My Playlists

One of the unexpected things that happened when we brought the boat down from Nantucket was how self-sufficient we were. Just a man and a dog.

Every night we would walk into town, buy the best lobster roll in town, and take it back to enjoy it on the boat. A bottle of wine, a cigar, and my playlist. It seems that’s all I need.

My Personal Playlist includes over 150 songs now:
• Dylan and Debussey
• Big Bopper and Chubby Checker
• Billy Joel and Billy Eilish
• Gershwin and Gaga
• Marvin Gaye and Joni Mitchell
• Neil Young and Neil Diamond
• Blues and Ballads
• Rock and Reggae
• Glen Miller and Janis Joplin
• Ray Charles and Ray Price
• The Carpenters and Mary Chapin Carpenter
• Nat King Cole and King Crimson
• Kenny Rogers and Kenny Chesney
• Lots of Willie Nelson
• And lots of Abba
• Sara McLaughlan and The Poosies
• Morrissey and Morrisett
• Ed Sheeren and The Beatles, of course. (Have you seen the movie Yesterday?)
• Charlie Rich and Charlie Pride

Every song has a meaning for me.

I also have a Boating Playlist – a wonderful amalgam of sea chanties and songs about boats. Check out Kenny Chesney’s song called Boats: ‘Vessels of freedom…harbors of healing.” Boat guys get it.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but MY boat’s name is Freedom.

For the first time in my life, I’m not someone’s son, or pupil, or employee, or husband. If you’ve seen “to Have and Have Not’ – that classic movie with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall [how’s that for a stage name? Humphrey? It doesn’t even make sense to type it!], you know what I mean: ”Walk around me ,Slim. Do you see any strings on me?” A paraphrase, not a quote.

The Boating Playlist comprises about 80 songs. Some sea chanties…mostly songs about the sea.

I even wrote one myself. I haven’t figured out how to post an audio file to this blog, so you’ll have to settle for the lyrics. With all credit (and apologies) to Lyle Lovett (If I Had a Boat)

If I had a boat, I’d go out on the ocean
And if I had a puppy, I’d take him on my boat.
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean…
Me, my happy puppy, on my boat.

Like my Personal Playlist, my Boating Playlist is quite a disparate list: CS&N, Styxx, Alan Jackson, the Kingston Trio, Cowboy Junkies, Harry Belafonte, and of course a lot of Jimmy Buffet

Two other favorites are Knee Deep by the Zach Brown Band and Rolling Down to Old Maui by Stan Rogers. Cathy and I visited the old whaling town of Lahaina in Maui, and I totally get this song. And the harmonies (anchored by Stan Rogers’ incredible voice) are awesome.

Perhaps the prettiest is Charlie Darwin by The Little Anthem. Or maybe The Water is Wide by Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Indigo Girls: “Give me a boat that can carry two; and both shall row, my love and I.”

Ask your smart speaker to play some of these…you’ll share my vibe.