shuffle

A Mother's Love, The Meters All Your Sisters, Mazzy Star Big Bayou, The Flying Burrito Brothers Broken Little Sister, Death In Vegas Brother Can You Spare A Dime, George Michael Brother John, Cannonball Adderley Christine's Tune, The Flying Burrito Brothers Come To Daddy, Mummy Mix Divine Mother, Jah Wobble Endless Grey Ribbon, The Corn Sisters Every Day Is Christmas, The Webb Brothers Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand, Williamson Brothers And Curry Good Mornin', Brother Graveside Song, Stevens Sisters He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother, Keith Barrow He Meets His Mother, Richard Robbins He's The Greatest Dancer, Sister Sledge I Believe In Father Christmas, Six By Seven I Need Someone, Wallace Brothers Jackie Brown Soundtrack.mp3, Brothers Johnson Jungle Brothers - Because I Got It Like That (Ultimate Mix), Jungle Brothers Just a Little Talk With Jesus, Statler Brothers King Of The Road, Statler Brothers Lacassine Special, Balfa Brothers Last Song for Mother, Nanci Griffith Legacy (Show Me Love) (Mash Up Matt Mix), Space Brothers Little Sister/Get Back, Elvis Presley Little Sister/Get Back, Elvis Presley Look At That Old Grizzly Bear, Mark Mothersbaugh Make It Easy On Yourself, Scott Walker & The Walker Brothers Mother (very rare), Blind Melon Mother And Child Reunion, Paul Simon Mother Nature's Son, The Beatles My Baby's Gone, Wallace Brothers My Dad's Gone Crazy, Eminem My Sister, Tindersticks Nebraska, The Cash Brothers New Genious (Brother), Gorillaz Oh Lori, Alessi brothers Oh, Sister One For Daddy-O, Cannonball Adderley One Too Many Mornings, Chemical Brothers Our Mother The Mountain, Townes Van Zandt Piece of my Heart, Big Brother & the Holding Company Ras Dub, Sister Carol Sal Got A Meatskin, Carlisle Brothers Sister Ray, Joy Division Sisters & Brothers, The Fire This Time Slapshot, Brothers In Raw Star Catching Girl [Soulside Mix], Brother Brown Feat. Frank'ee Transition Theme For Minor Blues (Or Little Malcolm Loves His Dad), Sonny Rollins Tunji's Song - Tunji Oyelana, Brotherhood of Breath Will the Circle Be Unbroken, The Neville Brothers Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Statler Brothers Will the Circle be Unbroken, Mother Maybelle Carter Will the Circle be Unbroken (live), The Allman Brothers Band You Can't Hold On To A Love That's Gone, The Holmes Brothers Your Heart And Mine, Nicholas Brothers Your Winter, Sister Hazel

As I said, it took me a long time to adjust to the new ways of listening implied by clever tools like iTunes. A concrete example: what I used to do was exactly analogous to listening to a CD: flick through the long list of playlists until one catches my eye, double click to play. No change there. Later I downloaded a ‘play random track’ applescript and, together with the ‘shuffle’ button, that became my standard way into the library. But sometimes, random can be a bit too random. So now I use iTunes’ search function, which is simple enough. I just free associate until I get an interesting-looking playlist. Then shuffle through the results.

This is really orthogonal to the experience of ‘putting an album on’ – ‘artist’, ‘album’ and ‘genre’ are secondary to mood or ambience. Meanwhile, the whole MP3 universe is still organised into albums – MP3 players even try to locate album cover art when you play a track – but the new ways of interacting with music must imply at least a loss of emphasis on the album. Once we’re accustomed to ‘dialing up’ a mood or a feeling or an era, will we want to buy albums at all? Or will we buy (or rent) an hour of ‘contemplative’ or ‘aggressive’ or ‘Renaissance’ or whatever? Here’s one of my playlists. iTunes search terms were ‘I’m’ and ‘You’re’.

I'm Still In Love With You, Al Green
I'm Fricking Awesome, MC Paul Barman
I'm Waiting For The Day, Beach Boys
I'm Only Sleeping, The Beatles
I'm Amazed, The Pixies
I'm So Tired, The Beatles
I'm Serious, Beenie Man
I'm Waiting For The Man, Velvet Underground
You're a Big Girl Now, Bob Dylan
You're Pretty Good Looking, White Stripes
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Bob Dylan
I'm Taking My Audition To Sing Up In The Sky, Cap, Andy, And Flip
You're So Vain, Carly Simon
You're My Thrill, Chet Baker
I'm On My Way, Clifton Chenier
I'm Waiting For The Man, David Bowie & Lou Reed
You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma, David Frizzell & Dottie West
I'm Coming Out, Diana Ross
I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas, Goons
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hank Williams
I'm In The Mood, John Lee Hooker
I'm Prison Bound, John Lee Hooker
I'm Beginning to see the Light, Johnny Hodges
You're The One That I Want, Less Than Jake
You're A Friend Of Mine, The Meters
I'm not Worried At All, Moby
I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man, Muddy Waters
I'm Ready, Muddy Waters
I'm Like a Bird, Nelly Furtado
I'm Depending On You, Otis Redding
I'm Leaving You, Otis Spann
I'm A Man, Pulp
I'm Housin', Rage Against The Machine
You're in the air, REM
You're In My Heart, Rhonda Vincent
I'm Someone Who Loves You, The Roches
I'm So Glad, Skip James
I'm An Old Cowhand, Sonny Rollins
I'm An Old Cowhand (alt. take), Sonny Rollins
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, Supremes/Temptations
I'm Still Here, Tom Waits
I'm So Glad, Skip James
I'm Taking My Audition To Sing Up In The Sky, Cap, Andy, And Flip
You're My Everything, Zoot Sims

Tag: shuffle

This is fun…

New ways of listening