Saturday, August 2, 2008

Saturday Shuffle

Its just the kind of day for staying cool, listening to some music and moving only so long as the tunes make you groove...

With a huuuuuge music collection on my iPod, I have found sometimes straight shuffling isn't pleasing because the range of what might play is too broad---I'm often not that adventurous. All good students of research sampling know that one solution is to stratify your population into groups that limit the variance and then draw samples from each of the strata. For subsequent shuffle segments, then, wKHM is going to stratify by genre and rating---after all, the point is not really to embarrass the shuffler with revelations of The Starland Vocal Band, right?
In my ears right now.... of the Pop persuasion

1. Billy Joel -- Close to the Borderline
heh--here's yet another late-70s anthem of discontent with the status quo. Feels relevant.

...A buck three eighty
Won't buy you much lately on the street these days

And when you can't get gas
You know you can't drive fast anymore on the parkways..
..I got remote control and a color T.V.

I don't change channels so they must change me
I got real close friends that are gettin' me high

They don't know how to talk and they ain't gonna try
I shouldn't bitch, I shouldn't cry
I'd start a revolution but I don't have time
I don't know why I'm still a nice guy
But I'm getting close to the borderline
From the time I was about 16 to about 24, there was nobody who could come close to Joel in my estimation. Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton creeped in at some point and since then I haven't really gone looking for the old Joel stuff. From about 1977 to 1983, though, everything he did was nearly flawless. He's a power pop master, even if really a troubled dude. A couple of songs after this track, "I Don't Want to Be Alone Anymore" came up. That's a good one, too.

2. Van Morrison -- Domino
Van is, indeed, The Man. This song is rock and roll perfection and a very clear link from the R&B and Rockabilly of the 50's and 60's to the straight-ahead rock of the 70's. Brilliant. 'Nuff said.






3. Paul Simon -- Slip Slidin' Away
If nothing else, this shuffle is certainly throwing up all the heavy hitters of the 70's, eh? You should know this: I love Paul Simon's music. Like very many of his songs, these lyrics hit their mark with laser-like precision; he's so good with angst.




4. Colbie Caillat -- Bubbly
Finally! A track released in the last year or so! I think this one found its way onto my 'pod thanks to one of those Starbucks - iTunes promos. Its very cute, isn't it? I like her voice.




5. Carole King -- Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
Early 1970's pop would have been much less exciting without Carole King. This track comes from "Tapestry" which is the one album I would never, ever give up (one other being Paul Simon's "Graceland"). I actually remember where I was the first time I heard it: 8 years old, with the teenaged daughter of my Dad's friend, cooking out after a long day at the beach. If you don't own Tapestry, let me know. You must.


Bonus. Blondie -- Rapture
I couldn't close off this post and leave Blondie hanging; this followed the honorable Ms. King. I don't know how Deborah Harry could sing with her tongue so firmly tucked in her cheek---love her sense of irony and fun. This is classic. And as a senior in HS when it was released, it couldn't have had more appeal to this young know-it-all.

Wishing you a groove-laden weekend. Why don't you share a little shuffle with me in comments?

4 comments:

Drew said...

I finally have enough songs on my phone's mp3 player to provide a decent shuffle.

1. Eric Clapton - Blues Before Sunrise
2. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash - Jackson
3. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - 2:22
4. The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
5. Evanescence - My Immortal

Special K said...

Slip Slidin' Away is one of my FAVORITE songs!

KHM said...

Drew---I've never heard of Potter and the Nocturnals---what can you say about them.

K, Me, too.

Drew said...

Very cool. If you like Susan Tedeschi, you will probably like Potter and the Nocturnals. I had a post about her in June '07, which showed a couple of videos and linked to their myspace page.

A friend of mine let me borrow the album and before I was half-way finished with it, I knew I was going to have to get it myself.