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It’s been too long, I know. And I’m certainly not the first blogger to turn to the shuffle feature on their handy stack of mp3s into a cheap way to generate some regular content. But several months of blog silence tells me that I shouldn’t turn my nose up at cheap, unoriginal tricks, should I?

So. Here we go. The next ten shuffled tracks off of my iPod (with side comments, as the situation warrants), no matter what the effect might be on any residual cred I’ve still got. I’ll try to make this a weekly thing. Mondays should be pretty good for me in that regard this semester. It’s a prep day, but a little blogging makes for a good prep break, yes?

1. Jon Rauhouse, “F86.” Rauhouse plays pedal steel guitar for Neko Case — and damned fine pedal steel it is, too. Not sure if there’s any other way I would ever have stumbled across his stuff long enough to bother picking up any of his CDs, and I find them to be hard to listen to straight through in one sitting. Not ’cause they’re bad (they’re not), but because there’s only such much instrumental pedal steel I can take in one dose. But he’s actually great to have come up in shuffle mode every so often.
2. Big Joe Turner, “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.” An r&b classic. With some of the dirtiest clean lyrics I know of. “I’m like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store. But I can look at you till you ain’t no child no more.” Bill Haley and the Comets did a lamer, tamer version of this that was a bigger hit. But this is the version to chase down and keep.
3. Nine Inch Nails vs. Spice Girls, “Closer to Wannabe.” One of my fave mashups. Whoever has the idea to put “Closer” and “Wannabe” together has a warped mind and a wicked ear, in all the best ways.
4. Byrds, “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season).” I teach courses on pop music just often enough to have a bunch of “classic” rock on my iPod. I probably wouldn’t seek out this track on my own too often these days, but if you have to have a bit of mid-60s folk-rock-pop floating around in your head, this track isn’t such a bad choice.
5. Dr. John & the Lower 911, “Keep on Goin’.” A track from City That Care Forgot, the angry (even if it “ain’t as mad as it coulda been”) post-Katrina CD released by a N’awlins musical legend.
6. Barrel House Annie, “If It Don’t Fit (Don’t Force It).” Classic dirty blues about the eternal problem of trying to house oversized farm animals. “It may not stretch, it may not tear at all, but you’ll never back that big mule up in my stall.” (Huh? What did you think it was about?)
7. Heatwave, “Grooveline.” What the hell ever happened to this group? Between this track and “Boogie Nights” alone, they produced some of the finest dance-funk of the ’70s. But who knows about them any more? Okay, okay. You knew. But you’ve clearly got taste. But why doesn’t anyone else?
8. Aretha Franklin, “Day Dreamin’.” Courtesy of the very fine, super fine, ultra fine Atlantic Rhythm ‘n’ Blues 1947-1974 box set. I actually bought this set on vinyl, one double-record album at a time, when it was first released. And it was a marvelous introduction to a great swath of music I’d never heard before (the Big Joe Turner track above is on one of the early volumes). And it was high on my “must-upgrade” list when I finally made the switch to CDs.
9. Billy Bragg, “I Keep Faith.” Opening track of Bragg’s most recent album, Mr. Love & Justice. And his show at the Cedar Cultural Center was one of the live musical highlights of 2008 for me. Just him and a guitar and a helluva lot of great energy. At one point, he joked from the stage that we should all become his Facebook friends. Turns out, he wasn’t joking. Go on. Go to Facebook. Search for “Billy Bragg.” Then ask to be his friend. He’ll say Yes.
10. Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the USA” (live). This isn’t the fist-pumping full-band live version from the 1975-85 live box set. It’s the raw, angry, acoustic version from the NYC live set. The version where I think Bruce finally figured out a way to play the song so that it became impossible to hear as the jingoistic bit of patriotism that many people treated it as for so long. You can hear the crowd try to push him into that spirit a bit here. he sings the chorus, they start cheering madly, as if they’re anticipating the full band will kick in and give them the “Ain’t America the Best” anthem they want . . . but they don’t get it. And it’s better that way.

Damn. I got lucky. Nothing shameful at all in that randomness. Maybe next week.

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