55 ALBUMS, 226 MlLES: HERE'S MY 2013 COLUMBUS MARATHON SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

539 Miles To Go

On race day, all the "songs for the soundtrack" from the training runs will be put into the pool and my iPod will determine which 52 or so of them will become a part of the permanent running record.

Song For The Soundtrack:
Outfit

1. Bastards Of Young, The Replacements from Tim

2. Live Forever, Black Sabbath from 13

3. Super 8, Jason Isbell from Southeastern

4. Outfit, Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit from Live From Alabama

5. Fortunate Son, John Fogerty and Foo Fighters from Wrote A Song For Everyone

6. Tom Dula, Neil Young and Crazy Horse from Americana

7. She's Evil, Th' Flyin' Saucers from 4 Songs Of Bad Love

8. I Wanna Eat Your Brain, Thee Invaders from Thee Invaders Have Landed
9. (untold pretties), Patterson Hood from Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance

Song For The Soundtrack:
Merry Go Round

10. Carl Perkins' Cadillac, Drive-By Truckers from The Dirty South
11. Soldiers Get Strange, Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit from Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
12. Loco Gringos Like A Party, Reverend Horton Heat from The Best Of The Reverend Horton Heat
13. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Jerry Lee Lewis from Live At Third Man Records
14. Darkness, Leonard Cohen from Old Ideas
15. (You Will) Set The World On Fire, David Bowie from The Next Day
16. Comfortable (Flyin' Scotsman), Ian Hunter & The Rant Band from When I'm President
17. Ace Of Spades, Motorhead from Ace Of Spades
18. Problem Child, AC/DC from Let There Be Rock
19. Ice Cream Man, Van Halen from Van Halen

Song  For  The Soundtrack:
Comfortable (Flyin' Scotsman)

20. Analog Man, Joe Walsh from Analog Man
21. Bad As Me, Tom Jones from Spirit In The Room
22. Beat That Guy, Iggy And The Stooge from Ready To Die
23. Free & Freaky, The Stooges from The Weirdness
24. Weed Instead Of Roses, Ashley Monroe from Like A Rose
25. Merry Go Round, Kacey Musgraves from Same Trailer Different Park
26. I Feel A Sin Comin' On, Pistol Annies from Annie Up
27. Takin' Pills, Pistol Annies from Hell On Heels
28. Then Again, Court Yard Hounds from Court Yard Hounds
29. Silver Bell, Natalie Maines from Mother
30. Voice Inside My Head, Dixie Chicks from Taking The Long Way
31. Breathing Down My Neck, The Black Belles from The Black Belles

Song For The Soundtrack:
Breathing Down My Neck

32. 21st Century Blues, Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses) from The Low Highway
33. Ball & Chain, Social Distortion from live at the Roxy
34. Live Before You Die, Social Distortion from Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll
35. Ruby Baby, Aaron Neville from My True Story
36. Lighters Up, Snoop Lion from Reincarnated
37. The Harder They Come, Willie Nelson from Countryman
38.Every Time He Drinks He Thinks Of Her, Willie Nelson from Heroes

39. Matchbox, Willie Nelson And Family from Let's Face The Music And Dance
40. Jeannie Needs A Shooter, Warren Zevon from Stand In The Fire
41. Lawyers, Guns And Money, Warren Zevon from Learning To Flinch
42. G.T.O., the Favors from the Favors

Song For The Soundtrack:
Lighters Up

43. Surrender, Cheap Trick from at Budokan
44. Running On Empty, Jackson Brown from Running On Empty
45. Guess Who's Knocking, Ryan Bingham from Tomorrowland
46. Maybe I Missed The Point, Jeff Bridges from Jeff Bridges
47. Ramblin' Jack, Kris Kristofferson from Feeling Mortal
48. I Am A Wanderer, Steve Earle from I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
49. Gimme Shelter, Keith Richards from Eileen
50. Party Line, Joey Ramone from "... ya know?"
51. Drinking Coke and Eating Ice, Mike Cooley from the fool on every corner
52. Crush On You, Bruce Springsteen from The River Disc I

Song For The Soundtrack:
I Feel A Sin Comin' On

53. I'm A Rocker, Bruce Springsteen from The River Disc II
54. The Rising, Bruce Springsteen from The Rising
55. Gold Dust Woman, Fleetwood Mac from The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac Disc II

Running Data Saturday, June 22:

5.58 Miles

1:16:42

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.91 Miles

THE REPLACEMENTS STILL ROCK'S GREATEST MESS ON TIM'S LADDER OF SUCCESS

Tim
1985

544 Miles To Go

The Replacements rank as rock's greatest mess on the ladder of success.

Known as much for their drunken stage antics as their infectious songs, Tim is their 1985 major label debut for Sire Records and unquestionably one of the era's best records.

Produced by the Ramones' Tommy Erdelyi, Tim is a perfect blend of the sonic thunderstorms of the Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash/The Replacements Stink/Hootenanny era with the promise of 1984's more polished Let It Be, which flies just as highly in rock's all-time rankings.

It's also the final offering from The Replacements original line-up of Paul Westerberg (vocals, guitars, piano), Tommy Stinson (bass), the late Bob Stinson (guitar) and Chris Mars (drums, backing vocals).

Fittingly, the band goes 11 for 11 on Tim in what would be considered a greatest hits collection for most bands.

Hold My Life, I'll Buy, Dose Of Thunder, Bastards Of Young, Lay It Down Clown, Left Of The Dial and Little Mascara rage with the ragged rock fury of the band's earliest work, while the other four songs showcase Westerberg's clever writing in more acoustic settings.

Early era purists hate Kiss Me On The Bus and Waitress In The Sky for their party invitations to the less hardcore, but it's impossible to not appreciate the overwhelming crush of the first and the smart aleck observations of the second.

The closing Here Comes A Regular is the boozy classic loved by nearly all the band's fans for its literal and metaphorical meanings for The Replacements' battles with the bottle.

Tim fits in the middle of the Let It Be/Tim/Pleased To Meet Me period, before Westerberg turns the speakers down considerably for the final pair of original releases - Don't Tell A Soul and All Shook Down.

It's easy to hear how Sorry Ma became Tim and how Tim transformed into All Shook Down, but virtually impossible to predict how the band that created its 1981 debut became the one on the 1990 finale, even with knowing all the line-up changes that would come after Tim.

Some of the funniest parts of the 2011 documentary about The Replacements - Color Me Obsessed - come from fans, famous and otherwise, arguing about the artistic merits of the various eras and when The Replacements quit being Their Replacements.

Three decades later Tim stands as a testament to music's most notorious "sons of no one."

Tim Song For The Soundtrack: Bastards Of Young

Running Data For Friday, June 21:

3.38 Miles

35:34

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.33 Miles

BLACK SABBATH 13 BREATHES BEASTLY FIRE INTO METAL'S MOST ANTICIPATED REUNION

13
2013

548 Miles To Go

Black Sabbath 13 breathes a beastly fire into heavy metal's most anticipated family reunion.

Rock's sweatiest hobgoblin Ozzy Osbourne reassumes his role as ringleader, while bassist Geezer Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi create the musical thunderstorms with drummer Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave) who mans the seat of the only original member not returning for 13, Bill Ward.

Rick Rubin, perhaps the most prolific and certainly most diversified producer of his generation, leads the studio charge into the spookiest swamps of Sabbath's early efforts and adds an updated metal muscularity - in part from his work with bands such as Slayer, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Wilk's former gang Rage Against The Machine.

All the expected lyrical images real and metaphorical are on 13 - good, evil, God, Satan, death, destruction, thunder, graveyards. And no matter how funny the phrasing, Ozzy always sounds sincere in his delivery.

Arguably, Ozzy's all-time most memorable lyrics are the coughs at the beginning of Sweet Leaf, the "All aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!/Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay" from his solo Crazy Train, and "I am Iron Man" from perhaps Sabbath's greatest hit.

Ozzy's antics made him a member of rock's one-name legends club, but Iommi wields the sharpest ax in making Sabbath metal's most influential royalty.

And, at its core, 13 is a showcase of Iommi's metal mastery.

The accomplishment of Iommi's guitar play is made even more impressive by the fact that the making of 13 along with the tour that followed happened while fighting a real demon - the blood cancer lymphoma.

If 13 is Sabbath's last original stand, it's more than worthy of a mention on their hall of fame headstone. 

13 Sound For The Soundtrack: Live Forever

Running Data for Thursday, June 20:
5.13 Miles
55:16

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.95 Miles

JASON ISBELL'S SOUTHEASTERN THE COMPASS OF A LIFE REDIRECTION

Southeastern
2013

553 Miles To Go

Jason Isbell is sober. He's in love and Southeastern is the musical compass of his life's redirection.

It reads reflection, rehabilitation, redemption and the exhilarating fear that comes from reinvention.

At least part of the prize is his recent marriage to knockout fiddle magician Amanda Shires who sings and plays on the collection.

Southeastern's songs tell of love that's white-hot enough to make the boys jealous of his fortune and the girls swoon for his sense of romance.

"Girl, leave your boots by the bed we ain't leaving this room/Till someone needs medical help or the magnolias bloom," Isbell declares on the opening Cover Me Up.

He's just as forward about his sobriety throughout Southeastern both in a serious tone (Different Days, Live Oak) and with a "tell-on-myself" sense of humor in Traveling Alone.

Isbell confesses, "Damn near strangled by my appetite/In Ybor City on a Friday night/Couldn't even stand upright/So high, the street girls wouldn't take my pay/She said come see me on a better day, and she just danced away."

Musically, Southeastern stays mostly in the ballad to mid-tempo range with Flying Over Water and Super 8 the two exceptions. The later is a hilarious update to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gimme Three Steps tale that gets funnier with each verse and this ending moral to the story: "If I ever get back to Bristol,/I'm better off sleeping in the county jail/I don't wanna die in a Super 8 motel." 

While Southeastern rates absolutely all killer and no filler, the two most haunting moments come from Songs That She Sang In The Shower and Elephant. The first brings home the loneliness of being left for too many self-inflicted wounds and haunted by the favorite numbers of a now long gone lover.

Elephant anguishes through the agony of a friend's eventual loss to cancer in a way that leaves a lump in the throat even after knowing the punch line.

Though technically a solo record, the band line-up includes 400 Unit members Derry deBorja on keys and mellotron, as well as drummer Chad Gamble, among others.

Live From Alabama
2012

At Isbell's June show in Columbus, he and The 400 Unit melded the material from Southeastern perfectly with a set that included most of the tracks from 2012's Live From Alabama.

Live From Alabama is a perfect primer for new fans discovering Isbell from Southeastern and the deserved hype that has followed.

It includes five of his Drive-By Truckers numbers (Decoration Day, Goddamn Lonely Love, Danko/Manuel, Outfit, TVA) and representatives from each of his non-Truckers trips - Sirens Of The Ditch, Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit, and Here We Rest.

Live From Alabama is topped off by a crunching cover of Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Like A Hurricane.

While Isbell garners most of his accolades as a singer/songwriter, Live From Alabama shows off his guitar chops and the spectacular musical interplay between him and deBorja's keyboards.

At the Columbus show, the audience paid Isbell the greatest compliment of all when they went from raucous and singing to silent for the newer quieter numbers.

This compass says Southeastern is pointed at 2013 record of the year possibilities.

Southeastern Song For The Soundtrack: Super 8

Live From Alabama Song For The Soundtrack: Outfit

Running Data for Wednesday, June 19:
10.37 Miles
1:59:50

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.82 Miles

MEASURED BY OTHERS' JOY IN SINGING HIS SONGS, FOGERTY A KING OF ROCK 'N' ROLL

Wrote A Song For Everyone
2013

563 Miles To Go

When judged by the joy with which others sing his songs, John Fogerty is a king of rock 'n' roll.

No amount of brother and band bad blood nor royalties rumbles can steal the zeal his Creedence Clearwater Revival and solo work continue to provide decades after their initial releases.

Wrote A Song For Everyone spins new life into some of his most memorable CCR moments, as well as debuts two new tunes - Mystic Highway and Train Of Fools.

The irresistible appeal of the CCR greatest hits included (Almost Saturday Night, Lodi, Bad Moon Rising) make this collection the rare all-star outing to actually exceed expectations. It's not that any of these versions are better than the originals, but nearly all add to the songs' legacies in their own way.

The guest stars include Keith Urban, Fogerty's sons Shane and Tyler, My Morning Morning, Zac Brown Band, Dawes and Brad Paisley.

Fogerty's best Wrote A Song For Everyone collaborations include the fiery Fortunate Son with Foo Fighters, the ironic heartbreak of the title track with Miranda Lambert and Tom Morello, a countrified Have You Ever Seen The Rain with Alan Jackson, and the closing New Orleans gumbo side of Proud Mary with Jennifer Hudson featuring Allen Toussaint and Rebirth Brass Band.

Only Born On The Bayou with Kid Rock and Who'll Stop The Rain with Bob Seger miss the expected mark when hearing of the song and artist pairings.

The CD also includes liner notes thoughts by Fogerty on each of the songs, as well as the story behind his signature flannel shirts.

With only 12 old songs covered here, there are plenty of options for future helpings of Fogerty and guests revisitations.

Tina Turner tuning up Proud Mary again, this time CCR style.

Bruce Springsteen on anything.

And, of course, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges on Looking Out My Back Door. Now that would abide.

Wrote A Song For Everyone Song For The Soundtrack: Fortunate Son

Neil Young And Crazy Horse Americana

Americana
2012

Americana is further proof that the Neil Young and Crazy Horse treatment can make any tune better just by turning up the guitars.

This principal even applies to centuries old songs such as Oh Susannah, Clementine, and Jesus Chariot (She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain).

The 1957 favorite Get A Job feels out of place next to Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land and God Save The Queen, but Neil's traveled the rockabilly trail before to favorable ends.

The liner notes booklet includes brief histories and complete lyrics for each of the included songs.

The Americana sessions also inspired the band to stay together for the all new two-disc meltdown of Psychedelic Pill (2012).

Anything that leads to more music from Neil Young and Crazy Horse is made for you and me.

Americana Song For The Soundtrack: Tom Dula

Th' Flyin' Saucers 4 Songs Of Bad Love

4 Songs Of Bad Love
Early 2000's

Thee Invaders Thee Invaders Have Landed

Thee Invaders Have Landed
2002

In the early 2000's, Columbus reigning rockabilly sons were Th' Flyin' Saucers and Thee Invaders.

The Saucers played it straight out of the Sun Studios and Gene Vincent music books.

Johnny Rebel continues to front the band at shows in and outside of Columbus. Visit their Facebook page for updates.

Meanwhile, Thee Invaders conquered audiences with crazed Cramps trappings and arrangements.

Sci-fi strangeness along with drug trippiness fueled the live rides that were always memorable even when the playing was sometimes sloppy.

"Invader Superstar" T.J. Steppe was among the hardest working rockers in the Cbus scene and impossible to miss on stage or the street with his long multi-colored locks.

Long gone from central Ohio stages, lead singer Matt "McVader" McNulty was turning earth girl skin green in Chicago with a new incarnation of Thee Invaders as recently as 2011.

"We're still here. We've always been here. We'll always be here," claims a March 2011 tweet from @theeinvaders.

Even if not literally, Thee Invaders always will lurk in Columbus music memories.

4 Songs Of Bad Love Song For The Soundtrack: She's Evil

Thee Invaders Have Landed Song For The Soundtrack: I Wanna Eat Your Brain

Running Data for Saturday, June 15:

12.00 Miles

2:14:3

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.45 Miles