Flag Day Random 10

Still plugging away at the CD cabinet. I give up as far as making this a "Friday" random ten, though. I start on Friday with a stack of ten, but as I usually listen to the entire CD, it takes me several days to get through the stack. I wonder exactly how many CDs we have, really. Of course, I haven't been doing a good job of keeping track of which ones I've already ripped and which ones I haven't, which makes it all the more confusing. Maybe I should start putting stickers on the ones I've loaded.

I'm ripping these on a different computer, using Windows Media Player. I was using version 9, and having some problems with it. The most annoying problem was it wouldn't noticed when I inserted a new CD, even if I ejected the current CD from the player. So I "upgraded" to WMP 10. Still the same problem. Then I discovered the FAQ about it:

Q. Why does the CD audio playlist refresh only when I restart the Player, rather than when I insert a new CD?
A. Turning on the AutoPlay feature in Windows XP should resolve this issue. For information about AutoPlay, see Windows XP Help and Support.

Um, but I don't want to turn on Autoplay, for many and numerous reasons, plus I just don't like the computer doing something unless I tell it to do something. Every other music playing program I use doesn't seem to have a problem noticing a new CD. And just why the heck wouldn't they at least add a way to tell WMP to refresh its data? Would that be so darned difficult? Instead, I have to quit WMP and restart it. Argh! Anyway, on with the show...

• Little River Band - "Lady" (Sleeper Catcher [1978]) : We all have our guilty musical pleasures from times long ago and places far away, before we knew any better. I've talked about them before, and here's another one. I debated long and hard as to exactly which song to select from this CD. I could have gone with the opening number, "Shut Down Turn Off", which at least has some rockin' going on and wouldn't be such an easy target of derision. Or I could have gone with the No. 1 hit (first time for an Australian group), "Reminiscing". But no, I had to go with my first thought, the reason (I think - it's all dim in the mists of time now) I bought it to begin with, this romantic crooner of a song. Just keeping it honest between you and me! I played the album over and over when it first came out and this was probably one of the first transition CDs I bought. It was also the latent Australia-phile in me manifesting itself at a tender age, soon to be reinforced by films like Breaker Morant and Picnic at Hanging Rock. I loved reading the AllMusic Biography page of the band; as a high schooler living in the NH boondocks, I knew nothing about the group, but it turns out it was quite the "All Star" band in Australia, bringing together lots of popular names, including the wonderfully alliterative Beeb Birtle. By the way, a "Sleeper Catcher" is the guy who collects the bets left on the floor when playing "Two Up", the Australian national gambling game. Gabrielle and I actually got to play during our Australia trip, in the Adelaide casino. It is a participatory game, where one player is called into the ring and gets to flip the two coins and the rest of the bettors place bets on what's going to show up. You get a little paddle and need to flick it just so. Of course, Gabrielle was chosen to do it - pretty women always make for a better show! She did pretty well, after a few false starts. If you don't do it just so, they make you do it again.
• Screaming Blue Messiahs - "I Wanna Be A Flintstone" (Bikini Red [1987]) : Great rockin' CD here, led by this wild 'n' crazy song. Some incredibly driving guitar work by an important member of the "Whatever Happened to..." club. Right down to the last song, the 3/4 time "Waltz", this CD is a great ridin' with the windows down song machine.
• Juluka - "Spirit is the Journey" (Scatterlings [1982]) : An Afro-pop group from the early 80s. What a wonderful CD this one is - a forgotten classic from the back of the cabinet . They were more well known for the opening song of the CD, "Scatterlings of Africa", but this song is a wonderful paean to becoming a dad. This was the song I sang to myself after seeing the ultrasound of our oldest daughter for the first time, and it still brings a tear to me eye...

  I never knew I had one
  Till I saw yours shine
  Spilling from your laughter
  Sparkling in your eyes
  Sharing my confusion, sharing my surprise
  At finding part of me in you, alive
  ’cause nobody told me
  Spirit is the journey
  Body is the bus
  I am the driver
  From dust to dust
  Trying to be near you
  Searching for a way
  Listening to your life song
  Before it fades away
  We hold on, and when the story ends
  We hold on, we hold on.
  Spirit is the journey
  Body is the bus
  I am the driver from dust to dust

• Queen - "The Loser In The End" (Queen II [1974]) : Talking about Queen last week got me a-hankering for this CD, so I picked it up last week. Still a pretty solid listen. I love all the Roger Taylor songs on the first four discs, and this one is no exception. There is no mention at all on the CD of "Side White" and "Side Black", although I don't think there is any real change in the songs from one side to the other; not sure I can track down my vinyl version of this to figure out exactly where the split was. It must have been either after this song or the next one, "Ogre Battle". I find it ironic somehow that the album (and CD) made big deal out of "... and nobody played synthesizer...again", while the two remakes at the tail end of this CD make heavy use of them, especially the abominable "Seven Seas of Rhye" disco remake - ugh, it's horrible.
• Pink Floyd - "Welcome to the Machine" (Wish You Were Here [1975]) : The entire album was written as a tribute to founding member Syd Barret, and making it in the music business. There should be an SACD version of this one too, like the SACD I have of Dark Side of the Moon. This song especially would be way cool in surround sound. I love the lines from the next song, "Have A Cigar":

  Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar,you're gonna go far.
  You're gonna fly high, you're never gonna die, you're gonna make it if you try;they're gonna love you.
  Well I've always had a deep respect, and I mean that most sincerely.
  The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think.
  Oh by the way, which one's Pink?

• Lui Collins - "Wildflower Song" (Baptism of Fire [1985]) : A signed copy of this CD from one of my favorite folk singers. Many wonderful songs here; she sings some songs from excellent songwriters, including herself. There's a nice song written by Stan Rogers about competing and not winning in the Olympics, as well as a very funny Greg Brown tune. She has such a great voice and gives a really enjoyable show. Obviously someone who likes her work!
• Trial of the Bow - "Serpent" (Rite of Passage [1997]) : Sort of a Middle Eastern tinged Dead Can Dance, Trial of the Bow is an Australian (there's that country again!) group who make some great sounding instrumentals. This is a very lethargic, yet moody, piece. This whole CD is a good one to listen to while programming.
• The American Analog Set - "on the run's where i'm from" (the fun of watching fireworks [1996]) : One of my all-time favorite 'ZBC college radio station discoveries. When this CD first came out, this was a favorite song of mine. It's great, laid back, sort-of electronica, with some quiet vocals and a soothing Farfisa playing in the background. Wonderful stuff from this Austin, TX based band. Reading the AllMusic.com AmAnSet entry makes me want to pick up their follow-up sophomore effort, From Our Living Room To Yours. It's also funny how tastes can be different. This song isn't even one of their favorites, but I've often put this CD on just to listen to this one song. Oh well, there's no accounting for taste. At almost 10 minutes, this is quite the epic; exactly the sort of song that would never get airplay on a regular radio station.
• Sleepy LaBeef - "Stagger Lee" (Strange Things Happening [1994]) : They don't call Sleepy "The Human Jukebox" for nuthin'! He's been singing his style of wild 'n' woolly rockabilly for nearly 70 years and he's still going strong! What a live act he is, an imposing 6 feet seven inches tall, with an impossibly deep voice and just gives his all at every show. Springsteen himself could take lessons from this guy. He used to be based here in the Boston area, I think, but has since moved back South, although he still makes plenty of trips to the area. This song is a true standard, and he does it credit. I always ask for this at a show. I think in the interview I heard of his where I first heard of him, he said he know like 6,000 songs!
• The The - "Uncertain Smile (12" Remix)" (45 RPM : The Singles of The The [2002]) : I thought I was in heaven when I discovered this two CD set. One of my all-time favorite songs, "Uncertain Smile", in not just one but two new mixes - yee haw! With one of them a nearly 10 minute remix! And yet ... I ended up terribly disappointed, not just in the two remixes of "Uncertain Smile", but in the whole 2 CD set in general. The remixes feel like striving for either a top 40 hit (the first one, from CD 1) or some kind of dance club trance-rock (the second one). My absolute favorite part of "Uncertain Smile" is the long piano bit at the end, and here, in both songs, the piano is either removed completely or pushed way in the background, all for some kind of flute or clarinet or something playing instead. Yech. I was crushed, as I was looking for 5 minutes of piano from it, and instead I got bupkis.