Author: The Spotisfaction Team

Today”™s playlist is for those we love and those who love us back.
See some of you tonight at Slak.
David

James Cook:

Dad & I – A playlist

65 Spotisfaction Friday (28 May) – JCook

So, Spotify is about sharing, right? Here”™s a playlist with a story for every song; these are all songs that connect my father and I somehow.

1. Space Oddity – David Bowie
2. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – Jimi Hendrix
3. Ruby Tuesday – The Rolling Stones
4. A Town Called Malice – The Jam
5. Muscle Museum – Muse
6. Will You? – Hazel O”™Connor
7. Avalon – Roxy Music
8. Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
9. Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream
10. Brothers In Arms – Dire Straits
11. Street Spirit (Fade Out) – Radiohead
12. Ashes In The Fall – Rage Against The Machine
13. Caramel – Blur
14. Pyramid Song – Radiohead
15. Alone Again Or – Love
16. Stay – Shakespears Sister
17. Hard Headed Woman – Cat Stevens
18. Theme From Harry”™s Game – Clannad
19. Samba Pa Ti – Santana
20. I Drove All Night – Roy Orbison
21. Nights In White Satin – The Moody Blues
22. No Distance Left To Run – Blur

I can credit my parents with giving me a fantastic musical education I think; my Dad especially, whose tapes in his car we used to listen to time and again on the long journeys up to Scotland to spend time with my Mum”™s family at Christmas and the like. The Beatles, Bowie, Hendrix were my upbringing. This is where the playlist starts.

As a child, I remember singing along to Bowie on a trip to the nearest playground. When we got there, I actually decided I”™d much rather listen to Space Oddity and the rest of the Bowie album, rather than play on the swings. It started to rain, and I have this image of sitting in the car singing along to Space Oddity with Dad, looking out at an empty park through rain-swept glass. – “I”™m floating in the most peculiar way, and the stars look very different today.”

Voodoo Child was the first song I ever performed in front of an audience at school. The concert had been the usual choir/orchestra affair and then I walked on stage backed by the best drummer is school, turned up my amp too loud, and hit the parents with a poorly played version of Jimi Hendrix. I think I hit the spirit of the song (if not all the right notes) because we got the best cheer of the night, and Dad was there to see it! – “If I don”™t meet you no more in this world then, uh, I”™ll meet ya on the next one, and don”™t be late.”

Ruby Tuesday was a song me and Dad used to practice, me on the guitar and he singing. I only started playing the guitar because he wanted to learn, but after a few years he put the guitar to one side and just took an interest in my interest in it. – “Catch your dreams before they slip away.”

A Town Called Malice, or, apparently according to Dad, A Town Called Alice. – “I could go on for hours”¦ and I probably will, but I”™d much rather spread joy”¦”

As a teenager, I made a mixtape of my favourite artists for Dad to listen to in the car, in a reversal of my musical upbringing. Muse, Blur, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine are all here, and I remember having conversations about the merits of them compared to the classics. Muse in particular became a band we were both equally enthusiastic about.. he spied the decline in their artistry alot earlier than me, completely unfussed by Stockholm Syndrome and Time Is Running Out before the disappointing Absolution was released. – “And we all went to heaven in a little row boat; there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt.”

So I can credit Dad with alot about who I am as a person, my passions, my interests, and my taste in music. Sadly, he passed away 2 years ago to the day yesterday, I spent the day making this playlist, and David and Thom have done me the honour of featuring it today. There were only 2 songs that could finish this playlist. Nights In White Satin is a classic from Dad”™s favourite artist, The Moody Blues. The song Go Now was his all-time favourite and it was played at the funeral, though thankfully it isn”™t available on Spotify – a prescient choice I think! No Distance Left To Run by Blur is another one from that mixtape I made Dad, and pair up with Nights In White Satin beautifully. Here”™s to the big man.

– “It”™s over, you don”™t need to tell me.”

Afternoon all. Some awesome feedback coming from today”™s news post, so huge thanks for all you niaive folks sharing your ideas for us to rip off”¦ uh, I mean implement with full credit as appropriate! Thom and I started Spotisfaction as an ambitious project to listen to every track in the world ever, but in the process we”™ve created a small community and we”™d love to improve things for those of you who have stuck with us. So, if there”™s something you”™d like out of Spotisfaction that we”™re not currently delivering, let us know.

Anyway, today”™s mix is beautiful in my opinion. I”™ll hand you over to its loving creator, James Cook.

Tripping the light tangfastic”¦
David

Playlist can be found right here.

James says:
The Acoustic Session

To contrast my previous mix Dubisfiction, I”™m stripping things back and present The Acoustic Session – a short acoustic-only playlist of folk, bossa nova, classical and crossover.

1. Loro – Adem
2. I Was Hoping Winter Was OVer – The Twilight Sad
3. In A Manner Of Speaking – Nouvelle Vague
4. Fantasia Sobre La Traviata – Francisco Tárrega
5. Who Will Comfort Me? – Melody Gardot
6. Birthday Present – Mirah
7. Winter Dies – Midlake
8. Fingerbib – Alarm Will Sound / Aphex Twin
9. Homenaje A Tárrega: Soleares – Joaquin Turina
10. Ada – The National
11. Things Behind The Sun – Nick Drake
12. This Flight Tonight – Joni Mitchell
13. Pass It On – The Coral
14. Saturday Come Slow – Massive Attack
15. Recuerdos De Alhambra – Francisco Tárrega
16. The Mosquito Song – Queens Of The Stone Age
17. Jynweythek Ylow – Aphex Twin
18. Human Beings Gather Round – Adem

Blurb:

I knew one artist that was going in here straight off the bat – Adem; and so I bookended the playlist with a track from his most recent covers album – Loro by Pinback – and finishing on the album-closer for Love And Other Planets – Human Beings Gather Round.

I also knew I wanted songs featuring my favourite female vocalists – Camille Dalmais on Nouvelle Vague”™s cover of In A Manner of Speaking, Melody Gardot and Mirah. Soft, sassy, whisper-in-your-ear delicacy.

Francisco Tárrega is quite simply one of the best Spanish classical guitarists ever to grace the planet and it is a travesty that most people know him only by that Nokia theme. Combining the classical romanticism of the time with the traditional spanish folk of his upbringing, he has created some of the most achingly beautiful classical guitar pieces ever written. To protect the playlist from sections of density, I have interspersed three tracks created or inspired by Tárrega, finishing with his opus, Recuerdos De Alhambra.

2 choices from leftfield by the infinitely various Aphex Twin continue to show the size of his repertoire on these Spotifaction mixlists.

Now, everybody knows Joni Mitchell”™s Both Sides Now and Big Yellow Taxi, and if you don”™t, you”™re an idiot. I therefore avoided insulting your intelligence by choosing a song of hers that is less well known – This Flight Tonight.

A long-unheared Queens Of The Stone Age bonus track, the effecting Mosquito Song, and the aforementioned Aphex Twin and Adem tracks close out the mixlist. Here”™s hoping you”™ve enjoyed it!

Cheers
J_TAE.