Saturday, March 03, 2007

MYSTERY MIXMANIA TRACKLIST

The theme is "This American Life" and I decided to use one song per state. Some are obvious choices and for the less obvious ones, or the ones where I cheated, I've made notes. They're also in a particular order, but I'll let you figure that out (No cheating, sis).

Disc 1

1. “Where is My Mind?” - Pixies: (Delaware) Prominently used in Fight Club, which, if you do a bit of the math, you can figure out was mainly set in Wilmington, Delaware.

2. “Body of an American” - The Pogues: (Pennsylvania) “He fought the champ in Pittsburgh…”

3. “Jersey Girl” - Tom Waits: (New Jersey)

4. “Georgia On My Mind” - Ray Charles : (Georgia)

5. “The Leaving of Liverpool” - The Pogues: (Connecticut) The Davy Crockett mentioned in the song was built in Mystic, CT and her figurehead is currently on display in the maritime museum there.

6. “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” - Dropkick Murphys: (Massachusetts)

7. “Good Morning Baltimore” - Cast of Hairspray: (Maryland) A Broadway show tune sounds so wrong following track six, but I had to go with something John Waters related for Maryland.

8. “Renegade” - Warren Zevon: (South Carolina) An ironic, South’ll rise again (No it won’t) song, which goes here because SC was the first to secede from the union.

9. “Rocket Man” - Elton John: (New Hampshire) Alan Shepherd is from NH. Yes, I know it’s a stretch of the rules, but this was the last one I came up with a song for.

10. “St Robinson in his Cadillac Dream” - Counting Crows: (Virginia) “I was born on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland and Virginia have faded away…” That line got a big cheer when Jamee and I saw them in Va Beach years ago. This is a live version from the New Amsterdam album they put out last year.

11. “New York City” - They Might be Giants: (New York) Live version from KEXP. I like the substitution of “King Kong” for “Bob Dylan” in this one.

12. “All My Little Words” - The Magnetic Fields: (North Carolina) “Not for all the tea in China, not for all North Carolina…”

13. “Sweet Rhode Island Red” - Ike and Tina Turner: (Rhode Island) You can’t go wrong with Ike and Tina. Unless you’re Tina.

14. “Moonlight on Vermont” - Captain Beefheart: (Vermont)

15. “Old Kentucky Home” - Louis Armstrong: (Kentucky)

16. “Knoxville Girl” - The Louvin Brothers: (Tennessee)

17. “In Old Mexico” - Tom Lehrer: (Ohio) “It’s fiesta time in Akron, Ohio…”

18. “Jambalaya” - Hank Williams: (Louisiana) I forget which Muppet Show they do this on, but the image of penguins singing this in Antarctica haunts my dreams. Sexy, sexy penguins.

19. “Jim Dean of Indiana” - Phil Ochs: (Indiana)

20. “Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi” - Jim White (Mississippi)

Disc 2

21. “Sweet Home Chicago” - Robert Johnson: (Illinois) Ah, Chicago, where the bridges smell like chocolate...

22. “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” - Bob Dylan: (Alabama)

23. “Stand By Me” - Stephen King with Warren Zevon: (Maine) I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But it’s Maine. And Stephen King. And Stand By Me was based on “The Body,” which was set in Maine, though the movie relocated things to Oregon and spelled King’s name wrong on the VHS box.

24. “Bottom of the World” - Tom Waits: (Missouri) “And I’m leaving Missouri and I’m never coming home…”

25. “Cotton Fields” - Lead Belly: (Arkansas) “When I was home in Arkansas…”

26. “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing” - The Magnetic Fields: (Michigan) “Be we in Paris or in Lansing…”

27. “Rottweiler Blues” - Warren Zevon: (Florida)

28. “Texas River Song” - Lyle Lovett: (Texas)

29. “Cities in Dust” - Siouxsie and the Banshees: (Iowa) “Sioux” + “City” = I’m sorry.

30. “The Madison Time” - Ray Bryant Combo: (Wisconsin)

31. “Goin’ Out West” - Tom Waits: (California) I just realized that I used two tracks that showed up in Fight Club.

32. “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” - Weird Al Yankovic: (Minnesota)

33. “Portland, Oregon” - Loretta Lynn and Jack White: (Oregon)

34. “Wichita Lineman” - Johnny Cash: (Kansas)

35. “I Wanna Go Back to West Virginia” - Spike Jones: (West Virginia)

36. “Viva Las Vegas” - Dead Kennedys: (Nevada)

37. “Nebraska” - Bruce Springsteen: (Nebraska)

38. “Ballad of Alferd Packer” - Phil Ochs: (Colorado)

39. “Fargo, North Dakota” - Carter Burwell: (North Dakota)

40. “I Love America” - Alice Cooper: (South Dakota) “I love that mountain with the four big heads…”

Disc 3

41. “Montana” - Dr. Elmo: (Montana)

42. “Seattle” - Public Image Ltd: (Washington)

43. “The KKK Took My Baby Away” - Ramones: (Idaho) OK, here’s why. I had a friend who was looking to relocate. She and her husband valued their privacy and after doing some research discovered that Idaho had the highest concentration of white supremacists of any state in the union. So, they reasoned that because “those people” like to be left alone, they would be able to secure their own privacy. So, for probably a very bad reason, this song makes me think of Idaho. Plus it’s a great Ramones track.

44. “The Emperor of Wyoming” - Neil Young: (Wyoming)

45. “The Great Salt Lake” - Band of Horses: (Utah)

46. “The Southern Oklahoma Cosmic Trigger Contest” - The Flaming Lips: (Oklahoma)

47. “Motorway to Roswell” - Pixies: (New Mexico)

48. “Big Iron” - Johnny Cash: (Arizona) “He was an Arizona ranger…”

49. “Alaskan Pipeline” - James: (Alaska)

50. “The Hula Hula Boys” - Warren Zevon: (Hawaii)

3 Comments:

Blogger Sarie said...

Wow. WOW. Like your sister's list, I'm impressed. Holy cow. I'm going to have to try one of these days to do a mix of state songs, just to see what I come up with.

Great job.

You don't allow anonymous comments, which means I can't change the log in....I don't use that blog anymore (I'm at gotcownow.com)

12:54 PM  
Blogger ~d said...

HAHAH!
I love the Sioux City...
Cool, cool!
you guys put some work and THOUGht into this, huh?!
xxoo

1:36 PM  
Blogger alala said...

Fantastic list. I love your reasoning on some of them.

2:32 PM  

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