Random Rules - What's on your iPod?
The Onion regularly interviews celebrities by taking their mp3 player, setting it to shuffle, and having them respond to the first 10 songs that show up. I'm a big fan of randomness, so I'll post mine, whatever may fall out, and I invite you to post your own. I may do this periodically just because it will turn out different all the time. So, out of the 2696 songs on my iPod, the first 10 to come out are:
1 A Safe Place | Carrie Newcomer | An Angel at My Shoulder
I knew Carrie back when I was attending Purdue. She's gone on to produce a multitude of albums and some very fine music.
2 I'm Having a Heart Attack | They Might Be Giants | Apollo 18
This 22 second beauty is from a host of microsongs. TMBG puts these songs on their album specifically for shuffle play so that there would be little songlets that would just randomly appear between their longer songs.
3 The UFO Mystery | Jim Richardson | Gonzo Science
Jim Richardson is a Duluthian Gonzo Scientist. This album takes some of his essays, sets them to music, and goes over the top. It's spoken word jazz and rap and, well, somewhat indefinable. This particular song tries to explain the UFO phenomenon through ball lightning.
4 I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) | The Proclaimers | Sunshine on Leith
I love this song. Remember it? "I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man who walks 1000 miles to fall down at your door." May be one of the best love songs ever.
5 Intonent hodie | Anonymous 4 | Legends of St. Nicholas
Anonymous 4 are four women who sing early polyphonic music. Very evocative and atmospheric. Good music to get lost to.
6 Love Shack | The B-52s | Cosmic Thing
From the soundtrack of the early 90s. It's probably the most popular song from this album, though not my favorite. Ah, memories.
7 In the Middle, In the Middle | They Might Be Giants | No!
TMBG comes up again! Not surprising, I love this band. This is a cover of an old safety song sung by Robin Goldwasser.
8 Sleepwalkers | They Might Be Giants | No!
Okay, this is just weird. Is this random? I think the Johns got in and fixed my iPod. This is another song off of TMBG's very wonderful children's album about children walking in their sleep. Marimba, baby!
9 Linger | The Cranberries | Everbody Else Is Doing It
This song reminds me of long summer evenings, kicking back in the back yard or at the beach. Don't ask me why.
10 Bandwagon | R.E.M. | Dead Letter Office
Not a very familiar R.E.M. song. I had to check twice to make sure it was in fact R.E.M. Lot more twang to it than I'm used to with the boys from Athens, Georgia.
Well, that's it for now. Submit your own Random Ten list.
Comments
> Ah, memories.
You're a bad, bad man.
Leaving this window open for a while while I shuffle...
Spooky Girlfriend - Elvis Costello (Yeah! My first song doesn't make me look like a dork!)
Underground - Tom Waits (ditto)
Delirious - Prince (well, um)
Born In Chicago - Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Cold Cold Heart - Norah Jones (getiin sappy...)
Suite For 40G - James Taylor
Turn A Square - Shins ("Just a glimpse of an ankle and I
React like it's 1805" - awesome lyric )
Ok, Im going to go play ping pong with my roomate now.. how many was that?
John
Posted by: John | January 23, 2007 11:34 PM
The math wizard who counts cards has to ask how many songs that is? Thanks for contributing to the overall irony of this site, John!
Posted by: ironic1 | January 23, 2007 11:43 PM
Love TMBG. Robin Goldwasser and I served on a jury together a few years back. She heard where I lived and asked if I would mind driving her to the courthouse each day. When she got in my car she saw the case for Flood and said "Yeah, my husband's in this band".
They live down the road from me (one of their places). Nice people (great music too).
Posted by: Beret | January 24, 2007 10:40 AM
Wow, Beret! I love Robin's voice and really enjoy when the Johns make use of her talent. She narrated an alternative text of their Venue Songs on one of their podcasts (Podcast 4A) and she has such great comic timing. It's one of my favorite podcasts of theirs.
Posted by: ironic1 | January 24, 2007 12:02 PM
4, 5, 6 and 9 are great songs!
(I don't have an ipod so I can't play.)
Posted by: Michelle | January 24, 2007 8:50 PM
I didn't have my iPod handy just now, so I used my entire iTunes library for this humiliating exercise. If this sequence of songs had come up on my iPod for real, I would have hit 'skip' a few times--but probably not for the ones you think. ;-)
Break Away (Rascal Flatts)
Lost in Love (Air Supply)
Sunday Sun (Beck)
Jack in the Box, first movement (Eric Satie)
Symphony No. 1, Adagietto, Tempo Primo (Gustav Mahler)
I Was a Stranger (Smog)
Beyond Love (John & Mary)
L'Amour ou la Folie (Beau Soleil)
Me and You (Kenny Chesney)
We Will Drink the Cup (Marty Haugen)
Posted by: Liz @ Buffalo | January 25, 2007 2:43 PM
This is more telling than Meyers-Briggs:
Stay- Lisa Loeb
Paperweight - Joshua Radin
Falling is like this - Ani Defranco
Mr. Zebra - Tori Amos
Sell, Sell, Sell - Barenaked Ladies
Are you gonna go my way - Lenny Kravitz
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
No Woman, No Cry - Bob Marley
Suddenly I see - KT Tunstall
Only Hope - Mandy Moore
I was so cool up until that last one...
Posted by: Anonymous | January 25, 2007 6:55 PM
I still think you are cool, mystery person.
Posted by: ironic1 | January 25, 2007 8:36 PM
I have no iPod, so I, too, had to use my entire iTunes library. Thus is my freakishness revealed:
Notturno (Borodin string quartets)
Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Fairfield Four)
Lost Civilizations (Jim Richardson/Gonzo Science)
The Hen's March (Bonnie Rideout)
What Wouldn't I Do For That Man? (Helen Morgan)
Chocolate aka Spanish Dance (Tchaikovsky/Nutcracker)
Closer to Fine (Carrie Newcomer)
October Nights (Stone Soup)
Be Careful of the Stones You Throw (Staple Singers)
The New Bird Waltz (Chestnut Brass Co. from an album of music by early 19th century black composers)
Posted by: Charlotte | January 26, 2007 6:07 PM
I don't have an ipod. If I did, here are the songs that would end up on it most frequently:
"Crucify" by Tori Amos
"The Highwayman" by The Highwaymen
"Dimming of the Day" by Linda Thompson
"Quiet Joys of Brotherhood" by Sandy Denny
"Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen
"Under Pressure" by David Bowie/Queen
"Life Is Real" by Queen
"Matty Groves" by Fairport Convention
"Fotheringay" by Fairport Convention
"Codeine" by TBT
Was that 10? Does it count if I don't have an ipod?
And are we going to play games on Monday? Drop an email to me since I can't find yours! :(
-tamara
Posted by: tamara | January 26, 2007 7:08 PM
I would just like to piont out, that you are taking the time to not only respond to my father's blog post, but to actualy do something before hand and post THAT as well. So there's really no point in trying to "look cool", because any romote trace of coolness you might of had, is now gone. Sorry.
Posted by: emma | January 29, 2007 10:05 AM
Harsh!
Posted by: ironic1 | January 29, 2007 11:43 AM
Ok, I did want to play this. Please, please, PLEASE, don't let it be a bunch of Laurie Berkner and Backyardigans!
1.Eddie Rabbitt, Suspicions (I lived the '70's in our car, running errands with Mom...corny songs with happy memories)
2.ELO, Turn to Stone
3.Tom Petty, Turn this Car Around (not that great of a song)
4.Track 1 of a religious book on cd...probably about being a better wife or mother (I don't have the headphones in, so I don't know)
5. Bing Crosby, Silver Bells
6.Grant Lee Buffalo, Lone Star Song
7.Steely Dan, Doctor Wu (listened to the album all the time the fall I started dating Brett; good memories)
8. Tim McGraw, Red Ragtop
9.John Hiatt, All the Lilacs in Ohio
10. Bruce Springsteen, The Big Muddy
And I will admit, I skipped 2 songs from Cinderella, and another Christmas song. Probably dishonest, though--it's a commentary on my life right now that if I choose the "25 most played," they are ALL children's songs!
Posted by: Leah | March 6, 2007 10:00 PM
I'm just getting around to reading this one through, and I had to laugh, Leah. I don't ipod, but my car (okay, my uncool mom-ish minivan) cd changer currently has Laurie Berkner, Green Chili Jam Band, a collection of music mentioned in the "Little House in the Prarie" series of books (NOT from the tv series), a collection of tracks I compiled for our church's kids choir a couple of summers ago, and a cd with nothing on it but the one minute cut I made of one of the "Naruto" theme songs I made for my older son to use for his taekwondo musical form. How uncool is *that*? Maybe it's Mommy-chic...;-)
Posted by: Celia | October 12, 2007 1:28 PM