1/31/2007

Personal Quaker Playlist

I've just listened to Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth on CD. It's definitely an interesting experience to be listening in the car and thinking, "D'oh! I want to copy that passage down!" I liked it so much I borrowed the hard copy from the library today. It says a lot that, in my mind at least, would go toward bridging the perceived gaps between theist and nontheist Friends. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to go through the printed text and may not for a while.

Meanwhile, I was noodling around with the concept of a PQP (personal Quaker playlist) the other day. Here's what I came up with:
  • "Beginning to See the Light," Velvet Underground
  • "I Saw the Light," Hank Williams
  • "Green Light," Sonic Youth
  • "The Sheltering Sky," King Crimson
  • "St. Elmo's Fire," Brian Eno
  • "Evening Star," Brian Eno and Robert Fripp
  • "Moonlight in Glory," Ruth Bligen (from St. John's Island, N.C.); sampled on Byrne & Eno's track of the same name on "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"
  • etc.
Or maybe it should start with ocean of darkness side first...
  • "R.O.D.," The Fall ("Realm of Dusk," that is...)
  • "New Face in Hell," The Fall
  • "The Lost Soul," The Watson Family
  • and so on
It's just a start. I know there's a lot more I should add, but I'm a little out of practice of DJing... and I don't have an ipod thingy.

(Here's a very different take by snarky and irreverent SFGate columnist Mark Morford: "What's on Jesus' iPod?")

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quaker playlist-- great idea!

I was thinking of the same thing a few weeks ago, but a little different: songs about friendship, to remind me of Friends.

Unknown said...

Good thinking Chris - I am going to have to play around with some ideas and see if I can make a playlist for my ipod - maybe a convergent friends warm-up cd I could listen to on the plane to FWCC!?! When I used to run track we'd listen to Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" before we'd go out for the meet. Something to get your really pumped up! It's okay for Quakers to get excited right?

Suzy said...

You should somehow post this challenge of a PQP at quakeryouth.org and see what you get.

Anonymous said...

Eek! How to respond? If I even started to make a list, I would do nothing else for about the next three or four days. This is only, like, my life's work... I've often thought of having a Quaker music blog, except that I can't find a way to completely reconcile music sharing with integrity, short of setting up recording equipment and only singing the songs myself. So up to this point, I've made mix CDs for Friends here and there.

Try looking at Peter Blood and Annie Patterson's website for their page of Quaker musicians, at:
http://www.quakersong.org/quakers_and_music/

And of course, I'd be happy to make another mix CD. Maybe that should be my assignment for Quaker heritage day?

Chris M. said...

Thanks for the comments! If I had any idea it was going to be posted to QuakerQuaker, I would've spent a little more time on it. Anyway, it was just a lark inspired by listening to the Velvet Underground on a CD I got from the library. (I have a couple of VU records on vinyl; they won't play in the car!)

Suzy, I'm not sure I qualify as QuakerYouth any more. And (for vanity's sake) I would want to update my list so there wouldn't be so much 1980s progressive rockist stuff! ("I'm Losing My Edge" by LCD Soundsystem would be the relevant backing track here.)

Lisa, yes, it IS your life's work, keep it up, don't take time to put it in a blogpost unless it makes your heart sing!

-- Chris M.

-- Chris M.

Anonymous said...

Chris, if you're interested in any other Karen Armstrong books, I have many I would recommend. She's one of my favorite authors. I haven't read the book you mentioned, I keep waitinig for 1/2 price books to have a copy!
Jodi

Anonymous said...

bah! i just finished the spiral staircase by karen armstrong, and it really really spoke to my condition, and i decided to read more of her stuff. i went to the library website last night to put stuff on hold, but i said, "let's be reasonable" and decided not to get the myth book because i was getting so much else by her. but apparently that is good, too!? so much to read! i love it, but it is hard, too.