Monday, January 16, 2012

5 Song Shuffle, Vol. 19: MLK Day Edition


My iTunes library, as of January 16, 2012 , has 26,820 songs in it. Some are novelty downloads, some i have because i'm a completionist, some i rarely (if have ever) listened to. So, in this blog segment, i will let shuffle pick out random songs (without personal editing to hide embarrasing and/or lame songs), and i will write about what i think of them, plus any details i an give about how it was procured. At current rate (and if my iTunes never repeats a song...) this will be the eighteenth in at least a 4,000 part series.

Track #1 - "Bread and Wine" - Peter Gabriel

This is from Passion, Gabriel's soundtrack to Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ.  This is Gabriel in full-on world music mode, with very few hints of his prog-rock '70s or MTV '80s.  Lots of pan-flute and not-so-great-in-2012-sounding synthesizers.  The record works incredibly well with the film (which, if you haven't seen it, is great, despite Harvey Keitel being the most Brooklyn Israelite ever), but not every track works without the visuals, this one included.

Track #2 - "The Ugly Organist" - Cursive

This is why this feature can be frustrating - this is the first track on this fine album, also called The Ugly Organist, but this is just sound effects and a little organ setting the stage for the record.  No substance here folks, move along.

Track #3 - "Leisurely Poison" - Stephen Malkmus

A B-side from, I think, his eponymous debut post-Pavement.  The synths are way in front of the mix, there are some nonsensical lyrics, acoustic guitar and a drum machine beat and a fade out.  An extremely minor song in the Malkmus catalog.

Track #4 - "The Christmas Song" - Arcade Fire

I haven't done my yearly de-checking of Christmas songs in my iTunes yet, and damn it, I have to listen to this trying to be funny version of Mel Torme's classic Christmas song.  This is obnoxious.  In fact, I'm going to delete this from my library right now, there is no need to ever hear this again.  Ugh.

Track #5 - "Nothing Was Delivered (Take 1)" - Bob Dylan

This is from the A Tree With Roots fan-made compilation of the famous "basement tapes" Dylan made with the Band at his Woodstock home (aka Big Pink).  The actually released Basement Tapes are shit on by "real" Dylan fans for not being authentic enough, and A Tree With Roots is the raw, unchanged catalog of that time.  I like this version, but you can't beat the Byrds' version on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, especially the drum beat change in and out of the chorus.


Note:  This might be the first time in doing this segment that all of these tracks were downloaded, and not a single one ripped from a CD.  To be fair, I purchased all the tracks that are legally available to do so - the Dylan thing is a bootleg, and the Arcade Fire thing was a "gift" to fans.  And I heard the Cursive album on CD when i was in college, but just purchased it a few years ago.  Not that you care.

'Til next time,
Brian

Volumes 12345678, 91011121314151617 and 18

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