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Spotify Discover Weekly for April 8-14

"Never Been to Spain" - Elvis Presley from album: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden (1972) Allmusic genre: Contemporary Pop/Rock My thoughts: I remember looking up this song and playing it once before in the past year, but now I can't remember why; it was probably mentioned in a novel I was reading and I couldn't remember ever having heard it. Elvis is in good voice, but it's very bombastic and has way too many horns. Give me 1950's Sun Records Elvis to this 1970's stuff any day. ** "When You're Falling" - Afro Celt Sound System, feat. Peter Gabriel from album: Volume 3: Further in Time (2001) Allmusic genre: Ethnic Fusion My thoughts: I'm not sure what I did that made the algorithm recommend this to me, but it does have Peter Gabriel on vocals, so that's a nice surprise. It's a happy little song; I will add it to try-outs. **** "Lay Lady Lay (ALTERNATE VERSION)" - The Byrds from album:  Dr. Byrds &

Geographical Names

Data is all from SSA.gov and pertains to baby names given to U.S. children in 2017. Names given to 4 or fewer children of one sex in a year are not released publicly, so if you know a baby born in 2017 named, for example, Wyoming, they may have been the only one that year. Sex organs do not confer gender, but for simplicity's sake, assume "girl" means a baby assigned female at birth, and "boy" means a baby assigned male at birth. U.S. States 16 girls were named Alabama. 77 girls were named Alaska. 111 girls were named Arizona. 16 girls were named California. 1305 girls were named Georgia. 104 girls and 70 boys were named Indiana. 19 girls were named Kansas. 6 girls were named Louisiana. 115 girls and 68 boys were named Montana. 32 girls and 11 boys were named Nevada. 140 girls and 25 boys were named Jersey. 6 boys were named York. 715 girls were named Carolina. 1346 girls and 984 boys were named Dakota, not to mention that 54 girls and 44 boys

Spotify Discover Weekly for April 1-7

"Catch the Wind" - Donovan from album: What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid (1965) Allmusic genre: British Folk My thoughts: One of my favorite songs by Donovan; I'm sure I've known it for most of my life. ***** "Something in the Air" - Thunderclap Newman from album: Hollywood Dream (1970) Allmusic genre: AM Pop My thoughts: I first knew this song because Wilco covered it live. It's a great song and I'd forgotten about it for a decade; adding it to my Spotify favorites playlist now. ***** "Love Untold" - Paul Westerberg from album: Eventually (1996) Allmusic genre: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock My thoughts: This song is unfamiliar to me. Inoffensive but unmemorable mid-tempo 90's alt-rock. ** "I Know No Pardon" - Vetiver from album: To Find Me Gone (2006) Allmusic genre: Alternative Singer/Songwriter My thoughts: This one is new to me; I think I've heard of the band but I've never listened to the

True / Spandau Ballet (1983)

"True" is an essential soundtrack item for being nine years old in the summer of 1983, where it constantly played on the radio at Charlotte Swim and Racket Club. I knew nothing about the song except its melody and ubiquity; I was still a year away from tuning into Z-100 on my own, all day, every day. I was in high school before I rediscovered "True" on the jukebox at The Honey Bee diner in Glen Burnie, where my best friend Eileen and I would eat fries, drink coffee, and chainsmoke Camel Lights (still legal to smoke indoors and underage in 1990-91). Playing "True" was the first order of business every time we went there. I don't recall anything else from that jukebox, but "True" was an early experience of the hold musical nostalgia has over me. The lyrics of "True" evoke a school dance -- "Head over heels when toe to toe;" "With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue / dissolve the nerves that have just begun