GregHowley.com

Shuffle

March 29, 2007 -

Now that I have a new mp3 player for my podcasts, I can use my old one at work to listen to music. Today, I put the whole thing on random shuffle, which for some reason I never before realized that I could do. That's shuffling 1858 very random tracks that I've uploaded over the past six years. I was somewhat astounded by the sheer randomness of it all. And I hit a number of songs I'd forgotten ever having uploaded, including a couple American Idol songs from the likes of George Huff and Jasmine Trias that I'd downloaded via BitTorrent when we were living in New York. I filtered out the classical music - I'll listen to that on its own - it doesn't blend well with the rest of this.

To give you a sample of the mind-blowing randomness that I've been experiencing, here are some of the tracks that my player has been dealing me.

  • Modern Love - David Bowie
  • Conjunction Junction - Schoolhouse Rock
  • The Sound of your Voice - 38 Special
  • You're Older Than You've Ever Been - They Might Be Giants
  • Romance - REM
  • Stuck in the Middle - Gerry Rafferty
  • As the World Falls Down - David Bowie, from the Labyrinth Soundtrack
  • I'm Alive - Jackson Browne
  • Call Me - Blondie
  • Navras - The Matrix Revolutions Soundtrack
  • Serenade - The Steve Miller Band
  • Elwood Decker - The Bobs
  • New York Minute - Don Henley (World Trade Center tribute remix)
  • High Hopes - Sammy Hagar
  • I Want an Alien for Christmas - Fountains of Wayne
  • Man of Constant Sorrow - Soggy Bottom Boys, from the O Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack
  • Care for Me - Elly K
  • Private Eyes - Hall & Oates
  • Paradox - Kansas
  • Blue Dress - Depeche Mode

I would've made that list shorter, but I kept feeling like I needed to include just a couple more songs, if only to prove that I'm not a David Bowie fanatic. Alas, things did not improve. I never realized I had so many soundtracks in my player, though.

I DJ'ed my wedding off of this mp3 player, and I'm sure there are still tracks in there that I wouldn't want to listen to. I certainly haven't listened to Schoolhouse Rock or the Labyrinth soundtrack in years. I was hoping some Beatles or Eminem would pop up. Or the 15-minute version of Rappers Delight. At least I got my favorite Steve Miller song. It's interesting though to listen to music I haven't heard in years. But when they started chanting oh shawnti oh shawnti oh in that song from The Matrix, I couldn't help thinking of Beyond Good and Evil.

Comments on Shuffle
 
Comment Fri, March 30 - 9:46 AM by Brandon
Love that Fountains of Wayne song!
 
Comment Fri, March 30 - 12:16 PM by Greg
Interesting. The next few songs were all about lack of randomness.

King of Bedside Manner - Barenaked Ladies
Celebrity - Barenaked Ladies
Christmas Eve Montage - Danny Elfman (Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack)
Men in Metal - Matrix Revolutions Soundtrack
Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Barenaked Ladies
Pinch - Barenaked Ladies
History of Us - Indigo Girls
Love Soon - John Mayer
Youth Culture Killed My Dog - They Might Be Giants
The Town Crotch - Jonathan Coulton
 
Comment Fri, March 30 - 3:05 PM by Greg
Remember the Time - Michael Jackson
My Bird Performs - XTC
Hold Me - Fleetwood Mac
Lover I Don't Have to Love - Bettie Serveert
Voices Carry - Off the Beat
Keep Yourself Alive - Queen
Dat Dere - Inga Swearingen
Light my Fire - Doors
Ant - They Might be Giants
Dust in the Wind - Kansas

Wow. Really listening to the lyrics of "Dat Dere" for the first time, I'm liking the song more now - it's got to do with a little girl asking 1000 questions.