Monday, September 2, 2013

Disc 48 / 48

One of the reasons I first made the Timothology back in 1996 was to share the highlights of my CD collection with friends. If I remember right, another reason was to make the complete history of rock and pop in America; I kind of did that, but out of order and with a bunch of mutant songs mixed in as well. That reason is still there for Strange Aeons, but my musical tastes have become broader and deeper (and thank goodness for that development). I'm still trying to give people stacks of tracks they'd never encountered before and I would guess that this set is going to be a success in that regard.

This disc is meant to thank everyone who clued me in to a track I'd never heard before and that I enjoyed. It's also a fitting way to wrap up the mix. It's also also meant to be linked with discs 46 and 47--songs from people who are no longer with us, a celebration of a producer that killed himself 45 years ago, and then all the new things I had no idea about; thankfully, my friends are looking out for me and they've sent me YouTube links or burned their own CDs to let me know about some cool stuff that I needed in my life.

These aren't the only songs on the set that someone else told me about, of course; every single disc has something on it that I wouldn't have known about unless I got super lucky and heard it on Pandora or something. The radio in the Detroit area is virtually useless for uncovering new stuff, but the internet and my friends are great sources for music I hadn't heard.

So. Until next time--if there is a next time--this is the final playlist for any Timothology. I hope you like it.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 48 / 48
Theme:  Songs my friends hipped me to
Label phrase:  "With a little help from my friends"

01) Beepin Squeal / Bob Kelly
02) Roadrunner / The Modern Lovers
03) Bad Girls Go to Hell / The Forbidden Dimension
04) Rochambeau (explicit version) / The Spider Bombs
05) Telstar (live) / The Tornados
06) Waterloo / ABBA
07) Waterloo / Stonewall Jackson
08) El Paso / Marty Robbins
09) Crucify Your Mind / Rodriguez
10) A Little Respect / Erasure
11) We Take Care of Our Own / Bruce Springsteen
12) Rudi (A Message To You) / Jump Around / Woman If You Love Me (medley) / The Lidds
13) Soy Bomb / Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
14) Turkish Song of the Damned / The Pogues
15) Superbeast / Rob Zombie
16) Skylab (Theme from the Monks) / The Monks
17) Monk Chant (live) / The Monks
18) Missile Silo / Crunchy
19) La Bomba / Tonio K.
20) (It'll Be) Just Like Tron / The Cooper Vane
21) This Time Next Year / Pat McCurdy
22) Handlebars / Flobots
23) Clean Elvis / Dan Reeder

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Disc 47 / 48

Hey, I did this twice so it's a tradition. "Joe Meek Fights Back From the Grave!" is my personal testimonial that the RGM Sound is not dead. If you know me well enough to have a Timothology you already know about Meek and I don't need to restate the depth of his influence and genius here. I also don't need to remind you just how much I needed a bunch of bouncy upbeat pop songs that resonate so well with someone who has never been comfortable in his own skin. And I probably don't need to mention:  drums miked so close they sound like thunder or rifle shots, angelic women's voices in the chorus, early synthesizers, death ditties, stomping feet used in lieu of percussion instruments, a key change for the last verse, and bleepy electroskronk sound effects at the beginning and/or end of a song.

So. Here it is, in final release form after over a hundred attempts to codify what Joe Meek means to me in one disc (and occasionally two:  "He Heard a New World" and "Meeksville Sound is Dead"; as it turns out, I didn't want to drop any of the other 47 discs from the set to make room for two RGM tributes). 79 minutes of music from people who were influenced by Joe Meek enough to want to create art in his memory (or just rip off his percussion sound, as the Dave Clark Five did).

The final track on this disc is perhaps the best Meek tribute ever made, and I don't know that the artists were trying to do that when they recorded it. Listen to it again and then meet me at the bottom of the post.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 47 / 48
Theme:  Joe Meek tributes and soundalikes
Label phrase:  "Joe Meek Fights Back From the Grave!"

01) No. 1 With a Bullet / Alan Moore and Tim Perkins
02) Red Rocket / The Tornados
03) Joe Meek / Wreckless Eric
04) Bits and Pieces / The Dave Clark Five
05) The Orbitus / The Ron Drand Orchestra
06) Joe Meek's Dream (single version) / Narrow Sparrow
07) Johnny, Are You Queer? / Josie Cotton
08) Telstar / Les Fradkin
09) Baby, I Love You / Andy Kim
10) Navy Blue / Diane Renay
11) Ghost Power / The Chords
12) I'm Gonna Love You Too / Terry Jacks
13) Meek My Joe / Die Zorros
14) Lonely Joe / Robb Shenton
15) Popcorn / Hot Butter
16) Fox on the Run / The Sweet
17) My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From Titanic) / Los Straitjackets
18) Unforgettable Love / Russ Sainty
19) Joe Meek / The Pocket Gods
20) Insufficient Data / The Masonics
21) Strange New World / Jacqueline Hyde and the Moonfolk
22) White Noise Maker / Frank Black
23) The Mighty Atom / The Kaisers
24) Joe Meek / Pluto Monkey
25) He Stood in the Bath and He Stamped on the Floor / Jonathan King
26) Passport to the Future / Jean-Jacques Perry
27) The Staircase Stomp / The Deadbeat Poets
28) Maybe / Jill Read

"Jill Read" does not exist and never did. The vocals on that track were provided by Dave Edmunds, who figured out how to pitch-shift his voice (by recording at a slower speed and then playing the tape back normally, I believe) and make himself sound like a woman. In order to fit seamlessly with the backing musicians, he would have had to record his track in a different key and at a precisely calibrated speed for every single note, word and phrase so that it would mesh with the rest of the band. I don't know if he recorded his part first and then arranged all the backing instruments or got the band to lay down the backing tracks first and then calculated everything he'd have to do to synch up with them, but either way it's an inconceivable amount of effort for a song that he wasn't even releasing under his own name.

A production gimmick from start to finish that gives you a technique that nobody ever did before, and a song that wouldn't have been possible without pushing the envelope of what was considered possible. Just like Joe Meek did in his kitchen in 1962.

Disc 46 / 48

I spent a lot of time crossing off songs from this list, putting them back on, rearranging things, and basically going through dozens of drafts of this disc while I was assembling it. I wanted to make a disc showing what world culture has lost with the deaths of these singers, and to remind people that the art outlives the artist. It is my hope that the Timothology will be remembered longer than I am; people's kids might even take the discs off the shelf and listen to them (or download them to a data wafer the size of a fingernail clipping and have all the music forever). In this way they will at least know there was a guy named Tim who put together a whole bunch of music for his own amusement and that of his friends.

In order to be included in this playlist, one of three conditions had to be met:  1) A solo artist had to be dead (Ronnie Montrose, Ritchie Valens, Hank Williams and Desmond Dekker were all billed under their names, instead of being part of a band). 2) If a musician died and the band they were in broke up or retired (Morphine disbanded after Mark Sandman's death, for example). 3) Fifty percent of the original members of the band had died (which the Ventures and the Ramones have in common; AFAIK the Ventures are still touring but the Ramones are not).

Broke a couple rules on this one as well, or at least bent them. But I wanted to have Joey Ramone's cover of "What a Wonderful World" on it, because it's so wonderfully optimistic and positive. And then "Carbona Not Glue" because the Ramones got sued by the makers of Carbona, who were less than thrilled that their industrial solvent was being sung about as a better high than sniffing glue.

Shooby Taylor had more fun siging than perhaps anyone else ever did, or ever will. And so I had to double-dip with Johnny Cash on this one; it wouldn't be a Timothology disc without some outsider music on it. For that matter, the Joe Meek track on this disc is a tribute to Eddie Cochran, who is also represented on the track list. References to other references. Wheels within wheels.

For a good long while, "Last Dance" was the last track on the disc. Then I got Vincent Price singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and that's just not a song you can follow.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 46 / 48
Theme:  Voices (and instruments) of the dead
Label phrase:  "...To the LAST stop..."

01) People Who Died / The Jim Carroll Band
02) La Bamba / Ritchie Valens
03) Chantilly Lace / The Big Bopper
04) Not Fade Away / Buddy Holly
05) I Want to Dance With Somebody / Whitney Houston
06) C'mon Everybody / Eddie Cochran
07) Telstar / Ronnie Montrose
08) Buena / Morphine
09) Lost Highway / Hank Williams
10) Israelites / Desmond Dekker
11) Crazy Country Hop / Johnny Otis
12) Billie Jean / Michael Jackson
13) In My Life / Johnny Cash
14) Walk Don't Run / The Ventures
15) Ooby Dooby / Roy Orbison
16) Carbona Not Glue / The Ramones
17) Just Like Eddie / Heinz
18) Since You're Gone / Bo Diddley
19) Kentucky Rain / Elvis Presley
20) Folsom Prison Blues / Shooby Taylor and Johnny Cash
21) Cut the Mullet / Wesley Willis
22) Greece (instrumental) / George Harrison
23) Last Dance / Donna Summer
24) What a Wonderful World / Joey Ramone
25) Bring On the Lucie (Freeda Peeple) / John Lennon
26) Somewhere Over the Rainbow / Vincent Price

Friday, August 30, 2013

Disc 45 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 45 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "So if you leave any facts lying around, and he finds them, that shit's on you."

01) Puttin' on the Style / Lonnie Donegan and His Skiffle Group
02) Suzy is a Headbanger / The Ramones
03) Crime Scene / Los Straitjackets
04) Mr. Bad Example / Warren Zevon
05) To Washington / John Mellencamp
06) The Maypole Song / Magnet
07) Telstar (The Bright Side of the Planet) / Technostar
08) Meeksville Sound is Dead / Pluto Monkey
09) Night Train to Mundo Fine / David Carradine with Ray Gregory and the Melmen
10) EMI / The Sex Pistols
11) Shape of Things to Come / Max Frost and the Troopers
12) Pills / The New York Dolls
13) Hope That I Get Old Before I Die / They Might Be Giants
14) Peanut Duck / Marsha Gee
15) Ha Ha Cat Walk Baby / Hasil Adkins
16) Voyage Around the Moon / The Saturn 5
17) (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance / Gene Pitney
18) Shambala / Three Dog Night
19) Denise / Randy and the Rainbows
20) Hand Clappin' / Red Prysock
21) I Can Dream About You / Dan Hartman
22) Sea of Heartbreak / Johnny Cash
23) Street Boy / Rodriguez
24) Time After Time / Cyndi Lauper
25) Sheena is a Punk Rocker / Graham Parker
26) Wild Wild Life (extended mix) / Talking Heads

Disc 44 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 44 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Future reward:  Steeper hill, sharper boulder."

01) The Israelites / Apache Indian
02) Mule Train Stomp / Roy Buchanan
03) Search and Destroy / Iggy and the Stooges
04) Cat People (Putting Out the Fire) / David Bowie
05) Invincible / OK Go
06) John the Revelator / John Mellencamp
07) Telstar / The Peter Hamilton Orchestra
08) Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron / The Staggers
09) The Battle of New Orleans / Johnny Horton
10) The Treme Song (Main Title version) / John Boutte
11) Do the Robot / Bo Diddley
12) Hideous / The Dickies
13) I Wanna Destroy You / The Soft Boys
14) Wipe Out / Herbie Hancock and Dweezil Zappa
15) Good Old Rock 'n Roll / Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys
16) (She Can't Do) The Wiki Waki Wu / The Kaisers
17) Thunder and Rain / Alan Dean and His Problems
18) Rock You Like a Hurricane / The Scorpions
19) Buckaroo / Buck Owens
20) Take On Me / a-Ha
21) Gary Gilmore's Eyes / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and Dean Schlabowske
22) Babysitter / The Ramones
23) Whole Wide World / Wreckless Eric
24) You Can Get It If You Really Want / Desmond Dekker and the Aces
25) Moon Probe / The Vulcanes
26) Highwayman / Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash

Disc 43 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 43 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Spiders...women...spider women..."

01) I'm Not Like Everybody Else / The Television Personalities
02) It's a Hard Business / Wild Man Fischer and Rosemary Clooney
03) Games People Play / Joe South
04) The First Cut is the Deepest / P. P. Arnold
05) Lonely City / John Leyton
06) I'm Still Standing / Elton John
07) Don't You Knock on My Door / Sue Moreno and the Western All-Stars
08) Praying to a New God / Wang Chung
09) Hallelujah / Leonard Cohen
10) Telstar / Howlin' Wilson
11) Bottle of Wine / The Fireballs
12) Dancing in the Street / Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
13) Pressure Drop / The Clash
14) Mongoloid / Devo
15) Rodeo Clown / John Mellencamp
16) Lawyers, Guns and Money / Warren Zevon
17) I Hung My Head / Johnny Cash
18) The Killing Moon / Echo and the Bunnymen
19) Machine Gun / The Commodores
20) Hey Little Cobra / The Rip Chords
21) Shombalor / Cub Koda
22) The Martian Hop / The Newcomers
23) I Couldn't Spell "Pffft" / Homer and Jethro
24) Rockin' Robin / Bobby Day
25) My Best Friend's Girl / The Cars

Disc 42 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 42 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Also, his coffin had to be returned at great inconvenience and expense."

01) La Bamba/ The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
02) Baba O'Riley / The Who
03) Battle Without Honor or Humanity / Tomoyasu Hotei
04) Baby, I Love You / The Ronettes
05) Holiday in Waikiki / The Kinks
06) My Baby's Coming Home / The Cameos
07) Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) / Kim Weston
08) I'm Walkin' / Fats Domino
09) Woo-Hoo / The Rock-A-Teens
10) Mother and Child / Desmond Dekker
11) Get On Up / The Esquires
12) At Night / Jonathan Richman
13) The Shade Rest / Brian Tyler
14) Only You / Yaz
15) Surfin' Dead / The Cramps
16) The Freshman / Mustard Plug
17) With a Girl Like You / The Troggs
18) Sunset Strip / The Riptides
19) Telstar / The Skeletons
20) The Rubberband Man / The Spinners
21) Personality Crisis / The New York Dolls
22) Behind the Wall of Sleep / The Smithereens
23) The Man Comes Around / Johnny Cash
24) Doctorin' the TARDIS / The Timelords
25) Oh L'Amour (live at the Grand Ole Opry version) / Erasure
26) Guitar Rock & Roll / Joe Maphis

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Disc 41 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 41 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Sooner or later we'll have to stop calling them "novels"."

01) Ring of Fire / Social Distortion
02) Train Kept A-Rollin' / The Johnny Burnette Rock 'n' Roll Trio
03) In the Midnight Hour / Wilson Pickett
04) Beg, Borrow and Steal / Ohio Express
05) Fool, Fool, Fool / Joey and the Flips
06) Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime) / The Flirts
07) Going Underground / The Jam
08) 16 Tons of Monkeys / Tonio K.
09) The Rebel / Cruncher
10) Catch Us If You Can / The Dave Clark Five
11) Permanent Hurt / John Hiatt
12) Save Tonight / Eagle Eye Cherry
13) The Bear and the Maiden Fair / The Hold Steady
14) Sizzling Hot / Jimmy Miller and the Barbecues
15) My Boy Lollipop / Millie Small
16) Kings of the Wild Frontier / Adam and the Ants
17) I Wanna Be Well / The Ramones
18) Rockin' in the Jungle / The Eternals
19) Prisencolinsinainciusol / Adriano Celentano
20) Der Fuehrer's Face / Spike Jones
21) The Baby in the Jar / The Billy Nayer Show
22) Mickey / Toni Basil
23) Gettin' My Cusack On / The Cooper Vane
24) Telstar 2002 / Jet 7
25) 21st Century (Digital Boy) / Bad Religion
26) Time Has Come Today / The Chambers Brothers

Disc 40 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 40 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "I'd be pleased to!"

01) It Miek (hit version) / Desmond Dekker
02) Spaceman / Harry Nilsson
03) Rave On / Buddy Holly
04) Whole Lotta Loving / Fats Domino
05) Needing / Getting / OK Go
06) How Did You Love Someone Like Me? / Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys
07) Sail Away Lady / Peggy Seeger (with Isla Cameron and Guy Carawan)
08) Rocka-Conga / The Applejacks
09) Rock and Roll Music / Chuck Berry
10) Space Flight / I Roy
11) Easy Money / Bruce Springsteen
12) I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend / Lush
13) Chain Gang / Sam Cooke
14) I Don't Like Mondays / The Boomtown Rats
15) A Well Respected Man / The Kinks
16) Maybe / The Chantels
17) Colored Lights / The Blasters
18) Telstar / Los Mustang
19) Louie Louie / Ike and Tina Turner
20) Lake Shore Drive / Aliotta Haynes and Jeremiah
21) Transmetropolitan / The Pogues
22) Drivin' Nails in My Coffin / Those Darlins
23) Self Control / Laura Branigan
24) Peekaboo! / Devo
25) (In the) Pouring Rain / The Clash

Disc 39 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 39 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "(This phrase intentionally left blank)"

01) Particle Man / They Might Be Giants featuring The Other Thing Brass Band
02) Remember Then / The Earls
03) Born to Run / Bruce Springsteen
04) I'm Just a Mops / The Mops
05) Rudie Can't Fail / The Clash
06) Peggy Sue Got Married / Buddy Holly
07) Telstar / The Mermen
08) The Thing / Phil Harris
09) Over & Over / The Spitballs
10) Waterslide / The Dickies
11) You Dropped a Bomb on Me / The Gap Band
12) I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You / The Ramones
13) Summer Without Sun / The Charles Kingsley Creation
14) American Love Affair / Tonio K.
15) Ring of Fire / Wall of Voodoo
16) Blank Generation / Richard Hell and the Voidoids
17) I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night / The Electric Prunes
18) Pick Up the Pieces / The Average White Band
19) The Tiki Bar is Open / John Hiatt
20) Pay to the Piper / The Chairmen of the Board
21) Freedom of Choice / Devo
22) England Belongs to Me / Cock Sparrer
23) Outa-Space / Billy Preston
24) Funky Kingston / Toots and the Maytals
25) End of the Line / The Traveling Wilburys

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Disc 38 / 48

Another disc unburdened by a theme.

I've dug the hell out of Devo for as long as I can remember--I think the third or fourth CD I ever bought was their "Greatest Misses" compilation, which I picked up because I heard "Mongoloid" on Doctor Demento and thought it was amazing. If you're a person who just remembers them as the "Whip It" guys, the Timothology was made in part to change your mind.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 38 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "I WRITES FOR DA HAWWWG"

01) Run Through the Jungle / Creedence Clearwater Revival
02) Cherry Bomb / The Runaways
03) Have I the Right? / Rotten
04) Johnny B. Goode / Chuck Berry
05) I've Done Everything For You / Rick Springfield
06) Little Bitty Pretty One / The Dave Clark Five
07) African Beat / The Famous Seven Orchestra
08) Blockhead / Devo
09) The Kids Are Alright / The Who
10) Dig My Grave / They Might Be Giants
11) She Cracked / The Modern Lovers
12) I'll Go Down Swinging / Los Straitjackets with Exene Cervenka
13) Imposters of Life's Magazine / The Idle Race
14) Son of a Preacher Man / Dusty Springfield
15) Lola / The Kinks
16) Bad Penny Blues / Humphrey Lyttleton
17) Our House / Madness
18) Break My Stride / Matthew Wilder
19) Marie Marie / The Blasters
20) Bang Bang / Janis and Her Boyfriends
21) Little Honda / The Hondells
22) 007 (Shanty Town) / Desmond Dekker
23) Telstar / The BBC Concert Orchestra
24) Atlantic City / Bruce Springsteen
25) Voodoo Mama / Wade Curtiss and the Rhythm Rockers
26) Destination Venus / The Rezillos
27) Ghost Town / The Kings of Outer Space
28) Human Wheels / John Mellencamp

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Disc 37 / 48

One more themeless disc, to go with the others.

Bob Vido called himself a one-man band, but someone online referred to him as "the one-man Shaggs", and I think that fits much better. He sounds like he's having a lot of fun, though, and one thing the Timothology songs all have in common is that people sounded like they were having fun recording them.

Psyche Rock is the song that Pierre Henry didn't allow the makers of "Futurama" to use for the theme, so they wrote one that sounded as close as they could get without being legally actionable.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 37 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Shut up you dammit liar!"

01) Psyche Rock / Pierre Henry
02) I'm Going Down / Vampire Weekend
03) Boo-Bah-Bah / Bob Vido
04) Six Days on the Road / Dave Dudley
05) Beer Beer Bottla Beer / A. C. Dusey
06) Land of 1000 Dances / Wilson Pickett
07) Train in Vain / The Clash
08) Love in Tokyo / The Honeycombs
09) The Doing of Our Thing (song poem) / Jim Lea
10) Bongo Rock / Preston Epps
11) Fredward / The Billy Nayer Show
12) Girl U Want / Devo
13) Louie Louie / The Angels
14) First Kiss / They Might Be Giants
15) Having an Average Weekend / Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
16) Tougher Than Tough / Derrick Morgan
17) (Get a) Grip (On Yourself) / The Stranglers
18) Complication / The Monks
19) Bust Out / The Busters
20) Funky Kingston / Toots and the Maytals featuring Bootsy Collins and the Roots
21) Rockin' Robin / The Jackson 5
22) I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend / The Ramones
23) Superman (single version) / The Clique
24) Telstar '76 / Septimus
25) Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) / Melanie with the Edwin Hawkins Singers
26) Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight / The Rezillos
27) Feel Like Funkin' It Up / The Rebirth Brass Band
28) The Harder They Come / Jimmy Cliff

Disc 36 / 48

This disc started out as one where all the songs were going to sound like "Telstar" at the beginning, but that really didn't work out. Several drafts later, it's much better. And tracks 2-5 still sound like they might be turning into "Telstar" at any moment.

I also abandoned the idea of doing a song with all first-person titles but kept three of 'em in reserve to stick together at the end of this disc. So perhaps the theme was trying to put together a workable disc out of the offcuts from several other themes...

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 36 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "A year is not so long a time."

01) Swords of a Thousand Men / Tenpole Tudor
02) Tarzan Boy / Baltimora
03) My Love For You / Little Isidore and the Inquisitors
04) Bad Reputation / Joan Jett
05) Sputnik Kiss / The Revillos
06) Telstar / Nigel Ogden
07) It Came Out of the Sky / Creedence Clearwater Revival
08) Gary Gilmore's Eyes / The Valkyrians
09) Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) / Kenny Rogers and the First Edition
10) Goofy Town / Pat McCurdy
11) Bongolia / The Incredible Bongo Band
12) Chop Chop Boom / Jack McVea with Al Smith and the Savoys
13) Hold Tight! / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich
14) Badlands / Bruce Springsteen
15) Judy Is Your Viet Nam / They Might Be Giants
16) Planet of the Apehangers / The Bomboras
17) Up Against the Wall / Tom Robinson
18) Dancing With Myself / The Donnas
19) In Your Room / The Bangles
20) Moons of Jupiter / Scruffy the Cat
21) Yeh Yeh / Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames
22) Twilight City / The Vulcanes
23) Here Comes My Baby / The Tremeloes
24)  I'll Wait Here / Tonio K.
25) You Got What I Like / Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers
26) I Only Want to Be With You / Dusty Springfield
27) I Can Only Give You Everything / Them

Monday, August 26, 2013

Disc 35 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 35 / 48
Theme:  Symmetrical pairs of thematically linked songs
Label phrase:  "TWO girls with green eyes!"

01) In the Flesh / Blondie
02) The Intro and the Outro / The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
03) I Touch Myself / The Divinyls
04) Mariner No. 4 / The Ventures
05) Icky Thump / The White Stripes
06) Not Fade Away / The Crickets
07) Dare to Be Stupid / "Weird Al" Yankovic
08) The Monkey Time / Major Lance
09) The Last Race / Jack Nitzsche
10) When Jesus Left Birmingham / John Mellencamp
11) Une Question qui se Pose / Evy
12) Pied Piper / Crispian St. Peters
13) Freddie's Dead (Theme from Superfly) / Curtis Mayfield
14) Hab' Ich Das Recht / The Honeycombs
15) All You Need is Love / The Beatles
16) Stick Shift / The Duals
17) What's Your Name / Don and Juan
18) Music Time / Styx
19) I Want Candy / The Strangeloves
20) Hats off to Larry / Del Shannon
21) Telstar / Martin Cilia
22) She Bop / Cyndi Lauper
23) The Bell / Mike Oldfield
24) See You 'Round Like a Record / Little Nell

This disc has thirteen themes. The big theme is "pairs of songs that have something in common, presented as mirror images of each other". The little themes are:

01 / 24:  Retro-50s song with a female vocalist
02 / 23:  Song in which many different instruments are announced, and used to contribute to the overall melodic theme
03 / 22:  Song in which a female vocalist sings about masturbation
04 / 21:  Instrumental named after space hardware
05 / 20:  Song featuring a clavioline
06 / 19:  The Bo Diddley beat, but not performed by Bo Diddley
07 / 18:  Devo sound-alikes
08 / 17:  The two R&B songs played over film clip montages in the 1982 film It Came From Hollywood
09 / 16:  Instrumentals featuring revving car engines
10 / 15:  Songs in which the singer repeats the chorus of an earlier hit from their catalog during the final fadeout (in the first track, "Let it rock / Let it roll / Let the Bible belt come and save my soul" and "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah" in the second one)
11 / 14:  Foreign-language version of a Joe Meek song
12 / 13:  A song in which the same part is played by a flute and a baritone sax at the same time

I love the idea of Curtis Mayfield being influenced by Crispian St. Peters (the only man in pop music with a more whitebread name than Englebert Humperdinck). And I legitimately like "Music Time", wherein Styx apparently thought that Devo was going to be the next big sound. That went on to not happen.

Disc 34 / 48

As a palate cleanser after three discs with the same theme, this one has no theme at all. It's got a few near-outsider tracks; the Legendary Stardust Cowboy is discmates with a country and western song about reincarnation (which is not the least commercial thing you can do in Nashville; Peter Grudzien wrote country songs about being gay in the Sixties--commercial suicide now, but insanely brave then).

One time, driving to B Fest, Sean Frost popped in an album for our mutual listening enjoyment called "I Hate CDs", which was a digital compilation of Norton Records singles that had never been released on compact disc. During the opening track I said "Hey, this sounds like the Legendary Stardust Cowboy!" and irritated the hell out of my friend because 1) it was the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, and 2) I apparently came off like a snotty record store clerk when I said it. I maintain that I was driving through Chicago on I-94 and wasn't trying to sound like a jerk intentionally.

I followed up the reincarnation song with a Tonio K. song about the Book of Revelation; it's a Hal Lindsay prophecy pamphlet you can slow-dance to if you feel like it.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 34 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "I live in a giant bucket."

01) Daydream Believer / The Monkees
02) Bip Bop Boom / Moon Mullins and the Night Raiders
03) Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook remix) / Cornershop
04) You Can Call Me Al / Paul Simon
05) Birdhouse In Your Soul / They Might Be Giants
06) Quarter to Three / Gary U. S. Bonds
07) Walk Don't Run / Those Darn Accordions
08) Whispering Bells / The Del-Vikings
09) Good Lovin' / The Bobs
10) Long Temps Passe / Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots
11) Gun Slinger / Bo Diddley
12) Bring it to Jerome / David John and the Mood
13) Telstar / Los Straitjackets
14) Midnight to Six Man / The Pretty Things
15) Stand By Me / John Lennon
16) Paralyzed / The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
17) Yuh Dead Now / Tiger
18) We Walked This Road Before / Brad Wolfe
19) Hey John / Tonio K.
20) Bette Davis Eyes / Big Daddy
21) Cotton Eye Joe / Rednex
22) Poor Rock and Roll / Nicky and the Nobles
23) Paper in Fire / John Mellencamp
24) I'm a One Woman Man / Hindu Love Gods
25) Sheena is a Punk Rocker / Tracy Thornton
26) The Hippy Hippy Shake / Chan Romero
27) Sally MacLennane / The Pogues
28) The Hero / Queen

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Disc 33 / 48

I like the way the three awesome-covers discs are kind of alternate reality duplicates of each other--there's a cover of "Have I the Right?" and "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" on each one, and Los Straitjackets show up each time as well. Big Daddy is one each disc as well; "genius" is an overused and under-true term in pop music criticism but I see no other word that applies to their mastery of old rock styles fused to (then-) contemporary hits. They have a new album coming out this year, and you should pick it up.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 33 / 48
Theme:  Fantastic covers
Label phrase:  "BONK BONK BONK"

01) I've Been Everywhere / Johnny Cash
02) We're Not Gonna Take It / Bif Naked
03) Chain Gang / The Texas Chainsaw Orchestra
04) New York Groove / Sweet
05) Roadrunner / Joan Jett
06) Tubthumping / They Might Be Giants with The Onion A/V Club
07) Have I the Right? / Torben Lendager and the Silverrockets
08) Dream Lover / The Packabeats
09) Hit Me With Your Best Shot / Big Daddy
10) Gino is a Coward / The Spitballs
11) Doctor Who Theme / Artist Unknown
12) Goodbye Earl / Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
13) Johnny Remember Me / The Low-Fi Drifters
14) The Green Door / The Cramps
15) Sing, Sing, Sing / Los Straitjackets
16) Louie Louie / The Fat Boys
17) Brown Eyed Handsome Man / Buddy Holly
18) Viva Las Vegas / The Dead Kennedys
19) Disco Inferno / The Bobs
20) Baba O'Riley / The Waco Brothers
21) Wild Thing Waltz / The CMH Bluegrass Tribute Band
22) Blitzkrieg Bop / Rob Zombie
23) Surfin' Bird / Pee-Wee Herman
24) Sheena is a Punk Rocker / Shebang
25) Telstar Stomp / Joe Goldmark
26) People Like Us / John Goodman and Talking Heads

Disc 32 / 48

There's a mini-theme of science songs on this one.

For five years, the "Johnny in the Morning" radio show on Planet 96.3 in Detroit held an annual Gong Show wherein people with strange talents would show up and risk getting their feelings hurt by three local celebrity judges, who had the power to hit a gong and cut their act short. I can't remember if I was the only person to perform at all five years of this show any more, but there can't be more than three people who could make that claim (including me). Over the years I shared the stage with impressionists, an escape artist, an a capella group, a guy who played a banjo made of an empty tin can, a standup comic who was also an outlaw biker, and--once--a guy who belly-flopped onto a tarp full of vanilla pudding wearing only a diaper (Johnny in the Morning's verdict on his act:  "Even countries without entertainment wouldn't watch that!").

The fifth year of the contest I won it with a perfect score and less than a month later the DJ team was fired and the station's format changed to play more songs and have less disk jockey stuff in the morning. I choose to believe that they knew the fix was in and told the judges that I should win (I went last that year, and the scores tended to inflate as the show went on every year as the judges were more generous, or possibly more inebriated). And honestly it's a pretty damn good periodic table song so I figure it belongs here more than on disc 13. I followed it up with "Telstar (Surf)" because that's my absolute favorite cover of the song. I own about 170 different versions so I make this statement with some authority. And since I normally end the Timothology with that song, I broke another rule when making this disc. The first time I played it back, hearing the Lively Ones crank into "Telstar" after my "Thank you, Detroit!" thrilled me to the core.

Special thanks to my older brother Patrick for serving as my accompanist live the first year and taping the piano part so I was able to use it every subsequent year, my mother for taping the broadcast and Eric and Stefan Peterson for transferring the tape to CD so that I could put it on the Timothology in 2004.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 32 / 48
Theme:  Fantastic covers
Label phrase:  "Thunderball fists? I can have such a thing?"

01) 2001 Sprach Kazoostra / The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra
02) Shombalor / The Cramps
03) Eve of Destruction / The Dickies
04) Living After Midnight / The Donnas
05) Authority Song / Reel Big Fish
06) What Do I Get? / The Polecats
07) The Martian Hop / The Routers
08) Benson, Arizona / gribben
09) Make a Circuit With Me / The Phenomenauts
10) Why Does the Sun Shine? (live version) / They Might Be Giants
11) The Elements (live version) / Tim Lehnerer
12) Telstar (Surf) / The Lively Ones
13) Major Tom (Coming Home) / Shiny Toy Guns
14) Do You Love Me / The Sonics
15) I Fought the Law / The Clash
16) Bad Moon Rising / The Spitballs
17) Raspberry Beret / Hindu Love Gods
18) The Tide is High / Petty Booka
19) California Sun / Los Straitjackets
20) William Tell 1967 / Davie Allan and the Arrows
21) Diana / The Misfits
22) 96 Tears / Jimmy Ruffin
23) Sussudio / Big Daddy
24) Please Don't Touch / Ian Gomm, Clem Cattini and Ray Fenwick
25) Have I the Right? / The Dead Kennedys
26) Sheena is a Punk Rocker / Los Plantronics
27) Zip a Dee Doo Dah / The Rationals
28) Popeye Twist / The Tornados
29) Victoria / Cracker

Disc 31 / 48

Disc 13 was my all-terrible-covers-themed disc, and when I got to 31 I realized I could do a mirror image disc full of incredibly awesome covers that either make you appreciate the original songs more or make you like something in a genre you didn't know you would enjoy (the doo-wop "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" fits into both categories, as it turns out). I had to cut so many songs for time and to keep from doing two covers of the same track on a given album that I decided to make disc 32 another awesome-covers disc, and had so much left over from that one as well that disc 33 has the same theme.

There's a mini theme of accordion music in this disc as well, since I had a few goofy accordion-saturated takes on existing material.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 31 / 48
Theme:  Fantastic covers
Label phrase:  "This movie has taken all of the drugs!!!"

01) My Indian Red / Clarke Peters and Treme cast members
02) Sheena is a Punk Rocker / The 1234
03) Smells Like Teen Spirit / Los Straitjackets
04) Vivelo! / Timidos
05) Can Can '62 / Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers
06) When Will I Be Loved? / The Half and Half Bluegrass Band
07) Nobody But Me / The Dickies
08) Pico and Sepulvedo Lee Press-On and the Nails
09) I'm Going Down / Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits
10) Have I the Right? / The New Orleans Syncopators
11) Sixteen Tons / Bo Diddley
12) Telstar / The Hawaiians
13) Jump / Big Daddy
14) Crimson and Clover / The Uniques
15) Green Door / Eskew Reeder
16) California Sun / The Ramones
17) Questions I Can't Answer / Fabienne Delsol and the Bristols
18) New York City / They Might Be Giants
19) Pills / The Lurkers
20) Talk Dirty To Me / Zydecosis
21) The Devil Went Down to Georgia / Those Darn Accordions!
22) Down Under / The Red Army Men's Choir
23) Anarkhiya / The Ukrainians
24)  Bo Diddley's a Gunslinger (live version) / Warren Zevon
25) Seven Nation Army / The Oak Ridge Boys
26) Just Like Eddie / Silicon Teens
27) The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize / The Vandals
28) Do You Want to Dance? / Del Shannon
29) Summertime Blues / Guitar Wolf

Disc 30 / 48

This disc looks like I was listening a lot to the "Nuggets" compilations from Rhino when I burned it, with another rap track that was on the soundtrack to "Skate and Destroy" and a country track to keep things from being too vanilla. Also, a bluegrass cover of the Pixies (thanks to Josh Shepherd for clueing me in to Trampled by Turtles and Those Darlins, who have appeared on the set at various other points).

Another disc-that-didn't-happen theme was songs with spoken word breaks in them; I wound up only finding a few of those, and refused to put "We Built This City" on the Timothology unironically.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 30 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Getting environmental problems in my territory"

01) Cigareetes, Whuskey and Wild, Wild Women / Red Ingle
02) Sugar Baby Love / The Rubettes
03) Season of the Witch / Donovan
04) The Slop Beat / The Teenbeats
05) Run, Run, Run / The Third Rail
06) Sugar and Spice / The Cryan Shames
07) Rock el Casbah / Rachid Taha
08) The Warrior / Scandal featuring Patty Smythe
09) Just to Get a Rep / Gang Starr
10) Baja / The Astronauts
11) A Public Execution / Mouse and the Trapps
12) Can't Make Up My Mind / Deke Arlon and the Offbeats
13) Monsterman / Devo
14) Act Naturally / Buck Owens
15) Love Under Will / The New Math
16) Telstar '69 / Velvet Fogg
17) The Might Quinn (live version) / Manfred Mann's Earth Band
18) Please Don't Touch / Johnny Kidd and the Pirates
19) I'm Not Running Anymore / John Mellencamp
20) Psycho / The Sonics
21) When the Night Falls / The Eyes
22) Where is My Mind / Trampled by Turtles
23) Panic / The Smiths
24) American Nightmare / The Misfits
25) New Dark Ages / Tonio K.
26) Machines / Lothar and the Hand People
27) Forward to Death / The Dead Kennedys

Disc 29 / 48

Another themeless disc; at one point I tried to have a theme for every disc in the set. 22 was going to be a musical Tarot deck, with each song chosen to match the theme of each card in the Major Arcana; "Telstar", being named for a satellite, would have corresponded with the Moon. And so on. This turned out to be a colossal pain in the ass, partly because I wanted each disc to be around 77 minutes long and finding 22 tracks to be long enough to do that AND fit all the Tarot themes AND that I hadn't already used was completely unworkable. So instead, enjoy this disc and all the other themeless ones.

"Crossfader Dominator" was on the soundtrack to a Playstation 1 game called "Thrasher:  Skate and Destroy". I had to buy a different video game soundtrack in order to pick it up; iTunes and Amazon's digital downloads have a lot of things, but they don't have everything.

"I Lost My Girl to an Argentinian Cowboy" is one of the better-quality song poems out there. It's not much weirder than some genuine country music of the 60s and 70s (for example, Gil Trythall did an entire album of country songs on a Moog synthesizer). Nobody knows who the writer or performer are, as far as I know, and it's my hope that the Timothology gets that track a few more listeners than it normally would have had.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 29 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Bad falcon! Lazy!"

01) You Make it Way Too Hard / Tonio K.
02) Itty Bitty Pretty One / Screamin' Jay Hawkins
03) Be Your Bro / Those Darlins
04) Colour Slide / The Honeycombs
05) Be Good Johnny / Men at Work
06) Lovely Rita / Big Daddy
07) Without Expression / Terry Reid
08) Telstar / The Good Humor Band
09) (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman / The Kinks
10) Crossfader Dominator / Sniper
11) Suavecito / Malo
12) Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First) / John Mellencamp
13) I Lost My Girl to an Argentinian Cowboy / Artist Unknown (Song Poem)
14) Pomps and Pride / Toots and the Maytals
15) Just Don't Want to Be Lonely / The Main Ingredient
16) The Spook Walks / The Parade
17) Long Tall Sally / Little Richard
18) G.T.O. / Ronny and the Daytonas
19) Clash City Rockers (original version) / The Clash
20) Rubber Biscuit / The Blues Brothers
21) Junko Pardner / Hindu Love Gods
22) Robot Parade (adult version) / They Might Be Giants
23) Shang-A-Lang / The Bay City Rollers
24) The Night Hank Williams Came to Town / Johnny Cash with Waylon Jennings

Disc 28 / 48

This disc has three tracks on it that I found out about because I had a Pandora station that I kept adding songs to in an attempt to broaden my horizons. The songs were the playlist for disc 01 of this compilation; I figured that would be the most representative of things I liked for the purposes of my sonic gedankenexperiment. That's where I heard about Scruffy the Cat and Red Meat for the first time; I bought a CD from the former and just the track on this disc from the latter.

I eventually stopped using Pandora because they didn't mix things up really well. When I added "Shombalor" to the station I'd get doo wop for six or seven songs in a row followed by something else based on a different song. I like variety. Even on the discs that are all white guys with guitars they're at least performing in different genres.

"The Warrior's Code" has a bagpipe part that mimics the main melody from "Telstar".

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 28 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Unfortunately, I got my armor out of a gum machine."

01) Total Eclipse of the Moon / Graham Parker
02) Infidel Zombie / The Dickies
03) Thunder & Lightning / John Leyton
04) Cowtown / They Might Be Giants
05) Killer Klown March / John Massari
06) Puddy Cat (Mama Meow-Mow) / Wade Curtiss and the Rhythm Rockers
07) Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' / Crazy Elephant
08) I Love Rock N' Roll / Hayseed Dixie
09) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three / David Shire
10) Seven Nation Army / The White Stripes
11) Baby Come Back / Desmond Dekker
12) Trouble / Tonio K.
13) Keys to Your Heart / The 101'ers
14) Telstar / Theodore Skeans Jr.
15) Shot By Both Sides / Magazine
16) Do Ya / Electric Light Orchestra
17) Pumped Up Kicks / Foster the People
18) The Last Gun Fighter Ballad / Johnny Cash
19) Blue Shadows / The Blasters
20) 14 Hours from Tulsa / Red Meat
21) Lonely Ol' Night / John Mellencamp
22) Put the Clock Back on the Wall / The "E" Types
23) The Warrior's Code / The Dropkick Murphys
24) Nova SS 1968 / Scruffy the Cat
25) Flashdance / Big Daddy
26) Crackerbox Palace / George Harrison

Monday, August 12, 2013

Disc 27 / 48

Another disc with no grand unifying theme.

It's harder and harder to find CD-Rs in the wild; they used to carry my preferred type, the Sony Digital Audio discs, at Best Buy and Target. That's not the case any more, and therefore I'm stuck with Amazon if I want to keep making these things. Which gets expensive over time; it's about 40-55 dollars to burn a Timothology, depending on whether the discs, labels or cases are on sale or not.

Which is my way of saying that my friends will be getting a Timothology at some point, but it won't be any time soon. Money's tight for everyone.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 27 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "STOP SITTING ON THAT CAT ALL THE TIME."

01) One Step Beyond / Madness
02) Perfectly Good Guitar / John Hiatt
03) Nowhere Fast / Fire Inc.
04) Human Touch / Rick Springfield
05) Just Like Me / Paul Revere and the Raiders
06) Knock on Wood / The Spitballs
07) I'm Shakin' / Little Willie JOhn
08) Dollar in the Teeth / The Upsetters
09) Safe European Home / The Clash
10) Women's Love Rights / Laura Lee
11) Bette Davis Eyes / Kim Carnes
12) I Wonder Why / Dion and the Belmonts
13) The Man in Me / Bob Dylan
14) Telstar / Laika and the Cosmonauts
15) I've Got My Mind Set on You / James Ray
16) A Little Bit of Soap / The Pioneers
17) I'm Sorry I Love You / The Magnetic Fields
18) Where Your Eyes Don't Go / They Might Be Giants
19) Johnny Remember Me / John Leyton
20) Radar Love / Golden Earring
21) Peek-A-Boo / Siouxie and the Banshees
22) Rik-A-Tik / Cub Koda
23) I Love a Rainy Night / Eddie Rabbitt
24)  88 Lines About 44 Women / The Nails

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Disc 26 / 48

Not really a lot to say about this one other than that it's a theme disc that is almost exclusively pop and rock with almost no intrusions from other genres. It's almost certainly the whitest disc out of the whole 48 CD set. The instrumentals (other than the obligatory "Telstar" cover) are a song where a manual typewriter is used as a percussion instrument, one where someone chants the NASA acronym for a space walk and the Kinks leaving the vocals out of a song where they'd be spelling L-O-L-A Lola a bunch.

The Tonio K. track is supposedly the first song containing the word "motherfucker" to play uncensored on American radio; there's also an AK-47 firing live ammo as part of the percussion during the big finish of that song.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 26 / 48
Theme:  Songs where they spell out words (or just yell letters)
Label phrase:  "Boston cream pie is really more of a cake."

01)  A / The Billy Nayer Show with Gregory Russell Cook
02)  Vacation / Connie Francis
03)  Something On Your Mind / Hilly Michaels
04)  Saturday Night / The Bay City Rollers
05)  Pinhead / The Ramones
06)  I'm Henry VIII, I Am / Herman's Hermits
07)  R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. / John Mellencamp
08)  Washington, D. C. / The Magnetic Fields
09)  T.C.B. or T.Y.A. / Bobby Patterson
10)  The Typewriter / Leroy Anderson
11)  Cadillac / Bo Diddley
12)  Hell / The Squirrel Nut Zippers
13)  Jocko Homo / Devo
14)  Lola (Instrumental) / The Kinks
15)  S-E-X-X-Y / They Might Be Giants
16)  Girl Friend / Jonathan Richman
17)  Maker of Smooth Music / Dick Kent
18)  Rock, Calypso Joe! / The Treniers
19)  Dig / Nervous Norvus
20)  E.V.A. / Jean Jacques Perry
21)  The Safety Dance (extended version) / Men Without Hats
22)  Dammit Janet / Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon
23)  Johnny Loves Me / Glenda Collins
24)  Ugly / Fishbone
25)  H-A-T-R-E-D / Tonio K.
26)  Telstar / Evan Johns and His H-Bombs
27)  Monkey Vs. Robot / James Kochalka Superstar
28)  Ramones / Motorhead

Disc 25 / 48

Two things led to this themed disc:  First, I love me some one hit wonders. Bands that only hit the chart one time (deserved or not) have a special place in my heart. I could have stuck "867-5309" on here just as easily as anything else on the disc. Second, my mother always complains that she doesn't recognize any of the songs on the Timothology when she listens to them. So it seemed obvious to make a disc full of songs that are hugely recognizable from bands that people who aren't musical superobsessives might have heard of. Or, to put it another way, this is the best hour and eighteen minutes you'll never hear on the radio.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 25 / 48
Theme:  If you know one song by these bands / artists, it's on here.
Label phrase:  "Even the mild is extra hot."

01)  I Walk the Line / Johnny Cash
02)  Beat It / Michael Jackson
03)  Talk Dirty to Me / Poison
04)  Love Train / The O'Jays
05)  Peggy Sue / Buddy Holly
06)  Blitzkrieg Bop / The Ramones
07)  Telstar / The Ventures
08)  I Love Rock N' Roll / Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
09)  Mr. Big Stuff / Jean Knight
10)  Tubthumping / Chumbawamba
11)  All Day and All of the Night / The Kinks
12)  Bo Diddley / Bo Diddley
13)  Down on the Corner / Creedence Clearwater Revival
14)  Girls Just Want to Have Fun / Cyndi Lauper
15)  Have I the Right / The Honeycombs
16)  Jack and Diane / John Mellencamp
17)  Summertime Blues / Eddie Cochran
18)  Wipe Out / The Surfaris
19)  Hey Ya! / Outkast
20)  The Reflex / Duran Duran
21)  Hound Dog / Elvis Presley
22)  Da Doo Ron Ron / The Crystals
23)  Istanbul (Not Constantinople) / They Might Be Giants
24)  Blue Moon / The Marcels
25)  Surrender / Cheap Trick
26)  Frankenstein / The Edgar Winter Group

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Disc 24 / 48

I've gone to B Fest, a 24 hour long bad movie marathon, every year since 2001. Since 2002, with one exception, I've made a mix disc of B movie songs to hand out at the event as well (usually free, sometimes not when I can't afford to give away a $300 project to people who want a CD). People have actually asked me to sign their giveaway discs in the past, and as far as I can tell they weren't being ironic about their desire to have an autographed Fest disc.

This is the culmination of the Fest mixes; songs about movie monsters, space travelers, kung fu superstars, sea monsters, movie-going itself (and home video), as well as two unconventional magic users--or three, if you count Vladek Sheybal's uber-fey take on the Antichrist. The theme was used for disc 24 because film is projected at 24 frames a second. It's also the halfway point of the Timothology itself.

Johnny Cash apparently wrote and recorded a theme for the film Thunderball without being contacted by the movie studio to do that. It's really too bad they didn't use it. I think it's a lot better than the Tom Jones theme we got (which was supposedly written in 20 minutes because the producers did not like the song "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" that Jones was going to record. They rejected it because it didn't have the movie's title in it). Which is not to bag on Tom Jones, but even great pop singers can use more than 20 minutes' practice before laying down a track.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 24 / 48
Theme:  Songs about B movies and other related interests
Label phrase:  "A tiny net is a death sentence."

01)  Drive In Movie / The Cheepskates
02)  Star Wars / Big Daddy
03)  Hey Boy / The Billy Nayer Show
04)  Godzilla / Blue Oyster Cult
05)  Mothra's Song / The Peanuts
06)  The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins / Leonard Nimoy
07)  Book of the Dead (2003) / The Staggers
08)  The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) / The Evil Genius Orchestra
09)  They Walk Among You / Jet Black Berries
10)  Kung Fu / Ash
11)  Theme from Spectreman / Artist not credited
12)  Thunderball / Johnny Cash
13)  Creature From the Black Lagoon / Dave Edmunds
14)  The Innsmouth Look / Darkest of the Hillside Thickets
15)  The Horror of Party Beach / Sloppy Seconds
16)  Let's All Go to the Lobby / Filmack Studios
17)  Mothra / Those Darn Accordions!
18)  Silver John / Joe Bethancourt
19)  The Purple People Eater / Sheb Wooley
20)  Green Slime / The Green Slime
21)  Nasty / The Damned
22)  Surf Trek / The Rubinoos
23)  Secret Agent Man / The Dickies
24)  She's Fallen In Love with the Monsterman / Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages
25)  Monkey Hustle / Jack Conrad
26)  You're My Rose / Kitra Williams and Reflection
27)  Telstar / Venus Gang
28)  (I Know How to Be) A Master / Vladek Sheybal
29)  I am the Wizard of Speed and Time / Mike Jittlov
30)  Saturday Night at the Movies / The Drifters

Disc 23 / 48

For the 2005 Timothology, I was lucky enough to be using a CD burner that didn't have to be manually started or stopped for each track. It did record in 1:1 time instead of 12:1 like the burner on my PC, so the discs still took a lot of time to record and they had to be done in a single session and then finalized (iTunes makes it orders of magnitude easier to make a mix disc). This meant it'd be at least 80 minutes to record an 80 minute CD and I couldn't shuffle the tracks around easily without lots of scratched-out entries in a spiral notebook.

The day that John Kerry conceded the Presidential election to George W. Bush I burned a disc full of depressing songs because I knew how much of a disaster his second term would be (by paying attention to journalism about Dubya's life and career before he became a politician and by paying attention during his first term). The idea was too good not to reuse, especially because there's some great miserable pop songs out there. And this at least quarantines them all on one disc so they can't get out into the general population and make people feel sad in the middle of a different disc.

Special thanks to my friend Sean, who said "Why don't you just end the disc with "Deteriorata" and then offer people a bottle of sleeping pills?" when we were talking about the 2005 'Thology. I got one of those things accomplished on this disc.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 23 / 48
Theme:  Musical melancholia
Label phrase:  "A BLOO BLA BLOO BLOO BLOOOO!"

01)  The World is a Monster / Rocky Porter
02)  Tulips on the Table / Dan Reeder
03)  Nobody Waved Goodbye / The Cryin' Shames
04)  Fallout Shelter / Billy Chambers
05)  Dirty Old Town / The Pogues
06)  Case 795 (The Family) / John Mellencamp
07)  The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore / The Walker Brothers
08)  I Was a Teenage Atomic Zombie / The Spider Bombs
09)  Cause / Rodriguez
10)  The Cave / Johnny Paycheck
11)  Harlem Nocturne / The Viscounts
12)  Tears on My Pillow / The Imperials
13)  Town Without Pity / Gene Pitney
14)  Pouring Water on a Drowning Man / James Carr
15)  Better Late Than Never / Tonio K.
16)  Telstar / Thurston Moore and Don Fleming
17)  Raining in My Heart / Buddy Holly
18)  I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry / Johnny Cash
19)  Center of Asia / Paul Pena
20)  Ghost Riders (In the Sky) / The Ramrods
21)  The First Cut is the Deepest / The Koobas
22)  I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive / Hank Williams
23)  You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory / Johnny Thunders
24)  Better Off Dead / Bill Withers
25)  Deteriorata / National Lampoon

Disc 22 / 48

Typing this one up, I think I missed an opportunity to do a disc where all the songs had parentheses in their titles. I see four that wound up on here pretty much by accident, and it could have been neat to do that. Some other time, some other Timothology, I guess.

I see I put "Chug-A-Lug" and "Happy Hour" together, too. Possibly "Drinking and Driving" by the Business, Jimmy Gilmer's "Bottle of Wine" and other songs about boozohol could have been another disc theme. I seem to have discovered the secret graveyard of Timothology themes on this one.

Every time I listen to "Fire Brigade" I smile, imagining all the backup singers crowding around a mike to yell WEE OO WEE OO WEE OO WEE OO during the choruses.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 22 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Too late! Purple beef poisoning!"

01)  A Grand Day Out / Julian Nott
02)  Hey Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal / They Might Be Giants
03)  Fire Brigade / The Move
04)  Lady of the Night / Henry and the Bleeders
05)  You Can't Sit Down / The Dovells
06)  Twenty Miles From Shore / Hawkshaw Hawkins
07)  The Boy in the Bubble / Paul Simon
08)  Wild Weekend / The Rockin' Rebels
09)  (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care / Cee Lo Green
10)  Runner (single version) / Manfred Mann's Earth Band
11)  A Man Size Job / Denise LaSalle
12)  There's Something at the Bottom of the Well / The Moontrekkers
13)  (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais / The Clash
14)  Memphis Soul Stew / King Curtis
15)  Time is On My Side / Irma Thomas and Allen Toussaint
16)  Perfect World (album version) / Tonio K.
17)  Telstar / The Champs
18)  Duke of Earl / Gene Chandler
19)  Baby, It's You / Petty Booka
20)  Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) / The Pet Shop Boys
21)  Dance with the Devil / The Hypnomen
22)  Chug-A-Lug / Roger Miller
23)  Happy Hour / The Housemartins
24)  26 Miles (Santa Catalina) / The Four Preps
25)  Walkin' Down the Line / Bob Dylan
26)  Rumble Seat / John Mellencamp
27)  Ice Cream Man / Jonathan Richman

Friday, August 2, 2013

Disc 21 / 48

One more themeless disc.

When I started doing this project on CD, I was looking for some way to make the labels memorable--the first time I burned a set of Timothology 2000 (which was 24 discs, if I remember right), I played around with the label software and made a red label for disc 1; red fading to orange for 2, orange for 3, and so on with the last couple of discs being purple that then faded to red. It was actually a pretty good concept, but I burned an entire multipack of printer ink learning that the family's shitty old printer made the final result completely terrible. It didn't match the preview versions on the computer and instead of the label being covered with red ink it was striped thanks to the print heads going back and forth on 1/8" lines to color in the whole label.

So I switched to black and white immediately. The label phrases were stuck on to avoid having 80 percent of the label be blank and the tradition has continued until now.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 21 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Anything can be recycled. You just have to try hard enough."

01)  Everyday of the Week / The Students
02)  Life in the Foodchain / Tonio K.
03)  Old Man Conroy / Grover Kent
04)  Through Being Cool / Devo
05)  Beatnik Fly / Johnny and the Hurricanes
06)  Peg Legged Father / The Billy Nayer Show
07)  Pictures of Matchstick Men / Status Quo
08)  Chick a 'Roo / Ricky Wayne and the Flee-Rakkers
09)  You Really Got Me / The Kinks
10)  Since You Been Gone / Rainbow
11)  Sunset Strip / The Riptides
12)  Crimson and Clover / Joan Jett
13)  Brass Monkey / The Beastie Boys
14)  Wild Night / John Mellencamp
15)  Telstar / Dennis Scott
16)  Barbara Ann / The Beach Boys
17)  Handy Man / Del Shannon
18)  Wig-Wam Bam / The Donnas
19)  Substitute / The Who
20)  Ballroom Blitz / The Sweet
21)  Hocus Pocus / Focus
22)  Let Her Dance / The Spitballs
23)  A Million Miles Away / The Plimsouls
24)  The Salt in My Tears / Martin Briley
25)  Looking for an Echo / The Persuasions
26)  Give Paris One More Chance / Jonathan Richman

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Disc 20 / 48

For some reason I decided to follow up the negativity disc with the questions disc; I think I remember working it out and deciding that questions followed by negativity was more of a bummer than the other way around.

Special thanks to Josh 'BergerJacques' Shepherd from the B Movie Message Board for telling me about Those Darlins. My friends like to tell me about new music just as much as I like spreading the word about interesting bands and songs via this project. I remember asking for help on the "songs with the word fuck in the lyrics" disc and for disc 26 on the BMMB and the obsessive nerds there came through with flying colors. Thanks, guys.

"Happy music for alienated fuckups" is how I've taken to classifying the Timothology. Somehow I forgot to mention that during the previous nineteen posts.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 20 / 48
Theme:  Musical questions
Label phrase:  "Did you not see the slide punch?"

01)  Book of Love / The Monotones
02)  Who Do You Love / The Woolies
03)  What's New Pussycat? / Tom Jones
04)  What Should I Do? / The Shaggs
05)  What If I Came Knocking / John Mellencamp
06)  Who's Making Love? / The Blues Brothers
07)  Telstar / Barry Cleveland
08)  When Will You Die / They Might Be Giants
09)  Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) / The Buzzcocks
10)  What You Talkin' About? / Paul Pena
11)  What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am / Bill Deal and the Rhondels
12)  (What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding / Elvis Costello
13)  Who'll Stop the Rain / Creedence Clearwater Revival
14)  Why Do Fools Fall in Love / Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
15)  Is There Something I Should Know / Duran Duran
16)  Hab Ich Das Recht / Aud Wilken
17)  Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp) / Barry Mann
18)  Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass? / Buck Owens
19)  Just a Dream? / Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave
20)  What is This? / Bobby Womack
21)  Is It Because / The Honeycombs
22)  Who's That Knockin' At My Window? / Those Darlins
23)  Who's That Knocking / The Genies
24)  How Come I Can't See You In My Mirror? / Tonio K.
25)  Who Killed Davey Moore? / Bob Dylan
26)   Do You Love Me? / The Dave Clark Five
27)  When Will I See You Again / The Three Degrees
28)  What Do All the People Know / The Monroes

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Disc 19 / 48

This sure is an upbeat disc for all the negativity in it--pretty heavy on the doo wop and British Invasion, which are two genres that have lots of uptempo tracks to pick from. I like the paradox--bouncy upbeat songs with negative language. Sort of like how the lyrics to "Have I the Right" by the Honeycombs (possibly the single best pop song ever recorded) look like a suicide note if you read them without the music.

My friend Dennis Leise is one of the Possum Hollow Boys; I only get to see him once a year at B Fest, since he's smart enough to live in Chicago and I'm not. They're quite good, and they have an album on iTunes. I like being able to plug my friends' bands. Unfortunately the superlative pop-punk group Grover Kent doesn't have an iTunes presence, so I will just give you a couple album / EP titles for you to enjoy:  "Me, Myself and Your Mother" and "Selling Doors, Door to Door".

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 19 / 48
Theme:  Musical negativity
Label phrase:  "NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE"

01)  Rio Yeti / Cory McAbee and Gregory Russell Cook
02)  No Sleep Till Brooklyn / The Beastie Boys
03)  Questions I Can't Answer / Heinz
04)  I Can't Explain / The Who
05)  Don't Hang Up / The Orlons
06)  Nobody Knows What's Goin' On (In My Mind But Me) / The Chiffons
07)  Don't Let's Start / They Might Be Giants
08)  The Brain is Not the Mind / Dan Reeder
09)  Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying / Gerry and the Pacemakers
10)  Never Had Nuthin' / The Possum Hollow Boys
11)  Time Won't Let Me / The Outsiders
12)  You Can't Sit Down (Part 1) / The Philip Upchurch Combo
13)  Don't Come Around Here No More / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
14)  Someday Never Comes / Creedence Clearwater Revival
15)  Stop / Howard Tate
16)  Don't You Just Know It / Chuck and the Hulas
17)  I Can't Get You Off My Mind / Hank Williams
18)  Don't Put Marbles In Your Nose / Brendan Small
19)  No Feelings / The Sex Pistols
20)  Can't Get Enough of You, Baby / ? and the Mysterians
21)  Ain't It / Booker T. and the MG's
22)  (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet / The Blues Magoos
23)  It Doesn't Matter to Me / Devo
24)  Nobody Told Me / John Lennon
25)  Telstar / Hot Butter
26)   Can't Seem to Make You Mine / The Seeds
27)  Nobody Loves the Hulk / The Traits
28)  Don't Get Me Wrong / The Pretenders
29)  No, No, No / The Chanters
30)  You Can't Stop the Music / The Kinks

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Disc 18 / 48

I saw Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys open for Los Straitjackets at a Halloween concert a three years ago and they're pretty damn amazing. They did a song called "Here Comes the Bride" that I really wish was available on CD so I could put it in the Timothology and share it with you. But it isn't, as far as I can tell, and it's not on iTunes either.

Moral of the story:  We all know much more music than there is on the Timothology. This isn't necessarily all the best of my collection. It's just a great deal of pop and rock from 1955 to 1990, more or less, arranged in a way that I think people will enjoy. I hope you do.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 18 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Demonstrating generosity and forging alliances"

01)  Lugosi's Mongoloid Loser / The Illuminoids
02)  Chicken Walk / Hasil Adkins
03)  When Will I Be Loved / The Fucking Eagles
04)  Crumblin' Down / John Mellencamp
05)  Suspect Device / Stiff Little Fingers
06)  AM180 / Grandaddy
07)  Telstar / The Challengers
08)  Goodbye Horses / Q Lazzarus
09)  I'm Doin' Fine Now / New York City
10)  El Watusi / Ray Barretto Y Su Charanga Moderna
11)  Girl Bride / Geoff Goddard
12)  The Loser's Blues / Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys
13)  Interlude No. 1 / Play it All Night Long / Warren Zevon
14)  Sweet Jane / The Velvet Underground
15)  Blue's Theme / Davie Allan and the Arrows
16)  Heartbeat / The Detroit Cobras
17)  The D'ampton Worm / Emilio Perez Machado and Stephen Powys
18)  Sterno / Los Straitjackets
19)  That is Rock and Roll / The Coasters
20)  Calling All Girls / Hilly Michaels
21)  I Was High / Pat McCurdy
22)  Intergalactic (album version) / The Beastie Boys
23)  Doctor Who Theme / The Tornados
24)  Man in Black / Johnny Cash
25)  The Funky Western Civilization / Tonio K.
26)  End of the World / Great Big Sea
27)  We Will All Go Together When We Go / Tom Lehrer

Monday, July 29, 2013

Disc 17 / 48

Using iTunes for the Timothology almost makes me feel guilty, because it's so easy to set up a playlist and burn it to disc. I used to have spiral notebooks filled with Timothology track lists, shopping lists, pricing estimates, and the like. In a political science class at Oakland Community College, the student behind me in class asked why my notes were all numbers and lists instead of phrases and sentences like everyone else's. I replied that I was making a shopping list for a gigantic mix tape instead of paying attention in class. She sarcastically asked how that was working for my GPA. I told her (truthfully) I was set to graduate with honors. The talks broke down at that point.

I probably mentioned this before, but the Timothology is a hobby that went from being beyond the cutting edge in 2000 to something a whole lot of music fans were doing in the middle of the decade to retro and possibly never to be repeated in 2013--blank CD-Rs made for music instead of software are getting thin on the ground and I don't want to just hand someone a flash drive and say that's the Timothology.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 17 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Are you loathsome tonight?"

01)  13 Questions / Seatrain
02)  I'll Buy It / Tonio K.
03)  I'm Not Like You (demo) / The Weirdos
04)  Ana Ng / They Might Be Giants
05)  Without Expression / John Mellencamp
06)  Telstar / The Telstars
07)  Doom-Lang / The Tokens
08)  Soul Deep / The Box Tops
09)  Convertibles and Headbands / The Music Magicians
10)  Bravado / The Aqua Velvets
11)  Kiss Me Deadly / Lita Ford
12)  The Matador / Johnny Cash
13)  The KKK Took My Baby Away / The Ramones
14)  Warm Summer Day / Riot Squad
15)  Party Doll / Buddy Knox
16)  Listen Like Thieves / INXS
17)  Surfin' Hootenanny / Al Casey and the K-C-Ettes
18)  It's Tricky / Run-DMC
19)  Running Out of Ramones / Grover Kent
20)  Is That a Ship I Hear? / The Tornados
21)  Teenage Kicks / The Undertones
22)  First I Was a Hippie, Then I Was a Stockbroker, Now I am a Hippie Again / The Bobs
23)  Be Stiff / Toni Basil
24)  Rama Lama Ding Dong / The Edsels
25)  Vampire Girl / Jonathan Richman
26)  Come Dancing / The Kinks

Disc 16 / 48

To the extent that the Timothology was talked about by people other than me, I think the theme discs dominated the conversations. But something like two-thirds of the discs are just long mixes of pop music that I thought sounded good in the order I set down. Sometimes it leads to some weird bedfellows; I know that it felt significant that Buddy Holly and Motorhead were on the same CD. Or, this time around, Hanson and Andrew W.K. (who wrote "The McLaughlin Groove" using only phrases he heard on an episode of The McLaughlin Group).

This disc marks the point where the project is one-third done. Twice as far to go before it is finished. Anyone that thinks listening to this much music is a chore ought to try burning that many discs without repeating a track by accident.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 16 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "I am not prepared for this sort of anarchy."

01)  It's a Wild Weekend / NRBQ
02)  Teen Beat / Sandy Nelson
03)  Ready Steady Go / Generation X
04)  Doublewide / Southern Culture on the Skids
05)  McLaughlin Groove / Andrew W. K.
06)  I Believe in a Thing Called Love / The Darkness
07)  MMMbop / Hanson
08)  My Indian Red / Dr. John
09)  Johnny B. Rotten / The Monks
10)  Telstar / Tornadoes '74
11)  Again Tonight / John Mellencamp
12)  (Take Me Home) Country Roads / Toots and the Maytals
13)  Slave Laura / Samantha 7
14)  First Time / The Boys
15)  Rock Island Line / The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group
16)  Baby Baby / The Vibrators
17)  There is a Mountain / Donovan
18)  Love is Strange / Bo Diddley
19)  Stir it Up / Bob Marley
20)  Red River Rock / Johnny and the Hurricanes
21)  Crying, Waiting, Hoping / Buddy Holly
22)  Mars / The Billy Nayer Show
23)  Sheena is a Punk Rocker / The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
24)  Women and Men / They Might Be Giants
25)  The Village Green Preservation Society / The Kinks
26)  Trickle, Trickle / The Videos
27)  This Too Shall Pass / OK Go

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Disc 15 / 48

There really isn't a theme to this one, but I put in a lot of lighter novelty type songs on this mix (probably because I stuck the Benny Hill theme in early and tried to stick with that kind of lightheartedness). I can't really think of anything else to say about the project right now, so let's just leave it at that.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 15 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "My plan involves dressing up as a moose and yelling at people."

01)  Give It Up / K. C. and the Sunshine Band
02)  King Tut / Steve Martin
03)  Yakety Sax / Boots Randolph
04)  Little Willy / The Sweet
05)  Babalu's Wedding Day / The Eternals
06)  Telstar / The Johnny Douglas Orchestra
07)  Hitchin' a Ride / Vanity Faire
08)  Ling, Ting, Tong / The Five Keys
09)  Bluebirds Over the Mountain / Shade Joey and the Night Owls
10)  (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock / Bill Haley and His Comets
11)  She's the One / The Ramones
12)  Gino is a Coward / Gino Washington
13)  Vacation / The Go-Go's
14)  Nightgown of the Sullen Moon / They Might Be Giants
15)  Out of Limits / Laika and the Cosmonauts
16)  Space Junk / Devo
17)  Wings of a Dove / Madness
18)  The Heart of Saturday Night / Jonathan Richman
19)  Burning Love / Elvis Presley
20)  Keep Yourself Alive / Queen
21)  I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll) / Nick Lowe
22)  Invisible Touch / Genesis
23)  Bumble Boogie / B. Bumble and the Stingers
24)  Up Around the Bend / Creedence Clearwater Revival
25)  I Thought it Over / Los Straitjackets
26)  Faster and Louder / The Dictators
27)  Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul (live) / Meat Loaf
28)  Destination Zululand (Humdiddlededumhoowahayha) / King Kurt
29)  Express Yourself / Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Disc 14 / 48

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 14 / 48
Theme:  Gimmick songs
Label phrase:  "Confuse the man who is mad at you!"

01)  You've Got to Have a Gimmick Today / The Checkmates
02)  Kargyraa Moan / Paul Pena
03)  Rockit / Herbie Hancock
04)  Stout Hearted Men / Shooby Taylor
05)  The Martian Hop / The Ran-Dells
06)  Wipeout / The Fat Boys with The Beach Boys
07)  Witch Doctor / David Seville
08)  Ready to Rock / Pianosaurus
09)  Rat a Tat Tat, America / Dick Kent
10)  Underwater / The Frogmen
11)  This Beat Goes On / The Kings
12)  Switchin' to Glide / The Kings
13)  99 Luftballoons / Nena
14)  Forward to Death / Nomeansno
15)  Chacarron... Macarron / La Yanta
16)  No Better Than This / John Mellencamp
17)  Little Red Monkey / Frank Chacksfield's Tunesmiths
18)  Hey Jude / The Templeton Twins
19)  Let's Twist Again / Chubby Checker
20)  Uncontrollable Urge / Devo 2.0
21)  Philosophy of the World / The Shaggs
22)  Lawnmower / Los Straitjackets
23)  A Glorious Dawn / Carl Sagan
24)  The Elements / Tom Lehrer
25)  Telstar / Joseph Welz
26)  Math Song / Darkest of the Hillside Thickets
27)  I Can Hear You / They Might Be Giants
28)  Free As a Bird / The Beatles

This disc was a lot of fun to compile--each track has a gimmick; some kind of novelty value to it that was meant to give it a leg up in the marketplace of ideas (or at least the top 40 charts, for the tracks that were meant to chart).

In order, they are:

01)  Joe Meek's follow up to "Telstar"; other record producers claimed he was just using a bunch of gimmicks to hit #1 with a record he cut in the kitchen of his flat. So he made this record, a three minute middle finger to other producers and artists that he felt weren't giving him enough credit. He mentions them by name and makes fun of their standard bags of production tricks to boot.

02)  Paul Pena was a blind blues guitarist who taught himself Tuvan throat singing after hearing it on the radio and becoming fascinated with the art form. He competed in the Tuvan national throat singing competition and was nicknamed "Earthquake" by a vastly appreciative audience.

03)  This is the song where ten million white kids first heard record scratching. Herbie Hancock was a jazz musician primarily, but with this track he brought hip-hop culture to millions of previously boring suburban homes.

04)  Shooby Taylor paid a fly-by-night recording studio in New York City to tape his self-taught scat singing over tapes. The engineers taped it for their own amusement and it crawled out to the tape-trading scene from there. He is having more fun than anyone ever has singing this.

05)  Beeping sound effects at the start and finish! Goofy voices! A dance craze song! The noises at the beginning are "pure hemi-sync tones" according to the liner notes of the Rhino Records science fiction box set. Whatever that means.

06)  Bubblegum rap with a guest appearance by the Beach Boys.

07)  Goofy sped-up voices thanks to playing around with the tape speed (later to be monetized by Ross Bagdasarian (a/k/a David Seville) with the Chipmunks.

08)  Pianosaurus was a band that used children's toy instruments.

09)  Song-Poems are a mutant art form in which people who don't know what they're doing send in poems to scammers who tell them that they're bound for Hollywood songwriting stardom if they cough up 200 bucks for one (1) copy of their song. Dick Kent is one of the people who makes a living recording song-poems for the naïve and desperate. Honestly I think he's got a nice voice.

10)  That croaking sound? It's a guiro, a percussion instrument that helped this song be the first surf track to chart in the hot 100 (at #93, in 1961).

11)  "This Beat Goes On" and "Switching to Glide" were released as a single where the A and B side were two halves

12)  of the same song, requiring radio stations to play both halves together. Which was a way to double royalties and halve chart performance.

13)  This track was released in English and German simultaneously. I used the foreign-language version because it's more exotic. Like "Sukiyaki" back in the sixties.

14)  A capella cover of the Dead Kennedys? Sure thing.

15)  If you believe what you read, this track happened because the rapper had a backing track and a chorus but hadn't thought of any lyrics. The engineers said his nonsense space-filler syllables sounded fine--probably while trying not to laugh--and it was released as a single. Which turned out to be a smash hit.

16)  This song was recorded in mono with a portable tape recorder in the same room in the Sheraton Gunter Hotel that Robert Johnson recorded "Sweet Home Chicago".

17)  This is the first pop song to use the clavioline, the battery-powered keyboard most notable for its use in "Telstar" by the Tornados.

18)  "This sounds like they recorded it in 1910 or so" is a gimmick.

19)  Going back to the well--Chubby Checker made a sequel song to his original smash hit, "The Twist".

20)  For some reason, a music manager at Disney thought that preadolescent children singing Devo's songs of lust, alienation, and frustrated hatred about American civilization would be a good idea.

21)  The Shaggs practiced for years with each other and not with anyone that could teach them to play their instruments. Or even tune them. They have a sound that is utterly unique, completely naïve and unlike anything else you're ever gonna hear.

22)  This song features a one-string guitar.

23)  Snippets of audio from the "Cosmos" series and AutoTune mean that Carl Sagan's singing a track about the vastness and wonder of the universe from beyond the grave.

24)  The lyrics to this song are the periodic table (out of order, so it will rhyme).

25)  Snippets of news reports and mentions of the Telstar satellite are sampled for this cover of "Telstar".

26)  The lyrics of this song were an equation (with "solve for degrees, not radiens" after it) in the liner notes to the album.

27)  They Might Be Giants recorded this song at the Edison laboratory on a wax cylinder, using no electricity (and without electric instruments).

28)  The surviving Beatles finished a John Lennon vocal track for this one. I figure it's as good a way to finish the disc as any, and honestly it's quite a decent tune. "New Beatles Song" is a hell of a gimmick.

Disc 13 / 48

The Dreaded Disc Thirteen.

I love terrible covers of pop classics. It's the same admiration of camp and sincerity that makes me watch a lot of B movies, I guess. When I first burned a CD Timothology in 2000, I decided to quarantine (almost) all of the terrible covers on the set on a single disc, and 13 seemed to be the right number for a project like that. It's become a tradition because I did it more than once, and I like to think people who have bought Timothologies in the past (and who have this set) were looking forward to whatever abominations I dug up for this round.

I'm breaking two of my rules on this disc--there are two Joe Meek tracks on it (the rough demo of "Telstar" and the going-back-to-the-well "Magic Star", which proves once and for all that "Telstar" is an instrumental and shouldn't have lyrics). Not that this stopped anyone--there are multiple versions of my favorite song on this disc. English, Spanish, German and French lyrics have been supplied for the song and honestly I don't think any of those versions are improved for having them. Plus the Portsmouth Sinfonia (an untrained orchestra based in the UK in the Seventies) did a cover, and there's just no way I wouldn't use them for Disc Thirteen somewhere. Getting a pretty disastrous hooked-on-classics take on the sound of hope seems about right for this disc.

Sean Frost called this disc "a Soviet military parade of hurt feelings", which is exactly what I was shooting for. Thanks, Sean.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 13 / 48
Theme:  Awful covers
Label phrase:  "This is a pain of unreasonable proportions"

01)  Telstar (rough demo) / Joe Meek
02)  Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / Bill Cosby
03)  Sheena Is a Punk Rocker / Mambo Kurt
04)  We Built This City / The Dondero High School Swing Choir
05)  Oh L'Amour / The Ten Tenors
06)  Telstar / The Latin Quartet
07)  Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds / William Shatner
08)  A Lover's Concerto / Mrs. Elva Miller
09)  Ca Plane Pour Moi / Sai Sai
10)  Telstar / The Portsmouth Sinfonia
11)  I Walk the Line / Leonard Nimoy
12)  Got a Horse Right Here / Revis High School Thespians
13)  Fire / Those Darn Accordions!
14)  Telstar / Les Compagnons de la Chanson
15)  Walk Like an Egyptian / The Del Rubio Triplets
16)  I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) / Dear Abbeys
17)  The Devil Came Up to Michigan / KMC KRU
18)  Magic Star / Kenny Hollywood
19)  Jailhouse Rock / Eilert Pilarm
20)  Bennie and the Jets / The Diabolical Biz Markie
21)  Have I the Right / Tav Falco's Panther Burns
22)  The Mighty Quinn / Gotthard
23)  Never Gonna Give You Up / Paul Brugel
24)  Got To Get You Into My Life / Joe Pesci
25)  Irgendwann, erwacht ein neuer Tag (Telstar) / Camillo Felgen
26)  Don't Stand So Close To Me / The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Disc 12 / 48

Another themeless disc; this one does have "London Calling" right after a cover of "Have I the Right" because they both have a similar stompy sound. There's another original that was eclipsed by a cover ("Piece of My Heart" this time), and "Loverboy" by Billy Ocean, which I unironically love.

The label phrases on the discs are a thing I started doing back when the Timothology was on cassettes; they're just weird little things I've heard from friends or references to stuff I like. The phrase from disc 11 was "They LIED to him!", taken from a YouTube meltdown clip from a guy who hated a character death in the Game of Thrones series. This disc has a quote from "Understanding Marx", a five-minute-long pop song that attempts to illustrate Marxist principles through song. It's by Red Shadow, which billed itself as "The Economics Rock & Roll Band" and their song is pretty terrible. It was available on WFMU's web site as part of their 365 Days Project, wherein a different outsider music MP3 was posted every day in 2003 and then in 2007. The song itself got cut from the Timothology for time but I kept the label phrase because I liked the sound of it.

Which is a somewhat long-winded way of saying this:  If you don't know what the label phrases are referring to, it's not your fault. It's mine.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 12 / 48
Theme:  None
Label phrase:  "Fellow worker, you look mighty unhappy."

01)  Piece of My Heart / Erma Franklin
02)  Get Over You / The Undertones
03)  Cool Aid / Paul Humphrey and His Cool Chemists
04)  Tangled Up in Blue / Bob Dylan
05)  Tonight She Comes / The Cars
06)  Girl Crazy / Tonio K.
07)  Midnight Blue / Lou Gramm
08)  Telstar / Jackie Mittoo
09)  The Banana Boat Song / Hasil Adkins
10)  Shock Treatment (single version) / Richard O'Brien
11)  Loverboy / Billy Ocean
12)  Be Stiff (Stiff Records version) / Devo
13)  See The Constellation / They Might Be Giants
14)  Trash / The New York Dolls
15)  Song 2 / Blur
16)  Sing, Sing, Sing / Those Darn Accordions!
17)  The Little Black Egg / The Nightcrawlers
18)  2-4-6-8 Motorway / The Tom Robinson Band
19)  Have I the Right / Vampire Weekend
20)  London Calling / The Clash
21)  It's Your Thing / The Isley Brothers
22)  Get Back / The Beatles
23)  Cool Water / Chick, The Ted Cameron Group and the DJs
24)  Montego Bay / Freddie Notes and the Rudies
25)  I'm the Urban Spaceman / The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

Friday, July 26, 2013

Disc 11 / 48

For seven years, I was lucky enough to play City of Villains--in fact, I played that game literally from the first day to the last. There was something amazingly compelling about being the bad guy, and the writing on that game was sick and amazing and funny all at the same time ("So, this clone of you...what did he look like?") and you could do anything from snatching purses and running errands for more impressive crime lords to stealing nuclear warheads to use in later fights.

I made this playlist as my "wrecking shit as Telstar Bronson" soundtrack; when soloing on City I was more likely than not listening to these songs and enjoying the hell out of my day.

The game is gone now; NCSoft cancelled it, shut it down and fired all the developers at Paragon Studios while the game was still profitable. Nothing against them, but I hope they go bankrupt, and soon, so that someone else can buy their intellectual property and start the game up again. I miss being Captain Telstar and I miss the regularly scheduled Tuesday Night Beatdown sessions with Meg, Phil, Sam and Sean. Even if Meg never remembered to turn her armor on and therefore got wiped out a lot.

Timothology:  Strange Aeons Disc 11 / 48
Theme:  Villains
Label phrase:  "They LIED to him!"

01)  Jailhouse Rock / Elvis Presley
02)  53rd & 3rd / The Ramones
03)  Rumble / Link Wray and His Ray Men
04)  Folsom Prison Blues (live) / Johnny Cash
05)  Police On My Back / The Clash
06)  Squad Car / Eddie and the Showmen
07)  Random Drug Testing / Cub Koda
08)  Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight / Earl Vince and the Valiants
09)  Ready to Die / Andrew W. K.
10)  Jack the Ripper / Screaming Lord Sutch
11)  Telstar / The Compulsive Gamblers
12)  Juvenile Delinquent / Ronnie Allen
13)  Borstal Breakout / Sham 69
14)  The Devil / Hoyt Axton
15)  Burke the Butcher / The Eyelids
16)  Murder / The Goblins
17)  Long Black Veil / Lefty Frizzell
18)  Police & Thieves / Junior Murvin
19)  Stagger Lee / Lloyd Price
20)  They're Hanging Me Tonight / Marty Robbins
21)  Where the Wild Roses Grow / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
22)  Johnny Too Bad / The Slickers
23)  East Side Story / Bob Seger
24)  Earth Dies Screaming / The Staggers
25)  Dance with the Devil / Cozy Powell
26)  More Than Ever (Nixon Campaign Theme) / The Mike Curb Congregation
27)  Kill the Poor / The Dead Kennedys
28)  Mad Scientwist / Los Straitjackets
29)  Brand New Day / Neil Patrick Harris
30)  Bad Guys / Paul Williams
31)  I Fought the Law / The Bobby Fuller Four