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Randomness in the Friday A.M.
May. 11th, 2007 08:14 amI started culling out songs from the iPod again that I really really didn't need in there. It had reached 21,100 songs, and was getting low on space (which also makes it work a little slower in some ways. So I went through and took a whole bunch out -- for some reason, I find it easiest to put them in order of length and go from longest to shortest -- and got rid of nearly 200 songs after going through maybe a fifth of the whole thing, so, not bad. Then I found a whole bunch of downloads I wanted, and put them in.
It's now at 21,147. I have to do a more thorough culling. Here's what's coming out of the little stuffed device this morning:
1. "Understand Your Man" - Johnny Cash - Legend
And part of what's been filling the iPod recently has been newly-added Johnny Cash. I now have more Cash in the iPod than I'll ever need or want (and I love the guy).
Problem is, he makes everything sound so damned good. This song would just be a tossed-off nothing for anyone else, and somehow, in a simple laid-back way, he makes it sound important and significant.
The title pretty much sums up the entirety of the song.
2. "Redd Kross" - Shonen Knife - The Birds and the B-Sides
Early, raw, unskilled Knife playing live -- exciting and charming. A Japanese girl's romantic view of how great the L.A. punk scene must be.
3. "Video Prick" - Deep Wound - Deep Wound 7" EP
Tight, skilled, wonderful hardcore. Could use a better vocalist, but s'okay. A good minute and a half.
4. "Moonshiner's Dance Part One" - Frank Cloutier & The Victoria Cafe Orchestra - Anthology Of American Folk Music, Vol. 2A: Social Music
And, from an old, scratchy 78, as collected by Harry Smith, another kind of driving, exciting music -- a great dance rave-up that sounds like it should be blaring from the saloon down the block.
I used this in my production of Mac Wellman's Harm's Way pretty effectively.
5. "Teachin' the Blues" - John Lee Hooker - The Ultimate Collection: 1948-1990
Professor Hooker schools us with a master lecture in the blues, breaking down the chords and where his beat came from -- "Now digs my feet!"
6. "I Can't Do Anything" - X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents
One more piece of magnificent honking sax and handclap-driven English punk from a band that didn't give us nearly enough music before vanishing. Every song on this album is a classic. I miss this style/period/sound of rock -- hard, nasty, and yet somehow goodnatured in the midst of it all (as also with The Rezillos).
7. "December (demo)" - Regina Spektor - mix disk from my Dad
When I thought I'd had pretty much enough of the piano-playing female singer/songwriter, along came Spektor.
8. "Sammy's Theme" - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Ubiquity Studio Sessions Vol.1—Music and Rhythm
Recent music trying to sound like European thriller/spy movie soundtrack music (or library tracks for such) and doing a pretty damned good job of it.
9. "Reelin' & Rockin" - Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight
I'm so used to hearing the great man covered that when this started my first thought was "Okay, who is this doing which Chuck Berry song?" Nice to hear the original.
I am always stunned by the brilliance of his craftsmanship and art, more so in having read his autobiography and seen the film Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll where it is apparent that he has no perception of his greatness in that way. He just did the songs as a good job, better than carpentry, and better-paying. To him, he just knocked them out.
Then you listen closely to the lyrics of "Maybelline" or "You Never Can Tell" or "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," and realize how great they are (on top of his musically turning R&B into rock&roll) and wonder how they could have just been knocked out for the money. Jesus. Goes to show you never can tell.
10. "David B." - Brigitte Bardot - Le Disque d'Or
And from Bardot . . . an instrumental?! Well, I wasn't expecting this. Guess this was an interstitial track between songs on this album of hers. Short and sweet, anyway.
That went quick. Short songs today. Back to work -- things to do for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, of course. But I'll take some new cat photos to put up later, too.
It's now at 21,147. I have to do a more thorough culling. Here's what's coming out of the little stuffed device this morning:
1. "Understand Your Man" - Johnny Cash - Legend
And part of what's been filling the iPod recently has been newly-added Johnny Cash. I now have more Cash in the iPod than I'll ever need or want (and I love the guy).
Problem is, he makes everything sound so damned good. This song would just be a tossed-off nothing for anyone else, and somehow, in a simple laid-back way, he makes it sound important and significant.
The title pretty much sums up the entirety of the song.
2. "Redd Kross" - Shonen Knife - The Birds and the B-Sides
Early, raw, unskilled Knife playing live -- exciting and charming. A Japanese girl's romantic view of how great the L.A. punk scene must be.
3. "Video Prick" - Deep Wound - Deep Wound 7" EP
Tight, skilled, wonderful hardcore. Could use a better vocalist, but s'okay. A good minute and a half.
4. "Moonshiner's Dance Part One" - Frank Cloutier & The Victoria Cafe Orchestra - Anthology Of American Folk Music, Vol. 2A: Social Music
And, from an old, scratchy 78, as collected by Harry Smith, another kind of driving, exciting music -- a great dance rave-up that sounds like it should be blaring from the saloon down the block.
I used this in my production of Mac Wellman's Harm's Way pretty effectively.
5. "Teachin' the Blues" - John Lee Hooker - The Ultimate Collection: 1948-1990
Professor Hooker schools us with a master lecture in the blues, breaking down the chords and where his beat came from -- "Now digs my feet!"
6. "I Can't Do Anything" - X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents
One more piece of magnificent honking sax and handclap-driven English punk from a band that didn't give us nearly enough music before vanishing. Every song on this album is a classic. I miss this style/period/sound of rock -- hard, nasty, and yet somehow goodnatured in the midst of it all (as also with The Rezillos).
7. "December (demo)" - Regina Spektor - mix disk from my Dad
When I thought I'd had pretty much enough of the piano-playing female singer/songwriter, along came Spektor.
8. "Sammy's Theme" - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Ubiquity Studio Sessions Vol.1—Music and Rhythm
Recent music trying to sound like European thriller/spy movie soundtrack music (or library tracks for such) and doing a pretty damned good job of it.
9. "Reelin' & Rockin" - Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight
I'm so used to hearing the great man covered that when this started my first thought was "Okay, who is this doing which Chuck Berry song?" Nice to hear the original.
I am always stunned by the brilliance of his craftsmanship and art, more so in having read his autobiography and seen the film Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll where it is apparent that he has no perception of his greatness in that way. He just did the songs as a good job, better than carpentry, and better-paying. To him, he just knocked them out.
Then you listen closely to the lyrics of "Maybelline" or "You Never Can Tell" or "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," and realize how great they are (on top of his musically turning R&B into rock&roll) and wonder how they could have just been knocked out for the money. Jesus. Goes to show you never can tell.
10. "David B." - Brigitte Bardot - Le Disque d'Or
And from Bardot . . . an instrumental?! Well, I wasn't expecting this. Guess this was an interstitial track between songs on this album of hers. Short and sweet, anyway.
That went quick. Short songs today. Back to work -- things to do for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, of course. But I'll take some new cat photos to put up later, too.
