Single Again

No, nothing to do with me and the ever-lovely Mrs. DJStan. Actually, the heading should be "Singles Again".

When I was a kid in Junior High School, the age at which I began buying my own music (as opposed to the Little Golden records and the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra on a set of 78's that my parents had purchased), it was a singles world. There were still 78's, and my very first purchase was Buddy Knox's "Party Doll" on a 78 (10 cents at John's Bargain Store), but the medium of choice among my set was the 45. It had a targeted-to-hit song on one side (the "A" side) and something else on the other (the "B" side). Occasionally, the "B" side outran the "A" side, and sometimes - rarely - there were hits on both sides (Richie Valens' classic 45 release had "Donna" and "La Bamba" on one record). Oh, the LP had come out, but that was primarily for the grown-ups – classical, broadway shows, jazz, etc. For teens, it was all about the stack of singles. There were special little boxes just sized for 45 collections, and of course, the ubiquitous jukebox, with its push-button menu of singles. Bands didn't save up their tracks until they had an album – they went from single to single.

Eventually, as we all know, the album came to dominate the music world. This had both good points (great for long tracks or a series of related tracks) and bad (you have to buy the entire album, even if you don't really care for half the tracks). And now, plugged into our IPods™, it's back to the world o' singles. I've bought a few things on ITunes™ so far, and except for one album (Willie Nelson & Leon Russell – "One For The Road" – which replaces a set I only have on vinyl and which ITunes sold in a 3 pack (with two other Willie sets that I only had on vinyl) for $9.99; that's 55 songs at about 18 cents per, a fair deal. Everything else has been a single – generally something I heard on the radio and liked, or a track from my mental backlist. Buying them was a very 50's experience (except for the lack of a "B" side). Here's the list so far:

Devil's Lullaby - Slaid Cleaves
Four Chambered Heart - Tom Russell
Wheel Inside The Wheel - Mary Gautier
Oh Mary - Neil Diamond (new Neil Diamond!)
Girl In the War - Josh Ritter
Tainted Love - Soft Cell (I actually have this on 45)
God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash
Papa Dukie And The Mud People - The Subdudes
Poison Apples(Hallelujah) - Joan Osborne

And that's just part of it. The other part is how I'm now listening to music at work (and at home – I got one of those $6 "Y" connectors at Radio Shack that allows me to easily hook up my IPod to any receiver, etc. that has an "AUX" input): I'm listening to tracks, as a rule, and not albums. This is a radical change; my former habit had been to bring two CD's to work each day, and go through them once or twice – since I spend a good part of my day working at a PC, this was not difficult. But now, with about 8,000 songs loaded so far (500+ albums), I find myself much more interested in assembling playlists with random selections from various genres, comments, artists, etc. I've set up random selections for favorite artists, like Dylan and Tom Waits; created a Playlist for jazz tracks with a duration of under 8 minutes; another of 100 totally random songs – but with song length limited to 10 minutes; a "Cabaret" playlist of nightclub/lounge/vaudeville acts, and more. Sometimes I just put the whole caboodle on Shuffle, and let the hits fall where they may.

Most to the point of this blog, I've set up a "DJStan's Selections" playlist, to which I add tracks that I particularly like for those days when I don't want to hear anything but. When I get tired of one, I just take it off. I keep it limited to 100 tracks, just to enforce discipline and encourage change. Anyway, I've decided that for the next few blog entries (or more, if I like how it's going), I'm going to talk about a single track from that particular list. I'll post about why I picked it, what I like about it (which is not always the same thing), and anything else that comes to mind. I'm hoping that my loyal reader(s) will find the selection interesting and the postings informative. As always, I welcome comments and music recommendations, related or not.