I am not a gadget-loving kind of guy generally. I only got a cell phone three years ago, I don't have a Blackberry, I think Blue-Tooths look stupid, etc. However, I love my iPod. I think it's practically a miracle that I can carry around my entire music collection in my pocket. I mean, it's barely bigger than a deck of cards.
Anyway, one function of the iPod is the "shuffle." It randomly selects and plays from the 1803 songs I've uploaded. It's a nice little feature when I'm mowing the lawn or just wanting to hear something I haven't consciously chosen to listen to in a while. What's funny about it is how it will play this great song one minute and play something lame and uninteresting next. You never know what you're going to get.
Well, my old friend Jeremy P. posted a meme on his Facebook page encouraging friends to set their iPods to shuffle and record the first fifteen songs that come up. No skipping or cheating. Jeremy does a radio show in Portland that focuses entirely on new and independent music so I had never even heard of a single one of his fifteen songs/artists. Looking at his songs and the playlists my friend Tracy posts on her blog and having listened to at least one mix CD by the Admiral, I know that, by comparison, I'm incredibly mainstream and pop oriented. My musical tastes are not avant garde or even that interesting. After years of worrying about not being cool enough, I am not fine with my top 40 tastes.
And so, with that little personal affirmation out of the way, here are the first fifteen songs and artists to come out of my iPod on shuffle.
Human by the Killers
Rush (NYC Club Version) by Big Audio Dynamite
Morning (Love Sonnet xxvii) Pablo Neruda, read by Sting
Cry Freedom by Dave Matthews Band
Here's to the Meantime by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Bad Boy by the Backbeat Band
Down in Mary's Land by Mary Chapin Carpenter
I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself by Nicky Holland
Always On My Mind by Michael Buble
Cryin' Shame by Lyle Lovett
Finlandia by Indigo Girls
I'm On My Way by Rich Price
Diggin' a Path by Rebecca Scott
The Meddler by The High Strung
Just a Touch by R.E.M.
The Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
It's not too bad, I don't think. Some Motown, some country, some folk, some alt rock, some Sting readin' some Chilean poetry. Maybe I'm more eclectic than I think. (Probably not.)
8 comments:
Holy crap. I fell asleep just reading this list.
Here's the first fifteen adjectives my dictionary shuffle came up with to describe your list:
milquetoast
vanilla
boring
lethargic
Thorazine/Valium
torpid
languid
snooze button
risk-averse
dog doo
listless
nap inducing
lowest common denominator
soul crushing
too many similarities to what my mom would have on her ipod if she even owned an ipod with the exception of lots of Anne Murray
Just kidding. It is interesting to see and I even like/own a few of these.
I feel the same way.... I wouldn't have DREAMED of shelling out money for an mp3 player.
But the company gave everyone an iPod Classic for Christmas a couple of years ago. I didn't even open the box until May.
Now I can't live without the thing. The AUX connector went out on my car stereo and I was like "I have no music!"
Went without for months - never mind I still had a CD player in the car and all the CDs I'd used to fill up my iPod in the first place....
I am always curious to see/hear what other people listen to. I get stuck in this rut of what I have listened to forever and its nice to have some new stuff to investigate. So, thanks :)
I think you are very eclectic ! I only recognized Smokey (of course), Michael Buble (of double course), and Sting's name and the sonnet, but have never heard Sting read the sonnet.
But then, I probably qualify for The Admiral's list ...
I too am (kinda?) embarrassed by my uncool, mainstream listening habits . . . although compared to many of my suburban-mom friends I'm a hipster. (Do real hipsters say hipster? Probably not). And anything remotely cool I do have on there I owe to Forrest, since he's much more musically intelligent than I am.
Here's my list:
-"Everything's Magic" by Angels & Airwaves
-"Under the Milky Way" by The Church
-"Terrible Lie" by Nine Inch Nails
-"Inside of Love" by Nada Surf
-"Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants
-"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" (Unplugged) by Nirvana
-"My Moon My Man" by Feist
-"Fretless" by R.E.M.
-"Gracie" by Ben Folds
-"Life Uncommon" by Jewel (This is a completely sappy, overwritten, cloying, Jewel-at-her-Jewely-worst song, with lines like "set down your chains till only faith remains" . . . and I love it.)
-"It's My Life" by Talk Talk
-"Always On Your Side" by Sheryl Crow (Lance Armstrong is SUCH a JERK!)
-"Joey" by Concrete Blond
-"E-Pro" by Beck
-"Big in Japan" by Alphaville. (Nothing takes me back to teenagerhood more effectively than Alphaville. I listened to that album OVER and OVER).
And I like your list. Even the Michael Buble.
That's right, Admiral, go ahead and mock. But keep in mind your mockery only strengthens my commitment to fine, underappreciated bands like Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind.
Actually, the only item on the list I'm kinda bothered by is the Dave Matthews Band selection. That band is just such a cliche of late 90s "cool" that just lost its lustre. As far as I'm concerned, there are two good DMB songs left - The Christmas Song and Satellite. All other must go. (I should probably delete them from my playlist to spare myself the trouble of always forwarding past them.)
Ok, ok, ok. So I admit it. I don't have an ipod.
Hey, Big Audio Dynamite's pretty cool and The High Strung, that's a rather random thing to appear in this group, in a good way. That song "Human" by The Killers....you know, that's really not bad, a guilty pleasure of sorts for me. Reminds me of really good late 80's, early 90's stuff like "Send Me an Angel." The Killers seem fairly maligned and get a lot thrown their way, and it's not always undeserved, but this is a good tune.
And yes, you should be embarrassed by the DMB appearance. There's no sugar-coating that.
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