A chain meme passed on to me by Dean. Don't worry, you'll get your just desserts someday, man.
The volume of music on my computer:
Not counting my own crap, not a whole lot -- 679MB -- you could fit it all on one CD. I don't really enjoy listening to music on the computer, and I don't have a portable gizmo (which would be nice), so I just have some odds and ends I couldn't resist snagging... stuff like friends' old home recordings and the like.
Song playing right now most recently:
Mini Skirt - Kronos Quartet. Esquivel re-channeled, from the brilliant Nuevo album.
The last CD I bought was:
Pink Moon - Nick Drake. Though if they'd had The Cramps' How to Make a Monster on hand, this answer might have been very different, no?
Five songs that mean a lot to me:
Oh, cripes, this is as bad as a desert island list. Does this mean right now, or back in the day, or biographically, or what? Okay -- here are some songs, in order of impact:
A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles. The initial Beatlemania phase was my first childhood imprinting with the rock combo virus. This song feels like the best single representative of that wave. Oh, that opening chord.
Space Is The Place - Sun Ra. An early milestone in my fascination with music that goes all the way out there. And then a little further.
Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground. The first track on The Velvet Underground and Nico. I got my copy in 1976 -- ready for wild things, after all I'd heard about it, I dropped the needle in the lead-in and out came this pretty little gem of a tune, complete with celeste part. It was a mental judo flip right across the room. Of course, Waiting For The Man and Venus In Furs soon followed, but still, I'll always remember that moment.
Blank Generation - Richard Hell and The Voidoids. One of the first (maybe THE first) "punk rock" songs I ever got to hear, via WXPN. Don't ask me why I heard this before The Ramones, but that's just the way they trickled through to me.
Garbage Man - The Cramps. Primeval trashcan rock 'n' roll. The Cramps cut some fine records over the years, but I don't think they ever touched that first album. Like the zombie-ghost of Elvis broadcasting from Mars.
Some Velvet Morning - Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. With old age comes a taste for more subtly twisted kicks. This tune is an ever-circling, deep, deep whirlpool from which there is no escape.
Born To Lose - Ted Daffan's Texans. A down-tempo western swing weeper. A few years ago, I scored this black-hearted ballad on a 78 at a yard sale, and it reached out from the shadowy past to stab me with an ice-frosted knife. Eat your heart out, Nick Cave.
(Yeah, I know that's more than five songs.)
Five Three Zero people who are getting this baton from me:
Ooh, the buck stops here -- I don't like chains. But feel free to revive it at your own joint. Or feel free to add your answers in the comments here.
OK, no more "your favorite..." questions for me, but I do like the non-subjective ones.
Music on my computer: about 100 gb, spread over two networked computers, all run through my home stereo (and some Cambridge Soundworks PC speakers). I listen to almost everything through the PC these days. Just queue up a few hours worth and let it roll. Almost all my radio listening is done through Winamp (shoutcast?) streams too.
Most recent song played "Highway 61" (not the Dylan song) from the pre-release Son Volt cd; a great cd that I'll buy as soon as it hits the stores.
Last purchase: CD- The Pizza Tapes (Garcia, Grisman, Rice) lot's of filler, but some true gems too. DVD - The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Just amazing, the complete four shows, what a time capsule. If you don't get chills from "This Boy" on the second show, you'll have to turn in your pop-music listener's license. All this and Frank Gorshin, too.
OK, so I got a little subjective....
Damn, you beat me to it! I wish I had thought of sendiong the baton onto 0 people... I realised how many of my non work friends have blogs - none apart from you and Dean!
Posted by Simon at 05:44 PM, May 25, 2005.