I was invited to participate in the Shuffle the Music Tag challenge in October 2017.
THE RULES
• Mention the creator of the tag and link to their blog (created by https://stuffonablogblog.wordpress.com/about/)
• Thank the person that nominated you for this tag and link to their blog as well.
• Shuffle your entire music library (no matter how old songs the songs are) and talk about the FIRST FIFTEEN songs that come up (anything like why they are there, if they signify something, any story, why you like them etc.)
• Mention the songs as well as the artists.
• You’re supposed to tag people – but if you’re following this blog, and want to make your own list, go for it!
My list of 15 Random Songs starts with one song that most people should know, then dives straight into music geekdom.
1) Fat Bottomed Girls – Queen: I’m a little burnt out on most of Queen’s hits, even though I still enjoy their first few albums. But ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ is one of their most lasting hits for me – the dirty guitar (and lyrics) on the verses, and the exuberant chorus.
2) Delivering Maybes – Sloan: I like this Canadian power-pop/rock band a lot, and this track from 1999’s Between The Bridges is typically solid.
3) Isaiah 45:23 – The Mountain Goats: I’ve lost a friend my own age this year to cancer, and John Darnielle’s lyrics here are devastating. “And I won’t get better/But someday I’ll be free”. From the album The Life of the World to Come, where each song is derived from a Bible verse.
4) Middle Cyclone – Neko Case: Gorgeous Gothic country from Neko Case.
5) She’s Got A Problem – Fountains of Wayne: Fountains of Wayne make exquisitely crafted power-pop, where the artifice is always too visible.
6) September Night – Van Morrison. Instrumental from Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. It’s pretty and heading towards generic, but Van Morrison’s wordless vocalisations are enough to make it worthwhile.
7) The Dogs – T-Bone Burnett. T-Bone Burnett is probably more famous as a producer (Oh Brother Where Art Thou?) but he’s got a worthwhile Dylan like solo career going too.
8) Grand Canyon – The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs is a treasure vault of brilliant songs, presented in low-fi form.
9) We’ve Only Just Begun – Curtis Mayfield. Mayfield co-opts the easy listening classic into a civil rights anthem. From 1971’s excellent Curtis Live!
10) Recorder Grot (Rally) – Pavement: I’ve never connected with Pavement’s early singles collection Westing (by Musket and Sextant), even though I’ve owned it for years and enjoy all their albums. Also, this song is 22 seconds long, which is probably why it hasn’t stuck in my mind.
11) Battle Hymn – Wild Turkey: semi-obscure hard rock/progressive rock from 1971. I like it, but 1971 is basically ground zero for hard rock, with Who’s Next, Led Zeppelin IV, and two Black Sabbath albums, so it’s not surprising it was overshadowed.
12) Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell – The Stooges: the liner notes like to point out how prescient Iggy Pop’s lyrics are from a man in his twenties.
13) The Blue – Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit: from Isbell’s second album, which I’ve always found underwhelming, although this song is fine.
14) Aerial – Kate Bush. The closing part of the suite on the excellent second disc of Kate Bush’s 2005 comeback album. Magnificent.
15) One and One Make Five – The Pet Shop Boys. A typically tuneful piece from 1993’s Very album.
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Good list, and I’m pretty glad Queen ended up in there somehow
Queen is our common ground, right?
I think Queen should be everyone’s common ground
They are one of a kind.
Great idea, and a very eclectic mix. I’m like you in that I love genre hopping and hate the thought of being pigeon holed in one style of music.
Feel free to make a list, I’d like to see it
Love the diversity on your list. Keep meaning to check out Sloan. Anything like the wonderful Fountains of Wayne?
Similar style, similar era. Fountains of Wayne always sound super-insincere to me, so I think Sloan are the better band.
I think there was a definite shift in vibes from FoW after the second album.
I’d recommend Sloan, Bruce. Aaron sent me their A-Sides comp and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve also enjoyed the studio albums I’ve checked out since.
Cheers J. Duly added to the mental list!
I started with that A-Sides compilation too.
It’s definitely a great introduction.
Now, how could a non-iTunes listener do this?
If I blunder around the music room in the dark, plucking CDs and LPs at random, having been spun in a circle several times, will that do for random shuffle?
You could blunder around in the dark, then roll a d20 to decide the track?
Likin’ you style there. Probably got a die for most track-quantities…
Need a d3 for prog
😅 (D6 in pairs). Or for 70s electronic, 1-3 or 4-6.
Nice list and an interesting bunch. I’ve never seen a “random” list that includes all the “intro” or “dialogue” pieces I inevitably end up with if I hit shuffle on my iPod
I don’t have enough hip hop in my library for that to happen – and if I did I’d probably skip them for the purposes of this. My most played piece on last.fm is “Intro” – all the between tracks on Tom Waits’ Nighthawks on the Diner are named that.
Queen/Sloan to start, Kate/PSB to close, the shuffle button has some good taste!
Yes, it was on form that day.
I am a simple man, I see Sloan, I hit Like! 🙂
This is an awesome challenge, I use the Random on my iTunes collection a lot. You got a great pile of tunes, there!
Make your own one if you feel like it – although your last blog-post was an Itunes, right?
Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell is awesome.
Nice to see Stooges, Sloan and Fountains Of Wayne especially. I’ve only really started discovering Sloan over the last few years (thanks to Aaron over at KMA) and I’ve yet to listen to an album I haven’t liked.