It’s good to broaden your musical tastes and one great way to do it is to get others to suggest the songs that have soundtracked their lives. Kinda like making a mix tape for your friends.. We’re in high fidelity terrority here!
Rob: “The making of a great compilation tape like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch but you don’t want to blow your wad. So then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway…I’ve started to make a tape. In my head, for Laura. Full of stuff she’d like. Full of stuff that’d make her happy. For the first time, I can see how that’s done.”
(from the movie High Fidelity staring John Cusack)
Recently I was forced to come up with a list of songs to be distributed to friends and colleagues over the next few weeks. Here’s what I picked. Not going to comment on them, it’s just like a musical snapshot of my life at the moment and whatever truths are here lie in the ear of the interpreter.
- Are You Going With Me – Pat Metheny Group
- Pink Moon – Nick Drake
- Free Falling – Tom Petty
- Samba Pa Ti – Santana
- Belfast (Original Version) – Orbital
- Into The Mystic – Van Morrison
- Natural Beauty – Neil Young
- She Is So Beautiful – The Waterboys
- Wild Flowers – Ryan Adams
- Get Down Make Love – Nine Inch Nails
- Step Outside in The Morning Light – David Kitt
- Lay It All On Me – The Black Crowes
- Electrolite – REM
- Zero – Smashing Pumpkins
- Gorecki – Lamb
- Whipping Boy – We don’t need nobody else
- One/Take 5 – Rodrigo Y Gabriela
- Pyramid Song – Radiohead
- Nobody’s Fault But My Own – Beck
- Go Down Easy – John Martyn
- The Man in the Station – John Martyn
- When the Stars Go Blue – Ryan Adams
- No More Tears – Ozzy & Zakk Wylde
- Redemption Song – Bob Marley
Pretty eclectic mix there but with some real gems aswell. I think that’s one of the unacknowledged benefits of the current wave of file-sharing apps. Broadening the musical palettes of a generation. To quote Rob again
“What are you guys doing? Stealing for other people?”