Infinite MonkeysInspired by Lord Lileks, who was inspired in turn by this fellow and this other guy (both of whose blogs I'd never laid eyes on before this hour), I confess my (anonymously) promiscuous and expensive musical tastes!
Total size of music files on computer:
85.68 GB
Last CD purchased:
On eBay, a wonderful out-of-print soundtrack, composed by James Horner. Although, the truth is, I buy albums all the time... just on iTunes. The three most recent were "Get Behind Me Satan," by the White Stripes, "Charge!!," by the Aquabats, and "Rock Swings," by Paul Anka.
Playing now:
"Shame on the Night," by Dio. Coming up next: "Ruby, My Dear," by Thelonious Monk.
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me.
"Stardust," by Hoagy Carmichael, although just about any version will do and I have 50 or so. The song reminds me of my early 20s... and why I was probably born in the wrong part of the century.
"Brazil," by Geoff Muldaur. This is the version Terry Gilliam used. "Brazil" is one of my favorite films of all time. I think I first saw it when I was 16, and I was hooked instantly. The song is just so strange and sad.
"Subdivisions," by Rush. Or maybe "New World Man." No, wait, "Countdown!" Signals isn't the best Rush album ever -- not even close -- but it was one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money, on cassette! "Some will sell their dreams for small desires/And lose the race to rats..."
"The Warning," by Black Sabbath. Evil blues. Another reminder of my misspent youth. "Now you never said you loved me, and I don't believe you can/'cause I saw you in a dream, and you were with another man..." Had that dream once, and it came true. Things did get better, of course. They usually do.
Lileks excluded classical, and I can understand why, but it would be wrong for me not to include the first movement of Mahler's Eighth Symphony. I played Horenstein's recording five or six times -- very loud -- on the morning of my wedding. I played it again the afternoon of the day my son was born two years later. It is the closest earthly thing I know that expresses pure and perfect joy.
Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:
The other monkeys, of course.
Posted by AnonyMonkey at June 13, 2005 11:26 PM | TrackBackTotal size of music files on computer:
1.13 GB (I just got my iPod mini and I don’t think I’ll load all 1000 of my CD’s on my computer. Yes, only 1000 CDs.
Last CD purchased:
Crossing Muddy Waters, John Hiatt. I only recently bought my first Hiatt CD, “The Tiki Bar is Open” after hearing it about a dozen times on Hugh Hewitt. Now I’m an addict. Hugh did this to me once before when he played the Band’s “Long Black Veil” from one of those awful Time Life collections. I ended up with most of The Band’s catalog. Loved the late Rick Danko’s solo stuff too.
Playing now:
"Clutching at Straws" by Marillion (Fish era). Coming up next: Not sure.
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me.
Really tough to answer. I tend to go through stages where I listen to a particular performer for extended periods. Right now it is John Hiatt. Most recent obsession was The Band and The Oysterband and Runrig.
Total size of music files on my computer:
119.38GB (26610 songs, 913 artists, 2369 albums, 81 days)
Last CD purchased:
(received) - Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet
(ordered, not yet received) - Ultravox: Island Years
Playing now:
Nothing, but the last song I listened to was "Cold Cold Ground" by Grievous Angels, from _Miles On The Rail_.
(G.A. are a Tempe, AZ-based alt.country band that I used to go see open up for Dead Hot Workshop back before the kids. I found two of their albums on eMusic.com.)
Coming up next:
According to my iTunes Party Mix, the next song would be "Leeds", from They Might Be Giants's _Venue Songs_ album. However, what will more likely happen is I'll jump in my car and continue listening to the Grievous Angels on my iPod Mini.
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
I've been acquiring new music from eMusic and half.com (and, to a lesser extent, the iTunes Music Store) at such a rate that there's not much that I listen to "a lot" - I very rarely listen to one "album" twice in a row anymore. But, more objectively, and excluding the songs I have to listen to over-and-over-and-over when my girls are in the car, here are the five that I've listened to most in the last year or two, according to the Play Count on iTunes:
"Let Love" by Res, from _How I Do_ (15 times)
"Duty Free" by Ike Reilly, from _Salesmen and Racists_ (11 times)
"Crazy" by Patsy Cline, from _Patsy Cline: The Collection_ (10 times, although I don't remember this...)
"Ghost" by Indigo Girls, from _Rites of Passage_ (9 times)
"Fun To Be Happy" by Love Tractor, from _Love Tractor_ (9 times)
I don't know that I would have guessed that those were the top 5 if I didn't have the Play Count to go by. If you filter the list down to the last 6 months, it's very different: Blue Oyster Cult, Pixies, Mocean Worker, Meat Puppets, and Brian Eno.
Honestly, what I've probably listened to more than anything in the last year is Camper Van Beethoven. However, they are a "taper-friendly" band, so rather than listening to one track or even one album over and over, I've been listening to various audience recordings of shows over the last two years. If I look in my directory of audience recordings, I've got about 50 shows from them. So there you go.
Posted by: RobbL Monkey at June 14, 2005 09:18 AM