Random Twenty

My plan was to spend yesterday and this morning doing deep and substantive blogging while sidelined by a medical test. That sort of fell through, which means I get to spend an extra day in the lab, but also means you get lazy blogging. And what could be lazier than the classic "Random Tracks from iTunes"?

My recent listening has been dominated by live tracks from the KBCO discs posted at jefitoblog-- there's some great stuff there, check it out. For the sake of this, though, I'll give you ten tracks from the four-and-five-star playlist, plus ten tracks from the entire music library, as a demonstration of why I usually use the four-and-five-star playlist for this...

Random music below the fold:

  • "Singing In My Sleep," Semisonic. A song that is linked in my mind with being in Japan.
  • "Far Away Eyes," The Rolling Stones. "I was so pleased to be informed of this, I ran twenty red lights in His honor."
  • "Find You At Last," John Hiatt. Not my favorite Hiatt, but decent.
  • "One More Song The Radio Won't Like," Kathleen Edwards. Country-ish singer-songwriter stuff. The radio didn't like it, but I do.
  • "Idiot's Revenge," The Bottle Rockets. "She's so political, so sophisticated,/ She would swear in court that everything's just overrated."
  • "1979," Smashing Pumpkins. The album is a self-indulgent mess, but it has its moments.
  • "I'll Come Running Back To You," Sam Cooke. Classic, pioneering soul.
  • "Starting To Hurt," Ryan Adams. Off Demolition, somewhere between Gold and Rock and Roll.
  • "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?" Frank Zappa. Tasteful, as always.
  • "Rip This Joint," The Rolling Stones. Off Exile on Main Street an album with almost no bad tracks.

Switching the source to the entire library, we get:

  • "All the Love That's Wasted," World Party
  • "Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness," Alabama 3
  • "Days Like This Keep Me Warm," The Polyphonic Spree
  • "Story Of My Life," Loretta Lynn
  • "She Hates Me," Puddle of Mudd
  • "What Would You Say," Dave Matthews Band
  • "Sing, Sing, Sing," Benny Goodman & His Orchestra
  • "Starry Configurations," Jets To Brazil
  • "Gates Of Eden," Bob Dylan
  • "Pencil Thin Mustache," Jimmy Buffett

You get no commentary with these, because I don't even know some of these songs. One of these ten wasn't even my purchase-- Kate got it off iTunes (bonus points if you guess which one). And I cheated a bit-- I hit "refresh" a few times before I came up with this list.

Which is why the random track lists I do are rarely truly random-- I'm not that familiar with my own music collection.

More like this

This went around a different corner of my social-media universe while I was off in Waterloo, away from my iTunes. I was curious about it, though, so looked at the contents of the "25 Most Played" playlist, and having done that, I might as well post them here (the number in parentheses is the number…
I'm not feeling especially inspired, blog-wise, this morning, and I've got another couple of busy days on tap, so you get the fall-back post of the uninspired blogger: Ten random tracks from my iTunes library (the four-and-five-star playlist), with commentary. I'm tempted to just steal Kate's…
Despite turning in early last night, I'm sleep-deprived and I have an early morning lab, so here are some random songs from iTunes to hold you until I feel more like blogging. Ten tracks from the four-and-five-star playlist, with bonus commentary on a few: "Little Razorblade," The Pink Spiders. A…
You know, there are really a remarkable number of bands whose names begin with "S"... There may be more "B" or "T" acts in my library, just because I own a bazillion songs by Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, but there sure are a lot of "S" artists. This set continues to show that sing-along-ability is the…

Kate got it off iTunes (bonus points if you guess which one)

And applause from me, because I doubt anyone will get it, unless they just get lucky.

(You want to look really smart, you'll give reasons.)

[crickets]

Well I'll take a stab...

The World Party, Alabama 3, Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and Jimmy Buffet I don't see on iTunes. Could have changed, but I'll assume not.

So from the rest, it's a pretty random guess. The Polyphonic Spree and Jets To Brazil seem like normal Chad fare, and probably everybody has some Dave Matthews. The Benny Goodman really stands out, but that seems like a "add classic jazz to the library" purchase. How about Puddle of Mudd? That seems like a novelty song for a particular mix or something.

OK, they're reasons, just not good reasons...

You should be familiar with the A3 if you're not already. Very solid, very good.

Exile on Mainstreet is indeed a great album. It almost, but not quite, makes up for "Satisfaction".

By Mike Bruce (not verified) on 15 Jul 2006 #permalink