The Wayback Machine

Since it's Friday, and the song-shuffling capabilties of my iPod have been working a lot better since I learned how to isolate my pop songs (thanks again, Muffy), I decided to list once again the first ten random songs that came up on a shuffled playlist.

1. "Add Some Music" by the Beach Boys.
2. "Let's Get Pretentious" by Pete Townshend (from Psychoderelict music only).
3. "Picture Book" by the Kinks (stereo mix).
4. "Bits and Pieces" by the Dave Clark Five.
5. "Powderfinger" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (live from Weld).
6. "I'm One" by the Who.
7. "I'm Looking Through You" by the Beatles (alternate version from Anthology 2).
8. "Sad Little Girl" by the Beau Brummels (demo version).
9. "Yesterday's Paper's" by the Rolling Stones.
10."To Love Somebody" by the Flying Burrito Brothers.

That just feels more representative than what I came with before, as far as number of songs by each group. It also has a couple of gems, like the slower version of "I'm Looking Through You" without the bridge, with handclaps and exquisite acoustic guitar work. The line, "I'm looking through you and you're nowhere" becomes a lot more forceful, almost Lennonesque in its intensity. And the ragged "To Love Somebody," so unlike the Bee Gees' polished version, with Gram Parsons' anguished vocals. I'll stand by that list, and people can make of it what they like. ;)

Of course, looking at it makes me think, as I'm wont to do, that I have been listening to some of these songs for over 40 years.

And if I live for 40 more, I shall still love them.