Jeff’s Blog

I love to listen to music. Mostly Rock and Pop, some New Wave, Nature (I have an hour long track of Wind chimes), classical, R & B. No country (although I do have a Shania Twain CD) and no Rap.  There are some things I just can’t imagine doing with music, like when I am in the office or hiking. It is passive listening in the office and active listening while hiking. I also have the radio on while driving (when Katreena doesn’t want to discuss some important idea she has) and over the years it will vary between classic rock stations and NPR.

 There always seems to be a song in my head. Usually it is the last song I heard, but right now it’s Elton John’s Elderberry Wine (not sure when I last heard that!). I have ripped all my CDs to WMA Lossless then converted them to MP3 192 KHz for playing on my desktop and 96 KHz MP3 for my MP3 player. I have over 9,100 tracks for a whopping 27 days and 1.5 hours of listening pleasure. My personal playlist has over 2200 tracks that takes 142 hours to listen to.

 The important playlist though is on my MP3 player. It is a 1 Gig, Sony Sports…. It has 315 songs on it, about 23 hours of all my favorites. We try to go hiking at least 3 times a week usually in Thunderbird Mountain Park. Depending on which side we start on and which mountain we climb it is from 42 minutes and a 550 foot climb to 2 ½ hours and a 630 foot climb (I have a Garmin 350 Forerunner GPS heart rate monitor). Nothing is worse than forgetting my MP3 player or having the battery run out; it makes the hike twice as long and twice as grueling. I call it active listening because you have nothing to do except listen to the words.

I have this theory about music; there is music that has a good tune, music that has good lyrics and music that has both. “Words and Music man, they need each other” as they said in Eddie and the Cruisers. Most of the music I listen to has both good music and good lyrics, with a few exceptions, like anything by Santana, just good music. And there are some that have questionable lyrics. Have you listened to the lyrics in True by Spandau Ballet? Depressing. Or how most of the hits by the Guess Who are down on women, love sucks. Some songs have a line or two that are profound. A lot of Jethro Tull’s music (My words but a whisper — your deafness a SHOUT. I may make you feel but I can’t make you think.) or David Bowie (Ain’t there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?), or even the 5^th Dimension (God knows this heart of mine could use a rest).

So, below are the songs I listened to on my last 5 hikes. One thing about my MP3 player is that is resets to the beginning when I charge it, which is Silver Wheels/Crazy On You by Heart. I always use shuffle play and the player is pretty good about the randomness of the playlist. There are a few exceptions to the shuffle play, some albums are meant to be played in order like Days of Future Past, by the Moody Blues and for me the Beatles White Album. It was the only 8-track I had while driving back and forth from Lemoore Naval Air Station to Leona Valley CA, about 200 miles, 4 hours of driving. I expect to hear the songs on that album in a specific order.

A note on the Beatles Abbey Road medley, I created it with all the songs on the second side of the album so it is: Here Comes the Sun; Because; You Never Give Me Your Money; Sun King; Mean Mr. Mustard; Polythene Pam; She Came in Through the Bathroom Window; Golden Slumbers; Carry That Weight; The End; Her Majesty.

#1
Silver Wheels/Crazy On You – Heart
Hold on Loosely – .38 Special
If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot
Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Elton John
Scarborough Fair – Simon and Grafunkel
Black Magic Women – Santana
Thick As a Brick – Jethro Tull
Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf
Desert Rose – Sting
Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith
Come Together – Beatles

#2
Do You Feel Like I Do – Peter Frampton
Freedom – Richie Havens
California Dreaming – Mamas and Papas
I’m Your Captain – Grand Funk
The Sound of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel
Revolution 1 – Beatles
Beginnings – Chicago
Questions 67 & 68 – Chicago

#3 Reset after a charge
Magic Carpet Ride – Steppenwolf
Owner of a Lonely Heart – Yes
A  Whiter Shade of Pale – Procol Harem
Rocket Man – Elton John
Spill the Wine – Eric Burdon and War
The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
Bring it On – Seal
Back in the USSR – Beatles
Don’t Pass Me By – Beatles
Taken it to the Street – Doobie Brothers
Iris – Goo Goo Dolls
If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot
Feelin’ Alright – Joe Cocker

#4
Summertime – Janice Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company
The power of love – Huey Lewis
True – Spandau Ballet
Who will save your soul – Jewel
D’yer Mak’r – Led Zeppelin
Lonely Ol’ Night  - John Mellencamp
We Built This City – Jefferson Starship
Martha My Dear – Beatles
The Sky is Crying – Stevie Ray Vaughen
Abbey Road Medley (just started)

#5
Abbey Road Medley
Young Americans – David Bowie
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) – Styx
Magic Man – Heart
Spirit In the Night – Manferd Mann’s Earth Band
Mandolin Wind – Rod Stewart
Soul Sacrifice – Santana
#9 Dream – John Lennon
One More Night – Phil Collins

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