Mixtape: Woodward by Joe Petro
Organ-ized noise for the return of summer and society.
This month’s regularly scheduled programming has been preempted by a special mixtape from me. This one has been brewing for some time and I wanted its release to coincide with the release of people back into society—which is right about now. This one is made for June, but is just in time for the Fourth of July.
Play it outside, loudly, amongst friends—preferably ones you haven’t seen in a long time—and read the liner notes below.
Listen → Woodward by Joe Petro
Tracklist:
Centerfold - J. Geils Band
Bang the Drum All Day - Todd Rundgren
Girls Like Status - The Hold Steady
I Wanna Be With You - Bruce Springsteen
Out Of Work - Gary U.S. Bonds
96 Tears - Garland Jeffreys
Do You Know What I Mean - Lee Michaels
Half a Boy and Half a Man - Nick Lowe
Come Dancing - The Kinks
Man Smart, Woman Smarter - Robert Palmer
Falling in Love - Randy Newman
You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
Wake Up My Love - George Harrison
Young Turks - Rod Stewart
Nothing to Find - The War On Drugs
Walk of Life - Dire Straits
Liner Notes
Robert Burns Woodward was an American chemist best known for synthesizing complex organic substances like vitamin B12 and quinine, which are vital components of both the human body and the gin and tonic, respectively.1 His work was often described as “bold” and “elegant,” and in 1965 he was awarded a Nobel Prize for outstanding achievements in organic synthesis.
This mixtape—bold in its inelegance—recognizes outstanding achievement in synthetic organ. While those words conjure a specific sound in my mind, I offer no precise definition of that sound other than whatever is contained within the songs on this mixtape. Is it a synth? An organ? A synthesized organ? An organized synthesizer?
I will say, however, that this entire mixtape was inspired by the turn at the 4:21 mark in “Nothing To Find” by The War On Drugs and its resemblance to “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits. Every other song on this mixtape springs from that well—that lush, rhapsodic well of deep sleazy cheeze.
Woodward is as big as it is shallow and as enthusiastic as it is indifferent. You can play it loudly at a backyard barbecue and nobody would think twice about it. But if you were so inclined, you could also find a deeper understanding.
Now that everything is examined through the lens of the pandemic and society’s subsequent re-opening, let this mixtape be no exception. After all, lockdown has impacted everything: the economy, the climate, the normalizing of working in elastic waist pants…
But perhaps the most fascinating developments have occurred within the romances of the world. Quarantine seems to have launched a million relationships and ended a million more. Some were postponed; others were accelerated. Now this nation of couples and exes has accumulated over a year’s worth of pent-up energy and, as society and summer begin to open up, the potential is about to become kinetic.
There’s no telling what this is going to look like, but the masks are coming off and we’re about to find out.
Maybe it will be a second Summer of Love.
Maybe it will begin a second Roaring Twenties.
Maybe it will be a kind of unsustainable exuberance that beckons you to ignite celebratory firecrackers in your backyard that inadvertently spark a series of wildfires that burn through the fall.2
Or maybe the boys and the girls will emerge en masse like cicadas and the sounds of this mixtape will be drowned out by the ceaseless drone of their vibrating membranes. At the very least it will be loud and gross. Membranes will vibrate.
Whatever happens, the reemergence is bound to be an unbridled, misguided, well-intentioned, flighty and festive mess. And so this mixtape aims to bottle that sloppy spirit.
These songs are about evolution, introspection, and reevaluation.
They’re about finding love, trying to find love, and failing to find love.
They’re about losing your job, hating your job, and needing a job.
They’re about jealousy, frustration, and weird sexual energy.
They’re about old flames and new frontiers.
These songs are about the clumsy chemistry of boys and girls.
But mostly they’re about the eternal struggle of man to understand woman and himself.3
This is Woodward. It’s music that’s organic and synthetic. Fittingly, it’s named after a chemist. After a year of lockdown, it’s also indicative of the direction we’re headed: outside, toward the woods. And I bet if you tried hard enough you could conjure up some sort of innuendo out of the word “organ,” the word “wood,” and all of this aforementioned wild male energy.
▶︎ Listen to Woodward
Thanks for listening. Thanks for reading. I hope this music makes for a more pleasant return to society and a more perfect Independence Day.
If you’re looking for more music to pair with your holiday, try these mixtapes:
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Big things coming in July. Big things!4
The gin and tonic is also a vital component to some human bodies.
Please don’t ignite celebratory firecrackers in your backyard that inadvertently spark a series of wildfires that burn through the fall.
Eagle-eared listeners will notice this mixtape features only male artists. 😮
Seriously—please don’t ignite celebratory firecrackers in your backyard that inadvertently spark a series of wildfires that burn through the fall.