Outsmarting the Smart Playlist

OK - open up a new smart playlist on iTunes, enter Name>Contains>?
Tick "Limit to", and enter "10 items" and if you've got enough tunes you get 10 self generated questions, hopefully slightly less predictable than the ones the Guardian has in it's Is this it? section in Saturday's Guide.
iTunes grilled me as follows:

1. 4Hero – Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You?)Well I'd let you off if you were at home checking out this quietly brilliant version of the Stevie Wonder song. However, you were more likely to be out traing for some 'athlon or other while I slept in thinking "I really must do some exercise this year"

2. !!! – Hello? Is This Thing On?I spent a year going as a member of Ronnie Scott's jazz club when he was still alive and got to see an impressive list of classic jazz stars. Part of the experience was Ronnie's "let's join hands and contact the living" stand-up routine. Little did I know at the time that his "Hello? Is this thing on?" remark was giving props to the mighty !!! when I thought he was just complaining about lack of audience mirth.

3. Radiohead – You and Whose Army?My smartarse answer to the question of "Regime change".

4. Raphael Saadiq – What?I'm not looking at you and I haven't noticed the felt tip circle you've drawn around your left eye, honest.

5. Gnarls Barkley – Who Cares?Well I like to think I care enough to say "whatever" every now and again.

6. Super Furry Animals – It's Not the End of the World?What I used to ask myself on New Year's Eve throughout the 1980s (a mixture of fear of the apocalypse and Holsten Export)

7. Orange Juice – What Presence?The question that ended my career as lead singer of the "mighty" Grilled Anorax. By the way, anyone had an update on Edwyn Collins' recovery recently?

8. Grandaddy – Goodbye?It took them a few more albums before getting around to knocking it on the head, but a prophetic song maybe?

9. Badly Drawn Boy – Have You Fed the Fish?I had two fish named after former Aston Villa players, Dwight Yorke and Ugo Ehiogu. Both died in the week they transferred to new clubs although I swear I never skimped on the fish pellets. Looks like they understood all the accusations of being fishy "Judases" after all.

10. The Streets – What Is He Thinking?I suppose I'm thinking this is my last question. I'm also reminding myself that I thought the first Streets album was better than the second one which got all the hype. I'm also thinking that I spent a couple of formative years living in the same area of Birmingham that Mike Skinner comes from and I thought I'd lost my Brummie accent.

iTunes for Kids

Just in case anybody had noticed, many of my allegedly top tracks on my Last FM are the result of my IT savvy kids hijacking iTunes and putting a bizarre selection of songs on heavy rotation. It's an interesting experiment to see how long you can keep them away from the likes of McFly and Sandy Thom but it's weird to discover the kind of stuff they really get into when they only get to hear their parents' music.

The current top 10 are:

1. "Spanish Bombs" by The Clash, once played about 20 times owing to "rewind!" requests from the back of the car on a long journey to Wales.
2. "Everyday I love you less and less" again by the Kaiser Chiefs. Every time I heard this tune I loved it less and less - the opposite of what other family members thought.
3. "I predict a riot" by the Kaiser Chiefs. We once heard this as part of a rabble rousing soundtrack to the one and only pro Ice Hockey match we went to and so it got onto the playlist. Misheard locally as "I predict a carrot"
4. "Popcorn" by Hot Butter. A bit of a connoiseur's choice apparently - this 1970s predictor of arcade game music was the only one to be singled out of the most recent "Guilty Pleasures 3" compilation.
5. "Steppin Out" by Joe Jackson. A forgotten favourite of many, this appears as the last track on Dirty Vegas' "The Trip" mix CD. I had to download the lyrics and it was sung repeatedly. There was even a brief possibility of it being sung acapella at "Show & Tell"
6. "The Undefeated" by Super Furry Animals is apparently a really good tune to go ape to while being restrained in a car seat. The machine gun noises and silly squeaks at the end also entertain the younger end of the demographic.
7. "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley & The Wailers was got into via a substandard Freddie McGregor version on Trojan's excellent "Reggae for Kids". Includes another classic lyric mishearing: "Three little birds, sitting on my naughty step"
8. "World in Motion" by New Order was the "driving to the supermarket with all the windows down" song of 2006's World Cup (what was yours?). Obviously a patronising parent's attempt to put the efforts of Embrace in their place.
9. "You get what you give" by the New Radicals. Totally unclassifiable song that is either loved or more often hated by adults. 100% of children I know love it for some reason. Also on the aforementioned Dirty Vegas mix.
10. "Lost in the Supermarket" by The Clash. Was already very familiar before Ben Folds did a version at the end of "Over the Hedge"

So there you have it - a great excuse for any apparent overfondness for any dodgy songs on my lists.......

Posing in the National Press

One wilfully obscure posting about mix tapes and the joy of segueing the Isley Brothers into the Pop Group and, Hey Presto, stoibee gets props in the Observer.....

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2005270,00.html

Smells like electro

Thanks to Orange_Anubis (http://orangeanubis.blogspot.com/) for the tip off about the hidden powers of iTunes. I think he got the idea from Newplanet (http://new-planet.blogspot.com/) who got the idea from someone else. I checked my version of and was pleased to see that it too was bundled with iLife Coach if used on shuffle. Eager for some guidance, iTunes came up with this...

Q: What does next year have in store for you?
Samba e amor (Bebel Gilberto) Despite the lack of finances and heading towards a 10th wedding anniversary, looks like a trip to Brazil and a spot of romance are on the cards. Oh Mr iTune, you look after me well.

Q: What does your love life look like next year?
Take it from here (Justin Timberlake) Judging by what Bebel told me, looks like that’s exactly how I’m going to have to play it.

Q: What do you say when life gets hard?
The Guns of Brixton (The Clash) It’s always to have the guns programmed into voice-dial on my phone whenever the local mafia come knocking.

Q: Song that reminds you of good times?Fire in my heart (Super Furry Animals) Too much fine wine and cholestrol tends to make the heart heavier these days. A little friendly fire wouldn’t go amiss.

Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning?So Blue it’s Black (The Underwolves) Always loved this tune, but if it’s the first thing that goes through my mind of a morning, maybe the day ahead isn’t such a welcome proposition, or maybe they’re telling me to beware some kind of physical symptoms of the wild night out before.

Q: What song will you dance to at your wedding?I Can’t Get No Sleep (Masters at Work featuring India) – hinting at that “honeymoon period” or worries about how you’re going to pay for all the wedding costs? Can’t remember what I danced to at my wedding – they had a lot of trouble getting the two of us out of the bar.

Q: Song that reminds you of your first kiss?Seu Maia (Samba de Coco Raizes de Arcoverde) Teenage snogging to the sounds of the batucada? Somehow I think it was a dodgy youth club disco in Birmingham, probably to “Walking on the moon” by the Police or summat.

Q: Your favourite saying?Shoshana (Nuyorican Soul) Not exactly, but I will try and weave it into the conversation from now on. “Alright mate? How are things?” “Shoshana!”.

Q: Favourite place?The Teams that Meet in Caffs (Dexy’s Mignight Runners). I used to like the idea of having a special greasy spoon to hang out in on foggy Saturday mornings but never got around to it. I would be able to chat to the other young soul rebels about my two teenage sightings of Kevin Rowland in the suburbs of Birmingham 1) We were skateboarding down Bunbury Road and had to stop to let a man past – Kevin in donkey jacket, wooly hat and sta-prests. 2) Saturday job in Northfield Sainsbury’s – Kevin turns up in his Celtic outfit – dungarees, bare arms, stubble, tam o’shanter. He was with someone I assume to be his dad, buying a loaf of bread.

Q: Most Missed Memory?Le Garage (The Futureheads) Not sure what the Mackens were going on about here, but I like think that if I ever got the chance to travel back in time, I’d go to NYC’s Paradise Garage in the early 1980s. Can’t imagine Larry Levan rinsing the Futureheads however.

Q: What song describes your best friend?Off Limits 2 (Mixed And Compiled By Dixon - Sonar Collective) I haven’t see the person I consider to be my best friend for a number of months now. Maybe “Off Limits” is a good choice, although I can’t imagine him bothering too much with a mix cd of deep house mixed by German DJs these days.

Q: What song describes your ex?Da Sambafrique (Nick Holder) No sorry, iTunes, you’re way off beam there mate.

Q: Where would you go on a first date?I know you got soul (Eric B. & Rakim) I’m sure there was a night called “I know you got soul “ somewhere in the UK in the 1980s. Some white undergraduates pretending to be from the street dropping stuff like this. Anyone who loves this tune is probably worth taking out on at least one date.

Q: Drug of choice?Shack Up (A Certain Ratio) Heard the Banbarra version of this on the radion yesterday. Both versions still do it for me. Not sure “Shack” has ever been something you could buy in wraps off of a teenager on a mountain bike but then I’ve lived a sheltered life. Suggestions of “crack” and “jack up” I guess – anyone street enough, please confirm.

Q: What song describes yourself?End Theme [Roni Size's Tear It Up Remix] (Zero 7) Had to remind myself what this was and yes, like the idea of a film of me walking (well striding purposefully – the beats are fast) out of work with this as a soundtrack. Can’t imagine too many YouTube hits however.

Q: What is the thing you like doing most?Pain in My Brain (Ladyvipb) I took this to mean worrying which I choose to do too regularly. The tracks from an album I’d forgotten called “Stories from a Broken Heart” which is a great electronic work out from DJ Maurice Fulton. Seem to remember reading about him having a real heartbreak which led to a bizarre relocation from New York to somewhere not that predictable – Sheffield was it? Maurice, you reading this?

Q: The song that best describes the president?
Where Love Lives (Alison Limerick) Dubya’s White House where love lives? Hmm.

Q: Where will you be in 10 years?
My life interlude (Mary J Blige) A short skit between tracks for me to take stock and work out how much I can really get away at that grand age.

Q: Your love life right now?A Chair in the Sky (Joni Mitchell) Nice keyboards, bit of Jaco Pastorius, Joni crooning, what’s she saying? “I see my soul on fire, burning up the (something)”. Is this a good thing?

Q: What is your state of mind like at the moment? If It Don't Turn You On (You Oughta Leave It Alone) (B.T. Express) – Sounds like a good plan of action, once I’ve got over the inevitable mid-life crisis.

Q: How will you die?Give me just a little more time (Chairman of the Board) Uncanny – you can just imagine a video for this tune with someone on their deathbed refusing to go out gracefully. I guess the message from iTunes is to “live life to the full” or like, whatever.

Q: The song you'll put as the subject?Smells like electro (Dsico That No-Talent Hack) OK iTunes, you know best…….