Maddenation
First Five Random Songs
I found a link to an Onion article that asks well-known people to set their MP3-playing device to “random” and comment on the first five songs that play.
Here’s my take.
#1, New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 by REM
I added this song to my computer on 9/23/04 because the album, Automatic for the People is one of my favorites. This song is an instrumental, which usually means nobody ever listens to it. But according to the play-count, I have listened to is exactly the same amount of times as the rest of the songs (except for “Try Not to Breathe”, which is on a mix I made). The song is only two minutes long, but it’s got keyboard parts that sorta talk back and forth to each other and purr and hum a bit, too. It’s a really nice song that plays after the album’s giant song, “Everybody Hurts”.
#2, Don’t Drink the Water by Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds (from VH1 Storytellers)
Dave Matthews is a bit trite these days, but I have a couple albums and I generally enjoy his music. I really like the studio version of this song and I like how he can redefine it with only a couple acoustic guitars. The original song is a large number that was released as a single. Alanis Morissette sings backup on it. Anyway, I have never listened to this song on my computer, but I used to listen to it in college on my old computer, which happens to be stuck in Dave’s basement in Chicago.
I have this theory on Dave Matthews’s songwriting. First he starts with a steady riff on guitar, and combines that with a harsh, haunting vocal verse. Then, as he changes his riff slightly, he crashes into his refrain as if his verse, which seems like it’s in a bad mood, suddenly meets the love of its life and turns into the happiest, most friendly melody of all time. The it goes back to being unhappy and dark, then happy again, throw in an emotionally-confused bridge, then back to being happy, then fade out. Now that you know this you’re going to notice it with about 86% of his songs.
Wow, this is a long version. After the song he starts talking about the song, which goes, “Don’t drink the water! There’s blood in the water!” That sounds corny, yes, but he explains it that one time, at Lake Superior, and imagining how the area looked and how the people lived before our modern culture came and “took someone’s whole universe away.” He is talking about Native Americans. “A little bit of our history has a bit of poison in it.”
#3, The Observer by The Flaming Lips
Ooh! I get to talk about The Flaming Lips! Well, this is a band that would cause Dad to flip out with hatred. The singer has sputtering pitch and a general disinterest in conventional singing craftsmanship, but I love it. They are musically superb, although I just realized that this is another instrumental! What is going on?
Anyway, This song has a deep and fast pulse in the background with Pink Floyd-esque guitar note strikes (think: the beginning of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”) and then some off-kilter “Ahhh”s. The Lips make concept albums and this is just a mood song. They are also one of my favorite bands because their songs fit together so well and their lyrics are quirky and first-rate. But to appreciate their work you must smother yourself in it. How else to describe the freedom and comfort of musical art felt through the lyrics “Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die? / And instead of saying all of your goodbyes… / Let them know you realize that life goes fast / It’s hard to make the good things last / You realize the Sun doesn’t go down / It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning around.”
Other Lips lines:
Two scientists are racing for the cure that is the prize, both of them side by side, so determined.
I don’t know where the sun beams end and the star light begins. It’s all a mystery. And I don’t know how a man decides what right for his own life - it’s all a mystery.
Is that gash in your leg really why you have stopped? Because I’ve noticed all the others, though they’re gashed, they’re still going.
#4, Yesterday by Jeff Tweedy (Beatles Cover)
Jeff Tweedy is the lead singer of Wilco, another one of my favorite bands. Jeff is cut from the same cloth as Bob Dylan, but I enjoy his country-inspired alt-rock much more than Dylan’s folk and whatnot. Jeff is a serviceable guitarist, but doesn’t use all the chords necessary to play the song properly, but that’s barely noticeable. This song ended his live set at The Lounge Ax on November 15, 1998.
Anyway, I actually think Jeff is a fantastic guitarist. He tours with Wilco and as an acoustic soloist, and, duh, I’ve seen him in concert a few times and he can rip sometimes. His guitar solos are like a matchbook being lit on fire, the first match catching and erupting into a flame, then smoothing out before the next match heats up, explodes, cools off, and so on until the whole book is soaked in one big uncontrollable flame. Or maybe it’s like a fire hose left unattended, where at first the hose is releasing a controlled, unassuming spray just before someone inadvertently knocks the nozzle to full blast and the hose shoots water all over the street, the hose unable to control where and when it launches itself into the air or when it decides to come down to rest.
#5, End of the Innocence by Don Henley
As if I haven’t heard this one on the radio 300 times. Why do I have this on my computer? Oh well. I have never listened to it until now, even though I’ve had it on this compy since May 2004.
I’m pretty sure that for the rest of my life I will not listen to Don Henley on purpose. I don’t dislike him, I just have been overexposed to the same stinkin’ songs for the past 15 years.
Dan • Observations • 04/19/06 • 10 comments
Comments
Patrick • 04/20/06 • 3:00 AM:Rain by The Beatles
Everybody says Ringo isn’t that great of a drummer, but here he is Keith-Mooning all over the place. Where do you think John Bonham got the idea of keeping time by hitting drums all over the place instead of just a high-hat, bass, snare dealio? John Lennon’s vocals and the guitar are both doing the drony, sitarish thing, and Paul McCartney’s bass is moving entirely unnecessarily, but awesomely! I mean, do we give this man enough credit as a bass innovator, a low-range terminator? No, we don’t. Let’s. Sper-e-beck-na-mem-rees-nea! (the backward vocal at the end)! The Beatles! Dudes!
Good Night by The Beatles (from Anthology 3)
Chatting at the beginning, then right into the chorus with Ringo. Who’d a thunk they’d have Ringo sing the White Album’s ending ballad? And why a ballad? It’s a nice song, a McCartney melody, no doubt, right? This version is just piano, a little brush-on-snare or something to keep time, and Ringo singing in his almost-drunken tone. And this song comes almost right on the tails of “Revolution 9,” the weirdest bit of cacophony ever recorded. It’s like they were saying with this song, “Just kidding.” Ah, here’s the violins and French horn.
All Things in Time by Toad the Wet Sprocket
I hate country music, except when the Eagles or Toad the Wet Sprocket do it, and this song is certainly “country” in its guitar melody and lap-steelish overmelody. “I’ll hold a light for you to see. All things in time. All you’ll ever need.” This one has lovely lyrics, encouraging yet real. “Something I can’t explain keeps me running afraid. Every day looks me in the face and says ‘Who’d you think you were anyway?’” Ah! “And you told me so. We’ve done this all before, so what is it keeps us coming back for more?” Hard to get questions into songs, but there they are, and the soaring chorus of “ahh”s in the background, and the steelish-guitar is soaring, until it all lies back, calms down, realizes that the world goes on, and you’re OK in it.
Crowing by Glen Phillips (from Live at Largo)
Solo acoustic without the harmony vocals, but, hey, he’s got the voice I wish I had, and how many songs can you name that use “to crow” as a verb? This song’s sung to a woman who’s had “The more skin that you shed, the more that the air in your throat will linger when you call him your friend.” “Staring at a cold little hand, reading fault lines of the shell of a man. You were waiting for a word from above. Wouldn’t you know it, no answer ever did come…” I do kinda miss Dean Dinning’s “Whoa-oh-eh-oh” behind the chorus. This is a sad song, a great song. I should learn to play it.
Eyes Open Wide by Toad the Wet Sprocket (from P.S.)
This is a weird song, oddly synchopated, with a cool fuzzy bass running under it. The vocals run up to falsettos every now and then, and they’re gritty otherwise, pained, which I imagine is hard to do again and again in the studio (more natural on stage). Anyway, this song was unreleased until this retrospective album (greatest hits); it was thrown on there to get people like me to buy it. So now it makes me think about how Toad broke up and I wish they hadn’t. By the way, they’re touring all together (as Toad) this summer. I don’t see them coming through Utah yet, but they’ll be in Chicago and L.A., so you all better go see them.
Just so you know, next was going to be “Hear Me Lord” by George Harrison. For those who’re wondering, I have to tell you that I do have more than two bands on my iPod. Also, I only wrote during the time the songs were playing. Dan, it seems, must have written during more time.
Dad • 04/20/06 • 9:12 AM:Hey Dan, maybe I wouldn’t “flip out with hatred” upon hearing the Flaming Lips. I know you’re just trying to make a point, but if the band is “musically superb” then I’d probably notice. (However, the singer, with his inattention to pitch and technique, doesn’t sound too appealing.)
And Patrick, I’d be less concerned about using “to crow” as a verb (which we used to do all the time) than the words, “The more skin that you shed, the more that the air in your throat will linger when you call him your friend.” Huh?
Patrick • 04/21/06 • 10:03 AM:Yeah, Dad, that’s a mixed metaphor, but I’d never really heard it that way before. That, I think, is a manifestation of different discernments depending on media. If I were to just read that in a poem, I’d say Huh? along with you, but in the song, because the melody is primary, lyrics secondary, I like how it fits. Hmm…
I’m waiting for others to chime in on this thread. I think Dan’s list seems like it’s going for the “I’m so eclectic” vibe (like most of the people on the original Onion feature, who seem like they chose which songs to write about so they could show how indie they are), while mine says almost the opposite: this guy just has two bands on his iPod! Note, Dan, that I’m not saying that this is what either of us did for real, I’m just talking about the effect in the end.
Patrick • 04/21/06 • 12:21 PM:We just picked up a JBL iPod speaker UFO thing, so I’m trying it out. Let’s get back to Dan’s game here.
Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out) by John Lennon
This is a simple song that makes nice use of cliches in unexpected ways. Lots of times when I hear John Lennon songs, I think they’d have been better with the Beatles than with Yoko. This is one of them. It needs vocal harmonies, and maybe some tempering on that big-band downturn wah-wah-wah-wah line (but then again, it fits in with the reused cliches throughout). “I’ll scratch your back, and you knife mine.” There’s a nice slidey guitar solo in here, backed up by the horns. Then the song takes off a bit on a bridge: heightened emotion, a soaring “Ooh-wee!” I’m glad it has that. Anyway. The last line: “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.” How true, and prophetic (but easily so).
Brother by Toad the Wet Sprocket (from a legally downloaded live show: 9/16/92)
First of all, can you believe this? Did I somehow set my iPod to shuffle only Beatles and Toad the Wet Sprocket songs!? I like this song a lot, though it’s not too complex or anything, but it’s nice that the “I love you” chorus is meant to his brother, not his wife or some girl somewhere. “Like the light behind the fog, so soft, but still you burn my eyes away.” That’s for Dad. I like how it fits rhythmically in the song, but burning your eyes away, that’s a scene fit for the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. This version is not too great; the sound isn’t, that is. Not much volume on the music, lots on the vocals and drums. Oh well. I’m glad Toad allowed their shows to be taped and distributed.
Limbo by Rush
Yay! A different band. But, per Dan’s shuffle, it’s an instrumental. Weird. This song’s title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Rush Limbaugh (as I’ve written in my essay “Remember Death”): get it? “Rush Limbo.” As they got older, Rush became way more self-effacingly humorous. Their most recent shows are hilarious. Anyway, this song is good, but not nearly as cool as Rush’s first two instrumentals, “La Villa Strangiato” and “YYZ,” which are both perfect songs. Newer Rush instrumentals sound like they should have lyrics, but they don’t. And they’re practically indistinguishable to me. I mean, if you put on all four of them and asked me to name them, I couldn’t, except maybe if I remembered that “Limbo” has Count Floyd saying “Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist”; but that happens two-thirds of the way through the song, so… But hey, it’s Rush.
Bravado by Rush (from Different Stages, live)
OK, so now I’ve expanded to three bands. I can live with that. I really like this song. It’s a really simple song for a band like Rush, and it’s highly emotional, as opposed to their usual intellectual approach. It’s derived from a line in John Barth’s novel The Tidewater Tales “We will pay the price, but we will not count the cost,” which I didn’t quite get when I first heard it. It’s a statement of self sacrifice. I love it. Anyway, some lyrics: “And if the music stops, there’s only the sound of the rain. All the hope and glory, all the sacrifice in vain. And if love remains, though everything is lost, we will pay the price, but we will not count the cost.” Tears to my eyes, man. Tears to my eyes!
Then Neil goes off drumming to heaven! In this live version, there’s an outro volumetric guitar solo, the swells of crying, angry, loving guitar. Then some almost cowboying rhythms, a long extension, keeping it going. I love this song. Rush is awesome.
Faith Hope Love by King’s X
Wow. I think this iPod reads my mind. I’m like, well, all that’s missing now is King’s X. Voila! At your service! This song is King’s X’s attempt at a really long, epic song. It’s not that great, because it kind of drones on and gets repetitive, but it’s still better than any song on their later albums (except the last one, which is pretty good). What’s coolest about this song is the subsumed vocals by Doug Pinnick near the end where he goes off talking about “I heard the preacher say one morning ‘we need a little love and faith and hope.’ And I heard the old lady, and she said ‘whoa yeah,’ and just then I started to feel and I started to believe, and I didn’t know what to do, so I jumped right up out of my chair and I said ‘whoa yeah!’…” I remember being very psyched when I started picking up on this (listening to the song on headphones), and then finding the lyrics to this part in the guitar tab book of the album. Also kind of cool is the pitch-changing “Listen to me very closely: there is more heaven than hell.” Also there’s a fox-hunt horn call in the song. OK, frankly, this song is too long (at nine minutes), and that’s all I have to say about it. I like it, but it’s not the best.
Next up would have been “Politicalamity” by Extreme. I’m expanding my musical horizons (I do have 2362 songs on the thing).
Dan • 04/21/06 • 1:03 PM:I didn’t even read the Onion articles about this. I started to and then realized that I don’t have any interest in those people’s song lists. Though I used the idea here because, well, we do have an interest in each others’ musical opinions.
But my list is legitimate, except my actual 5th song was some random song that I’d never heard and that I’m pretty sure somebody else put on my computer. I deleted it and proceeded.
The reason my list is so “eclectic” is because I hardly have any of my CDs ripped onto my computer. For example: I don’t have any Rush songs on it and I only have a few live King’s X songs. I have 1 Pink Floyd album, 2 Pearl Jam albums (one live one), and only “rare” Beatles stuff. In contrast, I have about 6 Super Furry Animals albums, 3 Ted Leo albums (he is awesome, btw), 5 Wilco albums (+live stuff), 3 Flaming Lips albums (+ live stuff), and 3 Belle & Sebastian albums. The Super Furry and Belle&Sebastian ones, among about 500 other mp3s, were provided free of charge from my friend’s portable hard drive. Shush up about that.
As for John Lennon cliches, my favorite ones concerns his lack of parenting as a child, “Mother, you had me, but I never had you.” The first couple times I just thought it was some garbage lyric but when I got it it was cool.
I went back into the archives and put some Toad on my compy. “All Things in Time” is one of my favorite songs. But whatever internet source my iTunes uses to determine song titles lists it as “All Things In Life”. It also writes “Budda” instead of “Buddha”. Typos!
To anybody who doesn’t recognize Paul as one of the greatest bass players ever (and I mean that not with technical expertise but with great understanding for what the song needs, dictated by the lyrics, the singer’s pitch, and the speed of the song). I mean, who would have jumped on a fuzz bass for “Think for Yourself”? Only Paul, and it was perfect. But his best songs are “Yer Blues,” where his bass takes the drums’ place for rhythm and head-thumping beats, and also where his 4-note approach thumps into a ’50s-style rock ‘n’ roll change upon John’s closing lyrics, “Feel so suicidal, even hate my rock ‘n’ roll!” And it turns the whole song on its head. Ahh.
Then there’s “Something”, one of George’s finest songs. But Paul lays down a bass track that kept the feeling like a giant pillow to lay your ears upon (uh, what?). It’s as if George’s voice represents George in a relationship and the bass represents George’s wife, singing along perfectly in her own way. The bass moves to its own melody but perfectly along with George.
Dan • 04/21/06 • 1:21 PM:“Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
I’ll say it again: The best thing to happen to Nirvana was Kurt Cobain’s suicide. The worst thing to happen to Pearl Jam was Eddie Vedder not shotgunning himself in the face.
John is a saint these days while Paul gets made fun of for being old.
Patrick • 04/21/06 • 2:01 PM:Whereas my iPod is filled with my favorite CDs (therefore lots of Beatles, Rush, Toad, King’s X) and a few scattered live things. I’m surprised more Rush didn’t show up, but Beatles and Toad make sense.
Dan, your theory about suicides catapulting musicians to fame is a good one, but not across the board. Rush is still together after 30+ years, and they’re still great. I don’t want to see anybody dying there anytime soon.
Dan • 04/21/06 • 2:20 PM:And Pat, who’s cookin’ the books here? I’ve got 2 instrumentals, 5 different bands, and even a song I can’t stand. You’ve got your 4 favorite bands. Come on!
Here’s round 2:
Nobody Told Me by John Lennon
Haha. Maybe this one came up because I was just listening to “Nobody Loves You”. Anyway, I have this song on my compy twice because I downloaded it a couple years ago because I thought it was awesome. This song is just stating that sometimes he doesn’t care about anything. “Everybody’s talking and no one says a word. /
Everybody’s making love and no one really cares.” “Nobody told me there’d be days like this. Strange days? Indeed.” I love this song because the refrain is sung so awkwardly, but interestingly.
Gathering Moss by Super Furry Animals
I’ve never heard this song. You see, when you receive 6 of their albums at once, you tend to pick one or two and get into those for a while, then proceed when you’re sick of those. These guys are Welsh, and if you’ve ever seen that language written then you’d know that “Gwreiddiau DWFN Mawrth Oer AR y Blaned Neifion” are actual words. But you’d probably still be very skeptical. These guys remind me of The Beach Boys with accents. They aren’t exactly and “indie” band. They’re famous in Europe. They are lyrically average, but they all sing lead and they all sing great harmonies, sometimes in an unreachable key (for me). Overall, the two albums I listen to are fantastic.
Tempted by Squeeze
Yes! Everybody loves this song. Squeeze has two singers, right? There’s this guy with the crisp perfect pitch, and the guy who sings “Coffee In Bed”, who sounds like he’s from Petshop Boys or New Order. I much prefer the “Tempted” guy. What is “a flannel for my face”? A washcloth? Oh! There’s the other guy in verse 2! And two other guys too, the low-voice guy “The people keep on grabbing” and another guy with “Ain’t wishin’ I was well”. I have no interest in breaking down the lyrics, just that it’s about some dude who broke up with his woman and now he’s over someone else’s house and leaves because although he’s been tempted by the fruit of another, the truth, as he’s discovered, is that there is no other person in his life. Yay!
Theme for Indiana Jones by John Williams (I’m assuming?)
Ha. I also have about 40 TV and movie theme songs on my compy. This one is one of the most recognizable movie themes. Right there with Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and Batman. That’s the big 3 in movie music: John Williams, Alan Silvestri, and Danny Elfman! Oh, and The Rza for the Kill Bill volumes. Anyway, I’m not going to listen to this whole song.
“Skip”
Angel by Sarah McLachlan
I really like this song, but I’ve never paid attention to the lyrics until now. Apparently it’s about loneliness in the music industry, specifically on tour when artists are so far away from daily life and not having anything or anybody to occupy your time. So many cope by taking drugs and stuff. The refrain goes, “In the arms of an angel / Fly away from here. / From this dark cold hotel room / And the endlessness that you fear” I’ve always thought of Sarah as being a much better version of Alanis Morrisette. She sings better, while both do that out-of-breath-last-ditch-effort vocal release that is intriguing. But Sarah is a lot less fake. “Jagged Little Pill” and the songs off that album were meant to feel angst-ridden and authentic, and commercially it did well, but my goodness was that contrived by the record company.
Carnival Town by Norah Jones
Ooh. This song is great. I heard it in the background playing when I was at Kath’s apt one day and I looked to see what song it was, then I downloaded it. It’s just a softly-picked guitar, perfect vocals, and a barely-touched piano. This song talks about a carnival as a metaphor for loneliness. “Round and round, carousel / hass got you under its spell / Moving so fast, but going nowhere. Is it lonely?” Norah puts a harmony on the word “lonely” that I could listen to forever.
So that was 6 songs. I lost count.
Dan • 04/21/06 • 2:24 PM:Huh? Had Geddy died at the height of Rush’s popularity, you don’t think they would be much more famous and revered?
Patrick • 04/21/06 • 3:36 PM:Nope. They’d be like Thin Lizzy or something: dead singer, a couple of songs that get on the radio but most people don’t even know who they are. “I kinda like that song ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’; who the heck sings it?” You know I’m right.
And anyway, what I was saying was that I’m sure glad nobody died and Rush is still making music.
As for your previous comment, Dan, sometimes I wonder if you know how to read. Let me trace it out for you:
Sheesh.
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