A musical baton

I got back from the States yesterday to find that I’ve been handed musical batons by Andy, Richard and Andrea. If I could juggle, I’d put on a show. Instead, I’m going to pass them on like hot memetic potatoes. Here goes…

Total volume of music files on my computer:

23.36GB (5700 songs)

The last CD I bought was:

Well, I just bought “She Loves You” by The Twilight Singers but I didn’t get it on CD. I bought it in the iTunes Music Store (and subsequently cleansed it of DRM with JHymn). The last physical CD I bought was a live Dead Can Dance performance but that was also purchased over the internet and hasn’t shown up yet.

Song playing right now:

Here’s what’s currently playing in iTunes. Right now it’s “Cold Girl fever” by The National.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

Hmmm… I think the two are mutually exclusive for me. I tend not to overplay the songs that mean a lot to me for fear of diluting their impact.

1) “Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks. Pop perfection.

2) “Three Days” by Jane’s Addiction. It starts with the best bass line ever and moves into the best guitar solo ever. And it’s got three way sex with aliens: what more could you ask for? The rest of Ritual De Lo Habitual paled in comparison to Nothing’s Shocking but this song is a gem.

3) “A Pagan Place” by The Waterboys. I used to play lots of Mike Scott songs when I was busking my around Europe and Canada with my mandolin. I was playing this song on the street in Freiburg when I first met Chris, a fellow Waterboys fan. Now we play together in Salter Cane.

4) “Farewell to Erin” by The Bothy Band. Not a song, technically. It’s a reel. But what a reel! When Donal Lunny kicks in with bouzouki power chords on the second run through, it’s like listening to the trad equivalent of The Who.

5) “Punishment Kiss” by Therapy? There were only a couple of hundred copies of this double A-side single made (Meat Abstract was the other side). Every person who got hold of a copy came to see them play live again and again. The mosh pit in Sir Henry’s in Cork was a good place to be in the early nineties.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

Paul, Jina, Britt, Ben and Jessica.

Have you published a response to this? :

Previously on this day

22 years ago I wrote Client horror stories

I can relate to these tales of terror from the world of web design.

23 years ago I wrote Even more Attack Of The Clones

Jessica and I went to see Attack of the Clones again today. Here’s my (spoiler-free) review.