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I brought the concept of the Song of The Day into the internet age one year ago today, 24 Jan 2007 (local time), and I've loved every day of it.

If you have been reading along, then thanks for reading and especially to everyone who has commented in! If you're new to SotD, please stay tuned as we move into year two!

In the past year, we've had a SotD from all of the artists listed below (# of selections). With 365 selections up, I've only covered 5% of the sablespecter catalog, and it's growing by more than an average of a song per day, so we're not anywhere near being in danger of running out of songs!

In fact, the nicely coincident timing of Last's big announcement means the collective available catalog is now quite a bit larger for all of us! It's almost cosmic timing - I wonder if this is their way of celebrating?

Yeah, probably not, so to celebrate a successful year, I've decided that starting today, Song of The Day is now open to requests (don't all rush in at once LOL)!…

Derek and The Dominos / "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" / Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (IV-3) / Dec 1970

Artist: Derek and the Dominos
Original Album: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Track: Have You Ever Loved A Woman

The supernova hit from this album, of course, is Layla, originally and then again after the piano exit appeared in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.

As for me, my favorite track is this one. More direct about his conflicted emotions over Pattie Boyd, and great electric blues track.

I've always been ambivalent about Eric Clapton. Ol' Slowhand is so good, but he was always so...restless. I can understand leaving The Yardbirds to be less commercial and get back to pure blues. I am glad in retrospect that he left John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, because it gave entry to my favorite blues guitarist Peter Green. Cream had a good run. Might should have given Blind Faith a bit more of a go. But Derek and The Dominos definitely should have had more time, though. …

1948 - Mick Taylor (John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, The Rolling Stones) born.

1963 - Andy Rourke (The Smiths) born.

1963 - The Beatles played at the Cavern Club at lunchtime and in the evening played at the Majestic Ballroom, Birkenhead. At the Majestic, every ticket had been sold in advance, leaving 500 disappointed fans waiting outside.

1966 - NBC-TV bought The Monkees series, placing it on their 1966 autumn schedule.

1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded a session for Radio Luxembourg's Ready Steady Radio. The band ran up a bar bill of £2.5 shillings, ($6.21), which they were unable to pay.

1967 - The Daily Mail ran the story about a local council survey finding 4,000 holes in the road in Lancashire inspiring John Lennon's contribution to The Beatles song 'A Day In The Life'.

1970 - Appearing at the Felt Forum New York City, The Doors. The show was recorded for the bands forthcoming 'Absolutely Live' album.

1974 - Dean Martin's son Dino Martin was arrested after…

Mick Taylor may have gotten his start with John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers but, I must confess that I only know of his work with The Rolling Stones. Regardless, I feel that he may be the most under appreciated guitarist there has ever been. My favorite Stones era was with Taylor (Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed excluded. Both are great albums and he only played on two songs on the latter). You can't compare anything they have done with that early 70's stuff. It's very obvious that he helped in creating the music, and he got jack shit for credit. Seriously, how many people do you know who know who Mick Taylor is? I got on this rant because I was watching Cash Cab tonight and the Red Light Challenge was about Stones members and the contestants had to get five. They got Jagger, Richards, Jones, Watts and Wood. Ben Bailey, the host, told them the only one they missed was Bill Wyman. That sent me into one of my pompous tizzies. Even last.fm's bio of the Stones doesn't mention him. Rather than go on, I direct you to this wiki article. …

Fleetwood Mac / "Fleetwood Mac" / The Original Fleetwood Mac (7) / May 1971

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Original Album: The Original Fleetwood Mac
Track: Fleetwood Mac

Track preview via The Penguin (If you're a FM fan, you gotta bookmark this site...)

Day 2 of the SotD Fleetwood Mac Legacy...

Mid-1967 was another time of change for John Mayall and his lineup for John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. Mick Fleetwood had been booted for hitting the bottle a little more than Mayall preferred, and Peter Green had been replaced by Mick Taylor by this point and was keen to start his own group.

John McVie hung around the Bluesbreakers long enough to to record Crusade, being less keen to leave the reliable pay afforded by being with John Mayall. Shortly after that album, though, he left and rejoined Mick and Peter along with Jeremy Spencer as the first official lineup of Fleetwood Mac.

I mentioned yesterday that the earliest tracks that John, Mick, and Peter recorded were session demos of Curly…

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers / "Double Trouble" / Double Trouble (A) b/w It Hurts Me Too (B) / Apr 1967

Artist: John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
Original Release: "Double Trouble" [1967 single]
Available on: A Hard Road [2003 Expanded Edition] (see A Hard Road (disc 2) )
Track: Double Trouble

Track preview via allmusic

Day 1 of the SotD Fleetwood Mac Legacy...

Happy 62nd Birthday to John Graham McVie!
http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/biographies/john5.jpg
(source: fleetwoodmac.net)

...the "Mac" of Peter Green's "favorite rhythm section" of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

This Otis Rush tune is one of the earliest recordings to include all three of them, that earliest kernel of what Peter dubbed Fleetwood Mac.

The first recordings that John, Mick, and Peter did together were Curly, Rubber Duck, and Fleetwood Mac, which were demos put down in November 1966 during studio time given to Peter by John Mayall during the sessions for A Hard Road. …

I've seen several variations on this exercise, so I thought I'd try one:

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.

Here is my list of unique artists:

Bruce Springsteen
Jackson Browne
Van Morrison
Neil Young
Bob Dylan
Paul Simon
Tom Petty
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Townes Van Zandt
Rodney Crowell
Joe Ely
Jerry Jeff Walker
Steve Earle
Billy Joe Shaver
Robert Earl Keen
Tom Russell
Uncle Tupelo
Jay Farrar
Golden Smog
Whiskeytown
The Jayhawks
Drive By Truckers
Old 97s
Gillian Welch
Emmylou Harris
Neko Case
Lyle Lovett
Gram Parsons
Patty Griffin
The Rolling Stones
U2
Dire Straits
John Lennon
Billy Joel
International Submarine Band
…