spynotes ::
  November 06, 2006
Space Oddity

AJ has been playing his new solar system mix non-stop. I greatly appreciate the help I got from all of you. Here is what we ended up with. This is different from any other mix I�ve made before in that there was little attention given to flow. AJ insisted on making sure it was in correct planetary order. But mostly, I think, it works.

�Lost In Space� by Aimee Mann, from her album of the same name. I�m so in love with Aimee Mann�s voice at the moment, that this was a must. I�m gratified to see that AJ likes it too, as he doesn�t skip it in order to get to his absolute favorite track on the album, which is next.

�Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)� [Live Version by They Might Be Giants. This is the one educational track on here, but it is also a fun song to sing. AJ now knows all the words and walks around singing it at the top of his lungs all the livelong day.

�Blister in the Sun� by The Violent Femmes. I freely admit that this may not be the best track for a children�s album, except that it rocks and AJ loves clapping along. Fortunately, he has no idea what the lyrics are all about. I�m just hoping he doesn�t start singing �I�m high as a kite, I just might stop and check you out� at school. We might have some explaining to do.

�Mercury� by Throwing Muses. This is one of my favorite Muses tracks, and AJ loves it too. It has a wild metric shift built in and it�s just damn loud in all the right ways.

�Venus� by Bananarama. This was the song that gave us the idea for the mix in the first place. We heard it on the radio the other day and AJ got all excited because it was about Venus (well, sort of). So we started brainstorming all the other songs we could think of that would work.

�Holding On to the Earth� by Sam Phillips. I love this song, in all its pop-py glory. I usually use her slower, softer remake of this tune in mixes because I think it�s more interesting, but I didn�t think it would stand up to some of the other tunes here, so I picked the original for AJ�s mix.

�Yellow Moon� by The Neville Brothers. This was suggested by my marathoning friend, rs536 and it was a good thought. AJ loves him some R&B. Plus Aaron Neville�s been showing up in Sesame Street a lot lately, so AJ recognized his voice.

�Pink Moon� by Nick Drake. I couldn�t give up this song from our original songlist, though, so we decided to keep two moon songs. This is one of my all time favorite songs; it�s moody in all the right ways.

�Stars� by George Winston. New Agey solo piano really doesn�t fit, except that AJ insisted because he loves his George Winston Linus and Lucy CD. It makes for kind of a nice break in the middle because frankly, if you�re playing this CD in the car, it can get kind of headachy.

�Girl from Mars� by Ash. I am ashamed to say I discovered this one from watching the Gilmore Girls, but it�s a fun little tune and it works well here.

�Jupiter� by Earth, Wind & Fire. Did someone suggest this or did we come up with this one on our own? I�m not sure, but AJ likes his funk guitars, so this is a nice edition.

�Saturn Return� by REM. This one hits a just the right moment, just when dad is getting sick of this CD. He loves this song and so do I. I�m not sure about AJ, although he�s generally in favor of REM. He tends to like what he calls their �dancy� songs more, though.

�The Thing from Uranus� by Sloppy Seconds. This was the only song we could find for this particular planet, and it makes use of all the expected jokes based on the pronunciation of its name. It�s puerile, but I�m sure it�s going to be one of AJ�s favorites shortly, because he can sing about poop while pretending to sing about astronomy. What could be better?

�Neptune� by Ian Brown. This was the suggestion of my recent dining companion and fellow sangria-swiller, fairlywell. I wasn�t familiar with this song, but it�s quite lovely.

�Hallucinating Pluto� by The B-52's. The B-52s are the perfect band for five year olds. I tried to stick �Planet Claire� on here too, but AJ wouldn�t allow it. �There�s no such thing as Planet Claire!� I should have considered The Kinks� �Lola,� though, in honor of the former nickname of the now renamed UB313.

�Outta Space� by Billy Preston. This originally came to us on a mix sent to us by freshhell and AJ loves it so much that he asked to put it on this mix as well. Freshhell also suggested the next tune, with which we decided to conclude the CD:

�Space Oddity� by David Bowie. I think AJ is a little perplexed by this one. He�d be even more perplexed if he saw what Bowie looked like, but really, how can you have a space CD without Bowie? It works well to end the disc.


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