17 January 2013 - Shuffle Session #1

I woke up this morning felling very happy with myself, my world and generally everything.  Neither the forecast 39 degrees nor the spectre of my half year performance review at work can put a dent in this feeling.  My morning walk simply consolidates this.  I set the iPod on repeat to the title track of Springsteen’s The Rising, just so I can sing along to the la, la, la’s in the chorus whilst contemplating how and when I’ll attempt to put my thoughts about The Boss online.  I settle on a strategy and simultaneously the sun becomes visible and I feel its first rays for the day.

Settling on a Springsteen strategy makes me realise that writing this blog is seeping into my consciousness and is beginning to exert some influence on my listening habits.  Thus I decide on a strategy today to shake it up a bit.  As I have some meetings and the performance review at work, I decide that today will become:

I remember the exact moment I decided to buy an iPod.  I was in a café in 2008 having a morning coffee when I noticed the brilliant music in the background.  I asked the proprietor Tony (a good bloke, chief and musician in his own right) whether this was a new FM station.  He then produced his iPod and told me about the shuffle function.  At that moment it occurred to me this was something I needed.  It would be a great way to get around my collection without having to pull out the discs all the time whilst avoiding the agony of what to play next.  After all, no one puts stuff on their iPod that they wouldn’t want to hear would they? 

(A digression: This reminds me, why does Apple have a star rating system to apply to tracks ranging from zero to five stars?  I can understand the zero rating for people like me who choose not to use it, but why would anybody choose to import one or two star tracks for their listening pleasure?)

As of today, there is a total of 37,025 tracks on my iPod.  In my effort to ensure that the shuffle function is as random as possible I remove as many of the possible search variables as possible during the import process.  Therefore, no information is kept or migrated regarding year of release, BPM, music genre, songwriter, etc.  The only variables my iPod has to work on are the unavoidable ones – the number of tracks credited to each artist, track lengths, song titles and the number of plays. (I could reset the latter each time I import, but I like to think I’m not that anal.)

Yet despite this, things that do occur niggle around in my mind. In the past whilst on shuffle there have been occasions when inexplicable things occurred.  For instance, there was a period of time when shuffle tracks in the morning were slower and the afternoon tracks more up tempo – was the iPod mimicking my listening habits? This will be a first attempt to actually document and analyse what comes out.  My rules are simple, listen to whatever comes out and do not skip or fast forward tracks, simple enough since there shouldn’t be a dud track among them.

I press the shuffle button and wonder what will come out first.  It’s a beauty from one of the greatest exponents of the electric blues guitar;

1.       Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers – Ain’t Got Nobody (from Genuine Houserocking Music)

2.       Camper Van Beethoven – I Don’t See You (from Telephone Free Landslide Victory)

3.       The Grateful Dead – One More Saturday Night (from Europe ’72)

4.       The Rich Kids – Burning Sounds (from The Best of The Rich Kids)

5.       The Celibate Rifles – S & M TV (from their second live album Yizgrnoff – Damien Lovelock’s intro on the next track provides a great transition to another legendary Australian act)

6.       The Go-Betweens – Ask (from Before Hollywood)

7.       Aretha Franklin -  Do Right Woman Do Right Man (from Atlantic R & B Vol. 6 1966-1969)

8.       The Dirtbombs – I’ll Wait (from Ultraglide In Blue)

9.       Frank Zappa – Zombie Wolf (live from The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life)

10.   The Offspring – Me & My Old Lady (from Ixnay On The Hombre) This sound so much like Jane’s Addiction, I’m kind of disappointed when next comes;

11.   The Dead Weather – Hang You From The Heavens (from Horehound)

12.   Mondo Rock – Searching For My Baby (from Primal Park)

13.   Bob Marley – Hammer (from the Songs Of Freedom box set)

14.   Fu Manchu – Boogie Van (from Go For It….Live!) which brilliantly segues into, of all things

15.   The Neville Brothers – Rock ‘N’ Roll Medley (from Live At Tipitina’s)

16.   Prisonshake – Fake Your Own Death (from Dirty Moons)

17.   Bruce Springsteen and The Sessions Band – Jesse James (from Live In Dublin)

18.   Green Day – Homecoming (from American Idiot)

19.   Echo and The Bunnymen – Bring On The Dancing Horses (from Songs To Learn And Sing)

20.   Bob Dylan and The Band – Don’t Ya Tell Henry (from The Basement Tapes)

21.   Miles Davis – Sivad (from Live – Evil)

22.   Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown – Unity Part 5 (The Light) (from Unity)

23.   Madonna - La Isla Bonita (from The Immaculate Collection)

24.   The Sex Pistols – Did You No Wrong (from Filthy Lucre Live)

25.   Iggy Pop – Some Weird Sin (from Lust For Life)

26.   Cypress Hill – Lick A Shot (from Black Sunday)

27.   The Undertones – Girls Don’t Like It (from An Anthology)

28.   Mark Lanegan – One Hundred Days (from Bubblegum)

This marked the end of the morning session.  The remainder weaved around lunch, work commitments and home.  Strangely enough the shuffle continued with another blues master.

29.   Lightin’ Hopkins – Big Mama Jump (from The Complete Aladdin Sessions)

30.   The Eyes – When The Night Falls (from the Nuggets II Box Set)

31.   Grandmaster Flash – New York New York (from Message From Beat Street)

32.   Big Town Playboys – Roomin’ (from Off The Clock Live)

33.   Crackhouse – Consolidated (from Play More Music)

34.   Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – Galiku (from Gurrumul)

35.   Camper Van Beethoven – Unie Fois (from Camper Van Beethoven)

36.   Aimee Mann – Superball (from I’m With Stupid)

37.   2ManyDJs – The Beach/Sandwiches (from As Heard On Radio Soulwax Part 2)

38.   Smashing Pumpkins – Jellybelly (from Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)

39.   Big Mama Thornton – Cotton Picking Blues (from Hound Dog.  The Essential Big Mama Thornton)

40.   P.J Harvey – Angelene (from Is This Desire?)

41.   Beastie Boys – Jimmy James (from Check Your Head)

42.   The Reverend Horton Heat – Nurture My Pig (from The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds Of…)

43.   Buena Vista Social Club- Candela (from Buena Vista Social Club)

44.   Marvin Gaye – Take This Heart Of Mine (from The Master 1961 – 1984)

45.   Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Rain In Darling (from I See A Darkness)

46.   Elvis Presley – Blue Moon Of Kentucky (from The Sun Sessions)

47.   The Long Ryders – Wreck Of The 809 (from Native Songs)

48.   Earl Hooker – Blue Guitar (from Let Me Tell You About The Blues – Memphis)

49.   Solomon Burke – Only A Dream (from Don’t Give Up On Me)

50.   Randy Newman – Underneath The Harlem Moon (from 12 Songs)

51.   Black Boy Shine – Ice Pick And Pistol Woman Blues (from Let Me Tell You About The Blues – Texas)

52.   Rocket From The Crypt – Velvet Touch (from R.I.P)

53.   U Brown – Hard Time (extended) (from Train To Zion)

54.   Brian Wilson – Song For Children (from Smile)

55.   Neneh Cherry – 7 Seconds (from Man)

56.   Aerosmith – Water Song/Janie’s Got A Gun (from Pump)

57.   Pete Townshend – You’re So Clever (from Scoop)

58.   Bob Mould – Very Temporary (from District Line)

59.   Thelonious Monk – Humph (from Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 1)

60.   Ruperts People – Reflections Of Charles Brown (from the Nuggets II Box Set)

61.   Can – Mushroom (from Tago Mago)

This was an intriguing and satisfying shuffle.  For the most part, there was great variety, and a satisfying run of similar tracks between 45 and 51.  A lot of my music interests are represented with very few areas, if any, unrepresented and with studio albums, compilations, box sets and live albums all featuring.  Probably the only disappointing feature was the under representation of tracks by Australian acts (4 tracks nos 5, 6, 12 & 34).  No surprise to see tracks featured by the acts that have the most songs on the iPod – Springsteen, The Celibate Rifles , Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan although Neil Young missed out.

None of the albums played in the year to date got selected and the Nuggets II box set (nos 30 & 60 -mmm! I wonder what album track 90 would have eminated) was the only album played twice.  Although Camper Van Beethoven got two selections(no 2 & 35), their second track lasts just over a minute and might have been selected on the grounds of its length being by some distance the shortest track played.  The Miles Davis track (no 21) was by a considerable distance to the others the longest track played.   An intriguing feature was that the two songs titled after individuals both had the same initials (JJ) and surname (see Jesse James at no 17 and Jimmy James at no  41).