| A Song For Jeffrey-Jethro Tull |
| Changes (Mono)-The Zombies |
| Stealing Stealing-The Yardbirds |
| Revolution 1-The Beatles |
| Wealth And Hell-Being-Robert Pollard |
| Seein' Her-Paul Westerberg |
| Meet Me In The Meadow-Paul Westerberg |
| $100 Groom-Paul Westerberg |
| Crippled Inside-John Lennon |
| Sunrise-Arthur Brown & Kingdom Come |
| Isolation-John Lennon |
| It's Raining Today-Scott Walker |
| Punky's Dilemma-Simon & Garfunkel |
| Taking Tiger Mountain-Brian Eno |
| Disguises-The Who |
| The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener-Petula Clark |
| Soap Shop Rock a)Burning Sister-Amon Duul II |
| In the Beginning-Genesis |
| Naked Man-Keith Moon |
| What Am I Doin' Hangin' 'Round?-The Monkees |
| This Girl's In Love With You-Petula Clark |
| Heinz Baked Beans-The Who |
| A Tramp Shining-Richard Harris |
| So Long Dad-Harry Nilsson |
| Ram On-Paul & Linda McCartney |
| Working Class Hero-John Lennon |
| Hair Pie: Bake 1-Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band |
| Maybe I'm Amazed-Paul McCartney |
| Come Together-The Beatles |
| There She Goes Again-The Velvet Underground |
We had a couple of hours to kill at LaGuardia Airport before we started the process of flying home. This is the play list from the airport. I decided to go ahead and continue with the shuffle for the last part of the trip. The shuffle had been pretty enjoyable up to this point, plus, I was tired and didn’t feel like bothering to find an album to listen to. You may think that is a painless endeavor, but I have spent way too many hours of my life making these decisions. My wife can back me up on this.
One thing that I haven’t mentioned is that I did not skip any songs while on this trip. I do this a lot when I am walking or in the car, but I decided at the beginning to just let it play. I am actually glad that I followed through with this. I must admit, though, when the third straight Westerberg song came up early in this list, I had serious temptations to skip to the next song. “$100 Groom” is not among Paul’s best achievements, but I stayed with it. It is a funny song to listen to on your honeymoon, I guess. I am just glad that the events of this song differ from our actual wedding.
Much like the rest of the week, there was a healthy dose of Beatles and post Beatles solo work on this list. I would definitely call myself an unapologetic Beatlemaniac. I do not think they are overrated in any way. Sure, I’ve heard the songs four million times, and there are times I do not want to hear another one of their songs for a very long time. I just put the albums back on the shelf (or, these days, take them off the iPod) and go back to them when I am ready. I do this with most of my favorite artists. I just happen to be in the middle of another one of my quarterly Beatles phases, which explains the abundance this week.
Another highlight of this list was the appearance of Brian Eno’s “Taking Tiger Mountain” from the album of the same name. When I first heard this song I listened to it, along with his song “Here Come the Warm Jets,” on repeat for about a month. They seemed like two sides of a perfect, long lost single. The song is minimal, coasting on an unbelievable guitar tone and atmospheric vocals. I always thought the song was perfect for a second act scene in a Wes Anderson movie. Maybe someday.
There is also a bonus cut from Keith Moon’s solo album Two Sides of the Moon. The album is bizarre, as it features Keith Moon crooning a bunch of covers, including “The Kids Are Alright” by the Who. The song “Naked Man” is actually a Randy Newman song. This is funny because, around the same time I bought the Moon album, I also bought Nilsson Sings Newman. This is the great album in which Harry Nilsson covers Randy Newman. To make things even more confusing, while in New York, I bought the Van Dyke Parks album Song Cycle, which contains “Vine Street,” a Newman song that is also on Nilsson Sings Newman. Confused yet? Perhaps my conscience is trying to tell me something. I think I will go listen to Sail Away now.
| I Dig Love-George Harrison |
| Sidewalk Song (27th Street)-Johnny Rivers |
| All The Grinning Women-Clouds Forming Crowns |
| Teenage Head-The Flamin’ Groovies |
| Vega-Tables-Brian Wilson |
| Spanish Tide-Familyh |
| Waiting For My Man-The Velvet Underground |
| Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey-The Bealtles |
| Getting Better-The Beatles |
| Love You In The Fall-Paul Westerberg |
| Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand-The Who |
| Down by the Sea-The Strawbs |
| Ant Man Bee-Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band |
| What Kind Of Fool Am I?-Grandpaboy |
| Valentine Day-Paul McCartney |
| Solsbury Hill-Peter Gabriel |
| Taking Me Home-Sleater-Kinney |
| Sunrise-The Who |
| Don't Fall Down-The 13th Floor Elevators |
| You Tore Me Down-The Flamin’ Groovies |
| Bad Worker-The Replacements |
| Nowhere Man-Paul Westerberg |
| Arthur Comics-The Stalk-Forrest Group |
| Got You Down-Paul Westerberg |
| Tunesmith-Johnny Rivers |
| Because She's In NYC-Electroshock Marigold |
| Miracle Cure-The Who |
| River Deep, Mountain High-The Flamin’ Groovies |
| Here I Go-Syd Barrett |
| Effervescing Elephant-Syd Barrett |
More Westerberg, Beatles, and two Barret songs to end it. Going to the absurd, there is even a song where Westerberg covers The Beatles. This list is a fitting end to say the least. I listened to this on the plane from New York to Atlanta. When we got to Atlanta, we ate very quickly and boarded our next plane. I didn’t get the iPod out for the rest of the trip because I was able to fall asleep for most of the last plane ride. I would not listen to my iPod again for about a week due to my sudden case of strep throat. It is a very rare occurrence for my iPod to sit for a whole week.
Besides the usual suspects in this last play list, a couple of cool songs of note did pop up. There were three tracks for The Flamin’ Groovies, including the rocking “Teenage Head.” There was also a cut from my most recent purchase, “Arthur Comics” by The Stalk-Forrest Group. I had never heard of the The Stalk-Forrest Group before, but a little digging revealed them to be an early version of Blue Oyster Cult. Being a big fan of that band (much to my wife’s dismay), I checked out the earlier band. It’s a pretty cool album. You can hear some of signature BOC sound forming, but I was surprised by the touches of the Stones that I heard in places. The first couple of times I heard “What Is Quicksand,” the beginning made me think my iPod had switched to a Stones song.
This last day did not match up to the magic of the list the day before, but it was a solid list in it’s own right. Overall, I would say that the shuffle experiment was successful. Though some artists got more than their share of play, I still think there was a nice mix of different groups. I am also surprised that I was able to stay with it the entire time, but I think that had to do with my state of mind more than anything else. Vacation will do that to you.
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