Thirty Days of Song (day 25)

Song that makes me laugh.

“Determined, but moist…”

Thirty Days of Song (day 24)

Song for my funeral:

Not just suitably elegaic, but expresses clearly the one thing I’m certain I’ll feel when I die – that I should have paid more attention to the person I love (whoever that may be!)

(I see that video currently has been seen a mere 51 times, I want to see that number increase exponentially)

Thirty Days of Song (day 23)

A song to play at my wedding:

I think I mentioned that I wanted this song played at my wedding in another post so better be consistent. It’s perhaps not the jauntiest of tunes, but the lyrics are very sweet and direct, and if there’s any day you don’t want subtlety or irony it’s your wedding day.

“Why would I stop loving you, a hundred years from now? It’s only time.”

Not convinced I’ll be playing that video though.

Alternatively, there’s Al Green’s fabulous Let’s Get Married, but I’m not sure I want the phrase ‘I’m tired of playing around, a girl in every town’ being played. Or ‘might as well’ for that matter.

Thirty Days of Song (day 22)

Song I listen to when I’m sad:

Ok, for once, I’m not going to be awkward, this is a sad song for a sad mood, and it even says so in the title. It is beautiful too. From the late, lamented, Mark Linkous –

The increasingly inaccurately named Thirty Days of Song (day 21)

A song for when I’m happy.

In one episode of Father Ted, some young priest is depressed and suicidal, until they cheer him up by playing him the Theme from Shaft, by Isaac Hayes. All seems well, until he listens to some Radiohead and reverts to misery. Now Shaft does make me happy, especially the bit which goes:

‘They say this cat Shaft is a bad mutha…’

‘Shut your mouth’

‘But I’m talking about Shaft!’

oh, and also the bit where Isaac says “he’s a complicated man, but no-one understands him like his woman” and the backing vocalists go “John Shaft!” as if that was his woman’s name too. Like Evelyn Waugh, who was married to another Evelyn.

But I reject the implication that you can only be happy listening to uptempo stuff. I am even more happy listening to Bill Callahan mournfully intoning stuff like “You moved in, to my hotel. You could have done better, but oh well” and trying to get away with an Uh-uh-uh-urgghhhhhhhh sound in the chorus that sounds like an expiring water buffalo. Brings a grin to my face every time.

Thirty Days of Song (day 20)

A song for when I’m angry:

Just to remind myself, I could never be as angry as Jello Biafra

Thirty Days of Song (Day 19)

A song from my favourite album:

Basically chosen on a Desert Island Discs strategy that if I’m only going to have one album then I’d like it to have a lot of songs on it, so 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields wins. The choice of song is much simpler, this is the song that made me get the album, and is still probably my favourite one.

Thirty Days of Song (day 18)

A song I wish I heard on the radio:

As mentioned in the last entry, I hardly listen to music on the radio, relying on compilations, gifts, charity shop buys and LastFM for any new music. So this wish isn’t for me, it’s in the hope that it being played on the radio causes the Daily Mail and Express to combust in rage. Though I do like the song anyway.

Thirty Days of Song (day 17)

This is supposed to be a song I hear often on the radio, but I don’t really listen to music radio very much (unless anyone from the BBC Trust is reading, in which case I listen to 6Music all the time, thanks for keeping it going) so it’s time for another random awesome song.

Mary Gauthier – Walk Through The Fire

Thirty Days of Song (day 16)

A song that you loved but now hate:

I’ve been stalling on this one out of embarrassment. In recent times any song I loved I might get a bit bored of, but turn to hate? No chance. But when I was younger there were a couple of phases where I was listening to stuff I couldn’t face now. When I was about 15 and moody, I listened to a fair bit of Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam which I hastened to give away a couple of years later. But before that, *whisper* I had quite a serious Phil Collins collection.

I would like it on record that I never loved this video. Bloody hell.

(Actually having not heard this for years, it’s not all that bad. As long as I only have to listen to it every few years. And I can stop it before it all gets a bit overwrought.)