Even Muzak Has Its Time and Place

Muzak is terrible right? Too artificial sounding, they pick the worst songs or compositions ever and on the occasion they take a classic they ruin it! But I was thinking just recently, that even muzak has its time and place. Sometimes its the perfect last piece of the puzzle when you fantasise about your own demise, sometimes its the music that completes the filmishness of your life..... because if your horrible moment in time was a movie, it would have to have horribly bad, depressing music to illustrate just how mundane and terminal your life situation is. Even if this is an over reaction, at the time its what you were feeling.

For instance when the Mr Whippy ice cream van's 'music' broke down for three weeks, I didn't think Greensleeves could get any worse, but believe me, it CAN. And it was the summer school holidays so he was driving around my neighbourhood for hours each day.... and one afternoon I was buried in paperwork and in tears, I considered giving the kids a $50 note just so the van would be stopped long enough for me to finish - magically when the van stops so does the music - and I realized, that my life is god's movie.... and that my situation was funny. Or at least I was so tired and overwrought that I thought it was funny, and laughed like a madwoman... and you know what, the next day he had new music... because my moment had passed.

I also had to fill out the War and Peace of hospital surveys..... as a former patient of the burn unit they wanted to know all about my current pain, my pain during my stay, how satisfied I was with the information about my condition and care given to me..... and the options were very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, neither satisfied nor disatisfied, I would have liked more information, and this I WOULD HAVE PREFERED NO INFORMATION. Instantly, I imagined the doctors and medical students gathered around a patient's bed rattling off information about their condition, and the patient daydreaming about Hawaii while a really bad rendition of The Girl From Ipemana played in their head, totally obliterating the sound of the gory details about their treatment and prognosis.

So I began to realize that muzak can serve a purpose.

Doesn't bad music in a bad situation (for instance the world's smelliest and slowest elevator, or being put on hold by customer service) make you feel like you have more to complain about?

Let's not forget the reason these companies do this to us..... to pacify us..... sure some of us can still go off like a firecracker when we finally get to talk to a human being, but a lot of people are simply reduced to zombified shadows of themselves, they are unable to put up resistance to bad service, to articulate a winning argument, to raise their voice....

So the next time I hear a really bad Fur Elise while on hold..... I'm not going to think that Beethoven must be rolling over in his grave, I'm going to laugh until I cry.

The Songs I Absolutely Cannot Sit Still For

There are songs that give me energy, songs that no matter how tired I am in the morning if they come on when I'm least expecting it I have to jump out of bed instantly, and songs that I absolutely have got to jump up and down to!

Back in 1996 I absolutely had to jump out of bed when Savage Garden's "I Want You" would come on (cringe now!) and the Bodeans "Closer to Free".

A couple of years ago it was Mika "Grace Kelly" which has now been so totally over played I might not feel the same way for a very long time.

Nika Costa "Everybody Got Their Something" is still huge for me, I have to groove when I hear it.

Of course Fatboy Slim features, he gives me energy to clean the house, yeah for the slow meticulous jobs I need accoustic girl voices I can sing to, but for vacuuming/dusting/scrubbing toilets I need to dance around a bit. Instead of Christopher Walken coolly parading through an empty hotel, picture me wielding a toilet brush to Weapon of Choice. Vacuuming and dusting are the territory for Wonderful Night, and Brimful of Asha.

David Bowie "Rebel Rebel" is my song for getting ready to go out at night - putting make up on while singing and dancing.

"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley is great for any instant energy boost, but I love it in the car, just like the first time I heard it.

"Laid" by James, is still a great song for belting out at the top of my lungs as long as the neighbours don't hear the part 'but she only comes when she's on top' (how embarrassing).

Prodigy "Breathe" and "Voodoo People" carry memories of cleaning house with the young people I looked after in teen rehab. Saturday mornings were clean up day and these were essential listening.

Iggy Pop "Lust for Life" makes me want to run around the block a few times.

I guess upon reflection I might be an easily excited person, and music can flip the switch between quietly creating and wanting to burst out of my own skin.... that is why when I am creating I put on accoustic girl songs so I will sit through the entire session serenely!

I'd love to know what your own energy songs are....

More Rainy Day Butterflies

Just decided to seek out more of what I call 'rainy day butterflies' from my music collection. These are songs I think are great for rainy days, or teary days, they may be sad, but they also have soothing and beautiful elements that make them special.

My Rainy Day Butterflies:

Bell, Book and Candle - Eddi Reader
We Build Bridges - Liz Durrett
The Sea a Dream - Liz Durrett
Isabelle - Gregory and the Hawk
Boats and Birds - Gregory and the Hawk
Hometown Glory - Adele
Pills - The Perishers with Sara McLachlan
Je ne'en connais la fin - Jeff Buckley
Now We Are Free - Kelly Sweet
Keep Breathing - Ingrid Michaelson
Farewell - Rosie Thomas
Hush Hush Hush - Paula Cole
I'll Find A Way - Rachel Yamagata

I'm always seeking more rainy day butterflies, from any vintage.

Music for the Hard Times

What do you listen to when you are sitting in a hospital chair for three and a half hours to have iron infusion, in the same ward that is potentially where your mother who was diagnosed the day before with primary colon carcinoma will come for chemotherapy?



answer: preferably not Leaving the Hospital by The Dreamer and The Sleeper.



Yes I was trying to relax and listen to my mp3 while having my iron infusion therapy and this beautiful though very bleak song came on.



I also was told my blood pressure rose when Lisbeth Scotts version of Be Still My Soul came on, this song is the best version of this sad but very soothing song (or hymn if you prefer) but yet again, wrong song for the occasion as the first time I heard the song it was used for a funeral scene in the tv series Alias.



I can't even sit in my room listening to music without looking around and seeing various candles and wondering, if one of these candles could possibly be one that I end up burning as a memorial for my mother. As soon as I think it my mind shuts down, the most important thing is not answering that question, not choosing a candle. Don't choose a candle!



So what am I listening to at this time in my life? Well some sad songs I suppose, but I have always had this link with sad songs, I need them, to help me feel, but at the same time if a sad song is beautiful - has a beautiful melody ,a beautiful voice, and a beautiful set of lyrics - it at the same time as making me tear up, soothes me. I call the songs that have this effect, My Rainy Day Butterflies.



Here are my favourite Rainy Day Butterflies:

Ooh Child - Beth Orton

The Beauty of The Rain - Dar Williams

On Saturday Afternoons in 1963 - Rickie Lee Jones

I Will Love You - Fisher

Where Is My Love - Cat Power

Stuff and Nonsense - Missy Higgins

I'll Fly Away - Serena Matthews

Hymn - Brooke Fraser

I'll Build A Home - Patrick Watson with Cinematic Orchestra

AND THE SONGS I NORMALLY LOVE BUT CAN'T LISTEN TO AT THE MOMENT (unless I want to break down!)

Wooden Arms - Patrick Watson

Great Escape - Patrick Watson

I Cried For You - Katie Melua (this will be me if the worst happens, 'when you went I became a hopeless drifter')

All The Wild Horses - Ray Lamontagne ('tethered with tears in their eyes' that's the bit that gets me going)

Into Dust - Mazzy Star

Song of the Day.... and more

"I don't know who I am, I don't know who you are but when I see your face....." Yep today I am stuck on Ferris Wheels by I Am Kloot.
Totally loving this song right now, don't know why it didn't make the same impression on me when it came out. Guess mood and life experiences can feed into it. What do you think?

I've been commuting 4 hours a day to see my 77 year old father in hospital (going on 6 weeks now) music has saved me for sure, I actually enjoy the journey and sometimes regret arriving in the middle of a great song.

What else has been on my playlist.....

We Are All Made of Stars by Moby
Electric Feel by MGMT
Heaven by The Fire Theft
Brighter Than Sunshine, by Aqualung
Longtime Sunshine, by Rivers Cuomo
Publish My Love, by Rogue Wave
For The Windows In Paradise, by Sufjan Stevens

and often dreaming of my dream gig - Sufjan Stevens, Rivers Cuomo, and Bright Eyes in my back yard..... reckon they'd come?

Song Of The Day

The Great Escape by Patrick Watson

feeling like this is definitely the song of the day, sad and beautiful, and just making me slow down and sing.

the beautiful piano is soothing my frayed nerves.

last night I started writing a chapter about my own life, and a lot of feelings came up, and this song is just perfect for me right now.

"don't let yourself fall down" and I have felt like I'm falling, but now I feel like when I land it will be on a bed of soft downy feathers, because this song just eases everything.

sad but soothing.

My Top 10 Foreign Language Songs

Yes a bit of a deviation from my normal alternate rock and pop but lately I have been under the spell of Rebekah Del Rio's acapella cover of Crying (Called 'Llorando') used in the soundtrack Mulholland Drive.

So here are my top 10 songs in languages other than English.

Llorando, Rebekah Del Rio, acapella cover

Time To Say Goodbye, Andrea Bocelli and Sara Brightman

Ne Me Quitte Pas (cover of 'If You Go Away') by Nina Simone

Sua Gan, a welsh lullaby, by the Ambrosian Boys Choir

Sukiyaki, any traditional performance, but it is worth remembering Oranger did a rock version (its in English)

Sola Otra Vez, (cover of All By Myself) by Lara Fabian or perhaps if you are so inclined Il Divo

La Vie En Rose, by Edith Piaf

She, the French version by Charles Aznavour, the original artist of this song.

Vincent (Starry Starry Night), Italian cover by Roberto Vecchioni

Ganz Allein, the German version of the Beach Boys 'In My Room'