Music I've been missing - iTunes shuffle

I got this iTunes shuffle from Bern Morley's blog. She says it's easy and a lazy thing to do on a blog in the summer months. Hell, I even got this picture from her blog. I am lazy as.

I always listen to music on my computer if I am not watching TV. Currently my iTunes is on shuffle, which is very rare because usually I select/make a playlist of the artist/s I want to listen to.

Anyhow, here's my iTunes shuffle.  It's like the music I've been missing. You can do one too.

Instructions: Put your ipod or media player on Shuffle. The the first fifteen songs that play must be written down, with a short explanation of what it means to you (if anything).

I preface this by saying not all the music I listen to is on my Macbook. I have many CDs, another computer full of music, plus my iPod which I am too scared to load onto my Macbook in case the content gets deleted. (Can someone please tell me how to safely do this?)

Hold on my Heart - Sarah Blasko
I bought As Day Follows Night after I saw Sarah Blasko in Albury last year. She's got an unusual voice. Lovely music to drift to sleep to. 


Tears of Pearls - Savage Garden
Of course a Savage Garden song would come up. There is about four hours worth of Darren Hayes and Savage Garden on my Macbook. Tears of Pearls was from their 1997 self titled album. It's so pop! 'We twist and turn where angels burn. Like fallen soldiers we will learn...' I don't recall this video at all... And I call myself a fan...


Time is Running Out - Muse
My favourite Muse song, the first I heard. I love the beat. The gasps. It's theatrical. It was awesome live last year. I have very fond memories of listening to this song.


Your Song - Elton John
So someone I know said they like Elton John and so I downloaded some of his music for conversational purposes. Yep, the things I do for love. Now I am listening to the lyrics, Your Song is not too bad.


We Won't Run - Sarah Blasko
Another track from As Day Follows Night.  We Won't Run is one of my favourites of Sarah Blasko's. It's got a nice beat. And nice lyrics. 'Let's not waste another minute of our lives...'


By My Side - INXS
I loved INXS in the Michael Hutchence days, except I got into their music after he died. I remember buying their album when I was about 17. By My Side is probably my favourite song of theirs after Never Tear Us Apart. I remember when Michael Hutchence died - I was making up my bed and Mum told me he'd died, a few months after Princess Di. His coffin was covered in purple flowers. It was so very sad. I recently posted this article on my Facebook and offended some INXS fans. I got a little nostalgic at the U2 concert when Bono dedicated Stuck in a Moment to Michael.


Big Love (live) - Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac is a band my Dad got me into. They are my favourite band from my parents' era. I remember in 1997, we would sit in front of the TV watching The Dance on VHS. I bought the CD for my Dad's birthday and was afraid that me doing so would bump Savage Garden off the top spot of the charts!


Rabbit Heart - Florence and the Machine
I love Florence's power songs. She is quite beautiful and reminds me of Cate from All cats are grey at night. Is this a religious song? The official video is very ornate.


Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers
I have never heard this song til now. Sometimes I see a recommendation for a song by someone whose music choice I respect. So I do a disrespectful thing and illegally download it. And I think this was the case with the Hoosiers. I believe Darren Hayes pointed me in the direction of The Hoosiers. Because that's the kind of power Mr Hayes has over me. Disclaimer: Darren Hayes did not encourage me to illegally download music. Goodbye Mr A is nice and upbeat. I may have to respectfully purchase more of The Hoosiers.


Outside of Me - Killing Heidi
I LOVED Killing Heidi when I was 17 - 19. They were from Violet Town, quite close to Albury. When I was in first year uni, I saw them play live in Albury, then met them at the record store where they signed my CDs. I had a huge crush on the drummer Adam Pedretti (left on picture below) and took a million photos of him. I even wrote a poem about him. No I will not share it with you.

  (source)

Beauty on the Fire - Natalie Imbruglia
Oh Natalie Imbruglia. One of my girl crushes. I really liked her second album. And her first and third. I think she's underrated.


Family Portrait - P!nk
I have only become a fan of P!nk in recent times. 2007 was when I won tickets to her concert and I was blown away. I never much liked her old stuff, but I did like this song.


All the Colours - Angus and Julia Stone
This is Angus doing Julia's Wasted, reggae style. I love this particular concept of a cover version.


Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World - U2
From my favourite album by U2, Achtung! Baby. Two mentions of Dali. 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle...'


Hands Clean - Alanis Morissette
So was this song also about Alanis's underage relationship with Joey from Full House, just like You Oughta Know? Though, as I mentioned, I didn't like much of her stuff after Jagged Little Pill, I liked this one. The lyrics are sad, hinting at advantage taken, and possibly pedophilia, written from the perspective of whoever she had a relationship with.


Ok, so now that is done, I realise it was much harder work than being lazy. Lucky this is a blog entry I've prepared earlier ;)

Music I've been missing - Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill

I am currently listening to Alanis Morissette like it's 1996.

Jagged Little Pill is such an awesome album, yeah I really do think. (Geddit??)


Back in 1996 I was 14 turning 15. In year nine. I got red and black Doc Martens for my 15th birthday. I wore them with denim mini skirts. I still wear my red and black Docs.

I secretly read Dolly magazine, I secretly watched Heartbreak High and I secretly listened to Jagged Little Pill.

Until my parents said I couldn't. Because they heard the lyrics to You Oughta Know.

I have an admission. I secretly continued.

It's ok, Mum and Dad. I'm absolutely unaffected. Even with secretly continuing to do all these forbidden activities.

I haven't taken drugs, never smoked a cigarette, haven't slept with anyone I wasn't going out with, the only extra piercing I had was the cartilage on the top of my left ear but the doctor told me to take it out, the only subject I failed was accounting but you knew I wasn't good at maths before I started listening to Alanis, and I've only been hideously drunk in a public place once. Or maybe twice.

Listening to Alanis Morissette in secret didn't make me go off the rails. But I wouldn't let my kids listen to the music of today.

Last night I thought I'd give Alanis a spin again. I downloaded a few songs I already have on CD. It was too cold to get out of bed. After I said Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie was a difficult second album, I wondered if I was being unfair. I think I was correct the first time, bar a few songs.

Jagged Little Pill is the music I've been missing.

In 1996 I bought Jagged Little Pill from Big W after I heard all the hype of Alanis at the Grammy Awards.


I played the album on my trusty boombox but the CD was scratched. It was also not to the tastes of my precious ears - it was too heavy (geez, this excuse is becoming wimpy) and I didn't really want the CD anymore. I don't think I gave it a proper go.

The hype of the Grammys was short lived for me.

So Mum returned it and got a far more suitable CD - Joan Osborne's album featuring One of Us. You know, 'yeah, yeah, God is good...yeah yeah God is great...' I am not sure why I ever liked this song. Perhaps I thought it was deep. I am pretty sure that in year nine, I had long ceased believing in God.

Joan and Alanis were the two rock chicks fighting it out on the charts back in '96. I soon found out that while Alanis' music was too heavy, Joan's was BORING. NEXT!

So I do believe this CD was returned, too. I can't recall ever playing it again. (Note - this was back in the day of relaxed exchange policies for CDs, and DVDs were just a twinkle in God's eye...) But thank GOD for YouTube for the times I get a hankering to hear One of Us again. God is great for inventing YouTube.

Anyhow, so then I was watching Rage one day and I saw this video clip. It confirmed that I didn't give Jagged Little Pill a proper go.


I thought it was pretty amazing to see four Alanises in the car at once. I particularly like the multiple plaited Alanis. I once had a boyfriend with multiple plaits. Perhaps it was foresight.

So after I recorded Rage and replayed the Ironic video 472729 times, I repurchased Jagged Little Pill.

I read in TV Hits (a magazine that I was allowed to read) that Alanis was on You Can't Do That On Television. I used to watch that when I was five! I don't recall her though. Thank God for Joan Osborne making God one of us to enable the creation of YouTube so we can relive the magic of this show.

I digress.

I can play Jagged Little Pill now, 14 years after its release, and still recite every word. Like this.

'Do I stress you out? My sweater's on backwards and inside out and you say how-ow-ow-ow apprrrrrrooooppriate'.


Her lyrics were something I related to. And I still do.

Like Perfect.

Striving to achieve, to prove yourself, is a difficult and often endless thing.

I didn't know what some of the lyrics meant. Wine dine 69 me? (Well lucky for Dolly magazine providing me with an explanation then!)

My favourite lyrics were to Forgiven. Unlike Joan Osborne's shallow (in hindsight) lyrics to One of Us, Forgiven made me think of the impact of religion and the fears it creates in some people.

There was an assignment for English in year 11 where we had to bring in some influential song lyrics and the song, and discuss our interpretations. Students brought in U2's Pride, Pearl Jam's Jeremy and the Beatles' I am Walrus. I really wanted to bring in Forgiven, but I chose an obscure song from the 60s about the environment. I still think about that lesson when I listen to Forgiven and wish I had have taken it in and done an analysis.

I love the depth of Jagged Little Pill. That many songs are dark. Some are funny. Some make me blush. And most are sad. But all are memorable. She may not be in the same league as Stevie Nicks, but to me, Alanis's Jagged Little Pill is an album I've carried with me for half of my life now, and return to with pleasure. I only wish I could warm to her subsequent albums!

Music I've been missing - late 90s bands - Fuel and The Goo Goo Dolls

There's something about late 90s music that I love. Some songs I can listen to today in 2010, with fresh ears, with the feeling of the magic I get just hearing a song for the first time.

Like:
Tal Bachman's She's So High.
Anything Savage Garden (of course).
Natalie Imbruglia.
The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony.
Oasis.
Alanis Morissette.
Matchbox Twenty.
U2.
Silverchair.
Tonic.
Train's Drops of Jupiter.
The Wallflowers.

I think I'll have to do Music I've Been Missing entries on a number of the bands listed above.

Yesterday's flight home was eased by my iPod playlist, which had a couple of late 90s bands on it. Fuel and The Goo Goo Dolls.

I realised late 90s bands is the music I've been missing.

I bought Fuel's Sunburn album when I was about 18, young and impressionable (read - when anything that wasn't Savage Garden was a risk). I thought having the album would make me cool. Someone I knew who was cool had it. I found it difficult to listen to because it was heavy and thrashy and I couldn't hear the words over the heaviness and thrashiness. (I'm sure if I gave it a go today it may sound less heavy and thrashy).

Then I bought the Cold Live at the Chapel CD after hearing it played in the store I worked in, around 2000. I was a huge fan of the Cold Live at the Chapel series on TV. 'Cold' related to the Carlton Cold beer. Since 2000, it's been sponsored by a number of brands including Vodafone and Kia, so you may not know it as Cold Live at the Chapel. Its was a TV show featuring live recordings of bands, some Australian and some international, filmed at the Chapel off Chapel. Chapel off Chapel is a converted church in little Chapel Street, Prahan (Melbourne). It's beautifully ornate.

In 2006 I won tickets to see Bob Evans play there (for Vodafone Live at the Chapel). That was the best music weekend ever - Make Poverty History concert on Friday, Live at the Chapel on Saturday and U2 on Sunday! The Live at the Chapel show was amazing. It was the first time I'd seen Bob Evans live.We were given drinks and nibbles, sang along to the lyrics and got to meet the band afterward. I recorded a few songs on my dodgy camera. And took some photos too.

This one is dodgy and blurry, or arty, depending on which way you look at it.


Here is me meeting Bob Evans. I'm rarely (openly) self critical of my appearance in photos, but what's with my slouch!?! The stray hand is S's.


Anyhow, the Cold Live at the Chapel CD I bought in 2000 had acoustic songs by The Foo Fighters, Killing Heidi, Tonic Paul Kelly and Fuel, among others. It is an awesome CD and I listened to it a lot, back in the day.

It was through listening to this CD that I really appreciated Fuel. Because I was able to hear the singer's voice. Fuel's songs on the CD were Shimmer and Bittersweet.

Here is Bittersweet.



I could never really understand the (meaning and pronunciation of) lyrics, but I enjoyed the gruff voice.

While I cannot find a link to the Cold Live at the Chapel version of Shimmer, here is a VH1 Storytellers one which is similar.



I really like the verse:

'She dreams a champagne dream
Strawberry surprise, pink linen and white paper
Lavender and cream
Fields of butterfliess, reality escapes her
She says that love is for fools that fall behind
And I'm somewhere in between
I never really know
A killer from a savior
'Til I break at the bend'

It reminds me of the song My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music. Only sung by a straggly-haired, gravelly voiced rock and roll singer.

In my research for this blog entry, I have seen that the original singer Brett Scallions left Fuel in 2006 and has been replaced by a new singer, Toryn Green. Who knew? You Tube videos demonstrate the two singers sound very similar.

Next on my playlist was the Goo Goo Dolls' Slide and Black Balloon from their album Dizzy Up the Girl.

When I was about 16 I bought the City of Angels soundtrack for The Goo Goo Dolls' Iris and Alanis Morissette's song Uninvited. I thought the rest of the album (bar Sarah McLachlan's song) was boring. BORING! And dull. And then I think Alanis's song was available on her difficult second album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie anyway.

I thought the movie was boring too. Nic Cage was a chronic mumbler. The redeeming feature of City of Angels was Meg Ryan's hair. Though my hair is short and curly, I wished it looked as great as Meg Ryan's:


I would listen to Iris on repeat. I was in love with the drama, melancholy and love within the song. And I was probably yearning for some unattainable boy, singing 'I'd give up forever to touch you' in my head and thinking of how my surname would look hyphenated with his.

Then I heard Slide. I was in love with this song too.



I liked this song even more than Iris. I bought Dizzy Up The Girl, maybe in 1999, but similarly to with the Fuel album, it was too heavy for my precious ears and closed mind! In recent years I've appreciated it more and think I overreacted to the supposed heaviness of the CD. It's not heavy at all. And contains another gravelly voiced rockstar which I like so much.

I have wondered whether Slide was about forbidden love, or someone's girlfriend having an abortion and considering the option/pressure to get married (in both situations). It's hard to tell - the lyrics aren't as blunt as the Ben Folds Five song Brick (another great late 90s song). I haven't googled the meaning the lyrics to Slide, because I am content making up my own meaning to the song, but please share your interpretations of the song lyrics.

This was a very convoluted blog entry to write, and I hope it doesn't read in a convoluted way, but in writing it, my memory has been jogged with other fantastic late 90s bands.