The most daunting CD challenge yet

[dreamshark]

So, I was explaining to my friend Trish how much fun it is making theme compilations with iTunes, and rattled off the ones I'd made into CDs: Drinking Songs, Cowboy Songs, Lullabyes, Songs of Hope and Joy. Tricia pointed out that some people when they are depressed aren't exactly interested in songs about sunshine and hope. I knew immediately what she meant. Hope and joy is fine if you're just feeling a little down, but when you're really depressed there's nothing like a good Leonard Cohen marathon. "So you'd like a nice collection of songs of disillusion and despair?" I suggested. "Exactly!"

OMG, where do I begin? Other than simply filling the whole CD with Leonard Cohen (which kind of misses the point of a compilation CD and moves directly into CD piracy)? There's always the venerable category of lost love . Or, aiming for more substance and less self-pity, I could easily compile a whole CD of songs about dreadful occurrences: trains crashing, airplanes going down, mines and mills closing, little lost orphans, murders, Scotsmen killing each other. Or we coud go more philosophical, with musings on the passage of time and death.

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Musings on the passage of time and death sound fun. :)
'Dust in the Wind' springs immediately to mind.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

If I were doing this, I'd start with "Blood on the Saddle"--what could be more of a downer than a song with the line "And a great big pool of blood on the ground"? In fact, one could do a whole album of cowboy songs of disillusion and despair...hmmmmm, one could...

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Go for it!

I decided to go more towards the existential and less to the literal, but I'm always up for more cowboy songs. However, if I were starting a theme compilation with "Blood on the Saddle" I think I'd be inclined to follow it up with "Leader of the Pack."

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

The River, Bruce Springsteen

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't have any Bruce Springsteen in my collection, except by accident. Strangely enough, The Boss simply makes no impression on me at all. I don't dislike his stuff, but neither do I like it particularly. Mostly, I'm the only one in the room that always asks, "Who IS that?" when one of his songs comes on and everybody starts humming along because it is one of The Anthems Of Our Generation. It's odd because he seems like the kind of singer/songwriter I would expect myself to like a lot.