Friday, April 23, 2010

FRIDAY RANDOM TEN

“Say, kids - what time is it?” - Buffalo Bob

Those of us of a certain age (“old as dirt”) might remember the above Ritual Greeting that opened each episode of the Howdy Doody Show. And if you’re that old, you remember when most music was purchased in the form of LP’s - long-playing vinyl records that sat on a turntable where a needle, carefully balanced on a tonearm, would ride a spiral groove and vibrate according to the minuscule undulations molded therein. Those vibrations, fed into a preamplifier, amplifier, and pooped out through a set of speakers, provided the soundtrack for our early lives.

I still have a library of some 400-odd LP’s residing the the bowels of Chez Elisson, but it is only rarely that I will take one out and play it. Which is a shame, because there’s plenty of fine music embedded in those grooves... and I cannot bear the expense of repurchasing everything in digital form.

Which leaves me with only some 3,300 tunes to randomize for the sale of our Weekly Exercise. [So if you feel like you’re seeing the same songs over and over, perhaps you are. Deal with it.] All of these tunes, of course, sit comfortably in the electronickal brain of the iPod d’Elisson, smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Remarkable... and yet I suspect that one day our grandchildren will wonder how we could stand lugging that big white Choon-Box around. No doubt they will have devices that can store the entire musical output of Western Civilization on a doohickey the size of a grain of rice.

So: What’s on the box today?
  1. Celestial Terrestrial Commuters - Mahavishnu Orchestra

  2. Helmi otsalla - Alamaailman Vasarat

  3. Inner Mounting Flame - Mahavishnu Orchestra

  4. Illegal Smile (Live) - John Prine

  5. Demons - Fatboy Slim

  6. Alice Childress (iTunes Original Version) - Ben Folds

    Some summers in the evening after six or so
    I walk on down the hill
    And maybe buy a beer
    I think about my friends -
    Sometimes I wish they lived out here
    But they wouldn’t dig this town
    No they wouldn’t dig this town

    Try not to think about it, Alice Childress
    Try not to think about it any more
    Try not to think about it, Alice Childress
    Any more, no not any more
    No

    Alice, the world is full of ugly things that you can’t change
    Pretend it’s not that way
    That’s my idea of faith
    You can blow it off
    And say there’s good in nearly everyone
    Just give them all a chance
    Give them all a chance

    Try not to think about it, Alice Childress
    Try not to think about it any more
    Try not to think about it, Alice Childress
    Any more, no not any more
    No

    No it didn’t work out
    No it didn’t work out
    The way we thought it would
    No it didn’t work out
    An arranged marriage is not so good

    Thank God it’s you - you know your timing is impeccable
    I’m not fooling you
    I don’t know what to do
    Some dude just knocked me cold
    And left me on the sidewalk
    Took everything I had
    Everything I had

    Try not to think about it, Alice Childress
    Try not to think about it any more
    It’s getting late where you are, Alice Childress
    Any more, no not any more
    Any more, no not any more


  7. A Night in Tunisia - Dizzy Gillespie

  8. Just a Gigolo - Louie Prima

  9. Brandenburg - Beirut

  10. Kolomeyke - The Klezmatics

It’s Friday. What are you listening to?

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