It's a Gift

Or a curse. As an adjunct to being the Cliff Claven of rock/pop trivia, I can compile a themed song list for about any occasion.

I ran out of rack space for new CDs a few months back, so I decided to whittle things down a bit by combining some artists onto a single greatest hits disc, taking older CDs that clock in at 30 and putting two on one CD, gathering one hit wonders together, etc.

I also create custom covers for these CDs I make, and I've found Flickr to be a fecund source for pictures.

I told you that to tell you this: I've never been much of a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. Even though I love the riff on "Sweet Home Alabama", the swipe at Neil Young's anti-racism song always stuck in my craw. If I ever take hostages and you need to blast sound at me to rattle my cage, you couldn't do much better than "Freebird." So, when it came time to combine the lovely wife's Skynyrd CDs into one, I serendipitously found this photo you see on the right. (Here's a link to the unaltered original.)

Well, I felt it was only fair to tell the photographer, Michaelia, of my desecration. But then it made me start thinking of what kind of song list would be appropriate for a CD with that cover, provided that the compiler didn't have it in for Lynyrd.

And here it is (yes these are all real songs and groups):

She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - Beatles
Yellow River - Christie
Mellow Yellow - Donovan
Whoomp! (There It Is) - Tag Team
It's a Monster - Extreme
World of Shit - Eels
Feels So Good - Chuck Mangione
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Moon River - Henry Mancini
Splish Splash - Bobby Darrin
Kick It Out - Heart
Lump - Presidents of the United States of America
Let You Go - Big Mountain
I Can't Let Go - Head
Over the Falls - Primus (from "The Brown Album")
You Treat Me Like Chocolate - 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (from the album "Gaslight")
Swallow My Gift/Farm Noises/Folsom Prison Blues - 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (from the album "Other Ways of Speaking")
Pressure Drop - Toots & the Maytals
Bam Bam - Toots & the Maytals
Floater - The Cruel Sea
Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

My mother would be so proud. (Actually, because she's aware of my gift/curse, I got the job of putting together CDs for her casino. They were quite the hit, she informs me.)