9 posts tagged “music”

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) 

1. Ship of Fools - Ron Sexsmith
2. Song of the Candle - Stan Rogers
3. Still I Dream of It - Brian Wilson
4. Healing Hands - Marc Cohn
5. Air - Gardin
6. If I Had $1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies
7. About My Imagination - Jackson Browne
8. Call and Answer - Barenaked Ladies
9. Taking My Business Elsewhere - Richard Thompson
10. Fallling - David Knopfler
    

What song gives you the most holiday cheer?
Submitted by Roxy.

I have SO many favorite Christmas songs that it's hard to pick one.  I suppose the one that makes me smile and sing along most would be "Feliz Navidad," either the Jose Feliciano version or Los Lonely Boys'.  The Ravonette's "The Christmas Song" is another great one, and Smashing Pumpkins' "Christmas Time."  When I made a list in my other journal, I started out with a Top Five, and ended up with fifteen:

1. Christmas Must Be Tonight - The Band
2. Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea
3. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
4. The Christmas Song - The Ravonettes
5. Christmas Bayou - Michael Doucet
6. Christmas Time - Smashing Pumpkins
7. Do They Know It's Christmas? - Barenaked Ladies
8. Maybe This Christmas - Ron Sexsmith
9. Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Mannheim Steamroller
10. Suddenly it's Christmas - Loudon Wainwright III
11. The Virgin Mary - Mason Williams
12. Good King Wenceslas - The Roches
13. A Song of Christmas - Lowen & Navarro
14. Feliz Navidad - Los Lonely Boys
15. O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio

What's your favorite heartbreak song?
Submitted by esta86.

I bet 75% of the songs on my iPod are "heartbreak songs."  But this one just came up in the rotation, and it fits pretty well.  Damien Jurado's "Simple Hello" from the album "On My Way to Absence":

A simple hello would've been nice
Instead you walked right by
I do recall we used to be friends
Has that slipped your mind?

I used to call you on the telephone
Each and every night
Every time I see you with him
I think, "Why even try?"

Think I've had enough
Think I've lost my mind
This time

We used to be the best of friends
I guess now things have changed
Far too busy with your own friends
Do you still know my name?

Think I've had enough
And I think I've lost control
So it goes

Think I've had enough
Think I've lost my mind

What song best describes your current mood?
Submitted by Section31.

There's an interesting story here.  I read this question early on Friday and thought, cool!  I was in a good mood, but I couldn't think of any relevant song.  I put on my headphones and put my iPod on shuffle, and thought, well, I'll listen to a few songs and see if anything strikes me.  I got:

• One Thing Leads to Another - David Knopfler
• Maybe Tomorrow it Will Rain - Lowen & Navarro
• Very Long Ride - Adam Ant
• Seaweed - Tindersticks
• Destiny - Richard Thompson

Nothing really appropriate.

So I pulled up iTunes and scrolled through the songs, and man, I couldn't find anything. But I don't have a lot of music in iTunes at work, just a few things.  Most of my music is on my laptop.  So I kind of forgot about it.  But late last night I was sitting with my laptop, headphones on, listening to some cuts from Damien Rice's upcoming album, "9," and Bob came downstairs and asked me what I was listening to.

I told him Damien Rice, and I took the headphone jack out so he could hear, and the line that came on was something like, "I love your depression," and he just shook his head.  He said, "All your  music is depressing, isn't it?" and I said, no!  I have happy music, too, and I started scrolling through the songs, looking for something happy.  I clicked on "Emmanuel," by Aeon Spoke, which I recalled as being kind of happy, but Bob said, "That sounds like a dirge!" 

When your road deserts you
And your feet disappear
You'll find some orchards
Wasted one, without appeal
Where will you go from here?

Against the world from here
You're sitting still inside the fear
Must be someway out of here

Okay.  Maybe not. 

I tried Billy Bragg, "Must I Paint You a Picture?" (the source of my tagline)

It's bad timing and me
We find a lot of things out this way
And there's you
A little black cloud in a dress
The temptation
To take the precious things we have apart
To see how they work
Must be resisted for they never fit together again
If this is rain let it fall on me and drown me
If these are tears let them fall

I tried Coldplay, "Fix You:"

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse . . .

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
could it be worse?

I tried Jackson Browne, "My Problem is You."  I scrolled through the artists list.  Damien Jurado, Damien Rice, Dave Alvin, Dave Deporis, David Knopfler, Deadman, Donovan Woods . . .  I said, "I could play something of David's.  How about 'Going Down With the Waves?' or 'Tears Fall?'"

Going on down the list -- Marc Cohn, Mack Starks, Neilson Hubbard, Ray LaMontagne, Richard Buckner, Richard Thompson.  And the Black Swans, and The Silos, and oh my God, Tindersticks . . .  If I wasn't depressed before, they would do it, no question.

It's just a fact that almost all my music is melancholy.  Out of 1,085 songs in my "Not Christmas" playlist, I can't readily find anything that isn't slow or sad or full of longing.  But obviously, that's what I like.  That's what pulls me in.  Even when I'm happy, I don't really want to listen to something poppy.  I guess it seems like a waste of time, somehow, if a song isn't full of emotion.    And the fact is that that emotion is, more often than not, sadness.

Anyway, the point being that I was in a good mood, but frankly, couldn't think of anything to represent it.  I'll keep looking.

What are your top 25 most played songs? 
Submitted by Cooxie. 

This list from iTunes on my laptop, which has a bit more variety, although still skewed to DK:

1. Martha - Brian Webb - Broken Folk
2. All the Time in the World - Lowen & Navarro - All the Time in the World
3. Somebody Kind - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
4. The Opposite of Everything - Lowen & Navarro - All the Time in the World
5. Through a Child's Eyes - Lowen & Navarro - Pendulum
6. Won't Take that Talk - Adam Ant - Wonderful
7. FIre Down Below - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
8. Sophie's Song - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
9. Cry - Lowen & Navarro - Pendulum
10. Weight of the World - Lowen & Navarro - Scratch at the Door
11. Every Ship Must Sail Away - Blue Merle - Every Ship Must Sail Away
12. Steel Wheels - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
13. Washing Horses in Eden - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
14. Razor Moon - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
15. Accidents Don't Just Happen - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
16. One Things Leads to Another - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
17. How Mighty is the Silence - Lowen & Navarro - All the Time in the World
18. Maybe Later - Lowen & Navarro - Broken Moon
19. My Own Way of Doing Things - Lowen & Navarro - Scratch at the Door
20. To Feel That Way Again - David Knopfler - Lips Against the Steel
21. The Love of Your Life - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
22. Smile and Say Okay - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
23. Won't Be Long - Deadman - Our Eternal Ghosts
24. Unbreak My Heart (Regresa a Mi) - Il Divo - Il Divo
25. Do What They Want - Jules Shear - Dreams Don't Count

What are your top 25 most played songs? 
Submitted by Cooxie. 

This one's pretty funny--and pretty predictable.  Taken directly from iTunes at work.  What's up with No. 21??

1. Steel Wheels - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
2. Fire Down Below - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
3. Sophie's Song - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
4. Somebody Kind - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
5. Washing Horses in Eden - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
6. Razor Moon - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
7. Accidents Don't Just Happen - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
8. 4U (Rabbit Song) - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
   
9. One Thing Leads to Another - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
10. Drowning Pool - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
11. The Love of Your Life - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
12. Easy Street - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
13. Smile and Say Okay - David Knopfler - Songs for the Siren
14. God's Mockingbird - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
15. Ship of Dreams - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
16. True Love - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
17. All I Want is You - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
18. Going Down with the Waves - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
19. Jeanne Laughing - David Knopfler - Lifelines
    
20. The Price for Loving You - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
21. Oh Tannenbaum (how did that slip in there??) - Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
    
22. America - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
23. When Will the Crying Stop - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
24. Shine Shine Shine - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams
25. Anna Tonight - David Knopfler - Ship of Dreams

I made an iMix of the songs that were in my iPod playlist the other day; I wasn't able to find all of them, but I did find 11, which is a respectable number.

Imix

I put the headphones and listened to the iPod this morning, and the playlist the "shuffle" option fed me was so great that I started writing it down. For the first two hours or so, this is what I heard:

• The Monsters of Goya - Deadman
• Rise Again - David Knopfler
• Jericho - David Knopfler
• Auberge - Chris Rea
• Sometimes There Are No Words - David Knopfler
• Gone Fishing - Chris Rea
• Her - Richard Buckner
• A Love You Can't Survive - Richard Thompson
• One Thing Leads to Another - David Knopfler
• All the Wild Horses - Ray LaMontagne
• In Support of Youthful Long-Term Relationships - Donovan Woods
• Jeanne Laughing - David Knopfler
• One Safe Place - Marc Cohn
• Rut or a Groove - Donovan Woods
• Dead Man's House - Mack Starks
• Olana - Marc Cohn
• San Diego Serenade - Tom Waits
  

It started falling apart after that, but what a great mix!

What's your musical horoscope? 

(Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)  Inspired by Stephanie.

On the iPod tonight:

• Nothing at All - David Knopfler
• Firsts - Richard Buckner
• A Man of Constant Sorrow - Jackson Browne & Sharon Shannon
• Nothing's Changed - Donovan Woods
• Written in the Stars - Elton John & LeAnn Rimes
• The Night is a Blackbird - Augie March
• My Own Way of Doing Things - Lowen & Navarro
• Amie - Damien Rice
• Circle of Life - Elton John
• Fuse - Richard Buckner