100 Songs to Clean the Garage To
This is a really weird playlist, but it should help you get through cleaning the garage. It might even make cleaning the garage enjoyable, something you’ll make an excuse to do again next weekend. You can use this playlist any way you want. The first half is a little mellower, for when you’re just kind of putting around, which is always the way it is with cleaning the garage-you putter around for awhile, doing the easy stuff. The second half picks up, for when you’re really getting into it-the dark corners you haven’t dug into in a few years. Or, you could just play it on shuffle, and it still works. We hope it helps.
You can download it here:
"100 Days, 100 Nights" – Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
To get things started: Deep-down funky 1960s-style soul by way of Brooklyn, circa 2006, by a kicking band and a dynamo of a woman who had a voice from far out. May she rest in peace.
"Setting Me Up" – Dire Straits
Dire Straits goes rockabilly.
"Golden Years" – David Bowie
In the 1998 book Bowie: The Loving Alien, author Christopher Sandford quotes Bowie saying that he offered “Golden Years” to Elvis Presley, but that Elvis turned it down. So he did it himself.
"New Birth in New England" – Phosphorescent
This new song had us from the opening line: “I was sitting at a bar in New England. I was thinking about another beer.” Sounds kinda perfect.
"Lodi" – Creedence Clearwater Revival
The B-side of “Bad Moon Rising,” “Lodi” is one of the best songs ever about being in a rock band. Fun fact: John Fogerty had never been to Lodi when he wrote it.
"In the Summertime" – Mungo Jerry
When you’re waist-deep in dirty boxes, sometimes you need a little silly.
"Mango Meat" – Mandrill
On the surface, they are singing about the flesh of the mango fruit. And yet-just look at the photo of the dudes on the album cover. They’re up to something more.
"Playing In the Band" – Bob Weir
Bob Weir’s first solo album apart from the Grateful Dead-kind of. His backing band was…the Grateful Dead.
"Get Out of My Life Woman" – Solomon Burke
King Solomon will get you through.
"Baby Please Don’t Go" – Them
Van Morrison fronted this Irish band for just two years before becoming Van Morrison. The influence they had in that short time was immeasurable, including this blues-rock masterpiece.
"All the Young Dudes" – Mott the Hoople
David Bowie was a huge fan of these guys, and reportedly wrote this song for the band when they were about to break up. It became their biggest hit.
"Funky Kingston" – Toots and the Maytals
Early reggae (1972 initial release), before most people outside of Kingston knew what reggae was. Funky it is, and studies show that funkiness is important when cleaning a garage.
"Just Dropped In (To See What Condition my Condition Was In)" – The First Edition
Frontman Kenny Rogers singing about the dangers of LSD, which explains the head-scratcher title.
"Mary Jane’s Last Dance" – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Kim Basinger as a (dead) Indiana girl on an Indiana night.
"Crosstown Traffic" – Jimi Hendrix Experience
1968 is showing up quite a bit on this list. Good year for garage-cleaning music.
"She Got Kick" – Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite
The youngish (49) indie rocker and the old (74) Chicago bluesman have collaborated on two albums, and “She Got Kick” kicks.
"Out of My League" – Fitz and the Tantrums
There should be a subgenre called “dream rock,” and this should be in it.
"Shotgun!" – Junior Walker and the All-Stars
Recorded in 1964 at Hitsville, USA in Detroit. It starts with the sound of an actual shotgun blast, and the rest is one single, perfect chord-the A-flat seventh, to be precise-for the whole track.
"Hunger Strike" – Temple of the Dog
Rest in peace, Chris Cornell.
"Home" – LCD Soundsystem
Rock-punk-dance-electronica-whatever kind of music you want to call LCD Soundsystem’s, you’re probably right. This is a beauty with a persistent, mesmerizing beat, and it’s called “Home,” and your garage is part of your home, so…
"Follow the Leader" – Foxygen
Fancypants music critics have compared this cool, weird duo to lots of 1960s– and 70s–era artists, including Todd Rundgren and the Rolling Stones. This song, and most of Hang, the album on which it appears, very much sounds like right now-but yeah, it’s clear these guys know, and love, their classic rock.
"Little Green Bag" – George Baker Selection
The record company didn’t realize he was singing “Little Green Back,” as in a dollar. Not a bag of weed, as people assumed. Money. A “greenback.” (The song name was misprinted on the seven-inch single.)
"The Race Is On" – Grateful Dead
Of the billion versions of this song, this one is the most enthusiastic.
"Release Me" – Lyle Lovett
Because Lyle Lovett’s voice is like a river, and because “release me” is what you’ll be singing to your garage after the fourth hour.
"Loading Zones" – Kurt Vile
Given name.
"Never Gonna Tell It" – Philippe Wynne
The Spinners front man on an effective coping mechanism for heartache: deny, deny, deny.
"Shape of Things to Come" – Max Frost & the Troopers
Songs written in 1968 have a lot to say for right now.
"You Ain’t Going Nowhere" – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
“Buy me a flute/And a gun that shoots/Tailgates and substitutes/Strap yourself to the tree with roots, because…” In that order please.
"September Gurls" – Big Star
Not totally sure what this one is about (“December boys got it bad”), but it moves.
"Ride Your Pony" – Lee Dorsey
Written by the great New Orleans music man Allen Toussaint, electrified by the endlessly funky Dorsey.
"Natural Blues" – Moby
Moby’s Play album was the soundtrack to every part in America in the summer of 1999. “Natural Blues” is the epitome of the record: mournful and jubilant at the same time.
"Meet You at the Chicken Shack" – Lightnin’ Hopkins
You know the one.
"Amarillo Sky" – Jason Aldean
When you’re done cleaning the garage (and listening to this song), cue up the YouTube video. Aldean cast real future farmers for it.
"Hush" – Deep Purple
Love can make you hear things no one else can.
"Riki Tiki Tavi" – Donovan
This is a fairly deft and accomplished protest song, but for our purposes, it’s just fun to sing the name “Riki Tiki Tavi” over and over again.
"Wagon Wheel" – Darius Rucker
Sure, it’s a standard. Sure, Rucker is not exactly reinventing it with this cover. But it is pretty much perfect.
"Time Is Tight" – Booker T & the MGs
Which is the more mind-blowing instrumental, this or “Jessica” by the Allman Brothers Band?
"Little Red Corvette" – Prince
One of the 20th century’s great songwriters perfectly weaves man’s love for women with man’s love for Corvettes.
"City Looks Pretty" – Courtney Barnett
Barnett, a recent discovery (for us), has a lilting, hangdog voice that makes you really listen to what she’s saying, and it’s worth.
"Springsteen" – Eric Church
Like Brad Paisley and Willie Nelson, Church is notable for being one of the few country-music singers who acknowledges a world outside of the country-music sphere.
"The House That Jack Built" – Aretha Franklin
Because it sounds vaguely like a DIY project. And because it’s Aretha.
"Nina Cried Power" – Hozier featuring Mavis Staples
Soaring.
"Birmingham" – Shovels & Rope
For a husband-and-wife folk-singer duo, Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst can, occasionally, really rock.
"Painted Yellow Lines" – Dispatch
Dispatch was the first independent band ever to sell out Madison Square Garden, which they have done five times. This new song is a near perfect song, with an entirely unique and confusing and brilliant structure that demands that you listen to it at least seven times in a row.
"They Reminisce Over You" – Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth
A hip-hop classic about friendship and loss.
"Smooth Sailin’" – Leon Bridges
Dude sounds like he could have been recording 50, 60 years ago. But he is one of the freshest artists of today.
"From a Buick 6" – Bob Dylan
Dylan plays the blues-uptempo.
"He’s a Rebel" – Darlene Love
Her voice will ring through every cobwebbed corner of your garage until the sun shines through.
"Ain’t That a Shame" – John Lennon
A Fats Domino cover off Lennon’s 1975 Phil Spector-produced album Rock and Roll, on which he covered songs from the early days of rock.
"Sledgehammer" – Peter Gabriel
Sledgehammers are typically stored in the garage.
"S.O.B." – Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
One of the best band names of all time. On this song, you can hear the sweat in Rateliff’s voice as he sings the most body-shaking song about desperation ever written.
"Hot For Teacher" – Van Halen
“Hey man, I think the clock is slow. I don’t feel tardy!”
"The Last of the Real Ones" – Fall Out Boy
This song sparked a massive year for Pete Wentz’s Chicago-based band. They headlined Wrigley Field, a first for them.
"Synchronicity I" – The Police
The Jungian lyrics include philosophical verses like this:
“We know you, they know me/Extrasensory/Synchronicity/A star fall, a phone call/It joins all/Synchronicity.” Right!
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" – Nirvana
Grunge rock was, in part, an explosive reaction to the materialistic glitz of the 1980s. This song can accompany your explosive reaction to spilling 12-year-old paint thinner all over the floor. While cleaning the garage.
"Hey Ya" – OutKast
Still the coolest band of the 90s.
"I’m Shipping Up to Boston" – Dropkick Murphys
These guys could clean one hell of a garage.
"Ace of Spades" – Motorhead
The Four Tops and Motorhead are on the same playlist.
"Well All Right" – Blind Faith
Buddy Holly, the titan, joyfully interpreted by Blind Father, the supergroup. The results will want to make you clean your neighbor’s garage too.
"(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles" – The Proclaimers
Okay, fine-it’s a wee bit cheesy. Like a novelty song. But there is joy in his voice, and, suddenly, a spring in your step.
"The End" – The Beatles
The last song recorded by all four Beatles. “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
"Uh Huh" – Jade Bird
If you haven’t met her, we take great pride in introducing you to this 21-year-old woman from way up northern England who is funny, original, and sings like everything’s riding on it.
"Light of Day" – Joan Jett
Interesting pedigree here: Written by Bruce Springsteen for a 1987 Paul Schraeder movie (you remember him, he wrote Taxi Driver) about a rock band starring Jett and Michael J. Fox. And Gen Rowlands. Great song.
"Rearviewmirror" – Pearl Jam
Eddie Vedder at his most tightly wound.
"Motherless Children" – Eric Clapton
The 1927 Blind Willie Johnson standard, by way of God-who speeds it up nicely.
"I’m Shakin’" – Jack White
A nasty number, straight out of Detroit.
"Cult of Personality" – Living Colour
Politics, rock, metal, attitude, JFK.
"First Breath After Coma" – Explosions in the Sky
The author Chuck Klosterman once wrote that this is a great song to play while vacuuming. Also true.
"Bernadette" – Four Tops
Because one of the baddest songs in the history of rock and roll is about a woman named Bernadette.
"Jessica" – Allman Brothers Band
See “Time Is Tight,” by Booker T & the MGs.
"Roadhouse Blues" – The Doors
Do it, Robby, do it.
"Uncontrollable Urge" – Devo
Refreshingly simple! Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I got an urge-that’s basically the song.
"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" – Arcade Fire
Of Arcade Fire’s four “Neighborhoods,” this one probably has the best schools.
"Suzy Is a Headbanger" – Ramones
“Her mother is a geek.” Ah, punk.
"Free Ride" – Edgar Winter
A classic-rock staple probably on the merits of the song title alone, though it’s the energy of Winter-a multi-instrumentalist, genre-crossing free spirit who even today, in his 70s, scrambles all over the stage like the 26-year-old he was when this song was released-that makes “Free Ride” last.
"All My Friends" – The Revivalists
A pretty damn accurate encapsulation of one’s 20s, which is a weird decade for a lot of people. Angsty fun.
"Funk #49" – James Gang
The seminal hit from Joe Walsh’s pre-Eagles band, which may have been better than the Eagles, just saying.
"Boogie Woogie/Rock and Roll" – Kohmeda
We heard this Swedish band on a college-radio station in Providence ten years ago. Perhaps the most obscure song on this list, this is a fantastic song to clean the garage to.
"Getting Ready to Get Down" – Josh Ritter
Ritter is a wonderful lyricist, and this song rumbles along like a speeding jalopy, highlighted by his triplet of lines that rhyme “worries,” “hurry,” and “a little bible college in Missouri.”
"Make Some Noise" – Beastie Boys
“We got a party on the left, we got a part on the right…”
"What Is Life" – George Harrison
Question: Was George the coolest Beatle? Discuss.
"Black Dog" – Led Zeppelin
Just a rock-and-roll song about a dog.
"Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold" – The Lone Bellow
Because the lyrics jubilantly suggest that a girl with green eyes and a big heart can help overcome any obstacle in life, and that’s the kind of unyielding hope you need when a bucket of old rags and mouse poop accidentally falls on your head.
"Rain Is a Good Thing" – Luke Brian
Turns out they still make country songs like they used to. One of the best chorus lyrics in country music history. Luke Bryan’s first number-one hit.
"Don’t Sweat the Technique" – Eric B. & Rakim
One of the last tracks from a group that broke up way too early.
"Welcome to the Jungle" – Guns N’ Roses
The first song on their first album, when Axl Rose and the boys lured us in to Crazy Town. “It gets worse here every day…”
"Gimme Shelter" – Rolling Stones
According to various sources, Keith Richards says it was about people trying to get out of an afternoon rain squall. Mick Jagger says it was about the Vietnam War, and/or Armageddon.
"It’s Tricky" – Run-DMC
Famous guys rapping about the challenges of being famous. One of their best.
"Cannonball" – The Breeders
Song #22 on Pitchfork’s Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.
"Stir Fry" – Migos
Migos is an influential rap group that came on the scene a few years ago, and their lyrics are charged. The sticky refrain in this one: “In the kitchen, wrist-twistin’ like a stir fry.”
"Nowhere to Run" – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Robin Williams, as Adrian Cronauer, resurrected this Motown gem for Good Morning, Vietnam. The opening snare burst-and Reeves’s smooth vocals-demonstrate why.
"Shame" – Elle King
We may have first paid attention because she was Rob Schneider’s daughter. (Still hard to wrap our heads around.) But we kept listening because this woman can write and sing like nobody’s business.
"Funky Thing (Part 1)" – Larry Ellis & the Black Hammer
That’s a lot of funk in two minutes and fifty-five seconds. There's always Part 2.
"Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" – Jerry Lee Lewis
The Killer, at the height of his piano-slinging, full-throated Killerosity.
"Pink Cadillac" – Bruce Springsteen
As pure a car song about a man in love with a car as their ever was. Verging on carnal.
"Coal Miner" – Pete Francis
Recorded in the grit of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the early 2000s, and the grit is all over this mean little song. “I found out about the cloud you’ve been holding over my head.”
"Supernaut" – Black Sabbath
Some heavier stuff. For when you go into that corner of the garage that no one has ever gone into.
"We Gotta Get Out of This Place" – The Animals
Eric Burdon and the Animals are one of the most influential rock bands of all time. If this is news to you consider this: When Bruce Springsteen gave the keynote address at the 2012 SXSW music festival, he sang a few verses of this song and then said, “That’s every song I ever wrote.”
"Back In Black" – AC/DC
The album has sold 50 million copies worldwide. The song is hard not to scream along to.
"Natural" – Imagine Dragons
A rousing new anthem from a bighearted band. It’s about how life can be tough, and there are dark corners to fight your way out of, and you have to be strong and a little ruthless to come out on top. Kind of like cleaning the garage.
Ross McCammon, Andrew Northshield, Eric Grasinger, and David Cohen contributed to this list.
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