The new thing I'm doing on this blog is interviewing the people I know along with their iPods. Basically, I have them put their iPod on shuffle and they tell me the first five songs that come up - no cheating. Then, they have to tell me something about those five songs, whether to justify them or to extol their virtues or whatever.
This week's subject is my friend Eric.
His first remark is in response to the magic voice that announces that the phone call is being recorded.
Eric: Hey, look at that, it tells me.
Jeff: Yeah, that's because it could be illegal to record you without you knowing in some states.
Eric: It didn't tell me earlier, the last time.
Jeff: That's because I started the recording before you picked up the phone.
Eric: So there's a way around it. I see. All right, you ready?
Jeff: Yeah. I guess the first thing to do is you put your iPod on shuffle - well, do you have your iPod in front of you?
Eric: Yes, I do.
Jeff: Okay, let's go; let's see what the first one is.
Eric: First song? It's doing it. It's thinking. It's a very slow thinker, my iPod.
Jeff: It's trying very hard to come up with something embarrassing.
Eric: Okay, this is 'Deja Vu' by Crosby Stills Nash & Young.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: All right. So, then . . .
Jeff: Hold on, so now, while you let that play for a moment, I dunno, justify that. Extol its virtues.
Eric: Well, I mean, I can't listen to it because I'm not in the car, but my guess is that it's skipping uncontrolably because I - this was one of the first CDs I ever owned.
Jeff: When would that have been?
Eric: That would have been in the early nineties. Because Crosby Stills & Nash was the first concert I ever went to--
Jeff: Really?
Eric: --and the first backstage.
Jeff: Really? You went backstage at the first concert you ever went to?
Eric: Yup, my parents bought that for me.
Jeff: Where was this?
Eric: This was up at Deer Valley.
Jeff: Did you meet any of them?
Eric: I got to meet Crosby and Stills, and Stills gave me his pick, and I still have it.
Jeff: Is that true?
Eric: Yeah, it's true.
Jeff: Do you use it when you play guitar?
Eric: No, no. It's just sitting in a box.
Jeff: I mean, I wouldn't put it in your mouth or anything when you're tuning the guitar, but it's cool to have. I guess.
Eric: I also have a guitar pick from Earl Slick from my fucking Rock Camp days.
Jeff: (Laughter) I forgot about Rock Camp. That's great. See, if you had your own blog I would really advise you to write about Rock Camp.
Eric: (Laughter) So this comes from that. And it skips uncontrolably, so I can't really listen to it. The only reason I imported it was because it was one of the first CDs I ever had.
Jeff: So it has only sentimental value.
Eric: Yeah, it has only sentimental value. And it does nothing but upset me.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: In fact, I'm looking at it right now and it's just stopped - at a minute-thirty. It's not going anywhere.
Jeff: (Laughter) Great. Okay, so skip ahead. let's go to the next one.
Eric: Okay. Next one. Allright. It's really going through some great ones now. 'Rapper's Delight' by the Sugarhill Gang.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: You know, it's like, usually my shuffle I can trust, but this time not so much.
Jeff: (Laughter) So muse for me about 'Rapper's Delight.' Is that the only Sugarhill Gang song you have?
Eric: No. I also have, uh, 'Showdown.' All right, so 'Rapper's Delight'--
Jeff: Correct me if I'm wrong but you, at one point, could do the whole song.
Eric: Yeah, I could. Look, I don't really know what to say about 'Rapper's Delight' that hasn't been said by elderly women in the Wedding Singer already.
Jeff: (Laughter) All right, fair enough. I think you've covered that. Okay, skip ahead. What've you got?
Eric: Get to the next one. Okay, we've got 'Torture', by the Replacements off All Shook Down. Finally a song worth talking about, although not my favorite off that album. So, uh . . .
Jeff: I don't think I have that album even.
Eric: Actually, the Replacements were introduced to me by you.
Jeff: Is that true?
Eric: Yeah, yeah. You played something off--
Jeff: Something off--
Eric: Let it Be.
Jeff: Yeah, I was gonna say: something off Let it Be, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, Let it Be. And my first reaction was, uh, you played - God, what'd you play?
Jeff: I dunno.
Eric: You played one song that reminded me of 'Ooh That Smell,' and I got very upset.
Jeff: (Laughter) That's what hooked you. 'Ooh That Smell.'
Eric: "Ooh That Smell."
Jeff: "The smell of what's around you."
Eric: Is that Foreigner?
Jeff: Who sings that song? No, no.
Eric: What song am I thinking of, off Let it Be? I can't remember. But anyway, so that was my first impression. So I immediately--
Jeff: And you immediately wanted it.
Eric: And then (Laughter), and then I listened to the first track off Let it Be, what's it called?
Jeff: Um, 'I Will Dare'? Is that what it's called?
Eric: 'I Will Dare.' Yeah. 'I Will Dare,' which is one of my favorite songs now.
Jeff: It is a great song, yeah.
Eric: And I decided to buy all the Replacements albums and this last one was, I believe it was the last official Replacements album and one of their best, I think it's a great--
Jeff: Really? I don't even have that one. Maybe I should buy it.
Eric: It's great, so . . .
Jeff: All right. So skip ahead. What have you got next?
Eric: So four, 'The Gash' by the Flaming Lips off the Soft Bulletin. To be honest with you, I don't know what 'The Gash' - I mean I know that album, but I only listen to it as an album so I'm not sure which song 'The Gash' is.
Jeff: Yeah, to tell you the truth, I don't remember what song that might be either and I've, you know, I've listened to that album a mess of times.
Eric: I don't even know what to say about that. Okay, so the Soft Bulletin is a great progressive rock-bullshit-pretentious-idiot (Laughter) for a bunch of hippies and all that shit, but it's great.
Jeff: (Laughter) Okay. All right. Fair enough. Last one, here we go.
Eric: All right, last song.
Jeff: Oh I hope it comes up with a good one for me.
Eric: Oooooh, you're gonna like this.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: 'Of Wolf and Man,' I hate that these have to represent me--
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: 'Of Wolf and Man' by Metallica, off the Black Album.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: Now this is actually, okay, this is interesting--
Jeff: Because it is, in fairness, and I'm saying this on the record just so I have to write it down later, this is so not you.
Eric: I know, exactly. But here, this actually is interesting. I will talk about this. So I have a very interesting relationship with the band Metallica. This is a band that I came full circle on. Or, I still haven't come full circle on, I'm working at it - I'm going to group sessions to try to figure it out. But, when Metallica first came out I hated it. I told everybody how awful it is. This is a running theme, the Replacements too, although I fucking love the Replacements now. And this album in particular, the Black Album, I once said was the worst album to come out of the nineties.
Jeff: Wow. That's--Wow, that's a strong--
Eric: It's a tall claim.
Jeff: --statement.
Eric: But this was back in the day when the only people who lisitened to this album were the behind the scenes crew at theatre productions, and (Laughter) I thought it was just fucking noisy cock-rock. And now, I - actually, after a long time, it started to grow on me a little bit, I started to get nostalgic for it a little bit - 'Enter Sandman,' 'The Unforgiven,' and all the, you know, angels and fairies and all the crap that comes with it.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Eric: I don't know why heavy metal artists like to sing about the gayest shit on earth, but they seem to--
Jeff: Because they are all Dungeons and Dragons people.
Eric: Right, (Laughter) and I ended up buying this album a year ago, I never owned it--
Jeff: You bought this, you bought this in 2007?
Eric: Yup.
Jeff: That is weird. That is weird.
Eric: Yeah, so I finally--
Jeff: I mean, not because I think it's so horrible or anything, but it's odd that it would be in your consciousness at all.
Eric: I'd been thinking about it for a long time. And actually, the reason I bought it was because of my girlfriend, Stacey, who I believe is a closet metalhead, although she won't admit it.
Jeff: Well there is, there's an overlap there between the kind of closet gothiness and the closet--
Eric: Yeah, she really liked Metallica back in the day, but she won't admit it. I bought it when we had a trip to Palm Springs . . .
Jeff: Because nothing says Metallica like Palm Springs.
Eric: And we ended up listening to it the entire time, so it will always remind me of--
Jeff: Of Palm Springs? (Laughter) Ah, Bob Hope would be proud.
Eric: Which is good, because then, that's better than it reminding me of that fat kid who used to, you know, pull up the backdrop in high school plays.
Jeff: (Laughter) So I'm gonna give you one last thing, which is that I'm going to give you an alternate. What do wish had popped up that didn't?
Eric: Oh come on. There're a million things. All right. I wish that, uh, I'm trying to think of something really obscure (Laughter).
Jeff: (Laughter) which says more about you than whatever you're gonna actually say.
Eric: Right. (Laughter) I wish that . . . uh . . . let me think, just gimme a second. Since I totally blew it with what actually came up I gotta think of a really good one. Uhhh, I'm trying to think of the most obscure song I can think of. Okay, I wish that 'Vaccum Boots' by the Brian Jonestown Massacre had come up.
Jeff: (Laughter) Did you just scan through your whole iPod trying to find that?
Eric: (Laughter) Yeah. I am just trying to find something obscure and to look cooler than you.
END.
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