John Lennon, Barack Obama, and Rumplestiltskin

I'm killing two birds with one stone here:

1) When I started this blog, I wanted to spend a fair amount of time writing about music, but I've found that I can't really express myself well about why I like the music I like, especially if it's music that I've known and loved for years. The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald, REM, The Temptations; damnit, they're just great artists, what more can I say.

2) Yes, I'm happy about the election, but like another blogger I know, I'm not really into the high-fiving. It's a wonderful moment in history, but now I feel like I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping he can really can lead us to the promised land. Still, the last couple of days have been good.

So anyway, my iPod currently has about 2500 songs on it, and I'm playing them all in alphabetical title order. This morning, I heard John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and, for the first time, I actually felt a little teary (in a happy way, like so many folks were on the evening of Nov. 4th) about the election, as though John was singing, "Happy Election! Bush is Over!" Next came the fabulous opening riff of the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night," and my little driving-to-work high continued.


Then came Chicago's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." It's an OK little pop ditty--I have it on the iPod for the double-speed closing section--but I realized I knew every single word of that dumb song, while simultaneously remembering that I almost forgot my bank card PIN the other day at the ATM, and I got pissed off at myself. I had what one of my friends calls my "Rumplestiltskin" moment where I curse loudly and stomp and spin about in anger and/or frustration. Since I was driving, I didn't actually stomp and spin, but I cursed loudly and made a face and wondered if I'll still know every word of this damn song as I lie on my deathbed, recognizing no one around me.

All of which led me to decide to try and post more here about the music I hear on my iPod. I already post each day's playlist on Facebook (much to the boredom of my followers, who are legion), so I won't go that far, but I will try to remember to post about some of the more interesting things that pop up, songs I forgot were on the iPod or songs that mean a lot to me, or songs that are just f**kin' cool. This is a promise and a threat, I suspect.