Shuffle It Up

What should have been a 3 hour drive yesterday turned into a 7 hour drive. iPod Shuffle got me through.

“Boogie Woogie Blues” – Jimmy Blythe. He’s part of my recent obsession right now, with piano boogie-woogie.

“Steamroller Blues” – James Taylor. This song used to scare me as a child. I’ve gotten over that.

“One” – Metallica. A giant song. This is from their brilliant live album that they did with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

“The Boy in the Bubble” – Paul Simon. These are the days of miracle and wonder ….

“2 Man Show” – Timbaland (featuring Elton John). Hot. This whole album is hot.

“Take a Bow” – The cast of Glee. Sweet.

“Good To Me” – Brendan Benson. I’d buy a commercial jingle if he wrote it. Oh, wait, I already did.

“Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” – The Beatles (“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” in German. I love when they sing in German.)

“City of Blinding Lights” – U2. I have so much U2 on my iPod that I sometimes feel harassed by it. But it’s rare that I don’t love a song by them, so it’s okay.

“Take It Slow” – Ruth Gerson. My sister took a songwriting workshop with her, and got so much out of it. She was just on the Craig Ferguson Show – she’s amazing. A rough emotional voice, beautiful songs.

“If I Fell” – The Beatles. Member what I said about U2? It’s 100 times worse with The Beatles. “Don’t hurt my pride like her …” (where they “go” on the note “her”, in terms of harmony, never fails to kill me.)

“I’ll Never Tell” – Brendan Benson. He actually reminds me a bit of The Beatles from time to time.

“Glad All Over” – The Beatles. See what I mean? This is from their Live at the BBC album, which I love.

“The Plough” – The Divine Comedy. God, I love him. He’s such a weirdo. A storyteller.

“Jambalaya” – Pat McCurdy & Mike Sieger. A real crowd-pleaser, as I remember. People would request it.

“Crucify” – Tori Amos. This song is inextricably wound up with a very specific time in my life. A time when I still had a Walkman and wore the cassette out of Little Earthquakes. Living on my own for the first time in Chicago, with wild red hair, working in temp offices by day, and wreaking havoc by night in pool halls and improv clubs. Running along Lake Michigan every day. Barely eating. With my new cat Sammy. Living in a one-room hovel that smelled of roach-motels. Heaven. I saw Tori live at the Park West in Chicago, before Little Earthquakes came out. I didn’t even know who she was but had read an interesting interview with her in Interview so I figured I would go check her out. Fan forever, from that night forward, although I’ve not been wacky about all her stuff. I honestly think I might have listened to Little Earthquakes too much. It’s so bound up in that time. I feel the same way about Elvis Costello. I love him, but I think I listened to him too much. It’s hard for me to “just” listen to him now.

“Damage Case” – Metallica. From Garbage Inc. I love this album.

“I Don’t Come From No Monkey” – Pat McCurdy. hahahahaha He’s such a jagoff. I don’t come from no monkey??? And I know he will see this. Funny song. “God created Adam, took his rib and he made Eve. They didn’t look like monkeys, they looked just like you and me.”

“Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic” – Shawn Colvin. Great cover.

“The Static Age” – Green Day. How do they do it? I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. So far it hasn’t.

“Leaves That Are Green” – Simon & Garfunkel. I guess I have to be in the mood. I was so into them in high school. My parents had all their albums, and I do love them. But again: need to be in the mood. To slice my wrists open.

“It Won’t Be Long” – Evan Rachel Wood singing the Beatles song from the Across the Universe soundtrack. Lovely.

“Southern Song” – Pat McCurdy. He’s another one. He tends to dominate the iPod shuffle and I just have to accept it.

“4 Minutes” – Madonna (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland). There are, like, 3 versions of this one song on her album. I like them all. Good songs for when you’re taking a run because they just keep grinding away.

“Good Night” – The Beatles. This song freaks me out. I wish I didn’t think of Charles Manson, but I do.

“The Tears of a Clown” – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. Dare you to not jam out when this song comes on.

“Born In a Trunk” – Judy Garland. The famous medley from A Star Is Born. Sometimes I’m in the mood for 15 minutes of Judy, sometimes I’m not. SUCH a good scene, though.

“I Love It When You Call Me Names” – Joan Armatrading. To me, this album says “COLLEGE”. We listened to her all the time.

“So Bad” – Eminem. His latest album is growing on me. I like Eminem when he’s mad. Like, really mad. “Kim” is one of my favorites of his, for example. He seems a bit sadder here, maybe a bit self-pitying … and it doesn’t work as well for him. But like I said, as a whole, it is growing me. He sings a lot on it, too.

“Hot Patootie / Bless My Soul” – Meat Loaf from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The glory of Shuffle. From Eminem rapping about going down on a girl spread out on a table to Meat Loaf bellowing “Hot patootie, bless my soul” like an opera diva. Life makes sense.

“Dickhead” – Robbie Williams. In the late 90s, I went to Ireland, and his “Millennium” was on a constant loop on every radio station, and I said to my sister, “Who the hell is this guy who is such a star over here?” He’s never really crossed over. He is prolific. He comes out with almost an album a year. He’s ridiculous and awesome. A campy ironic rock star.

“Baby One More Time” – Britney Spears. Poor Britney. Good song, though.

“Voyeur” – Cliff Eberhardt. I have seen him perform more times than any other singer/songwriter/band. He’s so intense. The first time I saw him was in Philadelphia. My boyfriend and I were going to see Christine Lavin, and he opened for her. We almost missed the opening act, and now, I am so glad … so glad … that we were introduced to him that night. His music has meant a lot to me (maybe too much, sometimes). His songs can be so sad that I can’t listen to them anymore.

“Christmas Time Is Here” – Shawn Colvin, singing the Charlie Brown song on her Holiday album. There’s a funny story behind this album. My friend Kate gave it to me. She introduced me to Shawn Colvin. This album is wonderful, although downright dreary. These are holiday songs, but she sings it as though she knows it will be her LAST Christmas. Kate called me to find out what I thought of the album and we ended up howling about the suicidal nature of all of these holiday songs. “In the bleak midwinter …” sings Shawn Colvin, as she opens the gas oven. Bleak, indeed.

“Galway Bay” – Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. Hilarious.

“The Back Seat Of My Car” – Paul McCartney. Bren gave me this album for Christmas (Ram), and I am in love with every single song. SO GOOD.

“I’m Artistic” – Pat McCurdy. Go away.

“Let The Sun Shine” – Curtain call for the Hair Broadway revival. Sing it!!

“What a Game” – From Ragtime, the Broadway musical. Funny song: the father takes his son to a baseball game, with fond memories of how “courteous” the game was, from his younger days, only to be confronted by a bunch of foul-mouthed spitting immigrant hooligans. The world is changing!

“Choking the Cherry” – Poe. I like her a lot.

“Hold On” – Michael Buble. Shut up. I like him, tool that he is.

“Plumet Attack” – from Les Miserables. Yeah, guess I can take this off Shuffle. It’s weird when all of these songs from musicals pop up, in between The Clash and the Go Gos. I am not sure here why French peasants sing in Cockney accents. You tell ’em, Eponine.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” – the Nirvana song as covered by Tori Amos. A wonderful interview with her about this song. She nails it.

“President” – from Ragtime. Musicals, musicals! Poor Audra McDonald is gunned down here.

“The Power of Gold” – Dan Fogleberg. I love his stuff.

“Willow Weep For Me” – Lou Rawls. I am obsessed with him right now. I caught it from Mitchell and Meghan. Can’t get enough. He is perfection.

“Stephanie Says” – The Velvet Underground. Heartcrack.

“40” – U2 – from their Live at Paris album, a great album. The crowd is so into it.

“Ghosts” – Robbie Williams. He’s so ridiculous: “Here I stand, the only man who made you come”. That’s the first line. Good for you, Robbie. He’s such a rock star.

“Mercy” – Alanis Morrissette. This song is pretty beautiful although I have no idea what the hell is going on.

“Siúil a Rúin” – The Chieftains with Sissel – this is from Tears of Stone, a very good album where they accompany all different kinds of singers, Joni Mitchell, Sinéad O’Connor, etc.

“Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” – The Thompson Twins cover the Cole Porter song. YES!

“Blackjack” – Ray Charles. Hot. You just want to be making out on a couch with someone when you hear a song like this.

“This Moment Is All There Is” – Lenny Kravitz. I love him. He’s one of my “happy places“, don’t you know.

“Sie Leibt Dich” – More Beatles singing “She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah” in German. Makes me deliriously happy.

“Hit Me With Your Best Shot” – Pat Benatar. Love that woman. Always have, always will.

“Perfectly Marvelous” – Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. I will always be so glad that I got to see that performance.

“In the Mood” – Puppini Sisters. Love these ladies!!

“Another Brick In the Wall, Pt. 1” – Pink Floyd. Wow. Time traveler.

“Outshined” – Soundgarden. Talk about time traveler. Chris Cornell has such an unearthly voice. I wish I were God of the Universe because I would put up a revival of Jesus Christ Superstar and cast him as Judas. I haven’t worked out the rest of the cast, but I want so badly to hear him sing “Heaven On Their Minds” and “Damned For All Time”. He would kill it.

“Fuck and Run” – Liz Phair. This is your life, Sheila. Did Liz Phair steal my journal? What an album. What a double album. And this is the first song on the second album. Way to introduce yourself to the world, Liz. I still get chills when I listen to this album.

“What To Do With Michael” – Mike Viola. Love this man. My sister opened for him a couple years ago, a true high-water mark for her. Wonderful songwriter, very nice guy, we love him.

“California” – Rufus Wainwright. I will follow you anywhere, Rufus. Saw him at Town Hall on Valentine’s Day after September 11. An emotional night, he was wonderful: funny, creative, open, drunk, an old-school cabaret performer. Charming. I love him.

“Angels” – Robbie Williams. Robbie takin’ it slow now. A power ballad. RIDICULOUS. AWESOME.

“It’s The End Of the World As We Know It” – REM. Ah, idealistic college days. Playing ultimate Frisbee on the Quadrangle and having iced coffee and deep conversations about Central America. REM was all a part of that. I outgrew them, I rarely listen to them now, but I have a fondness for them.

“Secretly Dainty” – Pat McCurdy. Seriously, McCurdy, go away. Now.

“Save Me” – Marc Broussard. Have no idea where I heard of this guy. I only have this one song, but it’s beautiful.

“A Whole Lot Better” – Brendan Benson. Another good song from this young man. I have a bunch of his albums and there’s not a dud song in the bunch.

“Dinner at Eight” – Rufus Wainwright. He’s so bittersweet, and also just plain sweet.

“Good Love Never Dies” – Liz Phair. I love the ending to this song, the little snippet of her talking. It’s strangely moving to me.

“Hazel” – Ruth Gerson. Beautiful haunting song.

“Longneck Bottle” – Garth Brooks. Good harmony. I like him a lot. I was at his free concert in Central Park that they put on HBO, when he had Don McLean come out on the stage with him and sing “American Pie” and I LOST. MY. MIND

“The Glory of Jah” – Sinéad O’Connor. Please don’t join Opus Dei, Sinéad. Thanks. This is from her double-album Theology, and I honestly don’t know what is going on half the time, but she’s Sinéad O’Connor, I’m in. For good or ill, I’m in. I think she’s still ahead of her time. It was an image of womanhood that I could relate to. She is powerful. She is Irish. I love her.

“Whisper” – Evanescence. I love her voice.

“The Stolen Child” – The Waterboys They put the WB Yeats poem to song. I was obsessed with that poem when I was a child – so frightening, with its Pied Piper vision of disappearing children – but perhaps they are in a better place? Very exciting when I was a kid, and in Ireland, and I got to see the spot in Ireland the song references (Glencar). The poem is on a little plaque by the waterfall there.

“Hard To Say I’m Sorry” – Chicago. Good Lord, I forgot I even owned this song. It is the only Chicago song I own. This (along with “Purple Rain”) was always the “last song” played at any high school dance (whose bright idea is that? To further ostracize those who do not have dates, who do not slow-dance … let’s FINISH the dance with a 15 minute long slow song!) I always liked the SECOND part of this song, the faster part – but naturally they never played that part at high school dances. Why do I own this, it brings back terrible memories.

“Cool Jerk” – The Go Gos. Ha!! More high school memories.

“Too Darn Hot” – Erasure, doing the Cole Porter song. Hysterical, this is from the Tribute album I bought back then, all proceeds go to AIDS research. Member Erasure? They were so huge to us in college.

“Black Bird” – Evan Rachel Wood, again from Across the Universe, a movie I was captivated by. I went into it expecting a spectacle and a gimmick, and came away surprised by how moved I was by it. Very emotional movie.

“Fumiaki” – Bleu. Do you know Bleu? He is so awesome. A couple of his songs are consistently in my “Top 25 Most Played” songs list on my iPod. What a voice.

“Still Won’t Let You Go” – Pat McCurdy. Get off my iPod!

“So Much For the Afterglow” – Everclear. I am surprised that this is their first appearance. I have all of their stuff.

“That’s Enough” – Ray Charles. If you need me, I’ll be back there on the couch. Making out.

“Violins Are Playing” – Pat McCurdy. At some point it becomes ridiculous and I succumb to it.

“Navy Bean” – Tracey Bonham. Man, I love this woman. I wish she had more albums out. She’s fantastic.

“Devil In Her Heart” – The Beatles. It sounds like there are maracas being used here and it cracks me up.

“Yer Blues” – The Beatles. Listening to what Ringo is doing on this crazy song always makes me laugh. I love zeroing in on Ringo. Melody called it “minimalist drumming”. Seriously, listen to this song and tune everyone out and only listen to Ringo. Guy’s a genius. Everyone else is going NUTS.

“Smile” – Weezer. Oh, I forgot about them! I love this album!

“Kukiawa” – Kumusha. Good memories tied up with this marimba band. Stevie and I, at an art gallery in Taos, having cheap wine out of plastic cups, with this live band playing at Dean Stockwell’s art opening, and Stockwell himself was present, smoking his cigar and jamming out to the music. Stevie bought me the CD to commemorate our awesome trip of stalking Stockwell and art.

“Hoodoo Voodoo” – Billy Bragg & Wilco. This album always makes me think of the first year of Cashel’s life. We were listening to it all the time, and Cashel, in his little onesie, used to wriggle his body around to the music. Can this boy be in middle school now? Tears!!

“Somebody Save Me” – Nina Simone. This woman is so intense. I have to take a deep breath before I listen to her songs.

“Black on Black” – Heart. I love best their slutty indiscriminate-sex songs.

“Bad Romance” – Lady Gaga. I am an unapologetic fan.

“Karma Killer” – Robbie Williams. I told you guy was prolific. This ridiculous song begins with him sneering, in his Stoke-on-Trent accent, “You’ve been naughty. Very very naughty.”

“Spineless” – Alanis Morrissette. Perhaps the most passive-aggressive song ever written. It’s so passive-aggressive it becomes aggressive-aggressive! It rocks, though. I have a love-hate relationship with her.

“Manchester England” – from the new Broadway Hair. Gavin Creel and Tribe. It’s a really good album, great energy.

“Too Late Too Late” – Metallica. Man, these guys play fast.

“Second Hand Rose” – Barbra Streisand, from her “Happening in Central Park” album. Amazing stuff. A happening, indeed.

“Beyond Belief” – Elvis Costello. I think I’ve listened to him too much in my life (I’ve seen him in concert a ton), and then this song comes on, and I realize that no, I haven’t heard him too much.

“Between My Legs” – Rufus Wainwright. One of my favorites of his songs.

“We Like to Party!” – by the Venga Boys. This ridiculous dance CD was sent to me by Pat McCurdy, the man who is all over my iPod shuffle. To say that it’s funny that Pat would send me THIS CD is an understatement. Every song on the CD, every single one, is called “We Like to Party”. Hysterical.

“Christmas Bells” – from Rent. There’s some good music on the album. I’ve seen the show a bunch, even auditioned for it once, a giant cattle call at the Apollo in Harlem. But honestly? It makes me feel old because my main response to the entire thing is: “Guys. You need to get jobs. It’s not an injustice that you have to pay rent. It’s called being part of society.”

“Fly” – Nick Drake. He makes my heart ache.

“One Fine Day” – Robbie Williams. Take a vacation, Robbie! You’ve earned it!

“Get Out the Map” – Indigo Girls. Nice banjo. I am off and on with them. I only like the songs written by one of the “Girls” and I always forget which one it is.

“Real Man” – Bonnie Raitt. This album was on a constant loop for me when it first came out. I still love it.

“Son Of a Preacher Man” – Dusty Springfield. Classic.

“Johnny I Hardly Knew You” – The Clancy Brothers. My whole life is in these guys and their music.

“Menu Song” – from Pump Boys & Dinettes. I’m so sorry I didn’t see this in its original production. I still remember them on the Tonys.

“Ballinderry” – The Clancy Brothers. Then, all of a sudden, my heart breaks into a million pieces.

“Fine Brown Frame” – Lou Rawls & the “gleefully alive” Dianne Reeves AWESOME. When she comes in!!!

“A Shameless Use of Charm” – Everclear. “She was kind of cross-eyed, she was damaged in a beautiful way …” Lyrics like that give me hope.

“I’m Back” – Eminem. Now here’s the psychotic Eminem I love so well.

“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” – Bette Midler. We were in love with this album in college. We would jitterbug in the dressing rooms, on the lawn, in the lobby … we would jitterbug everywhere.

“Stormy Weather” – Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall. It’s a Diva Cluster on the iPod!

“Believe It Or Not” – Joey Scarbury. Wow. The theme from The Greatest American Hero.

“Ironic” – Alanis Morrissette. I know I am not the first to make this observation, but I think you want to check your dictionary, Alanis. “Ironic” does not mean “shit luck”.

“Get Outta My Room” – The Donnas. These chicks rock.

“Ann Marie” – Pat McCurdy. He wrote this song for my friend Ann Marie. “There isn’t any special time or season, there isn’t any special rhyme or reason, for your million little acts of treason, Ann Marie …” Suddenly, in his song, Ann Marie is this tricky double-talking dame. Here we all are, together, in one place.

“Is Anybody There?” – William Daniels as John Adams from 1776. “Does anybody see what I seeeeeeee?” I SEE, JOHN!

“Defying Gravity” – duet from Wicked as sung by the two cast members in Glee. A very emotional moment!

“Danny Boy” – Rufus Wainwright. Starting to feel harassed by Rufus. Rufus, give some other singers on my iPod a chance.

“Monkey Paw” – Pat McCurdy. The weirdest lyrics ever written.

“The Struggle Within” – Metallica. I hear this song and I want to trash my own house.

“Oh, Darling!” – The Beatles. I have sang this in karaoke 51.2 times.

“Do I Love You” – Aztec Camera singing the Cole Porter song. I would buy the entire album just for their version of this song.

“Shanti/Ashtangi” – Madonna. No, I will not join the Kabbalah, Madonna, stop proselytizing. Wonderful album, though.

“Amazing” – Aerosmith. I am a little bit embarrassed by them. They are so florid. Yet I can’t look away.

“Nothing Else Matters” – Metallica. Again, from that fantastic live album done with the San Francisco Symphony.

“Act One Finale” – From Urinetown. I love the hysteria of the sopranos, in general. They are manic.

“Tonight the Heartache’s On Me” – The Dixie Chicks. A fun song from a more innocent time. Chick can sing.

“Posse Bonus” – Tori Amos. Fun song although I have no idea what it means. None. Zero. Nada.

“Leper Messiah” – Metallica. You hear this, and you compare it to what was on the radio at the same time, and there is such a huge disconnect it is still barely believable. And look who’s still standing. Look who’s in the Hall of Fame.

“Defy You” – The Offspring. I feel like I have never heard this song before. When did I buy it? Am I in charge of my own life?

“Merano” – giant number from Chess, the musical. Dad loved this musical. We all loved it.

“After You Get What You Want” – Marilyn Monroe. She’s delicious. Here is the clip from There’s No Business Like Show Business.

“One After 909” – The Beatles. Jamming. I have a ton of recordings of this one song, this is from the Let It Be album. You need a dance partner for this one. A guy willing to toss you up into the air, long enough to let your legs fly above your head.

“Overture” – from Urinetown. A Urinetown cluster!

“Walking After You” – The Foo Fighters. First Foo Fighters song in the shuffle – amazing! This is the album that started it all. A lifelong romance. Although I suppose Nirvana really started it all.

“I Guess I Planted” – Billy Bragg & Wilco. More baby Cashel wriggling around on the floor to the music!!

“Long Tall Sally” – The Beatles. Again, where is that dance partner who can throw me around, my saddle shoes in the air?

“Wherever I May Roam” – Metallica. The opening is so dramatic. You hold your breath waiting for all hell to break loose. And it does.

“Got My Own Thing Now” – Squirrel Nut Zippers. Are these guys still around? They’re so much fun. I used to go to swing clubs, wearing seamed stockings, and dance with every gentleman there, when the swing thing was Big.

“Hold Me Tight” – The Beatles. They went through so many phases and developments, but I hold a special place in my heart for early Beatles. Like this classic.

“Firedance” – From Riverdance. Oh dear. Guess I can take this one off the iPod.

“Over the Rainbow” – Judy Garland, again at Carnegie Hall, an amazing lullaby. You hear her sing this, a middle-aged woman, and she sounds on the edge. It sounds like she might not make it through it.

“Giving It All To You” – Liz Phair. From her Somebody’s Miracle album, yet another moment when some fans gave her shit for selling out. I think it’s a fantastic album.

“Gold Dust Woman” – Fleetwood Mac. Goosebumps.

“Go, Go, Go, Joseph” – from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Dying. I know this entire show by heart. “Don’t give up Joseph, fight til you drop, we read the Book and you come out on top.”

“Fuck Her Gently” – Tenacious D. (Jack Black and Kyle Gass). “I’m gonna fuck you softly, I’m gonna screw you gently, I’m gonna hump you sweetly, I’m gonna ball you discreetly …” The guy makes me laugh. Perhaps it is an acquired taste, but his humor hits me right in the sweet spot. “I’m gonna ball you discreetly.” I’d like to see that.

“Not Ready For Love” – Rufus Wainwright. Melancholy.

“Do You Think It’s All Right?” – The Who (Tommy). Speaking of Chronological Jack Nicholson.

“Was That You?” – Yipes (ie: Pat McCurdy). No. It wasn’t me.

“Take These Chains From My Heart” – Ray Charles. This is more of a slow-dance-with-a-guy as opposed to a makeout-on-couch-with-a-guy song.

“’97 Bonnie and Clyde” – Eminem. Now that is what I am talking about.

“Shout” – The Beatles. Ferris Bueller!

“Once Upon a December” – from Disney’s Anastasia. Haunting song. A strange movie. I’m too much of a Russian-Revolution fanatic to be a good sport about the whole thing.

“Hey Jude” – The Beatles. This is one of those songs where I never quite feel like listening to it, but once it starts up, and starts the build, I must succumb to it.

“I Don’t Need Anything But You” – from the movie Annie. Not the awful one with Albert Finney, but the awesome one with Victor Garber and Audra McDonald and a cameo by Andrea McArdle, the original Annie on Broadway.

“Snuff That Girl” – from Urinetown. A showstopper. Hilarious. I actually work out to this song. It’s got a good beat.

“Jealousy” – Liz Phair. Hot. Hot hot hot.

“Baby Got Goin'” – Liz Phair. One of my favorites of hers. This is from Whitechocolatespaceegg.

“I’m Free” – The Who. From Tommy, of course.

“My Way” – The Sex Pistols. Sick. Classic.

“Wise Up” – Aimee Mann. I’ve been a fan of hers for years, and so was so thrilled when Paul Thomas Anderson chose her music to be the thematic-thread tying his sprawling masterpiece Magnolia together, especially the heartbreaking use of this song. I’m a big fan of that movie. And her.

“You’ve Got a Friend” – James Taylor and Carole King. This is from the live album they put out last year, duets of all of their songs. My life flashes before my eyes with every song.

“Built For Speed” – The Stray Cats. Talk about my life flashing before my eyes …

“Letterbomb” – Green Day. Goosebumps. Again and again. What an album.

“Suspension Without Suspense” – No Doubt. My intense once-upon-a-time love for No Doubt has not really withstood the test of time. But I still like this song very much. I like her a lot.

“Sleep On” – Alison Krause. Her voice slices through any defenses I may have up at any given moment in time.

“Ticket To the Moon” – ELO. From their concept album Time, the first album I ever bought with my own money, when I was 12 or 13 years old. Strange, my brother and I just had a conversation about this album, and this song in particular. It’s an ANTHEM.

“Heaven” – Eurythmics. Along with Joan Armatrading and Erasure, the Eurhythmics DEFINED college for me. It was the soundtrack underneath everything.

“His Name Was Coalhouse Walker” – from Ragtime, the Broadway recording. Brian Stokes Mitchell, a big honkin’ star, played Coalhouse – really the part in the thing. A good friend of mine saw it and wasn’t wacky about his performance. She said (and she’s a Chicago native), “Every time he came on stage, it was suddenly Jagtime.”

“My Old Friend the Blues” – The Proclaimers. Speaking of my friend who called Ragtime Jagtime, she sent me this CD years ago, without a note. I had no idea who sent it to me. I was confused. Almost frightened. I almost threw it out, thinking it was a stalker from my site or something like that. Until she emailed me tentatively, “Did you get the CD??” “Oh, that was from you? I almost threw it out!”

“Before the Earth Was Round” – Ok Go. I want to marry all of them. Especially after the staring contest with Animal.

“Goodbye Mr. Ed” – David Bowie. Wonderful.

“Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance” – Bob Dylan. He’s so intense for me. I am unable to listen to him casually or with any emotional distance whatsoever.

“Everything Back But You” – Avril Lavigne. Hearing her back to back with Dylan makes me want to commit hari-kiri, from sheer despair at the downfall of civilization. However I do own this song. I am part of the problem.

“Baby It’s Cold Outside” – Dean Martin. My favorite part of this rendition of the song is that Dean is not singing with just one woman, as per usual, but a chorus of women. Typical Dino.

“867-5309” – Everclear cover of the hit song from the 80s. It’s a live version. The audience is flipping.

“I Want Your Sex” – George Michael. This song reminds me of my college boyfriend Alec. I suppose that is revealing.

“I’m a Loser” – The Beatles. Ahhhhhh. Will I ever listen to them too much? Will I ever be “over” it? No.

“Never Going Back Again” – Fleetwood Mac. From Rumours. A rare thing: the perfect album.

“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” – The Shirelles. Speaking of perfection, this is a perfect song. Thank you, Carole King.

“Dragnet For Jesus” – Big Star and Brother Joe May. A scratchy recording, probably from a church. Makes me want to be baptized in the river. Awesome.

“Brown Derby Jump” – Zoot Suit Riot. I miss the not-long-ago days when swing was suddenly “in” again, and there were swing clubs all over New York. I took to that shit like a fish to water.

“Money Money Money” – Meryl Streep from Mamma Mia. She’s a goddess.

“Generation Sex” – The Divine Comedy. A tiny thin gangling man with a huge huge voice. “Generation Sex respects the rights of girls who want to take their clothes off as long as we can all watch, that’s okay …”

“Wild” – Seal. I have a very emotional attachment to this album. It represented a moment in my life when I broke free from a bad situation, with some unlikely help from an old college boyfriend, Alec. We hadn’t been in touch for years, and then somehow I met up with him in Boston, where he was living at the time, and somehow it led to us dancing around to this album in his apartment at around 6 a.m., before I took a cab to the airport and flew back to Los Angeles (where I then promptly sold all of my stuff and moved to Chicago, with literally a suitcase of clothes to my name). I have never seen Alec since. But I have not forgotten that night/morning and what it meant to me. And Seal somehow had something to do with it, although the details are now fuzzy.