that it doesn’t matter. They both dominated my childhood radio play in the 90’s, and I’ll be elaborating on that once my turn rolls around. Really enjoyed this list.

 

What the heck, add me to the list.

As to MN's playlist, I'm not much of a country guy, but was actually rather enjoying the country vibe the first few songs (my Spotify shuffles them since I'm too cheap to pay...lol) and then The Pretty Reckless comes on and I was just WTH! I've just gotten into listening to TPR and it was a shock next to Alan Jackson, the Highwaymen, etc. Anyway, I did vote for TPR even though I normally would have voted for Meatloaf. But great playlist MN, I actually enjoyed it.

 

For me this was an easy vote for And So It Went but I did really like Rivers In The Desert too. Never played a Persona game (not my type of game) but I've always heard how good the music is. Good stuff.

 

I went with The Pretty Reckless, too (not listened to them before), but the Gordon Lightfoot track gave it some stiff competition.

 

It’s kinda weird, but I really don’t like modern mainstream country music, I listen to all my old cds and stuff of course as this playlist can attest, but if I’m driving and listening to the radio these days it’s absolutely a rock station. So I get introduced and then go listen to a bunch of their stuff. TPR is definitely awesome.

 

Bat Out Of Hell is a genuinely good album.

 

Fine, I'll change my vote.

Edit: Nope, poll's closed. Sorry!

 

What were you going to change it to @blackmyron?

 

The world may never know.
I'm kidding. I changed it to "Big Iron".

 

Oh Burt, those are some good tracks! Going to be hard to chose between "Call Me Al", "Sledgehammer" and "You're my best friend." I love Graceland, that album was on repeat when I was a kid and I still listen to it today. But, I mean, there are better songs on the album. I was always partial to Under African Skies but in Al's defence, it has 100% of the Chevy Chase videos.

 

It’s going to be hard not voting for Walk Like An Egyptian. My mom loved that song when I was a kid.

 

My vote could go one of several ways but I'm not voting for "You Can Call Me Al" because it made the last playlist. This, I've decided, is my arbitrary personal rule.

 

"Movin' Right Along" is fantastic, just a feel good toe-tapper.