A New Shuffle

I started this post early last week, and tried to finish it in between getting that massive display ready. Obviously, it didn't quite work out. I'm at home today and on very creaky dial up (I tried to reply to an e-mail, and couldn't get a reply window to open), so I didn't do any links to the last three songs.

When I get back to the land of high speed internet I will have to show you: another dress, a skirt, and a scarf (for a fundraiser).

I just deleted some stuff and loaded a couple of new (to the iPod) albums onto my teeny, tiny player (a 2 gig Nano), which means it's time for a new shuffle!

1. Everyday People - Sly and the Family Stone (downloaded from iTunes)

I have to admit to not being a fan of funk, so most of Sly's catalog leaves me cold. But I just love this song, which isn't funk at all. I adore Rose Stone's voice and the chantiness of her sections, and full soulfulness of the rest of it. Lyrically, it is so utterly 1968, but the song itself is completely timeless.

2. In the Highways - The Peasall Sisters - O Brother Where Art Thou?

My love for this soundtrack makes me feel a bit middle aged. It was such a huge smash round these parts, it got co-opted for everything, including a regular event at the Ark (a folk music venue in Ann Arbor), which made it seem so very cliche. However, you can't argue with good music (or movie for that matter, I adore this movie). This song is pretty adorable, sung by a group of girls with cute nasaly voices.

3. Forever and Ever, Amen - Randy Travis - Greatest #1 Hits

What can I say? I love me some Randy Travis. Nothing deep or complex about him, but his voice is gorgeous and very deep. When I want some slightly cheeseball country music, Randy's my guy. This song is particularly sweet: "I'm gonna love you forever, forever and ever amen/As long as old men sit and talk about the weather/as long as old women sit and talk about old men/If you wonder how long I'll be faithful/I'll be happy to tell you again/I'm gonna love you forever and ever, forever and ever, amen."

4. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - The Ramones - Loud Fast

One of my great regrets in life is that when I was the right age to love punk, I was too much of a wuss. Now that I'm 40, I'm still too much of a wuss. Too bad, because I love the idea of punk, kids, with or without music ability, getting together to scream away on guitars, drums and ruin vocal cords and ear drums. I do find punk listenable when it hooks into rockabilly, as the Ramones do here. This is a quite a cheerful punk song.

5. Midnight Jam - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Streetcore

Joe Strummer, originally of The Clash, of course. Strummer died of a heart defect in 2002, this song, according to Wikipedia, didn't have a vocal track recorded, and uses samples from radio interviews.

6. Here I Am - Patty Loveless - When Fallen Angels Fly

This is such a heartbreaking song, full of sorrow and regret. It is really what Country music does best. "And honey, I got over you passin' me over/A long time ago/And my pride was stronger when I was younger/Now I'd rather have you to know/Here I am/here I am/I still carry a flame for you/burnin' me like a brand/Here I am." Then she kind of moans at the end. Seriously, try to get through this song without sobbing your fool head off.

7. Rise Up With Fists!!! - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat

"What am I fighting for?/The cops are at my front door/I can't escape that way, the windows are in flames/And what's that on your ankle?/You say they're not coming for you/But house arrest is really just the same." Who hasn't had a boyfriend put them in this situation? Oh. Sadly that lyric reminds me of a former boyfriend, who was not under house arrest, but probably should have been.

8. Divine Intervention - Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend

This is one of those right place, right time albums -- it was a pretty transitional time in my life, and as I recall, the album was written during a pretty drastic transition in Sweet's life. It is very Power Pop, sometimes walking to the edge of overproduced, at turns angry, sad, and joyful. Yup. I was pretty obsessed with this one.


9. She Moves On - Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints

Rhythm of the Saints is my favorite Paul Simon album, for sentimental reasons (it just hit me at the right time, in the right place, and like a really great novel, continues to reveal its depth and textures on repeated listening). This song has a couple of images which are so beautiful, in their tiny details: "her cold coffee eyes" and "I fall to my knees/Shake a rattle at the sky".


10. Spanish Pipedream - John Prine

Little Johnny Devner covered this song on one his early albums (due to dial-up issues, I can't look up which album) and as a kid I thought it was a very funny song, if a bit racey (she was a topless lady with something up her sleeve, after all).

Your turn! What comes up on your shuffle?