Ipod on shuffle

I read some place that what's in one's Ipod is a good indicator of the person's psyche (or mental health, perhaps.) Well, I decided to write a bit about the first five songs that came on my Ipod. What can you gather from this?

Mysterons (Portishead)
I first heard this song when I was in graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994 at a friend of a friend’s apartment after coming back from the bars. Although this song was released in 1994, for some reason, I always associate this song to times before that year. Specifically, this song reminds me of the motorcycle rides down the Pacific Coast Highway a friend of mine and I used to take after our late shifts at work. Good times, then. It also reminds me of my hour-long drives to Missoula at night to escape boredom in Hamilton during some weekends.

Ship of Fools (Erasure) I don’t really associate this song with anything or at least it doesn’t conjure up any sort of emotion from me. Next song.

Rudderless (Lemonheads)
I was introduced to the Lemonheads by a friend of mine from graduate school, and this song constantly reminds me for some reason of the American Cancer Society Run/Walk Fundraising that I and some friends participated in. This was one of those deals where at least one of your teammates was required to be on the track for the whole evening. The one thing that I distinctly remember from that evening is when my best friend decided that he would use that evening to train for his marathon, so he was running for a while, and everytime he passed our area in the track we would stop our card game and give out this loud cheering, hooting, and catcalls trying to embarrass him. One of the women in our group decided to run up to him and lick the sweat off his arm (I think) in a sexually suggestive manner. We were laughing our asses off, and I don’t remember if Mike H. was able to concentrate after that. You just had to be there. Trust me, it was hysterical… and gross!

Sunday Shining (Finley Quaye) This song came out in 1998, or at least that was when I became aware of it. In fact this was the song that was playing in my CD player when I rolled into the sleepy town of Hamilton, Montana. I had been driving for a while with my windows down and the radio blasting, and I hadn’t realized that it was quite loud until I actually had to stop at the first red light (one of three) in the outskirts of Hamilton. A family in the minivan next to me were just staring. Was it because of my radio or my exotic ethnic look?

Such a Little Thing Makes Such a Big Difference (Morrissey) This song is on the Bona Drag CD, given to me as a present. One of my favorite CDs of all time, and this song is one of the many Morrissey/Smiths songs that I always sing along to. And how about the classic line "Most people keep their brains between their legs." Only the Moz can deliver that with such pointed sarcasm. If American Idol ever makes it to Louisville, I’ll croon and swoon away with my Piccadilly Palare. “Off the rails I was, and off the rails…”