Category: Music

Tonight we caught Billy Joel in Concert in Washington DC. It’s at least the fourth time I’ve seen Bill in concert, which put him up with the Replacements, Elvis Costello, and The Clash, for performers I’ve seen live most often.

And Billy didn’t disappoint. We were seated in the front row, behind stage right, which gave a great view of the concert, probably better than I’ve ever enjoyed. It wasn’t just that we could see Billy and his band, but it was like seeing the concert from his band’s point of view. When he looked back at his drummer with a nod or a mouthed word, we saw it. And in most cases we knew which song was coming next, because we shared Billy’s view of the teleprompter which shared his lyrics with him.

There were a few other notable moments. We could see what was obviously a hearing impaired section of the arena, where a rotation of signers worked vigorously to sign every song for their section. And an unexpected moment on the playlist came when Billy put on a guitar and brought a long-serving roadie on stage to sing “Highway to Hell”.

To my wife’s frustration, I couldn’t just enjoy the show without using the gadget on my hip to share the love. So I snapped a lot of crappy quality Treo photos, and dialed up various friends to share some live Billy with them.

Here’s who go what:

Neal – Allentown

Kenny – Goodnight Saigon
(he knows why)

Mike – Movin’ Out

Doug – Captain Jack

Marne – I Don’t Know Why I Go to Extremes
(would have been ‘Pressure’, but I was in line for a drink)

Jenny – It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me

Kevin (in Tokyo and by request) – You May Be Right

Rick – sorry man, you should have gotten ‘Big Shot’, but it was one of the few moments that I put my phone down and just listened. But I still dedicated it to you.

From among the 1,754 ‘never played’ songs in my iTunes library, and after ten weeks time to listen to their cumulative 4.4 days of playing time, Six O’Clock (the extended version) from Ringo Starr’s 1974 album Goodnight Vienna was the last remaining unplayed song in my library, and is the winner of iTunes Song Survivor.

The song was written by Paul and Linda McCartney and is, I think, a pretty good tune. It is a love song in which a man, lying next to his wife/girlfriend/lover? who has just fallen asleep at 6:00 AM, regretfully laments the fact that he doesn’t treat her as well as he should or could.

Back in February I shared my iTunes diversion for creating a ‘Never Played’ smartlist in iTunes, and then randomly listening away as song were played and removed from the list. Well, we’re down to the final 30 songs as of this afternoon, less than two hours of music left before we determine the winner of this round of iTunes Song Survivor.

Here’s a diversion I came up with for having some fun with your iTunes music library. One statistic that iTunes tracks for the songs in your library is ‘play count’, and it’s used in creating some smart playlists such as the ‘Top 25 Most Played’ list.

I’ve used it to create a different smart playlist called ‘Never Played’ (set ‘play count’ is 0, live updating = on). It gives me a list of all the songs in my library that have never been played, that automatically shrinks as soon as one of the songs in the list has been played. With that, you’re ready to play iTunes Song Survivor. Turn ‘shuffle’ on, so that iTunes plays songs in random order, and listen to your ‘Never Played’ list. One by one, your list will shrink. Which song will be last?
Of the 5,235 songs in my iTunes library, 1,754 have never been played. That’s 4.4 days worth of rarely heard cuts here on my own digital juke (currently playing ‘Goodnight Irene’ by James Booker’). I played iTunes Song Survivor once before, and found a silver lining in the corruption of my library file a few months back in that I got to start the game all over again. Stay tuned for word of the final song survivor to be announced here whenever that happens.

4/23/05 – Update – 300 Songs to go! Currently playing, “Down at the Laundrymat” from Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie by Black Randy & the Metrosquad.