You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I promised a free iTune song to the person who suggested the best song I should be have but don’t. (And if you don’t remember, click here.) Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. But first, a little about the process.

Someone named “Niv” wrote “I love ‘Bring Me To Life’ by Evanescence. It is a very powerful song. If you have not heard it you should.” Niv, I thank you for the recommendation, and I did check that out. I can see why this song speaks to some people, but for me I have to say the goth/Christian collision skews a little younger than my demographic. (We’ll see if the Christian part becomes more interesting to me some day on my death bed, but I doubt it.)

My good friend Barry Rowell recommended “Lazy” by David Byrne. I am indeed a David Byrne fan, but here’s the problem with “Lazy” on iTunes — the full “preview window” of the song is orchestral instrumentation. Meaning that I would have to actually BUY the song to see if I wanted it for the reasons Barry gave. I decided not to, but I do have to say this piqued my interest in an album I wasn’t aware of and may go back and buy some day. (Without being able to listen to it first.)

Another good friend, Paul Crist, took to quibbling over rules like a Republican precinct captain working to suppress the rural black vote. First, he asked, “How are are we to know if you already have the song we are suggesting?” To which I responded, “You are to post — and then find out.” Then he proposed this: “I am going to try a different angle, instead of suggesting a song to get I am going to suggest a song to stay away from.” And he proposed that we not listen to bad remixes of “Werewolves of London.” Job done, Paul, I won’t — but that doesn’t tell me what I should listen to with my download voucher. So you’re disqualified.
Chris Wojcieszyn recommended This Mortal Coil’s cover of the Talking Heads song “Drugs.” Hm. That was interesting; thanks for alerting me to it. The original benefits from Brian Eno’s production and the queasy paranoia lurking beneath the entire album. The remake (and, again, I get to hear only 30 seconds) has a great slap and tickle in the bass, but overall it sounds overproduced. Still, Wojcieszyn being a man of taste, he has captured my attention with this. I wonder if he would lend me the album?

My mentor Rich Roesberg blew the deadline, but wrote: “But in case you win ANOTHER couple of songs, how about the theme from BLADERUNNER by Vangelis? I love themes from movies I love. You might also check the one from Robert Altman’s version of THE LONG GOODBYE.” Note to Rich: If you win some songs, redeem them on the soundtrack to “Grizzly Man” by Richard Thompson and compadres (with a DVD bonus feature of “Grizzly Man” showing Werner Herzog inserting himself into the proceedings). But even better, if you ever want some music so bleak and depressing that Angelo Badalamenti would have to turn it off, check out the soundtrack of “The Farmer’s Wife” by premiere David Bowie guitarist (and former bandmate of Soupy Sales’ sons) Reeves Gabrels. The documentary is concerned with a farm family struggling to make ends meet; I heard this precisely once, and about 10 years ago, and the music is still etched into my brain, like the scratches left by a drowning man. Truly depressive. And the parents in the film got divorced.

Finally, we come to Werner Trieschmann’s suggestions. Plural. Werner emailed no fewer than six (6!) suggestions, and gave as his rationale, “they’re great.” I know what you’re thinking, because it’s what I was thinking at first: Hey, he cheated. But in fact, a quick check of the contest rules reveals that I never limited entrants to one submission. Nor did I say that the rationale had to be compelling, clever, or even well-written. So what Werner has done here, in the time-honored American tradition, is show initiative. I know, we kinda hate it but we kinda love it, like having so much hubris that you say you’re not going to slum around with just one gold medal, no, you’ve got to be the Man from Atlantis and seize eight of them, helping to ensure that, say, Canada, comes away with absolutely nothing. And then doing that.

In addition to taking advantage of the slack rules so that he can carve through the water this way, Werner has assembled a compelling list of oddities. Look at this list and ask yourself about at least half of them: “Who?”

• “I Need Some Fine Wine and You need to be Nicer” by the Cardigans
• “Enough Rope” by Chris Knight (depressive but great)
• “The Sound of German Hip Hop” by Clem Snide
• “Cath…” by Death Cab for Cutie
• “Not Ready to Make Nice” by Dixie Chicks
• “Don’t Know Why” by Fleet Foxes

If I want depressive, I’ll go get that Reeves Gabrels soundtrack (see above), so that leaves out Chris Knight. “Don’t Know Why” isn’t available on iTunes. Dixie Chicks is just not me. “Cath…” is pretty good, but the Cardigans song and the Clem Snide song both really grab me. (I’m thinking Werner and I should do one of those music compatibility tests on Facebook.) It was almost impossible to choose, but here’s the thing — I’d already heard the Cardigans (anyone near a radio since the 1990’s has heard “Lovesong”), but Clem Snide was a discovery! I love the twang in the guitar, I love the offbeat lyrics, and the overall sound. I even love the name of their other songs, like “Joan Jett of Arc.” I found myself listening to more of their songs, going to the website, checking out tour dates — and learning that I had just discovered a band that had just broken up! How poignant. How like a Paul Auster novel — falling in love with some offbeat art and then almost getting to know the artist except he’s just died. (This recurring theme of something almost attained is the subject of Book of Illusions in particular.)

So I have redeemed my download on “The Sound of German Hip Hop” by Clem Snide, and awarded Werner Trieschmann the free download, I thank thank him and everyone else who entered.

Now only one question remains: What should Werner download?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.