Tue, September 14, 2004
Party Shuf Love—2:21 PM
If you don't already have iTunes, get with it! It features this thing called "Party Shuffle" which is sort of an advanced, weighted version of "shuffle" or "random play" for all the songs in your Music Library. (Kind of a misnomer, because Party Shuffle doesn't work with your iPod, which means you'd have to carry your computer to a party to actually use Party Shuf in a party environment.)
Anyway, as a result of Party Shuf, the following sequence of music just finished rocking my office:
"Lawyers, Guns, and Money" - Warren Zevon
"Ewok Celebration" - Return of the Jedi Score
That's about as random as you can get. I think it beats the time I was driving home from McThursday and the iPod in the car gave me "Gary, Indiana" from The Music Man, followed by a track from the Wyatt Earp score, then the theme to The $25,000 Pyramid, then "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers.
Bee Boy — Tue, 8/26/08 12:25pm
Another hidden benefit: live tracks that were meant to blend into the next track on their album, ripped apart from that safe arrangement and shoved up against another track at random.
Gram Parsons's unvarnished, heartbreakingly beautiful album Live 1973 (buy it and thank me later) was recorded during a live radio appearance, so Parsons would give a brief introduction to each song before he and Emmylou and the gang started playing. The track breaks come right at the start of each song, which means after you hear a song on your iPod, you hear the lead-in to the next song.
Today, Gram gave a sweet and heartfelt introduction to a very personal song, concluding that "sometimes all you can do is sing gospel music," then drew a breath, steadied his guitar pick, and – ka-pow! – Sussudio!
Joe Mulder — Tue, 8/26/08 6:27pm
I've noticed a similar phenomenon on my iPod: at the end of Cartman's version of "Come Sail Away" from the South Park album, the late Isaac Hayes says, "Ladies and gentlemen, Master P!"
And, since I have no Master P on my iPod, the song that comes up next almost always gives me a nice, "Sussudio"-level chuckle.
Bee Boy — Tue, 8/26/08 8:17pm
Ha! The rough draft of my comment included "Let's welcome... Master P!" as an example, but I cut it for length. I had "Come Sail Away" on a mix CD for a while, and it was followed by an Alanis Morissette song, which is to Master P as Sussudio is to Gram Parsons. (At least, that's how I've always described Alanis to people.)