SOLAR ECLIPSE PLAYLIST

Here are my song choices for a playlist for the total eclipse of the sun that will cross the USA from coast to coast tomorrow.

OK, the obvious:

And to follow that, a dramatic and unusually effective cover in Spanish.  Most English language pop hits do not translate very well into Spanish, but this one did, and Lissette (a Cuban/Puerto Rican American) pop star really captured the emotion as least as well if not better than Bonnie Tyler's original interpretation of the Jim Steinman song:

My favourite singer-songwriter overall is Al Stewart: his song "Timeless Skies" nearly ends with the lyrics, "the sun has the moon in his eyes":

These two hits from 1971 are obvious:

 You may have forgotten this rocker from 1985 from the album "Empire Burlesque," but I personally think it is one of Bob Dylan's best:

Let's not forget this one:

And in a different style altogether:

One of Texas's greatest songwriters is the legendary Rodney Crowell.  He wrote this tune, which was made into a big hit by Bob Seger:

It goes without saying that these should be included:

A radio station in Nebraska is going to be playing Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" at the right moment so that the concluding song "Eclipse" comes on at the exact moment of totality, which ends with the words "the sun is eclipsed by the moon."

Please, don't be doing this other than at moments of full totality, or with the proper eye protection:

or this could happen to you:

PUN-ishment

A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar. 

The bartender looks at them and says, "What is this, some kind of a joke...?

Rudolf: "Look, Tasha, is raining across the square on the Kremlin."

Natasha: "No, Rudolf, silly Comrade. That's not rain, it's snow!"

Rudolf: "Is Rain, Tasha."

Natasha: "Is Snow, Comrade!!!"

Rudolf: "Listen; Rudolf the Red knows rain, dear."

There was a pelican who could flip shot glasses full of whiskey with

his beak for a free drink. One night he walks into a new bar. He asks

the bartender for a shot of whiskey and the bartender says "Oh Yeah?

How you gonna pay for it?" The pelican said, "Just put it on my bill."

A mechanic once owned a dog named Mace. Mace had a bad habit of eating

all the grass in the mechanic's lawn, so the mechanic had to keep Mace

inside. The grass eventually became overgrown. One day the mechanic was

working on a car in his backyard and dropped his wrench losing it in

the tall grass. He couldn't find it for the life of him so he decided

to call it a day. That night, Mace escaped from the house and ate all

the grass in the backyard. The next morning, the mechanic went outside

and saw his wrench glinting in the sunlight. Realizing what had

happened, he looked up to the heavens and proclaimed... "A grazing

Mace, how sweet the hound that saved a wrench for me!"

TEXAS STORY #2

A Texan rancher goes Down Under, meets an Aussie colleague 'n' they talk. 

The Aussie boasts of the size of his station: the Texan sez, "We got ranches bigger'n'that." 

They ride around a little: the Aussie shows off his cattle. The Texan says, "Our longhorns are twice that size". 

The conversation dies down until a mob of kangaroos hops thru the field.  The Texan asks, "what the heck are those?" ... the Aussie replies, "Damn grasshoppers..."