Import your entire mp3/ogg/wma/aac/whatever collection in to your media player of choice. Select random play, and post the first 20 songs you get. I’m pretty sure there’s a winamp plugin that’ll output a text file of whatever it plays; I know libsong_change will do it for XMMS, because that’s what I used.
My list, out of 3057 possible (I’m at work):
[ol]
[li]Eric Burdon & War - Blues For Memphis Slim[/li][li]City Woman - Detroit with Mitch Ryder[/li][li]13th Floor Elevators - Roller Coaster[/li][li]Suicide - Child, it’s a new world[/li][li]Faces - Sweet Lady Mary[/li][li]Shuggie Otis - I’m The Midnight Creeper[/li][li]Biblical Proof of UFOs - Drawing a Blank[/li][li]The Modern Lovers - Girl Friend[/li][li]Guided By Voices - Watch Me Jumpstart[/li][li]The Seeds - You Can’t Be Trusted[/li][li]Makers - Death Of Mr. Monster[/li][li]Gil Mantera’s Party Dream - Love Will Tear Us Apart[/li][li]Bantam Rooster - Shitlist + 1[/li][li]Immortal Lee County Killers - Big Damn Roach[/li][li]Faces - On the Beach[/li][li]R.L. Burnside - Snake Drive[/li][li]The Muffs - Everywhere I Go[/li][li]Junior Kimbrough - Nobody But You Baby[/li][li]The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray[/li][li]King Khan & The Shrines - Shattered[/li][/ol]
Cool idea! Here’s what I’ve got:
[ol]
[li]Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: VII, About to Crash[/li][li]Jonny Lang - Long Time Comin’[/li][li]Led Zepplin - Stairway to Heaven[/li][li]Katatonia - Omerta[/li][li]Nevermore - No More Will[/li][li]Iced Earth - When the Night Falls[/li][li]Amorphis - Shining Turns to Grey[/li][li]Lysergia - Velvet Acid Christ[/li][li]Angel Dust - Coming Home[/li][li]Buckethead - Mustang[/li][li]Stone Sour - Inhale[/li][li]Into Eternity - Shallow[/li][li]Stone Temple Pilots - Meat Plow[/li][li]Samael - On Earth[/li][li]Snake River Conspiracy - Vulcan[/li][li]Sublime - Romeo[/li][li]Shadows Fall - Inspiration On Demand[/li][li]Everlast - Black Jesus[/li][li]DJ Shadow - Organ Donor[/li][li]Mother Love Bone - This is Shangrila[/li][/ol]
I have a more “mainstream” selection, though the variation is somewhat eclectic. Out of 3,462 possible tracks (all completely legal, I feel I must add - don’t know if that makes me a good guy or a sucker):
[ol][li]Zakk Wylde - Sold My Soul[/li][li]Everclear - A.M. Radio[/li][li]Bush - Communicator[/li][li]Gone Jackals - Legacy[/li][li]John Mellencamp - When Jesus Left Birmingham[/li][li]Smashing Pumpkins - Blank Page[/li][li]Toad the Wet Sprocket - Little Man Big Man[/li][li]Semisonic - Down In Flames[/li][li]Simple Plan - Meet You There[/li][li]Creedence Clearwater Revival - Suzie-Q[/li][li]Leah Andreone - Fake[/li][li]Merril Bainbridge - Miss You[/li][li]Candlebox - Lucy[/li][li]Tool - Part of Me[/li][li]Audioslave - Exploder[/li][li]The Hunger - Love Me or Leave Me[/li][li]Metallica - Nothing Else Matters[/li][li]Sevendust - Black[/li][li]Beastie Boys - POW[/li][li]Breaking Benjamin - Follow[/li][/ol]
Moussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain
My Generation – The Who
Barber: Let Down the Bars O Death – American University Chamber Singers
Don’t Say Goodnight – Dick Powell & Chorus
Shanghai Lil – James Cagney, Ruby Keeler, And The Chorus
Chopin: Fantasie Impromptu – Joan Brill (She’s my aunt, and pretty good classical pianist)
You Shook Me – Led Zeppelin
Lick Your Fingers Clean – Jethro Tull
Now She’s Left You – Neil Innes
I Know You Know – Lyle Lovett and his Large Band
Nothing – Priscilla Lopez (from A Chorus Line)
Help!-- The Beatles
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major
It’s So Easy – Sheryl Crow
Johnny Too Bad – Taj Mahal
Elvis and the Disagreeable Background Singers – Neil Innes
Boring – Neil Innes
Rossini: Il Signore Bruschino – Montreal Symphony - Charles Dutoit
From This Moment On – Lena Horn
Begin The Beguine-- Artie Shaw
Jessica – The Allman Brothers Band
Pippin’s Song/The Steward of Gondor – LOTR: RotK Soundtrack
Let My Love Open the Door – Pete Townshend
Soon – Squirrel Nut Zippers
I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
Summer of '69 – John Cougar Mellencamp
Talkin’ Dust Bowl – Ramblin’ Jack Elliot
Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple
Time – Sarah McLachlan
Spam – Monty Python
Staring Problem – No Doubt
Angel Band – The Stanley Brothers/O Brother Soundtrack
I Wanna Be Loved by You – Helen Kane
I Won’t Back Down – Johnny Cash
A Foggy Day (instrumental) – 101 String Orchestra
Footloose – Good Charlotte
Do It This Way – Squirrel Nut Zippers
Eight Days a Week – The Beatles
Overture Solennelle “1812 Overture” – Tchaikovsky, played by some orchestra I don’t have entered
I, uh, really like The Squirrel Nut Zippers. And I have way more Beatles, miscellaneous classical, and Sarah McLachlan on here than that list tells you.
[ol]
[li]Bedrock - For What You Dream Of (From the trainspotting soundtrack. I don’t remember hearing this one before but I’m gonna be listening to it again soon)[/li]
[li]Gwen Stefani - Crash (Off her solo album, yet another I haven’t listened to since I got it. The song is ok but nothing really special)[/li]
[li]Garbage - Special (Ooo, I haven’t heard this one in a while. Love the song and loved the video)[/li]
[li]David Gray - Be Mine (Ah something a bit more relaxing. The only single I’ve liked of his so I’ve never bought an album by him. Maybe I should.)[/li]
[li]Berlin - Take My Breath Away (So much cheese but what a song to go with the film. I just want to go and watch Top Gun all over again now)[/li]
[li]Limp Bizket - The One (Ok, I’m 22 and liked Limp Bizket for a bit. Now I generally skip their tracks as my tastes have changed. Skipping on to…)[/li]
[li]Paul Simon - Gumboots (Wow the randomiser is throwing out some odd ones today. I remember listening to the album in the car on journeys with my folks just grooving along.)[/li]
[li]Coldplay - God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (I personally find most of Coldplay’s songs bring me down so again I don’t have any of their albums but I love this song. A beat you can move to and another great video to go with the song.)[/li]
[li]The Offspring - Never Gonna Find Me (And back to the rock. Simplistic song but I love The Offspring and with all their albums I would be shocked if one of their songs wasn’t in this list.)[/li]
[li]Silverchair - Trash (I bought their best of album after hearing Anthem for the Year 2000 and Freak. After listening to it I realised that I only like those songs. Skipping on rather quickly)[/li]
[li]Alisha’s Attic - Air We Breathe (Loved their first two albums and listened to them consistently when I was younger. Still like them but not all the time now. Still good to sing along to even if I am out of tune)[/li]
[li]Tom Jones - Sexbomb (Feat. Mousse T) (Why is it that the Welsh accent seems to be the only one that comes through when singing? Anyways, Tom Jones still has it going on for him.)[/li]
[li]The Chemical Brothers - Denmark (Ok, a bit of dance. Not the best song of theirs (Hold Tight London off their latest) but still a good tune put together by some great musicians)[/li]
[li]Dirty Vegas - In This Life (Very chilled out group, Days Go By got me into them and I haven’t been disappointed by their second album. Something to listen to the morning after, not too loud of course)[/li]
[li]Dansaul - Vincent Black Lightning 1952 (A local folk band which I had the opportunity to see the lead down my local one night with a good friend. The day after I had to get their album off their website.)[/li]
[li]Papa Roach - Not Listening (I was asked by a friend to obtain this song after hearing it on the trailer for the second Resident Evil film. After listening once I kept it for myself as well. They are not the best band in the world but they can come up with some catchy songs once in a while)[/li]
[li]BT - The Road To Lostwithiel (BT is one of my favourite artists. This song is another chillout and relax one but I also just put his albums on play when I need to listen to something in the background whilst painting or reading)[/li]
[li]The Faders - No Sleep Tonight (British all girl punk-rock threesome. This is their debut single, just started to be played on the radio and I love it. Great to rock out to and catchy enough that I’ll be singing and playing the air drums all day after listening to it.)[/li]
[li]N.E.R.D. - She Wants To Move (Pharrell Williams is a another of today’s greats with most things he touches turning to gold at the moment. A good song to get up and dance to which I suppose is the objective.)[/li]
[li]Feeder - Feeling A Moment (And what a great song to end upon. Feeder are a great group and with their latest album it just reinforces that opinion in my mind. I’m going to have to listen to the whole thing again today just because I love it so.)[/li][/ol]
All in all some great music although a couple of songs that were rubbish even if they did bring back good memories.
From my iTunes on my work computer, from 11:24 am to 12:29 pm. 1467 songs, 3.6 days of music consuming 5.87 gigs.
“Revolutionary Generation” by Public Enemy from Fear of a Black Planet.
“Our War” by Overkill from the Seven Inch Wonders of the World compilation of early SST singles.
“Reggie Jax” by Public Enemy from Fear of a Black Planet.
“Song for El Salvador” by the Minutemen from Post-Mersh Vol. 1
“Rebel Music (Three O’Clock Roadblock)” by Bob Marley and the Wailers from Live at the Roxy, 1979.
“Ed Ames” by Pavement from Slanted and Enchanted, Luxe and Redux I think this was originally a B-side.
“Bob Dylan Wrote Propganda Songs” by the Minutemen from Post Mersh Vol 1. Well he did!
“Karma Police” by Radiohead from the bootleg Live at Pinkpop 2001. This is an incredible show.
“She’s My Best Friend” by the Velvet Underground from VU
“Surfari” by Man…or Astro Man? from Live Transmissions from Uranus.
“Stephanie Says” by the Velvet Underground from VU
“Turn a Square” by The Shins from Chutes Too Narrow.
“Please Please Me (Dick James Stereo Remix)” by The Beatles from Rarities 2
“Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” by Bob Marley and the Wailers from Live at the Roxy, 1979
“Gouge Away” by The Pixies from Doolittle
“Scatterbrain” by Radiohead from Hail to the Thief.
“Seven Chinese Brothers (live, 1982)” by R.E.M. Orgin unknown.
“Sister Anne” by MC5. Origin unknown.
“Thirteen” by Big Star from #1 Record/Sister Lover.
“Little Red Corvette” by Prince from 1999.
Does anyone else thing iTunes’ shuffle setting isn’t very random? Out of three and a half days worth of music I had three albums that each got two songs in the course of an hour.
I suppose I should add that my list is a Smart Playlist from iTunes, so it’s not entirely random. I haven’t been able how to figure out how to create a totally random playlist. So I said ‘All song names that don’t contain the letter Q’. out of a total pool of 17,988 songs. Yes, they are all legal - I have about 3000 CDs in my collection, and receive anywhere from 5-15 in the mail a month due to my line of work (concert promoter and music producer)
[ol]
[li]Stooges, the - Loose[/li][li]Compulsive Gamblers - Sour And Vicious Man[/li][li]Fred McDowell - Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning[/li][li]Blind Willie Johnson - Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground[/li][li]The Seeds - Pictures And Designs[/li][li]Division of Laura Lee - Second Rule Is[/li][li]The Lost Sounds - Walk in Line[/li][li]The Litter - Morning Sun[/li][li]union carbide productions - can’t slow down[/li][li]The Lost Sounds - Ironic Graveyard[/li][li]Mission Of Burma - Active In The Yard[/li][li]BBQ - Shake Real Low[/li][li]The Dirtbombs - Get It While You Can[/li][li]The Swingers - Lovesick[/li][li]The Oblivians - No Time[/li][li]The Black Keys - Midnight In Her Eyes[/li][li]Thee Shams - In The City[/li][li]Mississippi Fred McDowell And Johnny Woods - Standing At The Back Door[/li][li]Cosmic Psychos - Shut Up[/li][li]Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache[/li][/ol]
Hmmm… now its liking Mississippi Fred McDowell and the Lost Sounds. Weird.
Material Issue - Crazy
Berlin - Sex (I’m A …)
Roger Klug - Turn To Stone (from Lynne Me Your Ears tribute album)
The Beatles - This Boy
Jane Wiedlin - Messy
The Mockers - Sheepwalking
Collapsis - Stumble
The Bangles - Between The Two
Annie Johnson - Green
Rumblefish - The World According To
Hindu Love Gods - Mannish Boy
Bruce Springsteen - For You
The Who - Getting In Tune
The Who - Helpless Dancer
Brad Jones - Blunderbuss
Rip Dizzy - She’s Not Coming Home
The Mockers - More Important Things
The Clash - Clash City Rockers
Hollowbodies - Driver
Lucky Town - Sun
From a library of 1720 songs on the iTunes at work. I find that it’s not so random also. I’ll have some songs that have never played in a month, and others that have been played a dozen times.