I am trying to make a Chris Isaak primer for my largely chris-less friend. She's not that familiar with his music, and his name to her evokes only the time he pawed Cameron Diaz at an awards show. This must change! I uploaded all of his CDs on iTunes and have been trying to craft a list that represents his early (and my favorite) Creepy Stalker period, early-mid Hauntingly Moody, middle-period Relatively Sunny, Soundtracks and Extras, and so on. I couldn't bring myself to include anything from the most recent (and craptastic) CD, but if someone can make a good argument from anything there, I'm game.
this list is probably too long by one long song, or two shorter ones. It's not final or in any particular order, it is just the first draft. Please help! Let me know if I've left off something vital, or have too many of the same type of songs. I've put album initials by each song to help sort it all out. (S = Silvertone, CI = Chris Isaak, HSW = Heart Shaped World, SFD = SanFrancisco Days, FB = Forever Blue, SotD= Speak of the Devil, BS= Baja Sessions, ToT= Think of Tomorrow (cd single), ST= Soundtrack)
wicked game - HSW
baby did a bad bad thing - FB
you owe me some kind of love - CI
Black Flowers - SotD
Two Hearts - SFD
Speak of the Devil - SoTD
Go Walking down there - FB
Somebody's Crying - FB
Goin' Nowhere - FB
Can't Do A Thing (to Stop Me) - SFD
I'm not sleepy - SoTD
Wrong To Love You - HSW
Walk Slow - SOTD
Round N' Round - SFD
Blue Hotel - CI
Cryin' - CI
You Took My Heart - CI
Voodoo - CI
Western Stars - S
Tears - S
So Lovely Is The Night - ToT
Sweet Leilani - BS
Return To Me - BS
Diddley Daddy - HSW
this list is probably too long by one long song, or two shorter ones. It's not final or in any particular order, it is just the first draft. Please help! Let me know if I've left off something vital, or have too many of the same type of songs. I've put album initials by each song to help sort it all out. (S = Silvertone, CI = Chris Isaak, HSW = Heart Shaped World, SFD = SanFrancisco Days, FB = Forever Blue, SotD= Speak of the Devil, BS= Baja Sessions, ToT= Think of Tomorrow (cd single), ST= Soundtrack)
wicked game - HSW
baby did a bad bad thing - FB
you owe me some kind of love - CI
Black Flowers - SotD
Two Hearts - SFD
Speak of the Devil - SoTD
Go Walking down there - FB
Somebody's Crying - FB
Goin' Nowhere - FB
Can't Do A Thing (to Stop Me) - SFD
I'm not sleepy - SoTD
Wrong To Love You - HSW
Walk Slow - SOTD
Round N' Round - SFD
Blue Hotel - CI
Cryin' - CI
You Took My Heart - CI
Voodoo - CI
Western Stars - S
Tears - S
So Lovely Is The Night - ToT
Sweet Leilani - BS
Return To Me - BS
Diddley Daddy - HSW
The only obvious one that springs to mind for me right now is "Gone Ridin'". There's also a slow one on CI of which I am very fond, but for some reason I can't remember the name right now. Oh, and I also like "Spanish Sky" on HSW. I'll try and think about it some more today at work as I'm doing this right now in a rush before I leave.
ReplyDeleteP.s. Citizen R. would probably say that you forgot "Dancin'" if you were to ask her!
ReplyDeletewhat about the one from the last (craptastic) that was the music from his show? Also I like the one about the ring - from the last.
ReplyDeletePLUS what about the one about rain clouds? I like that one too!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know that this is not helping you whittle down your list.
Oooh - those are all good! The problem is, if I put any one of those on, which one do I toss? For example - I LOVE the Spanish Sky song (for it is gorgeous), but it is also 5 minutes long - so I would have to toss 2 others that I currently had on. Not that that is impossible - but which ones? As Barbie would say, making CDs is hard.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your continued thoughts on the subject. I am off to spackle.
I actually know nothing about him either so I would like to request a copy when it's done! Hope you enjoy the show!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great show! (more on that soon) - I just wanted to note that he sang a LOT of the songs on my list, so yay! - my instincts were not horribly off. I just have to decide which ones get the boot and wish that I had a recorded version of him singing I Want You To Want Me because that was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteSo when do I get this CD, eh? Hey, MY birthday month starts tomorrow! I think that's what I'll do - birthday month. It's not going to be a party this year because of the whole "leaving for China the next weekend" thing so a Birthday month with ice cream on the actual day would work rather nicely, I think! So what are your personal rules for the Month? Do something nice for yourself each day or is it more loose?
ReplyDeleteI am working on the CD! Now that I am back from my trip, it shouldn't be long.
ReplyDeleteAs for Birthday Month (happy August, one day early!) - it pretty much can be whatever you want it to be! Any fun things you are already planning on for August can now fall under the Birthday Month Rubric. Going out for dinner? it is now Birthday Month dinner, and at least 25% more fun by virtue of being part of a larger whole! Also - any random acts of awesomeness that happen can also be co-opted into your personal celebration. From my own experience this year I can tell you that Chris Isaak playing in pdx ON my birthday, and Charlie and the Chocolate factory opeining on my b-day (although any day in July would have worked), just made it more fun for me. I took it as a gift from the universe (that sounds cheesy, but what am I going to do? Insult the universe?) You can also do things for yourself that maybe you wouldn't do normally as a birthday month gift to yourself (pedicure, massage, new book, mental health day from work to goof around in your pj's all day, etc.). Birthday month roadtrips are awesome, too! As you may have guessed, birthday month is pretty elastic.
And, as a last minute birthday yay from the universe, the tavern-patron jerks who play their music too loud outside our house are playing Chris Isaak's Pretty Girls Don't Cry from Baja Sessions. So they are still window-rattling noise polluters, but they are playing a song I like! yay, July!
Wow, great plan! In fact, today I was kind of marveling at how extra nice people have been to me lately. Today at the rebuilding center these people let me go in front of them in line and said it was because I was so nice to talk to them (although really I think it was because they weren't ready yet). I bet it was really because they knew it was my birthday month! Hey, this is fun!
ReplyDeleteSee! You've got the hang of it already.
ReplyDelete