Natalie from over at Mini-Obs posted an interesting exercise today - a Build A Best Of:
The idea - Pick one of your favorite bands / artists and list 10-15 songs by that band / artist to compile your own best of compilation.
What a fabulous idea really. I've never really been a fan of the commercially available best of or greatest hits collections. My tastes tend to run a bit different than the norm and I am always lamenting the exclusion of my particular and often obscure favorites. If I could build my own that wouldn't be a problem.
I guess I've been doing this on mix tapes, CDs and now custom playlists for a long time now. I've got faves lists for a lot of artists created in my trusty Yahoo unlimited or in Winamp.
So here is a new feature - The Build Your Own Best Of list. Each week (yeah right - more likely whenever I think about it) I'll choose an artist and then list the songs I feel would make the definitive Best Of Collection. You might be surprised.
Today (and in response to Nat's list of Zep Faves) here is what would be on The Best of Led Zeppelin if I had anything to say about it....
Tuesday, January 29. 2008
Build Your Own Best Of - or - Why I Always Choose The Orange Bowl
- Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
- When The Levee Breaks
- The Rain Song
- No Quarter
- Custard Pie
- In My Time of Dying
- In The Light
- Ten Years Gone
- Achilles Last Stand
- For Your Life
- Nobody's Fault But Mine
- Hots On For Nowhere
- Tea For One
- I'm Gonna Crawl
So what the hell does all this have to do with choosing an orange bowl. Good question really.
Over the weekend my wife went shopping and picked up some new dishes for the daycare. They are pretty nifty bowls with straws attached to them - handy for cereal or soup and such. I noticed that she had bought 4 of them, 3 of them red and one of them orange. Thinking I know anything about kids, my first thought was that they would all would fight over the orange bowl. Gina corrected me and said that they would all want the same color as the others and that the orange bowl would always be the last one chosen.
Me, I get tired of seeing the red bowl, everyone wants the red bowl. The orange bowl is sometimes better than the red bowl but we've been told to listen to - err I mean use, the red bowl so that must be the better one.
Given the choice, I'll usually always pick the orange bowl - I guess I'm just an orange bowl kind of guy.
Yeah - I don't understand that analogy either. I mean it makes sense, but.... OK - how about this one. All the shiny stuff might be at the top, but if you dig deeper you'll find the real treasures. Is that better?
Cheers!
SB
Love the story of the bowl and how you tied it in. Excellent.
Back when I worked at my high school radio station, we always had a laugh at the cover of Presence as someone had transformed the monolith into a bong - it sure changed the photo to see the family sitting around it....
SB
We even talked about how you would choose the orange bowl, and still I didn't even think about the sippy bowls!!!
But you are absolutely right about being the "orange bowl guy!" You are a free thinker (especially when it comes to music) and you will not be told what are the best songs...you will always choose your own faves. Nor will you go with the popular opinion. That's just you.
You believe that there is something special to be found down the road less traveled...(maybe that's why you like me...! OMG...you married the orange bowl!) Anyway, it was a perfect analogy to explain how you evaluate music and discover what you find personally appealing, independently of the masses.
I like that about you.