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ITunes Pop Meme
Everyone likes a good Meme: those quizzes and personality tests that get passed round the internet. So I thought I’d try my hand at inventing one. I keep my ITunes tracks sorted into a series of playlists based on year of release. Album only tracks are automatically kept out of the lists, so what I’ve ended up with are the singles of particular years, a series of lovely nostalgia trips. (Although back past a certain point I don’t make the distinction so much. Certain Beatles tracks, for instance, are as well known as anything else from their year whether or not they were singles.) And it occurred to me that this method is an index of many things about my life, and might be revealing for other people as well. So this is my ITunes Pop Meme, with my answers. Do spread it around, and let’s see if it catches on.
Earliest Track in My Library:
Fred Astaire, ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ (1937). I love the brittle, vulnerable, very English thing that Fred does here. He’s not the greatest singer, but he knows how to emote it. It’s such a draw-droppingly painful song, framed in such a mannered, restrained, way. ‘The way you changed my life’ gets dropped in there amongst the tiny things of domestic bliss, like a bomb going off. And this is from a world where ‘they’, be they the Nazis or her parents, are still able to effortlessly take her away from him, with no recourse other than a sad song.
Year from Which I Have Most Tracks:
1985, with 75. From Katrina and the Waves’ ‘Que Te Quiero’ through Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy, Sheila E, Springsteen, Prince, Arcadia, Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, and Propaganda. Is it any coincidence that this was from when I was eighteen, and living away from home for the first time? I was at U.C.L., flunking an astronomy degree, so these are the memories of a wonderfully free countryside summer and a terrible urban winter. With loads of lust.
Earliest TV Theme:
Captain Pugwash, from 1957. But that’s just because I’m weird like that. TV themes from before I was alive. Jolly good fun it is too.
Five Star Ratings from the Year I was Born:
1967, and only one, ‘Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)’ by the Monkees. This is one of the great pop songs, and I wish it was better known. It’s a Neil Diamond writing job, designed to be shouted by someone with huge manly passion, but then handed, wonderfully, to little Davey Jones. It’s mainly just an awesomely tight (two minutes thirteen) groove, for girls in minidresses and long hair to gogo dance to. The lyrics depart completely, with vast and lovely confidence, for a few beats just so we can hear the drum and bass thumping better. But those lyrics are about a real painful teenage opera, choosing between two girls our hero genuinely loves. Talking about this one really does feel like dancing to architecture. The grandeur of the Beatles described once again: even their cheap American knock off band were fantastic.
Five Star Ratings from the Year I was Sixteen:
1983, that is, and only one again, ‘Love Over and Over’ by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. A Terry Wogan favourite track the memory of which I kept in my head for decades before I heard it again. Which was when I purchased the re-released album on CD and realised that the actual song was as good as my memory of it. It’s a strange, folky refrain about how talking about love a lot, or writing love songs, is no substitute for genuine emotion. Done in a very rock way, and it arrives like an express train. ‘When no-one’s looking over my shoulder, I like to write rock and roll, but it doesn’t really hang together.’ I know exactly how she feels.
Five Star Ratings from This Year:
Two, Orson’s ‘No Tomorrow’ and ‘Pull Shapes’ by the Pipettes. Orson got to number one, the Pipettes join Marc Almond’s ‘Adored and Explored’ and Helen Watson’s ‘You’re Not the Rule, You’re the Exception’ in my parallel universe chart of Things I Thought Would Be Number One But Got Nowhere. What I love about the Orson track is that, like The Darkness’ ‘Dancing on a Friday Night’ it describes with great romanticism a genuine, not romanticised, teenage experience. These guys are worried about the cost of the cover charge and whether or not it’s a school night, but they feel the same way about dancing I do. They’ve thrown themselves in and love it, while declaring ‘and I can’t even dance’. ‘Pull Shapes’ has the vast confidence and instant catchiness of a number one record (might it not still be, might there still be hope?), and is again about the personal experience of dancing. I very much sympathise with the Pipette who declares ‘I just want to freak out’ after the others have been describing their dance moves. There’s a call out and answer bit in the chorus, and fake audience applause, like they know this is going to be performed in a stadium some day. ‘Clap your hands if you want some more’ indeed! Shameless! And following their appearance in Torchwood and at the last fan (civil partnership ceremony) disco I attended, these guys are getting to be a fan band.
Top Ten on my Most Played List:
The Archies, ‘Sugar Sugar’: the catchiest pop tune of all time. Who cares if they were animated? I love how the backing singer declares ‘I’m gonna make your life so sweet’ in a very restrained way the first time, and the second time goes all Foxy Cleopatra on our asses. Yeah, I know. This is what I discovered doing this meme. In so many ways, I am Austin Powers.
The Bee Gees and Barbara Streisand, ‘Guilty’: I love Brothers Gibb songwriting. And nobody interprets like Babs. ‘Make it a crime to be lonely or sad.’ And that production job. Those with younger ears probably find soft fairlighty stuff the height of bad taste.
Kate Bush, ‘Why Should I Love You?’: co-written with Prince, and with, of all people, Lenny Henry popping up on backing vocals. The Red Shoes is her most emotional album, and I love the lyrics, the feeling of womblike retreat from hurt, the fierce embrace this gives me. There’s hope and ritual in here. I think Kate probably gets bigtime religion and paganism at once, but that’s what pop stars are for, us to project our own yearnings on them.
Janet Jackson, ‘All For You’: just my favourite stupid dance thing.
Michael Jackson, ‘Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough’: okay, maybe this is, rather. I love the start, where he’s muttering and this huge Quincy Jones drum thing arrives like a tidal wave. Anyone looks great dancing to this.
Air, ‘You Make it Easy’: The first dance at my wedding.
The Isley Brothers, ‘Twist and Shout’: so groovy. The Beatles took everything except the Jamaican horns, and they should have nicked those too. Utterly danceable.
Kylie Minogue, ‘Love at First Sight’: didn’t like it much until she showed us how to dance to it in the video, and my shoulders haven’t stopped moving since. You can tell I’ve always danced with gay men, can’t you?
Kate Bush, ‘Suspended in Gaffa’: she’s saying something profound here, about art and ambition, but I’m not sure she knows quite what it is. She’s often at her best when being vague, seeing things out of the corner of her eye. When she gets specific she can trip over badly.
The Beatles, ‘Golden Slumbers’: it’s all three tracks, really, ‘Carry That Weight’ and ‘The End’. Unlocked the Beatles for me. Contains the history of music in several different movements in a very short period of time. I’ll blog on just these three tracks one day.
Well, that’s me, now it’s your turn. I’d love to see some of these in the Comments section. And if you post one on your own blog, let me know.
Announcements:
ITEM! It’s the dinner for the winners of the Mark Millar Crohn’s Disease charity auction on Friday. I’ll report on how it goes. Many Who writers coming along. Should be a fun night.
ITEM! And at the weekend I’m off to the Anime Expo at the ExCel Centre. So if you’re milling about and you see me, do say hello:
http://www.londonexpo.com/index.shtml
ITEM! I’m loving Torchwood, and it’s Helen Raynor’s episode this Sunday. Judging by the readthrough of her Who script, I think we can expect fireworks.
Until next time, Cheerio!
Earliest Track in My Library:
Fred Astaire, ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ (1937). I love the brittle, vulnerable, very English thing that Fred does here. He’s not the greatest singer, but he knows how to emote it. It’s such a draw-droppingly painful song, framed in such a mannered, restrained, way. ‘The way you changed my life’ gets dropped in there amongst the tiny things of domestic bliss, like a bomb going off. And this is from a world where ‘they’, be they the Nazis or her parents, are still able to effortlessly take her away from him, with no recourse other than a sad song.
Year from Which I Have Most Tracks:
1985, with 75. From Katrina and the Waves’ ‘Que Te Quiero’ through Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy, Sheila E, Springsteen, Prince, Arcadia, Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, and Propaganda. Is it any coincidence that this was from when I was eighteen, and living away from home for the first time? I was at U.C.L., flunking an astronomy degree, so these are the memories of a wonderfully free countryside summer and a terrible urban winter. With loads of lust.
Earliest TV Theme:
Captain Pugwash, from 1957. But that’s just because I’m weird like that. TV themes from before I was alive. Jolly good fun it is too.
Five Star Ratings from the Year I was Born:
1967, and only one, ‘Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)’ by the Monkees. This is one of the great pop songs, and I wish it was better known. It’s a Neil Diamond writing job, designed to be shouted by someone with huge manly passion, but then handed, wonderfully, to little Davey Jones. It’s mainly just an awesomely tight (two minutes thirteen) groove, for girls in minidresses and long hair to gogo dance to. The lyrics depart completely, with vast and lovely confidence, for a few beats just so we can hear the drum and bass thumping better. But those lyrics are about a real painful teenage opera, choosing between two girls our hero genuinely loves. Talking about this one really does feel like dancing to architecture. The grandeur of the Beatles described once again: even their cheap American knock off band were fantastic.
Five Star Ratings from the Year I was Sixteen:
1983, that is, and only one again, ‘Love Over and Over’ by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. A Terry Wogan favourite track the memory of which I kept in my head for decades before I heard it again. Which was when I purchased the re-released album on CD and realised that the actual song was as good as my memory of it. It’s a strange, folky refrain about how talking about love a lot, or writing love songs, is no substitute for genuine emotion. Done in a very rock way, and it arrives like an express train. ‘When no-one’s looking over my shoulder, I like to write rock and roll, but it doesn’t really hang together.’ I know exactly how she feels.
Five Star Ratings from This Year:
Two, Orson’s ‘No Tomorrow’ and ‘Pull Shapes’ by the Pipettes. Orson got to number one, the Pipettes join Marc Almond’s ‘Adored and Explored’ and Helen Watson’s ‘You’re Not the Rule, You’re the Exception’ in my parallel universe chart of Things I Thought Would Be Number One But Got Nowhere. What I love about the Orson track is that, like The Darkness’ ‘Dancing on a Friday Night’ it describes with great romanticism a genuine, not romanticised, teenage experience. These guys are worried about the cost of the cover charge and whether or not it’s a school night, but they feel the same way about dancing I do. They’ve thrown themselves in and love it, while declaring ‘and I can’t even dance’. ‘Pull Shapes’ has the vast confidence and instant catchiness of a number one record (might it not still be, might there still be hope?), and is again about the personal experience of dancing. I very much sympathise with the Pipette who declares ‘I just want to freak out’ after the others have been describing their dance moves. There’s a call out and answer bit in the chorus, and fake audience applause, like they know this is going to be performed in a stadium some day. ‘Clap your hands if you want some more’ indeed! Shameless! And following their appearance in Torchwood and at the last fan (civil partnership ceremony) disco I attended, these guys are getting to be a fan band.
Top Ten on my Most Played List:
The Archies, ‘Sugar Sugar’: the catchiest pop tune of all time. Who cares if they were animated? I love how the backing singer declares ‘I’m gonna make your life so sweet’ in a very restrained way the first time, and the second time goes all Foxy Cleopatra on our asses. Yeah, I know. This is what I discovered doing this meme. In so many ways, I am Austin Powers.
The Bee Gees and Barbara Streisand, ‘Guilty’: I love Brothers Gibb songwriting. And nobody interprets like Babs. ‘Make it a crime to be lonely or sad.’ And that production job. Those with younger ears probably find soft fairlighty stuff the height of bad taste.
Kate Bush, ‘Why Should I Love You?’: co-written with Prince, and with, of all people, Lenny Henry popping up on backing vocals. The Red Shoes is her most emotional album, and I love the lyrics, the feeling of womblike retreat from hurt, the fierce embrace this gives me. There’s hope and ritual in here. I think Kate probably gets bigtime religion and paganism at once, but that’s what pop stars are for, us to project our own yearnings on them.
Janet Jackson, ‘All For You’: just my favourite stupid dance thing.
Michael Jackson, ‘Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough’: okay, maybe this is, rather. I love the start, where he’s muttering and this huge Quincy Jones drum thing arrives like a tidal wave. Anyone looks great dancing to this.
Air, ‘You Make it Easy’: The first dance at my wedding.
The Isley Brothers, ‘Twist and Shout’: so groovy. The Beatles took everything except the Jamaican horns, and they should have nicked those too. Utterly danceable.
Kylie Minogue, ‘Love at First Sight’: didn’t like it much until she showed us how to dance to it in the video, and my shoulders haven’t stopped moving since. You can tell I’ve always danced with gay men, can’t you?
Kate Bush, ‘Suspended in Gaffa’: she’s saying something profound here, about art and ambition, but I’m not sure she knows quite what it is. She’s often at her best when being vague, seeing things out of the corner of her eye. When she gets specific she can trip over badly.
The Beatles, ‘Golden Slumbers’: it’s all three tracks, really, ‘Carry That Weight’ and ‘The End’. Unlocked the Beatles for me. Contains the history of music in several different movements in a very short period of time. I’ll blog on just these three tracks one day.
Well, that’s me, now it’s your turn. I’d love to see some of these in the Comments section. And if you post one on your own blog, let me know.
Announcements:
ITEM! It’s the dinner for the winners of the Mark Millar Crohn’s Disease charity auction on Friday. I’ll report on how it goes. Many Who writers coming along. Should be a fun night.
ITEM! And at the weekend I’m off to the Anime Expo at the ExCel Centre. So if you’re milling about and you see me, do say hello:
http://www.londonexpo.com/index.shtml
ITEM! I’m loving Torchwood, and it’s Helen Raynor’s episode this Sunday. Judging by the readthrough of her Who script, I think we can expect fireworks.
Until next time, Cheerio!
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I also love the Pipettes and was very excited to hear them in Torchwood. Over a pub riot no less!
It's not quite the same kind of thing but here's a brief breakdown of my iTunes library...
Most played: Fake Tales of San Francisco - Arctic Monkeys (closely followed by Cannibal's Hymn - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds);
Last played: The River - PJ Harvey (breathes into your ear in an incredibly sexy way on that one);
Most recently added: White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane (currently used in an advert for something);
Highest rated (one of 'em anyway): Run, Run, Run - Echo and the Bunnymen live in Sweden (originally by The Velvet Underground);
Most recent audiobook: Nicholas Nickleby by Mr Charles Dickens - wonderfully read by Anton Lesser;
Most recently listened-to radio station: Dub Beautiful Collective - Live, ambient and IDM recordings from San Francisco;
Most recent podcast: 43 Folders with Merlin Mann (43folders.com) - Apple, productivity, Getting Things Done. Also subscribed to: Radio 4 choice, Start the Week, From Our Own Correspondent;
Most used playlist: "running" - for when I'm, um, running: Bomb the Bass, Bunnymen, Feeder, Ian Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Loop, Motorhead, Muse, Joy Division, Oasis, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, The Stone Roses, That Petrol Emotion, U2, Whale.
1,452 items, 5.42gb - and nine boxes of vinyl stacked up in this very room yet to be converted.
Now, if I'd included Podcasts, I'd have had to have mentioned The Week in Whedon, which I'm going to do a full blog about at some point.
Having seen them in Birmingham last month, I can confirm that The Pipettes are incredible live too.
(I'm not sure which tune I was happiest to hear at that civil partnership ceremony reception - Pull Shapes or Kylie's 'Your Disco needs You')
Have I not been pimping the Pipettes for two years now?
Live they seriously rock (both the original lineup in dingy pubs or the new line-up at proper venues and festivals) and I always leave the gig laughing with delight at life. I was very excited to hear them in Torchwood (clearly the brawl had started over whether Rosay or Gwenno is the prettiest girl you've ever met) and I know they were in Grey's Anatomy recently. I don't think there's much chance of 'Pull Shapes' climbing to No. 1 now as there's been another single since then (the great 'Judy').
Love of the Pips was one of the things that made me like the chap, so if you do get a chance to see them live in London, look out for us dancing in the middle of the crowd. ;)
(sadly we can't make their Xmas party at the Roundhouse on the 23rd Dec and my parents on Xmas Eve. So we were going to put off my parents till Boxing Day...
I also have to say that the Bad Seeds' "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" is the best song I've ever heard about writer's block, the creative process and depression. (Not that there's that many...)
I look at you and you look at me,
And deep in our hearts, babe, we both know it,
That you weren't much of a muse,
But then, I weren't much of a poet.
And if you've got kids, "O Children" will make you cry. Guaranteed.
Pipettes wise I would say Gwenno is the most swoonsomely attractive. But I do go all a quiver when Rosay goes 'well I've had just about enough of sweet' in Why Did You Stay?
Great idea. Although, perhaps worryingly, the only five star song I've got on iTunes from the year I was born is Stu Phillips' theme to Battlestar Galactica. I need more old songs...
I remember watching you flunk your astronomy degree, in 1985. One of the most liberating experiences of life.
And yours. :)
Now, my itunes pop meme, I still don't think the world is ready for..
Strangely, I find 'Your Disco Needs You' to be a little *too* obvious. It feels made, not born. I know, Mags, they were your band way before anyone else, I've been following that on your blog. I always end up being attracted to the one in a band who seems to have got in by accident, and is thus far more natural: Tina in S Club 7; and though I don't know the names of Girl Aloud, there's one who you wouldn't trust to put up a set of shelves without it turning into an episode of Paddington. She looks like she's continually saying 'well, okay, I'll wear this glamourous dress if you want, but I don't think it's really me,' which is tremendously endearing. I also always like bands who have a song about themselves. I keep telling Caroline that there should be a 'Hey Hey We're The Magpies'. Talking of which, rather like Buckaroo Banzai, my wife can honestly say that on Thursday she'll be delivering an important viva voce for her theology doctorate, but will get home just in time to take the stage with her folk rock band. And yes, flunking my astronomy degree was probably the best thing to happen to me.
elljay : nah, Rosay is adoreable. And Riot Becki is a different kind of attractive. Gwenno is last (as was Julia before her).
Paul: maybe The Magpies should do the theme to Magpie, thus getting some nice retro 70s theme music in? ;)
Sugar Sugar was, along with The Girl From Ipanema, one of the first songs played on the moon.
Okay, my meme is going to very misleading, for a couple of reasons.
Reason 1: Only 2/3 of the tracks in my iTunes library have the year they were released included in their information. So I have tracks that I know were released earlier than 1960, like all my Billie Holliday songs, but none of them have year info included and I am too lazy to look it up.
Reason 2: My top ten most played is skewed towards quieter songs I really love, because it's what I listen to on repeat when I am up all night writing papers. They are still songs I love, but you know, a specific segment of them.
Reason 3: I am too lazy to rate songs in my library, so I'm going to have to make up the "5-star" ratings.
With those disclaimers in place:
The oldest song in my iTunes library: "Setting Up The Stage: Tuning Up; Granz And Fitzgerald Talking" by Ella Fitzgerald off Mack the Knife: Ella Live in Berlin. Which is a stellar album, for her brilliantly goofed version of Mack the Knife (where she forgets the lyrics and starts to scat halfway through it) alone.
The year with the most songs: This is cheating, but I'm going to say "blank" year, which is actually significant for my lifestyle. It indicates glaringly that over a third of my music- far more, probably- is pirated off my school's file sharing system, and therefore incompletely and frequently incorrectly labelled. When I am avoiding work, I often go through to do spring cleaning, looking up albums for album less tracks, isnerting capitals in the right places, delting duplicate songs. Incredible how much time you can waste, and all of it justified...kind of.
earliest tv theme: I think the *only* TV theme I have isn't very early at all, it's "We Used to Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols, theme to the brilliant Veronica Mars. Would *love* to hear what you're making of season 2 sometime.
five star ratings from the year I was born: I seem to have only two songs from the year I was born, neither of which were actually released originally in the year I was born, so I think I'm going to have to pass on this one.
five star ratings from the year I was 16: none of the songs from the year I was 16 are songs I actually listened to when I was 16, but if I had to rate them I'd say "The Luckiest" and "Annie Waits" by Ben Folds, off Rockin' the Suburbs, and "Wicked Little Town" and 'Origin of Love" off of the Hedwig and the Angry Inch soundtrack.
and now I am skipping to Top Ten Most played, because the notion of figuring out which of the songs from this year would be 5 star ratings is simply too daunting. So, without further ado:
1. "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl" by Broken Social Scene
2. "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" by Death Cab for Cutie
3."You Had Time" by Annie Difranco
4. "Brand New Colony" by The Postal Service
5. "Let's Get Out of This Country" by Camera Obscura
6. "Crooked Teeth" by Death Cab for Cutie
7. "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" by The Postal Service
8. "Marching Bands of Manhattan" by Death Cab for Cutie
9. "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service
10. "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens
Just realized how dominated that list is by Ben Gibbard- really I *do* listen to loads of music other than Death Cab and The Postal Service, just imagine them to be the musical equivalent of the comfy, hole-ridden, 8 year-old sweatshirt you change into the second you come home. Not exactly the sartorial epitome of your personality, but a deeply necessary garment for all the times you don't want to be "on." That's what Ben Gibbard is for me. I also think the playcount for Plans is especially high, because I got this laptop and that album nearly simultaneously, so I was listening to it on repeat for at least 3 weeks before any other albums even made it on to the computer.
Bit long for a comment, but I am (say it with me now...) too lazy to have an actual blog. But it was such a good meme, I couldn't help but participate. Been missing England like a constant, dull ache the last couple weeks, and drinking lots of tea to compensate. Also been watching both Robin Hood and Torchwood, and wanted to tell you well done on the last episode. It was an interesting new perspective on Robin, and I can't wait to see where the show takes it. As to Torchwood, I am really at a loss who on the show I am more in love with- the adorable, gap toothed Gwen or Captain Jack.
Oh, also forgot to mention that I too am something of a Pipettes fiend, and nearly found myself defenestrated by overzealous Grey's Anatomy fans when I squealed about them being featured in a recent episode and drowned out some important dialogue. Thank goodness we have a Tivo knockoff, and could rewind to hear the dialogue over, else I fear I would not be here to tell the tale.
Moral of the story- they are totaly brilliant, and I *may* have watched the music video for "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" so many times that I have all the choreography memorized. Wish they'd tour the states, I would give a limb to see them live. Them and Lily Allen.
I've suggested the Magpie theme, and I think the general verdict is kind of cheesy. Which I'd like, but they don't. Aliens won't understand that at all, Nick. We took our cartoon representations of ourselves into space. I love the mental picture of astronauts dancing. Maggie, I know, this mean does punish those who don't organise by year. I was bowled over by season two of Veronica, and now the start of season three, and will blog about it at length soon. And ta! Let's hope that Pipettes US tour happens. I'd love to have them doing 'Pull Shapes' on Letterman.
I'm going with Martin's list too, cos I've no clue when half of my music was released.
Most played:
Thom Yorke’s wonderful solo album, The Eraser makes up the entire top nine entries of my most played. It’s a really beautiful record and better than the last full Radiohead album by quite some way. After that there’s a couple of tracks from Coil’s Horse Rotorvator. I’m a new convert to Coil, but they really are quite astonishing and I have quickly become obsessed. Ostia (The Death Of Pasolini) from that album is unconventional, awkward, but still weirdly pop in an odd kind of way. After that Sing It Out, the highlight from Hope Of The States patchy second album, and Lcc from Autechre’s rather good Untilted.
Last played: Get Behind The Mule – Tom Waits. The best song on Mule Variations, to my mind at least.
Most recently added:
Gravenhurst – Fires In Distant Buildings – A stunning album from one of the most underrated bands in the country. Check out their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/gravenhurst
The Flaming Lips – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart - £3 from the branch of Fopp in Bath! What a bargain. Not listened to this a great deal yet, but the Flips are always good and She Don’t Use Jelly is a daffy classic.
Tom Waits – Mule Variations – Never been into Waits before, but bought this on a whim the other day. Good stuff. Still not convinced he’s the legend that people make out, but I do like it and need to give it more time.
Prince - Purple Rain – I don’t need to explain why Prince owns. Especially at three quid from Woolies!
Synthamesk – Milk And Cookies – Patchy but interesting breakcore release from Brighton’s Wrong Music, free to download on their net label, www.inspirebox.com/netlab/
Highest rated:
I have lots, but here are some random selections:
Telephasic Workshop – Boards of Canada
Theme From Sparta FC – The Fall
A Wolf At The Door – Radiohead
Blue Veils And Golden Sands – Delia Derbyshire - If you're reading this then you've probably seen Inferno, and will know why.
Hard Coming Love – The United States Of America
Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles - The best pop song ever recorded by anyone, ever.
Most recent audiobook:
Red Dwarf – Better Than Life (actually quite good) and the first series of Banter, a R4 comedy panel game.
Most recently listened-to radio station: I tend to only listen to Radio 4 and Resonance FM. Radio 4 for comedy and news, Resonance for weirdness and surf guitar.
Most recent podcast: I'm Ready For My Closeup - Great movie and television show from Resonance FM, and by a Who fan too.
Most used playlist: My unnamed On-The-Go-5, usually played on long bus journeys.
Ostia – Coil
Hajnal – Venetian Snares
The Paisley Windowpane – Wendy & Bonnie
Travel Is Dangerous - Mogwai
The Dreamer Is Still Asleep – Coil
Skip Divided – Thom Yorke
Something 4 The Weekend – Super Furry Animals
And many, many more...
Theme tune: Sealab 2021! It's freakin' awesome!
It's evolving, William, it's evolving! My wife loves Radiohead and everyone involved, but it passes me by, I'm afraid. Though I share your admiration for Prince. ('Take Me With You' on that album.)
Ah, Radiohead... that would come under 'artist with most songs in iTunes' (although, ironically, not available via the iTunes store).
I've told my wife I want Pyramid Song and How to Disappear Completely played at my funeral. Pyramid Song sounded like a godawful dirge to me the first time I heard it, but it's actually stunning, and like ME in a song. There's a scene in Destiny in which Oracle Entuzo whispers to a dying man as he slips away that there's nothing to fear, nothing to doubt. That's where it came from.
How to Disappear Completely is quite simply beautiful. That 'ah-ah' bit with all the strings takes by breath away every time.
Go on, Paul, give it a listen...
You're twisting me arm now.
Well, maybe bending your ear a bit... Listen to How to Disappear Completely through headphones. I challenge you to not be moved.
William: you're right about The Eraser. Black Swan's a favourite of mine, and Atoms for Peace. And Skip Divided. It's a bit like Kid A mixed with samples from 70s information films. Extremely subtle, many layers.
Hmm, I'm actually not that huge on HTDC (though I notice that Thom has named it his personal favourite RH track), even though it's on my favourite album, like, ever. It's one of those songs that seems to confirm the 'depressing' cliche that Radiohead are often (unfairly) tagged with. So yes, listen to that, but then listen to The National Anthem and A Wolf At The Door to hear another side of the band.
Grr, I am depressed. Somebody recommend me a song to wash away the 'have just dumped the girlfriend' blues...
Also, re: The Eraser, I love every track on there, but particularly the last one, Cymbal Rush. It's so quiet and subdued it's almost not there, but when you've heard it a few times it's just opens up beautifully. And Harrowdown Hill (about Dr. David Kelly) is just heartbreaking.
William: write a story about it. It could be the start of a beautiful career...
It's like being at a party and listening to an intelligent conversation in the corner.
And your the host! Where's the Ferrero Rocher?
I wouldn't want to spoil you.
Martin: No way, I've already been through the whole self-pitying 'fictionalise your love life' phase and don't want to repeat it! Plus it would have a really crap conclusion where we both just sort of went, "Nah, let's not bother". Very anti-climatic.
Paul: I have been listening to Take Me With U repeatedly since you reminded me just how good it is. It's no Kiss, but still a cracking tune. Also, if you're the host of this party, where do you keep the beer?