Originally written on Apr 1st, 2005.
Tonight I sat down and spent some of my last free Pepsi iTunes and I have to say that one of the most addictive features of the iTunes Store is the iMixes. These are collections of songs that iTunes users have put together and shared. It’s a great way to find songs that you never would have known about otherwise, and it also feels personal. It reminds me of the days back in high school, where I would let a fellow classmate listen to what was playing on my Walkman. You know before the iPod, there were these things that played audio tapes. Yeah, it is kind of ancient. I’ve had at least 30 different Walkmans though and only one iPod, so I’m definitely Old School. Anyway, back to iMixes… it sort of does make MP3 personal, cause you share your tastes with complete strangers and is not that what enjoying music is suppose to be about, you know the tribal dance, the unity of the beat, the connection to the same notes.
I was listening to this one iMix, The Great Cover Up Conspiracy, and they were all coversongs done by mostly women and I thought of my friend KJ and how amazing Tori Amos is. Her version of Enjoy the Silence is just haunting, it gives the song more meaning than the original ever did for me. There is a similar rendition of Comfortably Numb that hits better than the Pink Floyd version too; it does not rock, but it feels really deep. Sheryl Crow’s Gold Dust Woman has some nice guitar work, but by now Stevie Nick’s tenaciously harsh vocal is so ingrained in me, that I can’t forget it even if I tried to.
Needless to say I feel like a chick after hearing this iMix, and that’s just a horrible feeling for a guy.