The Soundtrack to My Life (needs more Max Geldray)

Not started by him, but I saw this first on BeaucoupKevin.com: The Soundtrack to Your Life meme. (Here's another good one from Bitter Andrew over at Armagideon Time.)

The rules: write down the following categories, start up your MP3 player on shuffle play, and write down the songs that pop up under the categories in order. No changing the sequence! I cheated only slightly as I have a large number of radio plays and radio station jingles on the BullyPod, but I wrote down the next specific song after each of those.



Are you seated comfortably? Then let's begin:


Opening Credits:
"Walk a Straight Line" by Squeeze. Quiet and not quite thematically right for a little stuffed bull, oddly apt for the big guy whose iPod it really is.


Waking Up:
"Sailing By" by Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Absolutely positively almost diametrically the wrong song: "Sailing By" is the song I use to put me to sleep. (I discuss my obsession with "Sailing By" and the BBC Shipping Forecast here.)


First Day At School:
"She" by Edie Brickell and New Bohemians. The words don't fit but the tune has a playfulness that works perfectly.


Falling In Love:
"Latin Snowfall" by Henry Mancini. I don't care what anyone says, Mancini can score my entire freakin' life.


Fight Song:
"Strange Currencies" by R.E.M. Slowwwwwwest... fiiiiiiiight... sceeeeeeeene... evvvvvvver.


Breaking Up:
"The Folks Who Live on the Hill" by Dakota Staton. Oh, my, this so totally works on an entirely ironic sad level. One of the most wistful and poignant love songs I know, and one of my favorite covers of it. Like "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," I have an entire playlist just of versions of this song.


Prom:
"Hello Stranger" by Queen Latifah. Holy cow, do I wanna go to that prom. Instead of the one with the endless Billy Joel and Queen covers.


Life:
"Living It Up" by Rickie Lee Jones. An odd but apt juxtaposition despite the appearance of the word "living" in the title.

Well, you know
It's more trouble than it's worth
it's more trouble than it's worth
Oh Wild and the Only ones
Tell him where you are—
Oh Wild and the Only ones
Tell him where you are
Tell him where you are


Mental Breakdown:
"That's What I Like About the South" by Phil Harris. Gosh, I love Phil. This, like "Roly Poly," is one of those great Bob Wills songs about eating...about stuffing as much as possible into your mouth:

Won't you come with me to Alabamy
Let's go see my dear old Mammy
She's fryin' eggs and boiling hammy
That's what I like about the South

Now there you can make no mistakey
Where those nerves are never shaky
Ought to taste her layer cakey
That's what I like about the South

She's got baked ribs and candied yams
Those sugar-cured Virginia hams
Basement full of those berry jams
An' that's what I like about the South

Hot corn bread, black-eyed peas
You can eat as much as you please
'Cause it's never out of season
That's what I like about the South

Aahhh, don't take one, have two
There's dark brown and chocolate too
Suits me, they must suit you
'Cause that's what I like about the South

That said, I can totally picture this being a psychedelic freak-out scene, possible directed by Bob Clampett, in which I messily stuff as many pies into my mouth as possible and then collapse in a giggling fit before they haul me away to the lovely hospital on the grassy hill.


Driving:
"Back to Tupelo" by Mark Knopfler. Slow and sad. Not what I had expected for my driving song, but here you go:

When you're young and beautiful
Your dreams are all ideals
Later on it's not the same
Lord, everything is real
Sixteen hundred miles of highway
Roll back to the truth
And a song to give your mother
In your first recording booth


Flashback:
"Moon River" by The Innocence Mission. Remember what I said about Mancini? Double here, baby. Especially apt for a reason I won't explain now but will in (I hope) a month or so.


Getting Back Together:
"Breathe Me" by Sia. You know, this might have worked at one point for me, until a certain TV show fixed it in my head so whenever I hear this song now I think about Every. Body. Dying.


Wedding:
"If I Had You" by Tracey Ullman. I copied this meme, as I mentioned, from Kevin. Kevin's wedding song started out with an organ. Mine does too, and a slow building orchestral procession. Huh.


Birth of Child:
"Atlantis" by Donovan. This will be the coolest kid ever. Hey, why's he got wings on his ankles?


Final Battle:
"Bluebird" by Paul McCartney and Wings. Uh, no, there's no way I can make a battle sequence work to this.


Death Scene:
"Rant 'n' Roll" by John Trudell. Whoa, this shoulda been my Final Battle song. Not spot-on for a death scene, but not out of the question.


Funeral Song:
"Unravel" by Bobby Birdman. Accordion-heavy cover of a Björk song. That said, picture perfect. I actually have my funeral playlist on iTunes (heavy on the Pogues, including "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" and "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day") and I'm putting this one on right with the rest of them. Please remove your hats.


End Credits:
"Chinese Whispers/Stereotomy II" by The Alan Parsons Project. Gotta love the Alan Parsons, the perfect soundtrack to reading comic books of the 1980s. This, the final track from Stereotomy, would make a dandy end title.

Please exit the theatre by the nearest available exit and toss your garbage into the provided bins. Thank you for coming to BullyPlex 25.