Don't believe the newspapers

[sovay]

Okay; I stole this one from matociquala:

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool . . .

(Cut for soundtrack and commentary.)


Opening Credits
Division of Laura Lee, "We Are Numbers"

(And to start things off with some raving optimism . . .)

Oh, I submit to live a life
Feeling left over
Oh, I submit to live a life
Where I have nothing

Waking Up
The Decemberists, "The Soldiering Life"

(At least this suits the later war theme. I need a song about an alarm clock. I've already got one about an electric fan.)

The call to arms you likened to a whisper
I likened to a radio

First Day At School
The Mountain Goats, "Palmcorder Yajna"

(Yeah.)

It will be too late by the time we learn what these cryptic symbols mean

Falling in Love
Tracy Grammer, "Any Way I Do"

(In the movie version of my life, I'm Christian?)

In praise or lamentation
Peace or desperation
Any way I do, I come into the presence of the Lord

Fight Song
The Klezmatics, "Freyt Aykh, Yidlekh"

(Hah. I kill you with my klezmer instrumental.)

Breaking Up
The Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell, "Roll On the Day"

(This is about right.)

Every night you fight for breath
It hurts so bad, you wish for death

Prom
The Art of Noise, "The Holy Egoism of Genius"

(My life is narrated by John Hurt. I rock.)

He hated to appear in public . . .
He preferred cats to people

Life Is Good
Jacques Brel, "La chanson de Jacky"

(Cue up the cynicism!)

Être une heure une heure seulement
Être une heure une heure quelquefois
Être une heure rien qu'une heure durant
Beau beau beau et con à la fois

To be for one hour, one hour only
To be for one hour, one occasional hour
To be for one hour, nothing more than an hour
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, and a total asshole

Mental Breakdown
The Pixies, "Silver"

(Eerily suitable.)

In this land of strangers
There are dangers
There are sorrows
I can't see this lady

Driving
Tom Waits, "Midtown (Instrumental)"

(Enter, pursued by gangsters?)

Flashback
PJ Harvey, "Legs"

(Ouch.)

Oh, you were going to be my life
Damn it, you were going to be to be my life
Did you sing "happy day"?
Sing it that time I went away?
Got to ease my aching head
Do you know no other way
Cut off your legs

Getting Back Together
Pretty Balanced, "Hyphen / Green Beans"

(We are stubborn and idealistic.)

Two kids can make it on their own
It can't be hard to do
Just get a job and an apartment
And some furniture and shit
No need for chairs
No need for something new
You can live secondhand

Wedding
Natalie MacMaster, "The Drunken Piper"

(Also, married. No, I don't read Gaelic.)

Far am bi mi fhìn is ann a bhios mo dhòchas
Far am bi mi fhìn bidh mo dhòchas ann

Where I will be and there would be my hope
Where I will be, my hope will be there

Paying the Dues
Steeleye Span, "Gaudete"

(Maybe if you squint at it sarcastically. Either that, or it all falls apart on Christmas. Those tricky solstitial times.)

Tempus adest gratiae
Hoc quod optabamus
Carmina laetitiae
Devote reddamus

The time of grace is here
For which we longed
Let us render devotedly
Songs of joy

The Night Before the War
Placebo, "I Know"

(All right, what did I not tell the person I married?)

I know the past will catch you up as you run faster
I know the last in line is always called a bastard

Final Battle
Mediaeval Baebes, "Kilmeny"

(My final battle is fought to an otherworldly female chorus. Hm. I shall hazard this means that the mental breakdown in fact involved glimpses of another place—or perhaps I never stopped seeing it and never told my spouse—into which I must journey in order to recover myself. With what success, we shall see.)

But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face
As still was her look, and as still was her e'e
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea
Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew

Moment of Triumph
The White Stripes, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"

(Well, I came back.)

Thirty notes in the mailbox
Will tell you that I'm coming home
And I think I'm going to stick around
For a while, so you're not alone

Death Scene
Johnny Cash, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"

(Which doesn't keep this all from ending badly.)

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry

Funeral Song
Jill Tracy, "Just the Other Side of Pain"

(And then some. I conclude that the movie of my life was scripted by Caitlín R. Kiernan.)

But this is confidential, you're the one to blame
And now the forecast calls perpetually for rain
And although it's rather late, I lie awake in vain
'Cause I'm still waiting for what's wonderful
Just the other side of pain

End Credits
Tori Amos, "I Don't Like Mondays"

(Oh, great! And it's the quiet, meandering, creepy cover, too.)

Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down

Really, I shouldn't be surprised.

Comments

[skotodes.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that Tori Amos covered the Boomtown Rats. I guess she did a lot of weird covers.

[sovay]

Yeah. I haven't heard either of her most recent albums, Scarlet's Walk (2002) or The Beekeeper (2005), but Strange Little Girls (2001) was entirely composed of covers. (It's the one where each song and persona came accompanied by short texts by Neil Gaiman.) I like some of her versions; I don't know all their originals; some don't work for me no matter what. The single Strange Little Girl features two additional covers. If you would like, I can send you some of them.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard either of her most recent albums, Scarlet's Walk (2002) or The Beekeeper (2005)

You're probably better for it, sadly enough. I liked Scarlet's Walk okay, but I get depressed when I think about how boring The Beekeeper is. There's a song on the album called "Sleeps with the Butterflies" or something, but it's an apt title because every song on the album seems devoted to being pretty and lightweight. She's gone from Under the Pink to just pink, I'm afraid. My friend read me a quote from her in a magazine recently that was something like, "I realised I had to change the kind of music I was making because I didn't want my daughter to think I was weird." It was close to the saddest thing I'd ever heard.

I don't know all their originals; some don't work for me no matter what.

When I got Strange Little Girls, I downloaded all the original versions. Which haven't you heard? I could send them to you. I have all except the original rough version of "New Age"--I have only the Velvet Underground's final version (Tori actually covered an earlier version of the song with unfinished lyrics).

[sovay]

Which haven't you heard?

I have 10cc's "I'm Not In Love," Tom Waits' "Time," Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," the Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays," the Beatles' "Happiness Is A Warm Gun," and Joe Jackson's "Real Men." (Also David Bowie's "After All," from the single.) All the rest are closed books to me.

I could send them to you.

That would be wonderful. Thank you very much.

I have all except the original rough version of "New Age"--I have only the Velvet Underground's final version (Tori actually covered an earlier version of the song with unfinished lyrics).

I think I'll be okay . . . ; )

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

That would be wonderful. Thank you very much.

No problem. But what's your e-mail address? You can e-mail me at setsuled@hotmail.com or setsuled@yahoo.com if you'd prefer to tell me that way. Or do you know of a better way to share mp3s?

[chriscrick.livejournal.com]

OK, I did this, and it couldn't be more inappropriate. Apparently my driving song is a recitative from Bach's St Matthew Passion, my fight song is a folky arrangement of "Barbara Allen", I break up to "Luck be a Lady Tonight" and die to the stirring strains of Monty Python's "Penis Song (The Not Noel Coward Song)".

[sovay]

But what's your e-mail address?

I can be easily located through the Yale directory.

[sovay]

I break up to "Luck be a Lady Tonight" and die to the stirring strains of Monty Python's "Penis Song (The Not Noel Coward Song)".

Okay: that is formally awesome.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

The difficulty being, that my iPod contains many more movements, acts, divertimenti &c. than "songs".

The oddly appropriate ones

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

Falling in love was Your Feet's Too Big
Say, up in Harlem,
At a table for two,
There were four of us,
Me, your big feet and you!
From your ankles up, I say you sure are sweet,
From there down, there's just too much feet!
I don't know if that's in reference to me or the prosective partners, but I can see it either way.

Fight Song was Home on the Range
Breaking up: Waiting at the Church, sung by Kermit and Piggy