I use an inexpensive MP3 player hooked up to a set of computer speakers to listen to music while I work. Since the entire rig has no moving parts, more or less, it continues working despite the dust and corruption floating around in there. (‘No moving parts, filled with dust and corruption’ reminds me of the Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles for some reason)
The machines are noisy and I’m often wearing earmuffs, so I can listen to the same hundred songs a hundred times because I never hear them all all the way through, anyway. I never pay any attention to what is on there, I just sweep whatever’s on the desktop’s desktop into the nasty little device and off I go. All I can attest is that it’s slightly better than the sound of the buzzing ballasts in the fluorescent lights.
There are multiple items from most on there. There’s rather a lot of Mozart and Morrison and Green. The Bach’s on a guitar, the only way I can abide it. Random’s best. There’s just something about Cake followed up by Respighi that should float anyone’s boat.
- Al Green
- Mozart
- Van Morrison
- Kinks
- Handel
- Elvis Costello
- Squeeze
- Cake
- Beethoven
- Eumir Deodato
- Levon Helm
- KD Lang
- Basement Jaxx
- Dionne Warwick
- Lyle Lovett
- Steely Dan
- Lee Michaels
- Blossom Dearie
- David Byrne
- Wilson Pickett
- James Brown
- Bach
- Jonathan Coulton
- Ace
- Erik Satie
- AA Bondy
- Freddie King
- Townes Van Zandt
- Ottorino Respighi
- Supremes
10 Responses
A girly gurlz playlist if I ever read one. Sheesh.
When I work with power tools I crank this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMzuzMD6eF4
Which is probably why I am known around the shop as "Stumpy."
Hmmmm, eclectic? Might that be the word? Never thought i would see Bach Cake Mozart and Squeeze in the same gathering 🙂 You do have the Might Pickett but no Screaming Jay Hawkins? Tsk Tsk. May your double AA batteries live forever!
Way I sees it, a man ain't missing a thing by having a job where he can't listen to the radio while doing it. I worked ten years in a supermarket — mostly graveyards, when there wasn't no customers — and always had the radio on while stocking the shelves and thinking about this and that. Pretty much plotted out the whole content of the blog 30 years ago, matter of fact.
I remember telling a fellow UFCW member, "you know, Leo, our bodies may be shackled, but at least our minds our free." Leo says — I'll never forget his response — "What the f**K you talkin' about this time, perfessor?"
I listen to whatever keeps my troops happy which is usually pretty dire stuff.A snatch of einsturzende neubauten counterpoints the racket wonderfully.
Damn, guys. I ain't posting my list. It would only invite well-deserved ridicule.
And Gerard…what the hell are you building in your basement that would require that much boom?
Surely not wooden prose.
Good variety in your playlist!
Mine includes didgeridoo, Celtic harp, Frank Sinatra, and Queen. If I get bored with my own music, I ask for suggestions from my grown sons. That usually blows my mind for a while and robs me of speech.
There's a lot on your list I don't recognize/never heard of. Don't feel any the worse for it. 'Course, I'm older than you.
I saw David Byrne in concert almost 20 years ago. It was a smallish but very cool outdoor venue. He brought a big band, almost an orchestra with tons of brass and a very cool light show. Byrne had none of the Talking Head affectation. In fact, he looked like and dressed like an upper middleclass suburban dad–a starched polo, khakis, and boaters. The guy was funny and charming as hell, and clearly loved to perform. "Burning Down the House" literally did.
You should check out the band Theodore…you can hear some songs online, the Daytrotter Sessions, maybe their website…"Abilene","Won't Be a Stranger", I think they are with Misra records.