The Stones, k.d. lang, AND...

As I explained here, I'm in a desperate and probably futile quest to listen to every song in my iTunes at least once during 2014. (Update: still 3,607 tracks left. I have 17 days left. And that doesn't even count Christmas music, which I don't play the rest of the year anyway.) At one point yesterday, I heard the Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?" from 1997, and I heard something familiar in the chorus (skip to 1:23):



You're probably thinking of "Constant Craving" by k.d. lang (skip to 0:44).



You may recall that, to avoid possible lawsuits, lang and Ben Mink, the writers of "Constant Craving," were given songwriters' credit on the Stones song. And yes, I did think of it. Eventually. But another song popped into my head first:



Not exact, but close enough for me. (Wonder if the writers of this song thought about suing k.d.lang?) Just a little more evidence that it's very hard, if not impossible, to create a completely brand new song. Everything borrows something that came before it, even if only slightly.

My Halloween Playlist

In the past I've written about my playlist of summer music. (Not going to bother posting the links. You can search for them if you want.) I haven't done so recently, and now that we're past summer it doesn't seem like the time, but I'll mention in passing that it's up to 213 songs (plus five mixtape compilations from DJ Jazzy Jeff and his DJ cohort MICK, formerly Mick Boogie). A while back I created a playlist for winter as well, but I don't have many songs on it. There's no special vibe about a winter song, unlike summer songs. As a result, I only have songs with "cold" or "chill" or similar words in the title. So I need to work on that at some point.

I also have a Halloween playlist. It's now up to 77 tracks, including TV and movie themes, songs that are obviously Halloween-centric and others that merely have a word such as "evil" or "ghost" somewhere in the title and aren't necessarily (or aren't at all) scary or creepy. It's just over five hours long. (And I've got a list of songs I need to add to my iTunes library.) Instead of listing them by artist or alphabetically, I'm gonna group them here based on various keywords or other categories...

Another Summer Playlist Update

I don't know if I should just re-post my entire summer playlist in one new post, but until I get to that point, you'll just have to click on this link, which leads to the most recent update, and then keep following links until you get back to the original posts. At any rate, thanks to this recent article, which provided a list of hits from June through August each year going back to the 1960s, I decided on a number of additions to my list that are already in my iTunes library. Also, Amazon has had two mp3 sales recently -- one was for a summer playlist of their own, 25 songs for a quarter each -- yes, $0.25 -- and just in the last 24 hours, recent hit albums for $0.99, and these sales provided some more tracks for the list.

The entire list is now up to 153 songs, although I'm kind of wavering on a few that originally were on the list. I'm leaving them, at least for now. Anyway, briefly, my criteria are: hits during the summer, song titles/lyrics  about summer, sunshine, heat, etc., and a few songs that either made an impression on me personally during summer or just have a summery feel to them, so the list is (as many lists are) a bit subjective. Here are the additions:


Wild Ones (Feat. Sia) - Flo Rida
Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
Nothin' On You [Feat. Bruno Mars] - B.o.B
Hot In Herre - Nelly
In The Summertime -Mungo Jerry
Sunshine - Matisyahu
Everybody Loves The Sunshine - Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
It's Gonna Be Me - 'N Sync
We Like To Party - Vengaboys
MmmBop - Hanson (if I recall, I kept this off the list originally)
Kiss From A Rose - Seal
Whoomp! (There It Is) - Tag Team
Can't Help Falling In Love - UB40
End Of The Road - Boyz II Men
Alone - Heart
With Or Without You - U2
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennille
Touch Me In The Morning - Diana Ross
Lean On Me - Bill Withers
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
It's Too Late - Carole King
The Love You Save - The Jackson 5
War - Edwin Starr
Get Back - The Beatles
Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Help! - The Beatles
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
California Gurls (Feat. Snoop Dogg) - Katy Perry
Firework - Katy Perry
Chasing The Sun - The Wanted

For Blog Post 666...

I was just going to post the video of "Devil Inside" by INXS but decided to expand this a bit. So, in addition, you'll find a live version from a Wembley Stadium concert as well, plus a list of other songs in my iTunes library with "devil" in the title.







Devil's Haircut - Beck
The Devil's Right Hand - Steve Earle
Devil With A Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder
Devil With The Blue Dress - Shorty Long
Devil Wouldn't Recognize You - Madonna
Sympathy For The Devil - The Rolling Stones
Sympathy For The Devil - Sandra Bernhard
(You're The) Devil In Disguise - Elvis Presley

Meanwhile, whether it's because of the Devil or just some generic devil, I still feel stuck in a real rut in many ways. Maybe warmer temperatures will help. By Sunday we may be pushing 50 degrees, and by next Thursday there's a chance of it even getting to 60.