Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Lately my Gmail account has been swamped with spam, mostly of the variety that urges me to diet, lift weights or eat sourdough bread. I’m telling you this not because I consider the nature of my spam to be of global interest, but because I fear that in the anthill that is my inbox, I quite likely overlooked some emails from kind people who have bought me cups of coffee (to go with the sourdough bread?) whom I should have liked to thank for their benevolence.

So, if you have bought me “coffee” and I haven’t thanked you personally, I apologise and take this route to thank you very kindly for keeping me duly caffeinated (I’m referring, of course, to the Buy Me A Coffee thingy you find at www.buymeacoffee.com). I truly appreciate it.

And seeing as there are good people have bought me coffee, let me return the favour by offering this third mix of songs about coffee. For the purpose of this mix, I revisited the first two coffee mixes, which I posted in 2016. I hadn’t listened to them for a while; I was surprised by just good they are. Grab Any Major Coffee Vol. 1 and Any Major Coffee Vol. 2.

I hope this third mix matches the quality of the first two. Here I have slightly relaxed my rule that the songs have to be about actual coffee and allowed a couple of tracks that use coffee as a metaphor (still, no You’re So Vain, great song though it is). One of those, the deceptively simply-titled song by David Allen Coe, might best not be played around children, your granny or Mike Pence. Let’s just say that Coe had a lot of fun making coffee sound salacious. I’ve added a bonus track which you could replace the Coe song with, in case gran or Mike Pence come to visit.

And, as I said in the text for the first mix: If you are a coffee-drinker and this mix — or the mere reminder of caffeine — motivates you to go out in search for a fix, please do me a kindness and seek out an independent coffee shop/café. These independents are being squeezed out by the franchise stores, led by the unaccountably popular Starbucks. And Covid has turned the screws on them further. Help keep the independent coffeeshops and cafés going.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-caffeinated covers.

1. Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell – Black Caffeine (2013)
2. Nazareth – Java Blues (1981)
3. Ike & Tina Turner – Black Coffee (1972)
4. Hank Ballard – The Coffee Grind (1960)
5. Mississippi John Hurt – Coffee Blues (1966)
6. Brook Benton – Another Cup Of Coffee (1964)
7. Curtis Gordon – Caffeine And Nicotine (1954)
8. Glen Glenn – One Cup Of Coffee (And A Cigarette) (1958)
9. Mike Pedicin – Burnt Toast And Black Coffee (1961)
10. Eddie Marshall – Coffee, Cigarettes And Tears (1951)
11. Bobby Darin – Black Coffee (1959)
12. Abbey Lincoln – A Lonesome Cup Of Coffee (1957)
13. Frank Sinatra – The Coffee Song (1967)
14. The Andrews Sisters – Proper Cup Of Coffee (1958)
15. Michael O’Brien – Low Fat Latte (2007)
16. Ron Sexsmith & Don Kerr – Raindrops In My Coffee (2005)
17. Mark Heard – Nod Over Coffee (1991)
18. Amos Lee – Night Train (2006)
19. Squeeze – Black Coffee In Bed (1981)
20. Ben Folds – Free Coffee (2008)
21. Mischief Brew – Coffee, God, And Cigarettes (2006)
22. David Allen Coe – Coffee (1990)
23. Bill Anderson – Sugar In Your Coffee (1972)
24. Tom T. Hall – Don’t Forget The Coffee, Billie Joe (1973)
25. Conway Twitty – I’ll Have Another Cup Of Coffee (Then I’ll Go) (1966)

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More Mix-CD-Rs
More Coffee Mixes

Here’s the second mix of songs about coffee, or in which coffee features among the leading cast. As in the first Any Major Coffee mix, the rule is that a featured songs must be about coffee or the act or idea of drinking coffee. In some songs the act of drinking coffee is at the centre of the lyrics, in others coffee plays an incidental but not unimportant role.

Everybody here likes coffee, but not everybody is happy with the quality. The Monkees like the face-warming properties of their streaming cup, but disapprove of the taste — so they drink it slowly. Dave Dudley, on the other hand, clearly is as caffeine addict, in his 1966 version of the Tom T. Hall-penned song. Hall will still feature in this series in his own right. He frequently mentioned coffee in his lyrics; the brew also is included in the list of things he has a particular affection for in his song I Love.

The opener is Afro-funk band’s Osibisa‘s take on big band favourite The Coffee Song, which is most famous in Frank Sinatra’s version. Apparently they have an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. The track of the same title by Cream is a different song. It was recorded in 1966 as part of the Fresh Cream sessions. The Coffee Song didn’t make the cut but was included when Fresh Cream was re-released in 1974 as Cream.

I might have used Saint Etienne‘s lovely Saturday for the Borrow Copy Steal mix: the intro sounds like Candlewick Green’s 1973 hit Who Do You Think You Are.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on as standard CD-R and includes home-brewed covers. PW in comments.

1. Osibisa – The Coffee Song (1976)
2. Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs – Sugar Shack (1963)
3. The Monkees – Early Morning Blues And Greens (1967)
4. Saint Etienne – Saturday (1999)
5. Josh Rouse – Wonderful (2006)
6. Blur – Coffee + TV (1999)
7. Ryan Bingham – Long Way From Georgia (2007)
8. Don Williams – I Don’t Think About Her No More (1974)
9. Dave Dudley – Coffee Coffee Coffee (1966)
10. Charlie Daniels Band – High Lonesome (1976)
11. Albert Collins – Blue Monday Hangover (1980)
12. Gene Harris & Jack McDuff – Smack Dab In The Middle (1996)
13. Cream – The Coffee Song (1966)
14. Ray Charles – Hallelujah I Love Her So (1957)
15. The Castelles – Over A Cup Of Coffee (1954)
16. Johnnie Ray – Gee, But I’m Lonesome (1952)
17. Barbra Streisand – Deep In The Night (1978)
18. Axelle Red – Mon Café (The Coffee Song) (2007)
19. Mandy Moore – Can’t You Just Adore Her (2007)
20. Michelle Featherstone – Coffee & Cigarettes (2006)
21. Graham Coxon – Latte (2002)
22. Suzanne Vega – Tom”s Diner (1987)
23. Shel Silverstein – Have Another Espresso (1962)

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More Mix CD-Rs
More Coffee Mixes

Here’s a mix that has been brewing for a number of years now — on the subject of coffee. There are surprisingly many songs that are in some way about coffee, enough to fill a few mixes.

As always, I set myself rules. These sort of reflect our relationship with coffee (if we have one). The featured songs must be about coffee or the act or idea of drinking coffee. In some songs the act of drinking coffee is at the centre of the lyrics, in others coffee plays an incidental but not unimportant role.

So, no songs about coffee machines that need fixing, or metaphors about clouds in your coffee or your brew gone cold because the one you love does not love you anymore. I do allow one coffee as a metaphor song, as a bonus track, because I think you might like it: LaVern Baker’s wonderful 1958 version of Bessie Smith’s Empty Bed Blues, recorded 30 years after the original.

If you are a coffee drinker and this mix — or the mere reminder of caffeine — motivates you to go out in search for a fix, please do me a kindness and seek out an independent coffee shop. These independents are being squeezed out by the franchise stores, led by the unaccountably popular Starbucks. Help keep the independent coffeeshops going.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on as standard CD-R and includes home-percolated covers. PW = amdwhah.

1. The Ink Spots – Java Jive (1941)
2. Ella Mae Morse – 40 Cups Of Coffee (1953)
3. Scatman Crothers – Keep That Coffee Hot (1955)
4. Peggy Lee – Black Coffee (1956)
5. Otis Redding – Cigarettes And Coffee (1966)
6. Delbert McClinton – Your Memory, Me, And The Blues (2005)
7. Mighty Mo Rodgers – Black Coffee And Cigarettes (2011)
8. The Jayhawks – Five Cups Of Coffee (1989)
9. Fountains Of Wayne – Yours And Mine (2003)
10. Landon Pigg – Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop (2008)
11. David Bowie – When The Wind Blows (1986)
12. Bob Dylan – One More Cup Of Coffee (1979)
13. Gordon Lightfoot – Second Cup of Coffee (1972)
14. Glen Campbell – Truck Driving Man (1971)
15. Hank Locklin – You’re The Reason (1962)
16. Lefty Frizzell – Cigarettes and Coffee Blues (1958)
17. Kris Kristofferson – Here Comes That Rainbow Again (1981)
18. Guy Clark – Instant Coffee Blues (1975)
19. Lyle Lovett – Just The Morning (1994)
20. Cowboy Junkies – Anniversary Song (1993)
21. Simon & Garfunkel – The Dangling Conversation (live) (1968)
22. Walker Brothers – Where’s The Girl (1966)
23. Natalie Cole – Coffee Time (2008)
24. Frank Sinatra – Same Old Saturday Night (1964)
25. Julie London – Sunday Mornin’ (1969)

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More Mix-CD-Rs
More Coffee Mixes