First Fifteen: Dreamy and Creamy and Brunette Curls

Over at Neil Gaiman’s website someone asked him to fire up his iPod and list the first fifteen songs that come up on shuffle play.

It’s an interesting question. I’ve been addicted to the SHUFFLE button ever since a few friends banded together back in college and bought me my first CD player. I don’t think I’ve deliberately listened to an album in sequence since.

At any rate, here’s today’s First Fifteen:

1. Episode #56 of ‘The West Wing’

2. Julie London doing an awful job on “Vaya Con Dios”

3. A haunting “Waltzing Matilda” by The Brodsky Quartet

4. “Pigeons and Crumbs” by Natalie Imbruglia (on her best day, she only qualifies as a “half-hit-wonder”)

5. Tom Waits’ growling his way through “Pasties and a G-String” like a pornographic Dr. Seuss

6. “Iwoya” by Angelique Kidjo with some assistance from someone who sounds an awful lot like Dave Matthews

7. The always-skipped “Staring at the Sun” by U2

8. “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel

9. The lovely Patsy Cline singing “Crazy” (I played this twice and if I could travel in time, I’d go back and whisk Ms. Cline away to safety just so she could tuck me in and sing me to sleep every night.)

10. A bafflingly funk “Give me the Night” by George Benson (No idea who this is or how I got a whole damn album of his on my iPod. I suspect it’s some kind of plot.)

11. “Touch of my Hand” by Britney Spears (no comment)

12. “Faking it” by Simon and Garfunkel

13. A live acoustic version of “Baby’s in Black” by Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe

14. “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” by Tom Waits

15. “Satellite” by Smash Mouth

Looking over the list, I’m shocked and embarrassed by some of the filler and pop flotsam from one-hit-wonders that showed up as though the Gods of Shuffle Play wanted to display how very banal my music collection truly is. I’ve got about seventy Elvis Costllo albums but somehow a crappy Natalie Imbruglia b-side sneaks in? That’s a testament to the power of random evil in the world, I suppose.

As an antidote and penance, I’m off to listen to Tom Waits for a few hours to cleanse my palate.