POTUS: A MUSICAL HISTORY
Feb. 21st, 2022 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogIt’s President’s Day. Whoop dee doo.
And me being me, I wondered if it was possible to put together a playlist with one song for every US President ever.
Possible? Yes.
Easy? No.
At least depending on your criteria. Which in my case was the following:
1. The song must have the President’s name in the title
2. The song must be halfway decent.
As it happens, there’s a few albums out there where a band or solo artist did songs for every POTUS, but they’re not that great. So I really had to dig around to come up with these – and as you can imagine, it’s easier to find songs about, say, Nixon and Reagan than it is about, say, Chester Arthur and John Quincy Adams.
I mean, even Gerald Ford was a challenge – I ended up going with a comedy track (I would have used a Dickie Goodman novelty song but the sound quality is terrible – they obviously ripped it from an old 45 in poor condition).
Andrew Johnson was particularly challenging because, as it happens, there are a couple of Andrew Johnsons out there making music, and they’re both prolific, and Spotify’s clever search algorithm doesn't distinguish between song titles and artists. Eventually I found just three songs, only one of which is good, and apparently was removed from Spotify a few days before posting this – at least here in HK. It may be available where you are, so if “Three Whiskeys” is playable on your list, good for you. If not, it’s also available for streaming on Bandcamp right here.
It also seems that around 85% of POTUS-themed songs fall into two musical categories: country/folk or obscure indie rock. So musically there’s not as much variety as I’d like. But that’s how it goes sometimes.
Anyway, rock on.
Who’s next,
This is dF
BONUS MATERIAL: Paste has its own Presidents Day playlist with one song for each POTUS, but in a less literal way. So I need to up my game here.
And me being me, I wondered if it was possible to put together a playlist with one song for every US President ever.
Possible? Yes.
Easy? No.
At least depending on your criteria. Which in my case was the following:
1. The song must have the President’s name in the title
2. The song must be halfway decent.
As it happens, there’s a few albums out there where a band or solo artist did songs for every POTUS, but they’re not that great. So I really had to dig around to come up with these – and as you can imagine, it’s easier to find songs about, say, Nixon and Reagan than it is about, say, Chester Arthur and John Quincy Adams.
I mean, even Gerald Ford was a challenge – I ended up going with a comedy track (I would have used a Dickie Goodman novelty song but the sound quality is terrible – they obviously ripped it from an old 45 in poor condition).
Andrew Johnson was particularly challenging because, as it happens, there are a couple of Andrew Johnsons out there making music, and they’re both prolific, and Spotify’s clever search algorithm doesn't distinguish between song titles and artists. Eventually I found just three songs, only one of which is good, and apparently was removed from Spotify a few days before posting this – at least here in HK. It may be available where you are, so if “Three Whiskeys” is playable on your list, good for you. If not, it’s also available for streaming on Bandcamp right here.
It also seems that around 85% of POTUS-themed songs fall into two musical categories: country/folk or obscure indie rock. So musically there’s not as much variety as I’d like. But that’s how it goes sometimes.
Anyway, rock on.
Who’s next,
This is dF
BONUS MATERIAL: Paste has its own Presidents Day playlist with one song for each POTUS, but in a less literal way. So I need to up my game here.
