Playing with Playlists (1)

I’ve just spent an inordinate amount of time – measured in hours, in fact – trying to get my company logo to:

1. show up in the template for my business blog,
2. show up in the right location, correct size and proportions in my business blog.

There is a very nice man in the UK helping me resolve this problem, but I think he’s asleep now. I know I would be at this point. This has been mind-numbing as I’m not a designer, a php coder or an expert on cascading style sheets (css). This is a matter of one tiny fragment of syntax being misplaced by me, the hacker who just randomly cuts and pastes things and hopes for the best.  On the upside, I’ve hacked adjusted his original template all by myself to 98% of where I want it to be. But I just can’t get the damn logo to show up! Argh!

So, now, I must do something fun. My friend from Ottawa is going to call me any minute and that will be fun, of course. But just in case she doesn’t call for some reason, I’m going to start the mammoth project that occupies my head when I go to the gym. A detailed review of my birthday party playlist.

There are 146 songs on this playlist. Some of them reference other songs, so let’s say I have an overwhelming urge to give you my two cents on over 150 songs. There I am, at the gym, enthusiastically playing air drums on the treadmill, giving people cause to give me a Very Wide Berth, and occasionally laughing out loud at some memory or association that a song has dredged up. And, thinking – damn, I should blog about that.

I figure I can’t do 150+ songs in one fell swoop. No. I’ll break it down into bite-sized pieces, shall I?

When I put the playlist together, I was looking for songs that would help keep the party mood upbeat. So no Julie Andrews here, no sir. (She will show up later on, I guarantee.) No Brahms. No Joni Mitchell. No Jane Siberry Issa. No Scott Joplin. No Strauss. No Michael Jerome Brown. Surprisingly, no Suzie Vinnick and my wrist must be slapped for that oversight.

I didn’t put a ton of thought into it. What resulted are eight CDs that I think I could listen to, and smile at, ad nauseum.

(Note: I’m still looking for a Tragically Hip mentor.  I mean, a mentor who will teach me all about The Hip. It would be lovely if you were, you know, deathly cool yourself but that isn’t a pre-requisite.)

Ready? OK …

Playlist #1 Recent Finds

All Star (from Big Shiny Tunes 4) performed by Smash Mouth: About 12 years ago, I was complaining to a friend that I can never keep on top of what is currently “cool”. She recommended that I just buy the compilation CDs called Big Shiny Tunes. So I did buy a few and this is one of my fav cuts.

American Woman (from Big Shiny Tunes) performed by Lenny Kravitz: There is a popular urban legend that the original version of this Guess Who song was improvised on stage in Sarnia, Ontario – a stone’s throw from where I grew up. At least, that is how I heard it. Wikipedia says Kitchener. Meh. This song always reminds me of growing up in S/W Ontario. However, this Kravitz cover is WAY badder than anything Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman could have drummed up in the early ’70’s. We’d never heard anything like Lenny Kravitz out in the pasture, I assure you.

If Venice Is Sinking (from Celebrate Canada!) performed by Spirit Of The West: Another gift from a compilation album. This song reminds me of a bunch of folks sitting on bales of straw around a bonfire singing about drunken back-packing through Europe. Except … the words to the chorus always strike me as being a bit more substantial than your average sing-a-long:

And if Venice is sinking, I’m going under

‘Cause beauty’s religion, and it’s christened me with wonder

Sunday Morning After (from the Juno Awards 2003 compilation) performed by Amanda Marshall: This song just makes me laugh. And thank my lucky stars that I haven’t (yet) woken up wearing something or someone that I don’t recognize.

Take Me To The River (from Medusa) performed by Annie Lennox: Interestingly, of the 146 songs in this party playlist, there are three versions of this song! (I have a feeling I’m a-gonna catch hell for not putting the Al Green version on the playlist!) Annie, ah sweet Annie … this is probably the sultriest of the three versions, a tad slower, luscious. Yum.

Bad Thing (from Blind Pig Records 20th Anniversary (Disc 2)) performed by Sarah Brown: Sadly, there is no online link to this rockin’ tune. I collect obscure women playing blues, especially using guitars that rock out.

Baila Me (from Gipsy Kings (Greatest Hits)) performed by the Gipsy Kings: My favourite Gypsy Kings song. This song fuels a particular fantasy of mine. (No, not that kind … ) I imagine a stage full of women with drums of various descriptions – like a WombBoom or Samba Squad – backed up by an impossibly large contingent of Spanish and flamenco guitars, singing our lungs out to this song. There are lots of clappers too. (I’m the one in the back with one of those little tinny drums, grinning because I can feel the stage vibrate.) I remember laying out this fantasy for a friend of mine a few years ago as I drove her home after some event or other and this song came on my car stereo. We opened all the windows and sun roof and started singing made up words that didn’t sound much at all like the original … 🙂

Cuando sei Maria Dolores ( When I met Maria Dolores)
Cuando sei quei mal d’amore ( that’s when I met [knew of] a bad love)
Cuando sei quei mal a su vera ( when I knew of her evil ways)
Cuando sei me va al dottore (that’s when I know I had to go see the doctor)
Baila(x7) me (dance with me)

Black Horse & The Cherry Tree, performed by KT Tunstall: This video has the version she does just all by herself with her looper gadget. Amazing. Beth and I performed this a few years ago, with an assist from Dan Holbrook on drums. We didn’t bomb, but we didn’t sound like this. 🙂 Very fond memories of rehearsing and performing this terrific song.

Blister In The Sun (from the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack) performed by the Violent Femmes: I have a soft spot for this song and for this movie. Love John Cusack. I think the song intrigues me because the drum rhythm is so inconsistent. Somehow it manages to have a head-banger quality to it when the drummer doesn’t even keep an even rhythm. It is just … rough and ready. Reminds me of driving up Geneva Street in St. Catharines in my rattley old Honda on warm summer evenings with the windows down, going for ice cream.

Blues Before Sunrise (from From The Cradle) performed by Eric Clapton: Great album, great song … but there is a production error right here on the first track that always startles me. Clapton (hallowed be his name) manages to sustain the blues growl throughout the first few verses and then, suddenly, he loses it in the middle of “leave you, leave you all alone …” and it sort of returns, but not completely. I’ve always wondered why the producers didn’t fix this.

Brazil (from Sympathique) performed by Pink Martini: Ah, our first Pink Martini song appears as track 11. 🙂 A delicious little dance number with all the romantic Latin melodrama one could ask for!

Breathless (from Women & Songs, Vol. 4) performed by The Corrs: Great song from a great girl band. I’m a sucker for a good hook and this song has a couple. (“Go on … leave me breathless …”)

Bring Me Some Water (from Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled) performed by Melissa Etheridge: No one – and I mean NO ONE – does dyke melodrama like Melissa Etheridge. This song makes me laugh out loud at the genuine gut-wrenching angst she is able to produce. It also makes me laugh out loud over a particular memory I have of this song. Late ’80’s, early 90’s … I have no idea what course I was a teaching assistant for, or maybe I was doing a project on poetry or lyrics or something. But I have a distinct memory of handing out copies of these lyrics to a seminar and earnestly forcing people to a) listen to the damn song and b) debate the lyrics. I was such an earnest, keen, evangelical little dyke. There is, of course, very little to debate here. Jilted woman, jealous, not coping well.

The Bug (from Come On Come On) performed by Mary Chapin Carpenter: Come on, come on … how can anyone not love these lyrics? Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug. Actually, this whole album is a treasure. When I listen to the whole thing at one go, I remember working in the upstairs study when J and I lived two blocks north of where I am now. The entire album was a favourite in the mid-90’s. There is a beautiful ballad on here and, although I don’t go to that many weddings these days, I do wonder if it has become a wedding type of song. It is called (Too Much To Expect but not) Too Much To Ask. Normally, I find protestations of long-term monogamy to be tedious, but something about this song moves me.

Can’t Help Falling In Love (from Then – 80’s compilation) performed by UB40: Another mid-90’s dance favourite. Nice funky beat to this. Love the horns.

Chaiyya_Chaiyya (from the soundtrack to Inside Man), performed by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. This was recycled onto the Inside Man (Denzel Washington/Jodie Foster) soundtrack from a Hindi movie called Dil Se. I’m posting the link to the Bollywood music video, filmed entirely on the top of a moving train. Much more interesting than anything Denzel/Jodie can come up with vis a vis this song.  When I hear the really good Bollywood stuff – like this song – I can barely contain myself. Must dance. I saw Inside Man with my friend Martina shortly after it came out. I think it was the Jodie Foster quotient that got us there. This song played during the opening and closing credits and, man, if I’d had an aisle seat … I would have been dancing. This song, Chunari Chunari from Monsoon Wedding, has the same effect. (I note, with pleasure, that Chaiyya Chaiyya was released on Venus Records.)

How many was that – 16? Woo hoo … more than 10% in! With a couple of bonus tracks! We are on our way!