The soundtrack of my life, fifteen tracks in all? Okay… in no particular order (chronological or otherwise):
1) “Bungalow Bill,” The Beatles – One of my earliest memories is of watching the little Apple Records logo spin ‘round and ‘round on the turntable while some part of The White Album played. And this is the song I remember listening to while watching.
2) “I Can’t Dance,” Genesis – This covers all of the times I’ve ever tried to. No, really, it’s not a pretty sight.
3) “Radio Silence,” Thomas Dolby – A fun music bed for my time spent in the radio biz. (Note: This was originally marked as Roger Waters’ “Radio Waves” but I realized I had two songs on the list sung by him, so I changed to what is, technically, a more enjoyable song.)
4) “Spinning My Wheels,” Dada – The title gives you a pretty good idea of what this song’s about, really. One of Dada’s most poignant tunes. “I’d love to be happy / I forget how that feels / driving towards somewhere / instead of spinning my wheels”
5) “I’m Dying,” Vast – This sort of covers my (early) history of being vaguely-Christian and of my past episodes of suicidal depression, all in one song… for the purposes of this soundtrack, anyway.
6) “Dare to be Stupid,” Weird Al Yankovic – This doesn’t really require explanation, does it? (Possible alternate: “It’s All About The Pentiums.”)
7) “Nausicaa Requiem,” Joe Hisaishi – I figure this sums up my love affair with anime, especially with Miyazaki films, since it was an HBO airing of the bastardized dub called ‘Warriors of the Wind’ that truly hooked me.
8) “The End Of The World,” Pet Shop Boys – “It’s just a boy / or a girl / it’s not the end / of the world.” The breakup song I listened to almost constantly after my first girlfriend dumped me, and it’s just as effective now as it was then. (Le sigh.)
9) “Dreaming,” BT – I’ve spent what is probably an inordinate percentage of my waking life in a daydream world of my own making. This is sort of the “upside” version of that…
10) “Toy Matinee,” Toy Matinee – …and this is sort of the downside version, especially now that my ability to dream is fading. “Play with the toys in my mind, gone away / a cry for how tragic, the toy matinee…”
11) “The More We Live — Let Go,” Yes – I am, at heart, an optimist. This piece is a powerful source of mental imagery for me.
12) “New Dress,” Depeche Mode – This one’s among my favorite expressions of cynicism with how the masses can be so easily distracted from real-world problems by the folly of celebrity. (Note: I originally wrote “Blue Dress” here. I meant this one. Damn ‘cheMode for having two songs with almost the same title. Argh.)
13) “Kiss That Frog,” Peter Gabriel – Because nobody writes dorky innuendo quite like Peter. (What, you think I was going to leave sex out of this? My life isn’t rated PG, ya know…)
14) “Rewrite,” Asian Kung-fu Generation – If I could kick ass, this would be the song I’d kick ass to. Sadly I cannot, outside of the first-person-shooter gaming arena that is. This one gets extra points for being from one of the best anime series I’ve ever seen, ‘Fullmetal Alchemist.’
15) “Comfortably Numb,” Pink Floyd – Not for the reason you might think. Actually, I spent a couple of years of early mornings singing this while waiting for my manager to arrive and let me in to the Burgerville that was my first place of employment. Now that I think on it, I sang any number of songs from that album while standing in the cold and dark. Hmm. The point is, I only sing alone. It’s for the best, really.
Bonus track) “Moonshadow,” Cat Stevens – The last time I sang in public, I was at a church camp somewhere in the Puget Sound region, and I wasn’t yet a teenager. This is the song I sang. I’ll never live down the shame…
If you must blame somebody for this entry, blame the roomie…
(Edited to add: I just realized that almost nobody who reads this will have heard most of these songs. I’ll make an offer, then. If you really want one, I can make a CD made of this selection, minus the bonus track. We’ll negotiate the Principle of Equivalent Trade via email, okay?)