Uncertain Principles

I haven't done a mix-tape post in ages, and I've posted a lot of tiresomely political stuff recently, so I might as well do something frivolous. This one is a companion of sorts to "Excalibur 2.5.1": I made both of them one weekend back in 1999, because I needed something to listen to during the long hours I was spending in front of the computer writing my thesis. These are even more random than usual, because I didn't want to spend much time changing tapes, and as a result, they remain some of my favorite mixes.

Side One:

• "Tomorrow Wendy," by Concrete Blonde. I first heard this on a mix made for my sister by one of her friends, and loved the creepy atmospherics. It's not a song you could easily put in the middle of a tape, but it's a good place to start.
• "Cold Cold Ground," by Tom Waits. I listened to a little bit of Tom Waits in college, but got back into him, and bought a bunch of records, after this song was used in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street (Best... Cop Show... Ever!).
• "American Pie," by Don McLean. Yeah, it's dorky, but when you're in the car, and it comes on the radio, you sing along. Don't even try to deny it.
• "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," by the Beatles. Abbey Road and the White Album are the soundtrack for my earliest memories. It's a slightly odd transition, I'll grant, but I think it works.
• "Out All Night," by the Pietasters. Sometimes you just need to hear happy, bouncy ska. The lyrics don't really bear listening to, but it's just a fun song.
• "Rudie Can't Fail," by the Clash. Chuck Klosterman observed that you can't go wrong by ripping off the Clash. Or by putting them on a mix tape.
• "John the Baptist," by the Afghan Whigs. A turn for the sinister. Some might say that their habit of giving songs titles like "John the Baptist" is part of the reason the Whigs failed to achieve the commercial success they deserved. Which is a pity, because it's a kick-ass song.
• "Awful," by Hole. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Celebrity Skin is a sell-out album. How can you tell? Because it has songs I'm willing to listen to more than once.
• "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)," by the Meat Puppets. I really didn't have anywhere to go after the Hole song, so things get a little weird. It's a cover of a Marty Robbins song, with wonderfully ragged guitar.
• "Mack the Knife," by Bobby Darin. I had to see a Brecht and Weill opera once, for a class in college, and found it almost unbearable. They had a way with a tune, though...
• "Never You Mind," by Semisonic. This is built around a piano riff that drills into your head and stays there. It's one of those songs that simultaneously seems to go on forever, and yet end too soon. Also: The lyric "Shakin' my mind like an Etch-a-Sketch erasin'" is an important influence on OutKast: discuss.
• "When I'm Dead and Gone," by Fury in the Slaughterhouse. Leave it to the Germans to pick the cheery band names. This opens with the signature drum riff from "D'Yer Mak'Er," and slides into a clanking, rattling sing-along that's much bouncier than the title and band name would suggest.
• "The Broad Majestic Shannon," by the Pogues. The lyrics might make more sense if I knew more about Ireland. Or maybe not. Tough call. Fun song, though.

Side Two:

• "Far Away Eyes," by the Rolling Stones. A song that has forever liked "Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord" with "I was so pleased to be informed of this, I ran twenty red lights in His honor."
• "Be My Downfall," by Del Amitri. A very pretty song about the singer cheating on his girlfriend. A Del Amitri specialty, that...
• "Velvet Morning," by the Verve. I'm not quite sure how this ended up in this spot on the tape. Really, the first three songs on this side are just really good songs that I didn't already have on another tape.
• "Stolen Car," by Beth Orton. Finally, a pattern emerges. Sort of. This is one of only two songs on Central Reservation to resolves as songs in my mind, and it follows nicely from the Verve track.
• "Have a Little Faith in Me," by John Hiatt. This is the full-band version off one of his "Best of" packages, not the piano-only version on whichever album that is. As he remarks in the liner notes, this is sort of his bid for the "first dance at a wedding" audience.
• "Out of My Head," by Fastball. A nice little alterna-pop song. Not much else to say about it, really.
• "66," by the Afghan Whigs. Greg Dulli's seductive act is somewhat undermined by slightly goofy lyrics ("little rabbit?"), but it's a great tune all the same.
• "Malibu," by Hole. I didn't set out to always follow a song from 1965 with a song from Celebrity Skin. It just happened that way.
• "Joey," by Concrete Blonde. She might almost be singing to the same guy from the previous song...
• "Saint Dominic's Preview," by Van Morrison. You can find helpfully annotated lyrics for this song on the Van Morrison Website. Unfortunately, in the helpful annotations, you'll find Van the Man admitting that he has no idea what it's about.
• "When a Man Loves a Woman," by Percy Sledge. Two movie scenes come to mind when I hear this: Either the opening shots of The Crying Game, or a priest in The Commitments saying "It was Percy Sledge sang that particular song..." My brain is weird.
• "Sunday Morning Coming Down," by Sean Mullins. A cover of a Kris Kristofferson song, previously recorded by Johnny Cash and various other people. It's a perfectly good version of the song, and the second side ended up being awfully mellow as it was, so it seemed a reasonable way to end.

As I said at the beginning, this is very much a companion to the "Excalibur 2.5.1" mix. So much so that I have trouble remembering which songs are on which tape (it doesn't help that I never got around to labeling the cases). They've each got a few slow stretches, and I could probably come up with an absolutely killer mix tape by swapping songs around between the two, but that would be cheating...

Posted at 9:27 AM | link | follow-ups |