I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I write about what I heard each week.
I completed the first full week of the shuffle challenge on Friday. The title of this post refers to a magically deliciously bad song by Merlin from Sire Records’ Just Say Yes collection that popped up in the shuffle on Friday. The experiment is going well so far. I’m feeling really calm on my commute. Knowing that I can’t skip songs, I just relax and listen without feeling antsy about looking for something better. I started listening to my iPod on evening dog walks too, which has helped make the walks more entertaining and should help me complete the shuffle faster. Dave’s been listening to music while walking Chuck for years, I’m not sure why it took me so long to follow suit.
Here is the weekly summary:
- Songs listened to this week: 157
- Completed: almost 7%
- Number of double shots: 7
The Police * 3 (all live, I’ve downloaded too many bootlegs!), the Beatles, Elvis, Sting, and Bad Company (ugh)
- Number of triple shots: 3
Genesis, the Police (all live, see what I mean about the bootlegs?), and Mr. Mister (yeah, I know). Rocking out to ‘Kyrie,’ I realized that I have this song on my iPod through a compilation, for some reason I never ripped their second CD. So through the joy of randomization I had a triple shot from a band with very few total songs on my iPod. The other two songs were from their first album, which I only had on tape until very recently. I’d been looking for it on CD for years and finally found it. Mr. Mister’s first album is one of my guiltiest pleasures.
- Number of new to me songs: 2
Mew ‘Vaccine’ (pretty good), Best Coast ‘When the Sun Don’t Shine’ (very cute)
- Number of songs that I’m so totally deleting: 2
Bad Company ‘Electric Land’ (not the world’s most awful song, can’t even articulate specifically what I don’t like about it…I just never need to hear it again), King Missile ‘Part Two’ (would I want to delete this less if I heard it immediately after Part One…is there a Part One???)
- Best example of why I can’t play an unedited iPod shuffle at a party: Lords of Acid ‘The Wet Dream’
- Song I’ll be saddest not to hear again until this is over: The Police ‘Reggatta de Blanc’
- Best example of why shuffle sometimes sucks: The Beatles ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’
Hearing something from that part of Abbey Road without the other songs is disconcerting. I so wanted to hear ‘Polythene Pam’ next, but no dice).
- Song that is entirely too long: Public Image Ltd. ‘Rise’
Did you know that sucker is over six minutes long? I always think I like this one when it comes up, but then I can never make it through (except during the challenge, of course!).
- Most situationally-inappropriate song: The Samples ‘Summertime’
The wind chill was something like 18 degrees during my walk home from the metro on the coldest and windiest night this week, which was when this song came on. Irritating.
- Most embarrassing confession about a song: The Beatles ‘Twist and Shout’
When I saw Ferris Buellers’s Day Off, I thought it was possible that Matthew Broderick was singing this in the movie. Yes, I am a moron. But to this day, when I hear this song, it still sounds plausible that Matthew Broderick would sound like this if singing it. Why am I admitting this?
- Song that made me dance around during the dog walk: Simon and Garfunkel ‘Save the Life of My Child’
Oddly, this is a happy song for me. Probably due to fond memories of listening to this (and horrible attempts at singing) with a friend in college.
- Really crappy song by an otherwise fine artist that is so crappy I feel I could’ve written it myself in the shower: Splashdown ‘So Ha’
- Band with song titles I totally don’t know: Stereolab
Except for ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup,’ which is unforgettable really, I can’t identify any Stereolab songs by name, not even my favorite. The Stereolab song I heard this week was apparently called ‘The Noise of Carpet,’ yes, of course.
- Weirdest coincidence: For some reason during Mr. Mister’s ‘Code of Love,’ I started thinking that the theme of this song was kind of similar to Dave’s guitar teacher’s song ‘Made a Devil.’ Then I started wondering if he’d be pissed if I told him that. Then the next song was one of his (not ‘Made a Devil,’ but still creepy–get out of my mind).
- Most random memory: The Police ‘Secret Journey’
I went to Catholic school preschool through grade 12. We got an assignment once in theology class to select a spiritually enriching song and write an essay about listening to it. I remember being so excited that I had such a great example and that I didn’t even have to think about which song I’d pick–obviously, I’d write about ‘Secret Journey.’ Then I noticed the fine print in the assignment handout that said “For example, ‘Secret Journey’ by the Police.” Fuck! The bastards stole my idea. I suppose I should’ve just used it anyway, but it seemed no one would ever believe it had been my idea first.
There is so a Part One, but it’s called The Boy Who Ate Lasagna and Could Jump Over a Church! This is from the only King Missile album I have ever had, which you may recall I managed to play for an entire busload of Catholic high school girls, and Sr. Mary, in France, when you and I were older and wiser college students. For days we’d had to put up with the damn Bryan Adams Robin Hood Everything I Do music over and over. Then it was my birthday and you convinced our tour guide (not James, the other dude) to let me choose two tapes to play. I played a mix that Raloon made for me, and then The Way to Salvation. The kids were fascinated. The guide had never heard The Replacements before, and really liked them. He had another job as a music promoter, and he actually talked to me about how he was looking for the next Michael Jackson. When The Indians was on the kids were like, “That’s true, I never thought about that!” Then Sex with You came on and I remember Sara Weber asking Sr. Mary if she liked that song. I felt like I was a lasting positive influence musically on those kids. It was very empowering.
I can’t believe you are dissing Rise, though. Irish blessing + “anger is an energy” = my youth in a nutshell. That said, the only way I ever had it was on a mix tape (I think I taped it from Raloon), and it was at the end of a side and cut off.
I put a terrible techno song that I thought was called Feel the Fury and that I thought I got from you from an album called something like 120 Beats Per Minute on the end of a mix tape for Alex and he always hated it. I am getting nowhere Googling so I will see if I can hunt up said tape to find out what it was really called. As I recall the lyrics were like “we are the people of music the people of energy the people of [I can’t remember – maybe civilization?]” with interludes of a whistle blowing and “feel the fury” repeated again and again. I think this was the same mix tape where I put Did You Spill My Pint? by Lawnmower Deth, also I think from you, and also detested by Alex.
Why do you not listen to your ipod when you run?
Yikes, I don’t have the Boy Who Ate Lasagna on my iPod. I know I have that CD, so how did I rip Part Two and not that one? Yes, I remember the joy of being able to listen to music that didn’t suck for one glorious day in France.
I think you might like Rise less if your mix tape hadn’t cut it off! I like the song, but it’s too damn long. It could easily make it’s point in 3 to 4 minutes. I also don’t care for the screaming in the last 20 or so seconds, so they could easily have cut the song down to a clean 6 minutes. Before this challenge, I usually would listen to about half of the song and then skip!
Feel the Fury is sort of techno-rap and it is awful, but entertaining. It’s some MC named Merlin and he kind of sucks, but in a good way. The lines that stick out to me are “This is the end of the second verse, feel the fury, the rhyme gets worse,” and (although I can’t imagine this is right, but it’s what it sounds like to me) “If you’re American I don’t give a fuck, show me respect or I’ll tell you I suck.”
Lawnmower Deth’s song titles were unfortunately the only thing that rocked about them. I think I got rid of that CD.
I need music to run on the treadmill, but prefer not to have it when I’m running outside. Music helps with my boredom on the treadmill, but I don’t find outdoor running boring, so somehow music makes outdoor runs seem longer. It’s hard to explain. When I first started training for longer races, I think I wanted to try running without music because most races have a no headphones policy and I am nothing if not a rule follower. I didn’t want to get used to having music during training if I wouldn’t have it during the race. Now I am used to running outside without music. When I do try to use my iPod outside it’s more trouble than it’s worth (like taking off my running gloves to skip songs when I ran in wind chills in the teens the last time I ran in Erie over the holidays).