The A-Z Playlist

Not my hand, nor my iPod

A local radio station here every spring plays through the A-Z of Rock. They play their music library in alphabetical order, starting with the As and stopping... when they are done.

Being the kind of person who likes alphabetical order, I thought, I could do this with all my music on my iPod. It's been an interesting listening experiment that's taken a couple of weeks to get through all the way.

The drawback of this idea is multiple version of the same song, either by the same person, or a different person and they all get played back to back. I listened to three "Come Fly With Me" versions in a row -- Sinatra, Sinatra Duets and Michael Buble. Shortly after that, I had three "Cry Me a Rivers" -- Diana Krall, Michael Buble and Harry Connick Jr. This is the fallback of enjoying the Great American Songbook/Jazz Standards. This problem happened throughout.. "I've Got You Under My Skin" was another one with a whopping five versions.

The other problem with this idea was when the song that came next was NOT appropriate for where my head was.

For example, I'm happily in the Fs, when the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis comes up. Beautiful piece of classical music. Also happens to be my go-to music when I can't sleep. Of course, the Fantasia pops up about 3 p.m. at work when I need to be concentrating, not nodding off. The reverse was as equally true -- when something loud and bangy came on and I was trying to keep a train of thought on the tracks.

I'm still working my way through this project, in the middle Ns at this point. Looking forward to getting back to the regular shuffle feature.