1. “Silence” by Delerium fea. Sarah McLachlan
   from Karma
2. “I Burn for You” by Sting
   from Bring on the Night
3. “Sampson” by Regina Spektor
   from Begin to Hope
4. “Why Georgia” by John Mayer
   from Room for Squares
5. “Thank U” by Alanis Morissette
   from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
6. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 – First Movement (Allegro)
   by Philip Pickett and New London Consort
7. “Darkness” by The Police
   from Ghost In The Machine
8. “Dream On” by Aerosmith
   from Aerosmith
9. “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam
   from Ten
10. “Magic” by Colbie Caillat
    from Coco
     
    [Apparently I don't have this mp3 on the server...I'll fix this ASAP]
     
11. “I Will Possess Your Heart” by Death Cab for Cutie
    from Narrow Stairs
12. “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol
    from Eyes Open
13. “All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints” by Paul Simon
    from Graceland
14. “Don’t Let Go” by Bryan Adams (With Sarah McLachlan)
    from the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack
15. Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade – IV Movement – “Festival at Baghdad”
    by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic
16. “Porcelain” by Moby
    from Play
17. “Old Blue Chair” by Kenny Chesney
    from Be As You Are
18. “Breakdown” by Jack Johnson
    from In Between Dreams
19. “Silent All These Years” by Tori Amos
    from Little Earthquakes
20. “Idaho” by Train
    from Train

So, without further ado, here’s a music meme I stole from Taoist Biker and Lara David.

The rules are simple:

• Put your MP3 player on shuffle for ALL songs.
• Post the first four lines from the first twenty songs that play, no matter how embarrassing; skip repeat artists.
• Let everyone guess in the comments what songs and artists are on the list.
• Remind everyone NOT to be dirty rotten cheaters who google the answers.

I’m not embarrassed by any of my end results, but I did have a problem where several of my random items were instrumental…I thought about it for a while and decided that I’d post an mp3 of those songs, and let people guess the composer and title.

1. Give me release, witness me
   I am outside, give me peace
   Heaven holds a sense of wonder
   and I wanted to believe that I’d get caught up when the rage in me subsides
    
2. Now that I have found you
   in the cool of your evening smile
   the shade of your parasol
   and your love flows through me
    
3. You are my sweetest downfall
   I loved you first, I loved you first
   Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
   I have to go, I have to go
    
4. I am driving up 85 in the
   kind of morning that lasts all afternoon
   just stuck inside the gloom.
   Four more exits to my apartment but
    
5. how ’bout getting off of these antibiotics
   how ’bout stopping eating when I’m full up
   how ’bout them transparent dangling carrots
   how ’bout that ever elusive kudo
7. I can dream up schemes when I’m sitting in my seat
   I don’t see any flaws ’til I get to my feet
   I wish I never woke up this morning
   Life was easy when it was boring
    
8. Every time I look in the mirror
   all these lines on my face getting clearer
   the past is gone
   it goes by like dusk to dawn
    
9. At home drawing pictures of mountain tops
   with him on top, lemon yellow sun, arms raised in a “V”
   and the dead lay in pools of maroon below.
   Daddy didn’t give attention
    
10. You’ve got magic inside your finger tips
    it’s leaking out all over my skin.
    Every time that I get close to you
    you’re making me weak with
     
11. How I wish you could see the potential,
    the potential of you and me.
    It’s like a book elegantly bound,
    but in a language that you can’t read just yet.
     
12. We’ll do it all, everything, on our own.
    We don’t need anything, or anyone.
    If I lay here, if I just lay here,
    would you lie with me and just forget the world?
     
13. Over the mountain
    Down in the valley
    Lives a former talk-show host
    Everybody knows his name
     
14. I can’t believe this moment’s come
    It’s so incredible that we’re alone
    There’s so much to be said and done
    It’s impossible not to be overcome
16. In my dreams I’m dying all the time
    Then I wake, it’s kaleidoscopic mind
    I never meant to hurt you
    I never meant to lie
     
17. There’s a blue rocking chair, sitting in the sand.
    Weathered by the storms and well oiled hands.
    It sways back and fourth with the help of the winds.
    It seems to always be there, like an old trusted friend.
     
18. I hope this old train breaks down
    then I could take a walk around
    and see what there is to see
    time is just a melody.
     
19. Excuse me, but can I be you for a while?
    My dog won’t bite if you sit real still.
    I got the anti-Christ in the kitchen yellin’ at me again.
    Yeah I can hear that.
     
20. Texas, are you my friend?  You live so close to me.
    Texas, are you my friend?  ‘Cause I’m afraid of you.
    Hey, Maine! Hey, you’re a little to high for me.
    And F-L-A, you’re just a little too low.

I don’t remember exactly what I was there to get.  Something by Nirvana or Sting or Nine Inch Nails or Damn Yankees or…or something.  What I was NOT there to buy was acoustic guitar music.

I listened to the music coming from the speakers with very conflicted emotions.  On one hand, at one level, I had an incredibly visceral reaction to it.  It touched my emotions directly without going down the usual path of stories and words.

On the other hand, it was really unlike anything else in my music collection.  I couldn’t really parse it’s “cool” factor without some kind of frame of reference.  I was a teenage boy who lived in a dormitory with all my peers.  We basically had two groups, rocker/metal/grunge listeners and country music listeners. The two groups didn’t particularly get along, and teenage boys aren’t very good at social independence…so ultimately I walked out of the store without buying anything.

Thirty minutes later I walked back in, laid down my twenty bucks, and walked out with a two-disk CD collection that has been a staple of my music library for almost two decades.

For the rest of my high school experience (and on into “real life”) I pretty much exemplified eclectic tastes in music, books, and pretty much any other media you can think of or define.  While many things contribute to my overall tastes and preferences, that moment in a Sam Goody was a watershed event in my musical development.

So it was no surprise that on Saturday evening, as I was taking pictures of an Oregon coast sunset, my iPod was gently playing the first disk on repeat.

For starters, I was listening to George Winston play “Peace” as I took the following shots.

And then Michael Hedges’ “Aerial Boundaries” came on at almost exactly the right moment.

Based entirely on the theme of the music, I hope you can see why it was so moving as I was taking the following photos:

And then, because album repeat is a beautiful thing, Will Ackerman’s “Bricklayer’s Beautiful Daughter” began to play as the last strains of light fell on the coast.

If I ever get married again, AND I get to have any say in the whole event, I’d like to have an outdoor wedding at sunset.  On a beach.  And this is the music I would like to have played as the bride’s processional.

It captured the moment of my last shots so perfectly I couldn’t walk away until the song had ended.