The Gypsy List

[mangosteen]

Context: There used to be only one song which I could listen to on single repeat for hours, that being the song "Gypsy" by Suzanne Vega.

She went to the school across the street from where I went, and I feel that it gives me a little bit of extra context, at least for her earlier work (let's say, up to and including "Solitude Standing"). There was a certain amount of smug satisfaction that went along with knowing that just the night before, you inhaled a plate of gravy fries at the same place she sung about in one of her more popular songs. The fact that said place has turned into a shrine for a certain now-in-syndication television show makes it even more amusing.

Oh, for the days of guiltless gravy-fry inhalation at Tom's Restaurant (111th and B'way). It was never called "Tom's Diner", but suffixing a song with "Restaurant" has been done once in recent memory, and it stuck.

Note: It's 4am. I get to digress as much as I want. Neener.

Back to "Gypsy". I can think of times during my freshman year when that song, on single-repeat, saw me through all-night coding sessions (as freshman years are wont to require), the aftermath of a couple of psychodramas (as freshman years are wont to engender), and other times when I was feeling very alone (see previous parenthetical statement). It was ultimately comforting; a perpetual waking lullaby.

I now have another song to add to the one-song list that Gypsy was on. "Are You Out There" by Dar Williams. Same purpose, but completely different tack. Its theme is much more "I'm determined, and I'll do what I have to do", rather than "in the end, it's all okay", but it serves the same purpose; something that gets you through.

Query: What's on your "Gypsy List"?

Comments

...the arranger of disorder...

[cthulhia]

I remember the various NYC kids at school talking about eating at Tom's Diner.

My Gypsy list includes, in fact "Gypsy", "The Queen and the Soldier".

Generally, I work with whole records, not one songs. I just never took them out of the player.
In college: First two records by Suzanne Vega, Escape from Noise by Negativland, Spike by Elvis Costello, Concrete Blonde by Concrete Blonde, Deep Breakfast by Ray Lynch (before he sold it to one of the network sports programs), By senior year this included mixtapes that had most of Zero Zero by Mike Batt, and The Downward Spiral by NIN.

Re: ...the arranger of disorder...

[cos]

Deep Breakfast got sold to a network sports program????

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't think there's any one song. I had Godspell on continuous replay for a week during finals sophmore year at that place across the street, but I don't think I'd want to do it again now.

Certain songs remind me of particular people, places and times -- which is sometimes a comfort and sometimes quite the reverse. The Queen and the Soldier, already mentioned, always gets me -- I first heard it performed live by S.V. in the Macintosh Student Center.

Some of the less pretentious Ani DiFranco, which I heard the same way, works as an anthem, as does Pat Benetar's Invincible, Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take it, and whoever the hell sang Wasted Youth. They make me want to do crazy things. The Devil Went Down to Georgia makes me thing I already have, or could.

And certain songs have become meaningful to some of the characters who live in my head, so sometimes I'll listen to them to call up those people and their virtues when I need them.

But there's no one song I turn to for solace in time of trouble. Just one quote: "If one cannot be happy, one must be amused." -- Dorothy Parker.

Mer

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I can think of one song off the top of my head but I forget if I have the name right: "All About Soul" by Billy Joel. I like it.

[clauclauclaudia]

Like cthulhia, I mostly deal with whole albums. Melissa Etheridge's eponymous album. Great Big Sea, Turn. Dar Williams, Honesty Room and Mortal City.

But there are some individual songs. Vega's "Calypso". GBS, "Boston and St. John's". Right now, "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from the "Bombay Dreams" cast album.

Are You Out There

[cos]

I approach Are You Out There from a different direction. It's inspired by noncommercial radio, and that means a lot to me. I remember listening to the weird stations around Boston when I was in high school, this song brings that back. And of course, ever since, I've been immersing myself in noncommercial radio. Are You Out There mentions two of WRSI's DJ's by name - one of them is also the co-founder and president of Signature Sounds, the record label Dar is now on. It's a very "interconnected" kind of song, for me, full of familiar allusions and specific links to things I know. It's probably the Dar song I feel closest to (although "When I Was A Boy" is the one I identify with most, perhaps).

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

In high school the albums I played over and over were Phil Ochs's Here and Now: Live in Vancouver, Harry Chapin's Greatest Stories Live, Assassins the musical, and a bunch of others. I also almost wore out my double sided tape that had Reflecting and At the Bitter End by the Chad Mitchell Trio on it.

Lately there's a lot of Dar Williams in the rotation, Great Big Sea's Road Rage Album figures fairly heavily.

In college I'd have to say it was Glass Houses by Billy Joel and American Pie by Don McLean (if you leave off the title track) and the same can be said of the Alice's Restaurant album by Arlo Guthrie.

*hugs*
LMG

[tb]

I am cross that Tom's has changed ice cream brands and no longer makes the best milkshakes in NYC. Their Broadway shake (or malted if you're perverse that way) was worth a detour even when we were just crossing the GWB on the way to or from a con. Now, between the lame shakes and the demise of Zula, we hardly ever hit that neighborhood when we eat New York; the chocolate chip mufins at Columbia Bagel just aren't enough of a draw on their own. So it goes.

[mangosteen]

Broadway Shakes???

Gone?!?!??!!

Aw, man.....

[tb]

Broadway shakes aren't gone, they just aren't as good as they used to be (in my and a.'s opinion). You'll have to judge for yourself next time you're in the neighborhood.

At least Kinoko remained a good source of Too Much Fish last time we went, and the price had dropped as well. But we will no longer be tooling uptown from there for dessert.