The Long and Winding Road

Hello all, and apologies for my prolonged hiatus...it was unintentionally extended (good intentions yadda yadda). I hope to get back to normal (well, at least more regular!) posting now, and even have lists upon lists of what to write about...in other words, more jottings that I will likely never get around to turning into actual posts!

I hope that you had a lovely holiday season replete with love, laughter and libation (and not too much loose-lipped lock-horning). I had an unusually calm and convivial time...and was spoiled rotten! Without going into detail re: gift lists, suffice to say that I got eight CDs (actually nine, although I already had one of them, so that's to be returned), and that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. Amongst them were the excellent Raising Sand (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss), Clare and The Reasons (The Movie), St Vincent, Bettye Lavette's most recent and some Aretha rareties. Jolly good!

I also used the opportunity to pillage my dad's CD collection (which is huge and varied) and smuggle some of it away on my iPod...mostly older country stuff that I've somehow never got around to owning, and indeed some with which I have been tardy in acquainting myself. So I have tonnes more music (yippee!), only I neglected to make a list of what I'd stolen, so finding it all again on my iPod will provide hours of fun...or frustration!

Speaking of my iPod, I placed my listening in the hands of the gods and opted for 'shuffle' for the drive home (which, sadly, was not as beautiful as the picture above, nor winding...just long!), and was extremely pleased that I did. I sometimes find that it gets itself into some kind of 'groove', not exemplifying fully the range of music that I have, playing oodles of songs that I somehow don't know, even though I obviously own them on an album somewhere, and over-representing certain artists. For example, my iTunes on my computer, in shuffle mode, seems to have a particular fondness for Ella Fitzgerald. Joni Mitchell was especially abundant on this occasion, so all was well with the world and my 96 track journey was a good'un.

The trip started on an incredibly promising note with Muddy Waters and Mannish Boy. I shall not bore you with a list of the entire 96 songs (nor could I, as I didn't write them all down and have 'shuffled' again since), but the best consecutive ten song run was:

I Wanna Be Where You Are - Michael Jackson
The Burrow - Throwing Muses
Wardrope - Hoover
Something Changed - Pulp (could've done without this one, but it's forgivable)
Jason's Basement - Gossip
When Heroes Go Down - Suzanne Vega
Sail Away - Kirsty MacColl
All I Could Do Is Cry - Etta James
Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
Overpower Thee - Auf der Maur

The next most promising run was:

Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - The Temptations
Jacky The Ripper - The Need
Let Me Kiss You - Morrissey
Hockey Skates - Kathleen Edwards
Down By The River - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - The Pogues
Carry Me - The Levellers (perhaps a bit of a weak link here, but I have such a fondness for them because of my teenage years)
There's More To Life Than This - Bjork

...but then it was all spoilt by throwing up Tom Jones and What's New Pussycat!

My favourites that were played, that I haven't heard for some time were Jefferson Airplane and Volunteers, Miss Kittin Let Me Hear The DJ and L.J. Johnson with Your Magic Put A Spell On Me; however Paul Davidson's Midnight Rider had me searching anxiously in my mirrors for a wailing Police car (due to those pesky sirens in the intro!).

I can't finish this post without mentioning the three most satifying segues (generally because they were entirely incongruous and this appeals to me in an "Oh, how very wry" kind of way), the first of which was Birmingham Jail by Peggy Lee straight into Le Tigre with Let's Run. Even better was Samuel L. Jackson, from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, and his Ezekiel 25:17 into Blur's Advert ("And you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee...BANG BANG BANG" -> "Food processors are great!"). The third was just as I was arriving at my destination and featured Sam Cooke with I'll Come Running Back To You adjacent to Metallica and Blackened.

See, don't you feel like you've been on the six hour journey with me now??

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ruing the January anti-climax and general lack of presents? You still have time to enter my competition to win a CD...winner decided 17th January.