Skip to content
 

Gasroom Playlist Picks

drcongodrcongo
edited February 2023 in Not Football

Taking a cue from Ringing the Blues, and maybe to take our minds off other things, I thought it might be a bit of fun to do a Gasroom version of Playlist Picks. As Phil's not here to interview anyone though, it's up to us.

RULES

  • Three songs that mean something to you, or don't.
  • You don't have to tell us why you've picked it, but can if you want.
  • One person at a time, each person nominates the next.
  • If you're nominated but don't want to take part, just nominate the next person.
  • If the nominated person doesn't turn up for more than a couple of days the last participant has to renominate.
  • Feel free to discuss everyone's picks, but be nice

I'll start, and I have to kick off with my all time favourite piece of music: Isaac Hayes' cover of Walk On By - it's like audio opium, the most blissfully beautiful rendition of a magnificent pop song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQegEoll5Lc

Hard to follow that, but when my twins were babies the one thing guaranteed to get them to stop crying and go to sleep was putting Faith No More's cover of the Commodores classic Easy on. Worked every damn time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPzDTfIb0DU

And finally, absolutely no emotional connection for this one, I just love every single thing about it - from the incredible production, to the wild lyrics based on the work of William Boroughs to the fact that there had never been anything like it when it was made. Bomb the Bass - Bug Powder Dust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trbvx1U6Ry8


I nominate @micra to go next!

«134567…27

Comments

  • flymofrankflymofrank

    Another Lionel Richie Wycombe connection eh @LX1

  • ShevShev

    Great idea @drcongo - love the Easy anecdote too!

  • Otter87Otter87

    @micra You can't leave us hanging!

  • flymofrankflymofrank
    edited February 2023

    I'm worried what will happen if @micra tries to post a link to his favourite song after last week's copy and paste-gate

  • drcongodrcongo

    I'll fix any errors.

  • Otter87Otter87
    https://gasroom.org/discussion/comment/276484#Comment_276484

    Its just like the Clarkson joke on Top Gear.... @micra searched the internet and he found this......!

  • ManboobsManboobs

    like this idea! But how anyone gets it down to three tracks is beyond me.

  • drcongodrcongo

    Doesn't look like @micra is gonna join in, so I'm nominating @Shev instead. Pretty sure he loves his music.

  • ShevShev

    Cheers @drcongo - challenge accepted, and I'll post later on after having a think.

  • YorkshireBlueYorkshireBlue
    https://gasroom.org/discussion/comment/277745#Comment_277745

    I first read that as 'drink'.

  • RuyLopezRuyLopez
    https://gasroom.org/discussion/comment/277751#Comment_277751

    Likewise!

  • ShevShev

    I probably should have had a midday drink after that Shrewsbury game!

    Getting back to the list, I decided to focus less on my favourite songs (partly as that would mean trying to pick my three favourite Beatles' tracks, in essence, which is an impossible task), and more on songs with some personal meaning, as that seems more the intent anyway.

    1. Show of Hands: 'Keep Hauling' - Keep Hauling - YouTube - Show of Hands are one of the finest English folk acts out there, and their album 'The Long Way Home' is my favourite of the genre. As for the song, they did not write it, and may not even have the best version (Fisherman's Friends' attempt may be better) but I love the rousing, almost-acapella atmosphere with gusty chorus. Two reasons this song is personal: Firstly, a little like @drcongo, my younger child will sometimes only be calmed by Show of Hands over any over band, and at two years old already knows a lot of the lyrics. Secondly, my second cousin sings on the song as one of the guest singers. His name is Mick Ryan and he is a successful folk singer in his own right. I knew about his career, but I did not realize he had been asked to sing on the track until after I already loved it, so it was quite a nice revelation. I really feel like a coastal football club like Grimsby should adopt the song, as it would sound fantastic with a lot of supporters singing it.
    2. Sky: 'Carillon' - Carillon - YouTube - This is an instrumental rather than a song. Sky were some kind of experimental band from the 70s (and maybe 80s) with classical musicians. When I was in Junior school, they used to play this melody on the last day of school, which would promptly make half the kids cry. I always thought it was one of the simplest, purest, sweetest melodies I had ever heard, and I remembered how it sounded (and the name Sky bounced around in my head) until the internet age began and I was able to hunt it down online. My wife walked down the aisle to it in 2012. The only caveat is that it goes from rather quiet to the electric guitar and drums kicking in, so we made sure she was down the aisle in time to avoid the burst in volume!
    3. Shev: 'Fly Away' - Stream Fly Away by Michael Shevlane | Listen online for free on SoundCloud - No music list from me would be complete without shameless self promotion, but in all seriousness, this song is important to me, as it is auto-biographical (in theme mainly, as the lyrics are not massively detailed) about leaving England for the U.S.A. with a one way ticket to New York as a 21 year old. That was the year 2000, which serves as a pivot point in my life between (obviously) England and U.S.A., childhood and adulthood, roughly pre and post internet, and obviously the change in centuries (though not to the letter, as 2001 was technically the start of the 21st). It has always been a popular play amongst friends and family over the years, with Americans loving it even though it is very English in style.

    Another shameless plug - my duo is about to release an independent song in the next week or two, so I may end up posting that to this thread in the future if anyone is interested. Very different to anything else I have done, as the lead singer is a lady with more of an Adele register.

    I nominate @floyd for the next three songs!

  • micramicra

    Sorry! Saw the thread title a few days ago (?) and assumed it referred to players’ musical choices. Not surprisingly, I’m totally out of tune with them.

    I would have gone with Franz Schubert String Quintet, D956 in C Major, Richard Thompson’s Beeswing and Willie Nelson’s You Were Always on My Mind. Affectionately known as Nellie Wilson.

    A very swift top of the head trio of ‘numbers’ excluding jazz which has been an ever-present musical/social love of our lives, regularly meeting up - why do we always add ‘up’ - with dozens of good friends, a huge proportion of whom have sadly passed away.

    Couldn’t live without music.

    Over to you @floyd and thanks to @drcongo for the original nomination. Meanwhile:

    https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=YsKEMZW8VmE&feature=share

  • micramicra

    Always brings me to tears.

  • micramicra

    This is very different. Profoundly beautiful. Need to listen to the whole work. I first heard it as background music (sic) to a documentary about a philosopher (whose name I’ve forgotten) sixty or seventy years ago.

    https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-FEODPzkKSw&feature=share

  • bluntphilbluntphil
    edited February 2023

    Great thread! This could be the summer content I need for WanderersTV…

    ”@micra great song choice, tell me about your tin bath…”

  • micramicra

    And finally:

    https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fA-kdZ5dbYk&feature=share

    More tears !

  • micramicra

    Talking of @floyd, the excellent UK Pink Floyd Experience are returning to the Swan on 7 April. We saw them two days before the theatre closed because of Covid and are tempted to book again. Chance to bump into @EddieMonsoon !

  • drcongodrcongo

    Excellent additions from both of you. My English folk knowledge is woeful so that's a good rabbit hole starter for me @Shev. Also yes please, do post the forthcoming release when it's out. @micra I once went to a party at Willie Nelson's and we got to see him performing with his son who's also an excellent musician. Nice pair of fellas.

  • micramicra
    https://gasroom.org/discussion/comment/277786#Comment_277786

    I’ll stick to Tin Roof Blues.

    https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=f6gIOKNBybk&feature=share

    https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUDNA9aMYs&feature=share

  • floydfloyd

    Thanks @Shev

    I’ll try and get to work narrowing it down from 20-odd to three!

  • Erroll_SimsErroll_Sims

    Thoroughly enjoyed the choices so far.

    For me music is about mood & time & place.

    I confess to being something of a collector with well over 55,000 tracks in my music library covering everything from classical, jazz (which I love), ska, reggae, metal/heavy rock in its multitude of genres (from death metal to southern rock to the stuff GA seemed to like etc.), rock & roll, americana, rockabilly, indie, pop, folk - from all round the world; to electronica & even some hip hop; the only 2 musical forms I really don't get are rap & opera.

    If I do get picked to be a "selecta" I am really unsure how too narrow it down to only 3...

  • drcongodrcongo

    I was very close to nominating you @Erroll_Sims

  • LDFLDF

    Just discovered this thread. Some very interesting picks - one knocks it out the park for me. Can I also nominate @Erroll_Sims?

  • micramicra
    edited February 2023

    Technically, I didn’t nominate @floyd (@Shev did) and, having arrived late at the thread I felt justified in butting in.

    In the circumstances and having seen the extraordinary breadth of @Errol_Flynn’s musical taste, I would happily go along with @LDF’s and @drcongo’s inclination to nominate him.

    Not surprisingly, my own taste is slightly narrower but I share the inability to ‘get’ rap and opera. Having said that, I’ve enjoyed Eminem (just for his voice) in the past and love many of the well-known operatic arias. Definitely wouldn’t want to listen to a whole opera though.

  • ShevShev

    For the record, I am sticking by my @floyd nomination. What kind of world is it if we don't form an orderly line?

  • Erroll_SimsErroll_Sims

    Phew

    Thanks @Shev

  • floydfloyd

    Here we go, and I apologize for how pretentious I'm about to sound.


    1) Rendezvous - Basement Jaxx. https://youtu.be/6LvFUC-198s a lot is going on in this song and the frankly impenetrable video, but underneath it all, it's kept going by the same rhythm, the same baseline. Whatever else is going on, it keeps coming back to the same beat. A lot is going on in life, unexpected triumphs, surprise defeats, joys, traumas, days you'll never forget, and days you'll never remember. But in the midst of all that, I try to keep the same rhythm, the same beat in the background. I keep coming back to the same always-there baseline. Captain Sullenberger said the best advice he ever got as a young pilot was to 'keep flying the plane,' This song reminds me to live my life like that.

    2) Cover Me Up - Jason Isbell. https://youtu.be/NaUCDqWzy1k America is a weird and wonderful place. After living most of my adult life here iI still feel like Louis Theroux regularly. However, I think the best, and most overlooked way to interpret American life is to view rural America and urban America as two different countries. It makes all the difference in the world here whether you open your door and see high-rises or fields. Jason Isbell has helped me understand and navigate that as well as anyone. Depending on my mood, I could have gone for If We Were Vampires or Cumberland Gap, but Cover Me Up just about beats them both.

    3) Sultans of Swing - Dire Straights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fAQhSRLQnM This could have been anything, really nearly anything, from AJ and Aly and Haim on one end of the spectrum through Nirvana and Million Dead to Shai Hulud on the other end. But I'll never hear this without thinking of summer fishing trips with my dad, probably the most straightforward and happiest time of my life.

    I won't nominate so we can get back in order...over to you @Erroll_Sims

  • ShevShev

    Great picks @floyd, with interesting explanations too. The part about interpreting America was especially insightful.

  • drcongodrcongo

    Yeah, I liked that too. Especially as I've never heard of Jason Isbell and the YouTube video is of him playing at Austin City Limits - I have several American friends who go to City Limits every year, and whenever I look at the lineups there's barely anyone I've ever heard of on there - there's this whole tranche of American music that never leaves those shores.

Sign In or Register to comment.