Obama's Official Playlist

[stenka razin]

Comments, please. No Bach, Beethoven or Brahms, much less Satie or even John Williams 'Star Wars'....So sad.......

Regards,
Mel


CNN) The White House released two Spotify playlists of songs on Friday morning, one for day and one for night, that were hand-picked by President Barack Obama, who's currently vacationing on Martha's Vineyard.

The playlists are a first for the White House, which launched an official channel on Spotify, a music streaming service.

"Take a listen to the 20 picks for a summer night," the description for the playlist states.

The playlists include a mix of genres, such as hip-hop, jazz, R&B and folk from a variety of artists, including Beyonce, Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra and Joni Mitchell.

Here are the songs on the Day playlist, which total 1 hour and 32 minutes in time:

"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by The Temptations
"Live It Up" by Isley Brothers
"Memories Live" by Talib Kweli and Hi Tek
"Tombstone Blues" by Bob Dylan
"So Much Trouble in the World" by Bob Marley
"Paradise" by Coldplay
"Tengo Un Trato (Remix)" by Mala Rodriguez
"Wang Dang Doodle" by Howlin Wolf
"Another Star" by Stevie Wonder
"Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & the Family Stone
"Boozophilia" by Low Cut Connie
"Wherever Is Your Heart" by Brandi Carlile
"Good Day" by Nappy Roots
"Green Light" by John Legend
"Gimme Shelter" by Rolling Stones
"Rock Steady" by Aretha Franklin
"Down Down the Deep River" by Okkervil River
"Pusher Love Girl" by Justin Timberlake
"Shake It Out" by Florence + The Machine
"La Salsa La Traigo Yo" by Sonora Carruseles

Here are the songs on the Night playlist, which total 1 hour and 38 minutes in time:

"My favorite things" by John Coltrane
"Superpower" by Beyonce and Frank Ocean
"Moondance" by Van Morrison
"Is Your Love Big Enough?" by Lianne La Havas
"How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by Al Green
"Red &White & Blue & Gold" by Aoife O'Donovan
"Nothing Even Matters" by Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo
"The Best Is Yet To Come" by Frank Sinatra
"You Don't Know Me" by Ray Charles
"I Found My Everything" by Mary J. Blige
"Help Me" by Joni Mitchell
"I've Got Dreams To Remember" by Otis Redding
"Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen
"Feeling Good" by Nina Simone
"Stubborn Love" by The Lumineers
"Until" by Cassandra Wilson
"UMI" Says by Mos Def
"The Very Thought Of You" by Billie Holiday
"Flamenco Sketches" by Miles Davis
"Woo" By Erykah Badu >>

[John F]

Puzzling, why "official playlists" should even exist. What are they for, elevator music? Phone calls on hold? I don't expect Vladimir Putin or King Abdullah would appreciate them much.

[lennygoran]

Comments, please. No Bach, Beethoven or Brahms, much less Satie or even John Williams 'Star Wars'....So sad....... Frank Sinatra

Mel just an aside on Sinatra-a show I watch on PBS named Metrofocus was focusing on Sinatra 100 years-they showed the famous Lewis-- Martin reunion orchestrated by Sinatra on a telethon. Anyway Lewis was interviewed during the show and said that Sinatra was the greatest American performer of the century and had perfect pitch. I believe Jimmy Carter had opera piped into the Oval Office. Regards, Len

http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/2015 ... r-11-2015/

[Wallingford]

Horowitz reportedly said of Carter, "He does know his music."

As for Obama's playlist, even though he's about my age, at least he's not an old fart like me who ignores contemporary pop of the last 15 years.

[John F]

As I remember, a selection of classical records was presented to the White House when Richard Nixon was there, I forget by who, but Jimmy Carter is the only president who ever played them. As for Barack Obama, he may not ignore contemporary pop but he does ignore classical of all periods. Boo!

[Lance]

Join the club. I tend to ignore it 99% of the time. I do, however, love the voice of C&W artists such as Patsy Cline - and have a passion for the voice of Roy Orbison (and have all their recordings). But I also enjoy polkas (background heritage)! The Obama list is ridiculous. The Kennedys had plenty of great music culture when they were in office. And Truman appreciated great music, too.

Horowitz reportedly said of Carter, "He does know his music."

As for Obama's playlist, even though he's about my age, at least he's not an old fart like me who ignores contemporary pop of the last 15 years.

[jbuck919]

Puzzling, why "official playlists" should even exist. What are they for, elevator music? Phone calls on hold? I don't expect Vladimir Putin or King Abdullah would appreciate them much.

I don't get the point either, but as for what is on the list, we have to live with the reality that ours is a rarefied interest and that pop music is a serious matter to many people. It's as inexplicable to me as to anyone on this board, but there seems to be no necessary connection between educated accomplishment such as our current president exhibits in abundance and the level of the brow in musical taste.

[Wallingford]

Leave it to Obama to bestow upon Al Green a Kennedy Center Honor!

[jbuck919]

Leave it to Obama to bestow upon Al Green a Kennedy Center Honor!

I had to look up Al Green. The President, whoever he or she may be, has no choice but to be broad about these things and avoid appearing to be snooty, even though in Obama's case I doubt that it was a difficult choice. As for your other post, Neil, I recommend that you never be apologetic for not being current with pop music. I have had my experience with high school music, mature arrangements for band, etc., and the musicians in charge are about evenly divided between those who don't know the difference between Beethoven and Roll Over Beethoven on the one hand, and those who recognize what amidst the general junk constitutes serious art on the other. Without exception, the latter group must compromise and dissemble from their true excellent taste. We have no such requirement here on the Classical Music Board.

[John F]

Leave it to Obama to bestow upon Al Green a Kennedy Center Honor!

The Kennedy Center board of directors chooses who is honored, and while Mrs. Obama is one of its honorary chairs along with all living former first ladies, I don't know if she even has a vote. Board members are appointed by the President, pro forma, but I doubt he even knows who they are - and looking at the list, I sure don't. Oh, I see that one of the emeritus trustees is Bo Derek.

[IcedNote]

Oh, c'mon, folks... This isn't an indication that he doesn't like/support classical music or something. Hell, 97.551% of playlists that I would put together for occasions of all kinds wouldn't include classical, either!

-G

[jserraglio]

I like Obama's list. esp, Howlin' Wolf. No classical is fine with me.


Ted "we will carpet bomb them into oblivion" Cruz's list might have a lot of classical titles on it.

[THEHORN]

Although he's not very knowledgeable about it, Obama DOES occasionally enjoy listening to classical music from what I've heard , and he's no philistine .