Fifteen songs

Today's post was inspired by Dana, whose journal I read all the time and link from this site even though I don't know her and have never even commented on her journal. (Not our cat. Different Dana.) Mmmm ... stalkeriffic! Anyway, her latest entry has inspired me to put my iTunes on shuffle, list the first songs that come up, and comment on them. This could be embarrassing for many reasons ... A) some are bound to be bad songs that I like anyway, B) if too many songs by one artist pop up you all are going to think I'm weirdly obssessive (come on, stop laughing, there's a chance you didn't think that already), and C) since I have so many songs on there, I can almost guarantee at least one will come up that I don't really know, even though I may have pretended I knew it at some point. But I'll be honest, damn it! Here we go:

1. The Sun in California - The Autumn Defense: Ahh. The sun-dappled harmonies of John Stirratt and Pat Sansone. It's a little bit 1970's folky, but in a good way. I put it on the two-disc "California" mix I made when Gina and I were there in August. (Because it mentions California, see! In the TITLE even!)

2. Blue Eyes - Uncle Tupelo: Hmmmm. Not incredibly familiar with this song. It's a cover, and it's live, and it's sung by Jay Farrar ... oh, ha, never mind, I do know this song. I remember the line about "a pretty girl to love me, with the same last name as mine". First of all it's awkward grammatically, and secondly, I assume it's referring to a wife, but it amuses me that it could also suggest, like, a sister or a cousin. A pleasant little number, anyway.

3. Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding: Love it. Although the tide/seagull sound effects make me giggle if I'm not in the right mood. Or even if I am. This was yet another song on the "California" mix.

4. Way Down Yonder in New Orleans - Harry Connick Jr.: Aww. An old favorite. Though it's not really Harry Connick Jr. I mean, it is - he plays the piano parts - but this was recorded when he was eleven years old. He was brought in to play with a whole group of (adult) New Orleans musicians, and the album was released under an entirely different name. It was only rereleased as a Harry Connick Jr. album (Eleven) after he became famous and everyone figured out there was more money to be made. Man, in my first year of high school, I loved Harry Connick Jr. And I'm unashamed! He's a good guy.

5. bonus 3 - Birddog: I've only heard this album a couple of times, but I always intend to listen more because I really like it. (Which is why it's on the iPod.) This is the third untitled track at the end of the album, and it seems to be another take of the song "Rattlesnakes." Edith Frost sings backup on the official version, but not this one. Unless she's whispering from ten feet off mic.

6. 13 - Glenn Kotche: Appropriate enough following Birddog. This one's from Next, and I can't say it's something I listen to a lot - but I find the whole concept of the album interesting. Coincidental rhythm - I think I remember Glenn talking about trying to divorce his limbs from one another for these tracks and seeing what came of it all. It's all percussion, but not in any traditional structure. I think one of the reasons I like it is because it sounds like someone rifling through a bunch of these abstract metal windchimes my Grandpa used to make, and maybe dropping some of them. It reminds me of springtime when I was a kid (which is when the windchimes would go back up at our house). No kidding. I never even realized that before, but it makes me nostalgic.

7. Rock & Roll Queen - Mott the Hoople: I have a two-disc Mott retrospective, which was purchased back when I was trying to fill in some of the gaps in my musical background ... I bought some T. Rex around the same time, and Sex Pistols. Sadly, the experiment didn't really work. There are some songs from each band that I really like, and from this particular Mott the Hoople retrospective, there are a handful of tracks I really got into. But somehow, though I can see why these albums and artists are well-loved and highly regarded, there's always been a barrier between most of that music and me. It's an "I wasn't there for this" kind of barrier, but I don't really mean that temporally. It's just not tied to anything special in my life. There's no connection between myself and this song that makes it live for me. Not even the memory of it coming on during a car trip when I was five or something.

8. Anything But Down - Sheryl Crow: This is from an OnXRT live compilation that I've barely listened to at all. I didn't think I knew the song at first, but the chorus is familiar. This is quite a reworking - it's acoustic, slower, and mostly solo, though it sounds like there's some vocal backup. I also like this a heck of a lot more than I like the original version.

9. The Engine Driver - The Decemberists: Swooooooooon. This is probably my favorite song on Picaresque - this and "On the Bus Mall", which comes after it. It's so simple, but so pretty. It's one of those songs whose lyrics are just abstract enough for me to project my own ideas and images onto them. It's sung wonderfully. And, as someone who does a lot of writing myself, the chorus just slays me. Simple and eloquent.

10. Do Miss America - Ryan Adams: It's not my favorite song on Rock n Roll, but I definitely do not hate that album and every song on it, which seems to be a popular position. In fact, I'm in the mood to listen to Rock n Roll a lot more than I'm in the mood to listen to Cold Roses. (Interestingly, between the start of this blurb and now, I stopped and went out for lunch. At Qdoba, "Burning Photographs" was playing. Coincidence? Or something more?)

11. I'm Not Bitter - The Minus 5: This song always reminds me of the Minus 5 show at the Abbey Pub in 2003. No mystery as to why, I suppose. It also reminds me of Jane. Interestingly, this song was recorded on September 11, 2001.

12. Rise - Doves: So, do I know this song? Heh. Oh, no, wait Uyen made a Doves mix that I downloaded and then never got a chance to listen to all the way through. This is one of the songs from that. I'm liking it. The music (not the vocal stylings) reminds me a bit of U2's b-side "Holy Joe". Specifically the percussion.

13. Farmer John - Neil Young: This was another portion of my mostly ill-fated "fill in the blanks" musical mission. I actually do love a decent smattering of Neil Young songs, without even trying to "educate myself" about them, but this isn't really one of them. To be completely fair, I have barely listened to Ragged Glory.

14. A Millenium Fever Ballad - Scarnella: I'm fond of this song, though again, not incredibly familiar with it. It has an interesting air about it. The guitar work makes me think of Elizabethan England. And I don't think it's just because I still have jousters on the brain.

15. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - The Beatles: Hee hee. Gina and I just heard on the radio this driving back from Grantham to Baltimore in the wee hours on Sunday morning. Would you like to place a wager on whether or not we loudly sang along? Including the goofy sound effects?

I'm going to cut this off at 15, because it's getting rather unwieldy. But that was kind of fun. At the very least, it made me stop and actually listen to songs I might otherwise skip on random. If anyone else has thoughts (conflicting, concurring, adoring, threatening) on any of these songs, I'd like to hear them.