Drive from LAX via Montana Ave in Santa Monica (that would be the Blue Plate for breakfast) and Wilshire Boulevard (to visit with some Hollywood friends I do research for) to Pasadena (and unfortunately not to meet Petrea Burchard, writer, actor and photographer, who is neither little nor old) and the playlist writes itself

Join Me in L.A. – Warren Zevon – Warren Zevon [Listen]
Coming Into Los Angeles – Arlo Guthrie with Shenandoah – Live in New York City: 7/21/79 [Listen]
All I Wanna Do – Sheryl Crow – Tuesday Night Music Club [Listen]
Wilshire Boulevard – Silk [Listen]
Hollywood Nights – Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band – Nine Tonight [Listen]
Macarthur Park – JJB Sports Leyland Band – American Salute [Listen]
Carmelita – Warren Zevon – Warren Zevon [Listen]
Eagle Rock – Daddy Cool – Eagle Rock [Listen]
Brothers Under the Bridge – Bruce Springsteen – 18 Tracks [Listen]
The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) – Jan and Dean [Listen]

Compiler’s notes
Tracks 1 &2 are fairly self-explanatory, the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard in #3, “Wilshire Boulevard” is direness personified, but hey, it’s the only song that fits.
Bob Seger makes up with  #4, #5 spares you the equally dire lyrics (described euphemistically as “loopy” by the LA Times).

And then we turn left at the lights and kick into high gear.

Warren Zevon’s
“stuck here in Echo Park” and
“pawned [his] Smith-Corona
And went to meet [his] man
He hangs out down on Alvarado Street
By the Pioneer chicken stand”

Daddy Cool takes us past Eagle Rock

and passes the baton over to Bruce at the Colorado Street Bridge (which David Lindley talks about so movingly here)

And on to the delightful, not-so-little and definitely not old (and a belated happy birthday, by the way) Petrea Burchard.

Who wasn’t home, more the pity

The LA Playlist 41:21 56.9MB [Listen]