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).
