Random Mix Friday

It's that time again, time to take a little stroll through the iPod and see if anything embarrassing comes up. I added 5 songs to the usual 10, just to make sure. I did not add album credit to songs I downloaded singly.

1. Walking on Sunshine -- Katrina and the Waves
I love this song, it's so happy. Also, one of my favorite scenes in High Fidelity (Jack Black headbanging to it -- awesome!)

2. Psycho Therapy -- The Ramones (Loud Fast)
The Ramones are happy, too, in their way.

3. Wrecking Ball -- Gillian Welch (Soul Journey)
This is one of those perfect meetings of lyric, voice and playing. This song just kills me:


Also, she was born the very same day as me: Oct. 2, 1967.

4. Tubthumping -- Chumbawamba
Of course it's a stupid song. But it seems like the song you want driving around with your friends on a hot summer day with the top down. Does anyone do that anymore?

5. Love Train -- O'Jays
"People all over the world, join hands, start a love train, love train." Huh, that sounds kind of dirty.

6. Without Condition -- Ginny Owen (Without Condition)
My one and only overtly religious CD. I especially like the line, "You won't find the answers 'til you learn to question". Questioning faith isn't something that seems to come up that often in the religious music you hear advertised on cable.

7. I Want Candy -- Bow Wow Wow
Around this time last year, I did a One Hit Wonder March Madness e-mail thing. Unbelievably, this song lost to "Play that Funky Music White Boy". I'm still shocked, 'cos this song is awesome.

8. Story of Isaac -- Suzanne Vega (Tower of Song)
Leonard Cohen song. I'm pretty sure you could write a book explicating this song (not to mention the Old Testament story from which it is derived). The link is to the lyrics. It was originally on Cohen's second album, released in 1969, it sounds very much like a condemnation of the war machine: "You who build these altars now/to sacrifice these children/You must not do it anymore/A scheme is not a vision/And you never have been tempted/By a demon or a god". Isaac would know. I love Vega's version, it is so angry.

9. Melt Your Heart -- Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins (Rabbit Fur Coat)
A simple, sweet little song, kind of lullaby like. The lyrics are a little melancholy, "If you're kissing someone who's too much like you/It's like kissing on a mirror/If you're sleeping with someone who doesn't get you/You're gonna hate yourself in the morning". "Its like a valentine from your mother/It's bound to melt your heart".

10. Higher Ground -- Stevie Wonder
This song is pure, funky awesome. Red Hot Chili Peppers version is, too.

11. Heat of the Moment -- Asia
Yeah, I totally had this album. Look at that cover, how good could it possibly be? Yet here it is, on my iPod.

12. She's in Love with the Boy -- Trisha Yearwood
I'm not so much embarrassed by the song, more that every time I sing to it, I choke up. Because I am a weenie.

13. Ace in the Hole -- Paul Simon (One Trick Pony)
I have great affection for this album. It's kind of a time, place and person thing.

14. These Boots Are Made for Walkin' -- Nancy Sinatra
This song is all sheath mini-dress, go-go boots, bouffant hair, and cigarettes. A gin and tonic would nicely as well.

15. Corona -- Minutemen (Double Nickels on the Dime)
This is kind of a lie, the song didn't really show up in the mix, but I heard it on my way to work. The Minutemen make me wish I had had a really cool older sibling, I might have enjoyed the 1980's more fun (instead, I was the really uncool older sibling and the 1980s weren't that much fun). They were a brilliant punk band who had a huge influence on the California scene (once the audience stopped spitting at them). The lead singer, D. Boon, died in a van accident in 1985 (Len uses dboon as a user name whenever he has to sign up for anything on the internet). This song is that mix of country and punk I love so much (an instrumental version can be heard as the theme to the MTV show, Jackass).