Tuesday, October 18, 2005

mix: Closing Time

To celebrate my imminent purchase of an iBook and iPod (a.k.a. my belated entry into the late 20th century), this is the first in an occasional series of track listings that will one day make their way onto an actual CD.

Along with my friend Ray, who will end up being mentioned in this space fairly often because it's really like he stepped right out of the pages of High Fidelity (in the best way possible), I recently drew up a list of the best closing songs from my music collection. I'll let Ray define the project in his own words: "I left off many favorite songs that ended records. They had to say, in some way, 'this is the end of the record,' they had to feel like a final song. They had to either reach a peak for the record, somehow (reflect) finality or act as a coda to the record."

(Ray, if you have a problem with being quoted here, let me know and I'll run it by you in the future.) In the meantime, here are my 15 picks (song-artist-record). Please send any of your own to aspecialwayofbeingafraid@hotmail.com. I reserve the right to use those picks, and your arguments for them, to either praise or ridicule you on the blog in the future. (Soon I will begin referring to the blog as ASWOBA, much like the literati once took to listing Dave Eggers' debut book as AHWOSG. That will be a truly wonderful day.)

Cradle to the Angel – Richard Buckner – Bloomed
My Life – Iris Dement – My Life
Find the River – REM – Automatic for the People
MLK – U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
Empty Can – The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come for Free
The Road to Ensenada – Lyle Lovett – The Road to Ensenada
The Rollercoaster Ride – Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
Miracleland – East River Pipe – Shining Hours in a Can
Purple Rain – Prince – Purple Rain
Passing Afternoon – Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days
Christmas – Lori Carson – Where It Goes
Wendell Gee – REM – Fables of the Reconstruction
Closing Time – Lyle Lovett – Lyle Lovett
It’s All Over – David Gray – A Century Ends
Blind Hope – Son Volt – Wide Swing Tremolo

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2 Comments:

Blogger lmha said...

Oh good! I love your writing in any format. Leave it to you to make blogging look profound and distinctly individual. That poem in your first blog is really great and definitely thought provoking in an uncomfortable can-we-change-the-subject-now type of way. Every now and then you see or hear about some old person being okay with death or havnig made their peace with the general idea. I don't think I'll ever get there, even WITH my religious beliefs. And as long as it's a mystery (my favorite Iris Dement song of many great ones), how can anyone be okay with it? And now i have to get back to my frantically paced living.

5:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice choice with the two REM songs...probably two of their greatest album enders...

11:10 AM  

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