Monday, January 29, 2007

So, finally I have got around to purchasing an Ipod proper, and have just gone through the process of converting my 200+ cds into digital format ready for loading. This process has created a few hiccups, but now I can finally enjoy it….

I virtually have all of my cd collection loaded on now, with the exception of a few singles that will come on in time.

With this complete collection, with great excitement I prepared to use the shuffle feature for the first time – what tracks would come up? A classic, a hidden gem, a skeleton….I thought I would share the results with you.

1 – Shine On – James Reyne
From the album “Hard Reyne”

Interesting. I am a big James Reyne fan, and have all of his studio albums, but its really only his albums from the 90’s and 00’s that I love. Hard Reyne is a mid 80’s album that probably hasn’t really stood the test of time so well. Shine On in particular is a typical 80’s track that is not overly memorable. But it has the honour of being the first song to come up on the shuffle function of my ipod.

2 – Man of the Hour – John Farnham
From the greatest hits album “One Voice”
Hehehe….John Farnham has recorded some great stuff during his career, but I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan – hence the greatest hits collection serves me well. Man of the Hour is a nice enough song, but it is a a little bit middle of the road for me.

So two songs down, and its probably not reflecting all that well on my musical tastes so far.

3- Holy Grail – Hunters and Collectors
From the compilation album “Australian Celebration”

Ah, here we have a quality song…one of those true gems from the Australian popular music. However because it is a gem, it has been totally played to death. I blame channel ten for using at their football coverage theme music. Its also the type of song that unfortunately seems to find a home on compilation albums with titles like “greatest beer drinking songs” and “songs for aussie blokes”…but not that I can really criticize, as it has popped up on a compilation cd for me also.

And whilst we are on this CD, if my memory serves me correctly, I think this was the first CD that I ever bought. Our household got a cd player quite late, so prior to this CD, it was cassette tapes for me!!! I guess in a roundabout type of way, it is fitting that this album, which I rarely listen to now, features in this first list.

4- With a Little Help with my friends – The Beatles
From the album “Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Considering I have the Beatles boxed set, I guess the probability of a Beatles track coming up in a random shuffle is likely to be higher than most other artists. But what an interesting track to come up – Ringo on vocals, and a track that we are usually used to hearing following Sgt Peppers, rather than being there on its own.

5- Instant Pleasure – Rufus Wainwright
From the soundtrack to the film “Big Daddy”

I bought the soundtrack to Big Daddy largely because it featured Sheryl Crow’s cover of Sweet Child O’Mine, but it did have a lot of good tracks on it also. This one, Instant Pleasure, is not one that I know so well. It’s a good enough song, with some interesting lyrics. Try these, the opening lines “I don’t want somebody to love me, just give me sex whenever I want it, ‘cause all I ask for is instant pleasure”…hehehe…always makes me chuckle.

6- Barbados – The Models
From the compilation album “Australian Celebration”

So, with 200+ albums in my collection, how amazing that we got a second entry from this compilation album. Barbados is a great catchy tune from the 80’s, which I hadn’t heard in a while, so it was actually quite nice to hear it again….”In the sun, I will come, to see Barbados…”

7 – Out of My Head – Fastball
From the album “All the Pain Money Can Buy”

Another song I haven’t heard in a while, which is exactly why I wanted to get an ipod, so that I could rediscover my music collection again. This album contained a number of “radio friendly” hits, such as The Way, and Fire Escape, but Out of My Head is probably the most friendly. It’s a nice little catchy song.

8 – Don’t Dream its Over (Live)- Crowded House
From the “Recurring Dream – Live bonus disc”

The most well known offering from one of my favourite bands, however this one is the live version that came as a bonus disc with their greatest hits. What a song, and a nice version too….would love to have been able to go to a Crowded House gig, and hear the roar of the crowd as the start up with the chords to this song….would be pure magic I would imagine.

9 – Slave – James Reyne
From the album “…and the horse you rode in on”
James redeems his earlier entry with this, a great a version of Slave. This album, an acoustic album released as part of the Liberation Blue acoustic series, finds James reworking some of his old Aussie Crawl and solo classics.

Slave was one of the songs that helped me to gain an appreciation for James’ solo music. I remember back to my uni days hearing him on the radio performing an acoustic version of Slave, and thinking – must get his best of album. The best of album led to the studio albums and me becoming such a fan.

10 – Water, Water – James Reyne
From the album “Electric Digger Dandy”

Amazing – three James Reyne songs out of only ten tracks, plus two other songs from the same album. Ah well, that’s the nature of the shuffle feature I guess. Water, Water is a nice ballad, which I think is about the American Indians. Electric Digger Dandy is also probably the first Reyne album that I really love. It probably shows a sign of things to come, as my favourite Reyne albums, The Whiff of Bedlam, and Design for Living both were released after this album.

For another spooky fact, the original version of Slave, which was discussed above, was actually also from the Electric Digger Dandy album…

So there you go, the first ten songs to feature on shuffle. Unsurprisingly, of the artists that feature most prominently in my collection – The Beatles, James Reyne, Paul Kelly, Crowded House and Sheryl Crow, three of them made an appearance in the first ten list….

So now I guess I sit back and wait for people to have a dig at my musical collections….feel free

2 Comments:

At 4:25 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

Welcome to the world of the iPod Wally, I look forward to many iPod-inspired posts on your blog in the future.

With a little help from my friends - fantastic song, and probably in my top 10 favourite Beatles songs of all time. Anyone who bags Ringo as a vocalist needs to hear the passion in his voice on this track. Great bassline from Paul as well.

Also, not sure if you aware of it, but Rufus Wainwright is gay...so he's most likely talking about a man with those lyrics.

Out of my head was one of those songs that I really loved when it came out in the mid-90's (and when I used to listen to MMM). A nice, simple song.

And now that Crowded House have reformed, maybe you will get to experience the thrill of those opening chords to Don't dream it's over live.

 
At 5:15 pm, Blogger Mort said...

Is this Wally Raffles like pol animal Wally Raffles?

 

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