Recently, I was interviewed on one of my favorite podcasts, "Fitzdog Radio" with Greg Fitzsimmons, a comedian and writer who I've admired for many years. Our free-flowing conversation about music and television and comedy was -- at least for the two of us -- genuinely entertaining and interesting. Because this was a podcast and not any other more shallow form of modern media, Greg made the decision right then and there in his comfy home office studio to turn our chat into a two-part episode -- an honor usually reserved for actually funny and famous people like say Norm Macdonald. Usually I'm that frightening-looking guy who pops up on radio or television to give a stray sentence or two of what sounds like credible cultural commentary, but Greg artfully tapped into my inner blowhard, and we ended up putting on a show of almost Springsteenian length.
That openness to the moment is the reason that I have in recent years become a confessed Podhead, a podcasting addict openly and happily hooked to my favorite podcasts like the fascinatingly revealing and riotously funny "The Adam Carolla Show and the obsessively brilliant and wonderfully soul-searching "WTF with Marc Maron." There's lots more where that came from, including the recent addition "Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr," as well as others I subscribe to -- albeit for free -- like "The Rock and Roll Geek Show," "Sound Opinions," "The Moth Podcast," "The Tobolowsky Files," "Inside MusiCast," "Doug Loves Movies," "The David Feldman Show," "Smodcast," "Showbiz Sandbox" and "For Crying Outloud."
With all the mass media in our lives today, I believe we remain desperate for good or even decent conversation. That said, here's my very talky playlist for Greg Fitzsimmons and for all the podcasters out there who are elevating the art of conversation in these fallen times. As Tracy Chapman might say if she were more chatty, I believe that when we're talking about podcasting, we're "Talkin' About A Revolution."
At least I hope so.
As always, please add your own songs for podcasting below, then subscribe away. But as all the above podcasters would probably say, listen to the one I was on first.
EVERYBODY'S TALKIN' - Bill Withers
TALK OF THE TOWN - The Pretenders
WE BETTER TALK THIS OVER - Bob Dylan
TALK TO ME BABY - Elmore James
TALKING AT THE SAME TIME - Tom Waits
WE DON'T TALK ANYMORE - Cliff Richard
DON'T START ME TALKIN' - The New York Dolls
I WANT TO TALK ABOUT ME - Toby Keith
TALK TALK - Talk Talk
TALKIN' LOUD AND SAYING NOTHIN' - James Brown
I WILL TALK AND HOLLYWOOD WILL LISTEN - Robbie Williams
TALK MORE TALK - Paul McCartney
DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS - Rick Springfield
TALK - Keb' Mo'
IF I COULD TALK I'D TELL YOU - The Lemonheads
TALK - Coldplay
PEOPLE GONNA TALK - James Hunter
COME TALK TO ME - Bon Iver
REAL TALK - R. Kelly
IF YOU TALK IN YOUR SLEEP - Elvis Presley
AIN'T TALKIN' ABOUT LOVE - Van Halen
TALKING TO YOU (IS LIKE TALKING TO MYSELF) - Daryl Hall
TALKIN' OLD SOLDIERS - Elton John
SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE TALK - Lucinda Williams
TALK TO ME - Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
JIVE TALKIN' - Bee Gees
SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT - Bonnie Raitt
TALK TO ME - Barry Mann
LOOSE TALK - Carlene Carter with Carl Smith
TALKIN' ABOUT A REVOLUTION
I'M LOOKIN AT YOU BUT I'M TALKING TO MYSELF - Utopia
TALK TO YA LATER - The Tubes