I decided to spend part of yesterday afternoon creating a new music playlist, featuring songs I have bought and paid for, which is everything I listen to, apart from what I listen to on the radio. I like to think that much of the music I own is great, packed with what younger folk refer to as ‘bangers’. And so it was that I compiled my new playlist which I have called ‘Bangers’. I really enjoyed putting it together, but as is the way with these things, it didn’t take part of yesterday afternoon to put it together: it took all afternoon, mainly because I found myself listening to many of the tracks as I inserted them into the playlist.
I wrote about playlists a week or so ago, referring to an excellent internet meme an old friend had shared, pointing out now in the pre digital age how there was no such thing as a playlist and we would listen to an album all the way through, not least down to the fact it was, and remains, to fiddly to skip tracks on a less than stellar vinyl album.
Having always made mixtapes when cassettes became The Next Big Thing, digital playlists were a logical progression for my ADHD brain and my limited attention span. First, I made my own discs (disks?) and now I just whack it all on my Apple/iTunes thingamabob.
I am not exactly a technology wonk, even though I spend far more time than I really should wandering through Cyberspace, but trust me when I say that creating a playlist on Apple is the easiest thing to do in the world. Yesterday, it felt so easy that I created ‘Bangers’, including a mere 245 songs. I accept that this is quite ridiculous.
My classic Beach Boys playlist contains 39 songs. My rock classics has 33. Even my so called ‘Essentials’ playlist has 134 on, which is probably far too many, but 245?
Unless I stop doing everything else in my life, I won’t be able to listen to this new playlist in its entirety in one go. The trouble is that the more I got into it, the more I struggled to leave things out. I included all the recent singles I bought, but then it got tricky. How on Earth could I leave out something by Talk Talk? Well, I couldn’t, could I? So, in went Life’s What You Make It. And there’s Marquee Moon by Television. The app informed me I’d already included it in another playlist, but sod it: I love that song and, increasingly, everything else Television and Tom Verlaine have done (thanks, Campbell). And I simply had to include something by the best band ever, Steely Dan. So it was that a live version of Book Of Liars went on. Hey – wait a minute: you can’t not include The Beatles. Which album was I Will on again?
I was still ploughing through my collection when my partner arrived home from work, not unreasonably expecting her tea to be ready and waiting after a long day at work. “I’ll have it ready for 6.30 pm,” I said, optimistically, it turned out. “I’m just compiling a new playlist. Nearly there.” Oh shit. I’ve forgotten REM (Bad Day), Radiohead (Everything In It’s Right Place) and, oh fucking hell, Prefab Sprout (Desire As – acoustic version). When I finally finished, shortly before 7.00 pm, I am afraid to say, there were numerous pretty well unforgivable omissions but four hours – I mean: FOUR WHOLE HOURS! – of putting together a playlist, with no clear idea of what I wanted on it, was close to yet another definition of madness. But what would it sound like? The proof of the pudding would, I hoped, be in the eating.
As I prepared tea – no actual pudding, sadly – I put my music device onto random shuffle and it was absolutely brilliant. By the time the food was ready to eat, I think I had reached double figures in songs played. Just the 235 to go. Still, let’s be positive about this. On a long drive, flight, train journey, walk, I could make quite a dent in this shuffle and you know what, it’s all wall-to-wall bangers. Even my collection of – I don’t know – around 25,000 songs, maybe many more, includes the odd dud. Anyone listening to my weekly music shuffle would know that by now.
There is a negative element to it, that being the element of surprise you get when you hear something you have never heard before and you absolutely love it. This happens to me every single day of my life thanks to BBC Radio 6 Music, I am thrilled to say and long may it do so. But for those times when only a banger will do, that’s what this new playlist is for.
I love music more than I ever did. As I always say, we live in the best ever era for music because we have all the music that has ever been made, plus all the great music that is being made today. Life’s certainly what you make it and music can surely only make it better still?
