The Story: 5 in 60

With some technical support from Gdog, I managed to put together (finally) this mp3 compilation. Someone once told me I was good at mix tapes. Anyway I had some constraints: 1) a storyline in the music that's obvious to everybody who's told the "actual" story; 2) one song per artist; 3) mix up the genres; 4) be non-obvious. An alternative version with a slightly different emphasis appears, where different, in ital. Song then band.

1. Booze Me Up and Get Me High - Ween : All Night Thing - Temple of the Dog
2. Get Me Off - Basement Jaxx : Love Life - Fatboy Slim
3. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire
4. Let's Get High (Reach out and touch the sky mix) - Lords of Acid & Rob Swift
5. Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix Experience
6. Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash [okay, missed on #4. whatever.]
7. Sweet Surrender - Sarah McLachlan : Serene - Throwing Muses
8. I Think - Days of the New : Substitute for Love - Madonna
9. Angel - Massive Attack
10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her - Simon & Garfunkel
11. Bigmouth Strikes Again - Placebo : My Own Worst Enemy - Lit
12. Forfeit - Chevelle
13. (I can't get no) Satisfaction - PJ Harvey & Bjork version
14. Love me Two Times - The Doors
15. It's A Motherfucker - Eels : Missing You - Slowdive
16. Plump - Hole : Cry - Siouxie and the Banshees
17. That Day - Poe
18. Let You Down - Dave Matthews Band : Dose - Filter
19. Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne : Baby, Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan version
20. Stand Inside Your Love - Smashing Pumpkins : Perfect from Now On - Built to Spill
21. Be My Wife - David Bowie
22. The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
23. So - Static-X : Aeroplane - Red Hot Chili Peppers
24. Bring Me Up - Lisa Loeb
25. Save Yourself - Stabbing Westward
26. Crucify (single remix version) - Tori Amos
27. Losing A Whole Year - Third Eye Blind
28. Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
29. Swallow the Knife - Story of the Year : Until the Day I Die - Story of the Year
30. Walk on the Ocean - Toad the Wet Sprocket : Honeyboom in Samsara - Star Sutra
31. Pretty Deep - Tanya Donelly
32. Cumbersome - 7 Mary 3
33. Col - Morcheeba
34. The Patient - Tool
35. Blow Up the Outside World - Soundgarden : Purple Rain - Prince
36. Pieces - My Vitriol
37. Demolition Lovers - My Chemical Romance [i got yer emo right here] : Clumsy - Our Lady Peace
38. I Just Wanna Get Along - The Breeders : Do You Love Me Now? - The Breeders
39. The Scientist - Coldplay
40. Naked As We Came - Iron & Wine
41. Laser Beam - Low
42. Baggage - L7 : Absentimental - Norma Jean
43. Creep - Stone Temple Pilots : Brena - A Perfect Circle [worse: "creep" by radiohead]
44. Drain You - Nirvana
45. The Fragile - Nine Inch Nails
46. Elite - Deftones
47. Into Dust - Mazzy Star : Lose my Breath - My Bloody Valentine
48. Hands of Time - Groove Armada
49. Over Now - Alice In Chains
50. Cannonball - Damien Rice : Sugarless - Autolux
51. How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead : Divorce Song - Liz Phair
52. Gone to the Movies - Semisonic
53. I Had My Chance - Morphine
54. Wishing Well - Porno for Pyros : The Speed of Pain - Marilyn Manson
55. I Miss You - Incubus : Stop Coming to My House - Mogwai
56. Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
57. Velvet Divorce - Sneaker Pimps : Another Girl - Jeffrey Lewis
58. Summertime - Nick Drake version : Summer Breeze - Seals & Crofts
59. Twilight - Elliot Smith : Are You Still Mad - Alanis Morissette
60. 25 - Veruca Salt : First Breath After Coma - Explosions In The Sky

Writer Stephen King was run down by a car in the 90's, and for a decade after that (more or less) it appeared in his writing in one way or another. It seems fair to me to suppose that this is the way a lot of things make their way into writing: scenes and themes that reappear are welling up from the author's attempt to assimilate recalcitrant experiences into her identity. Thus we all here are, I think, working from viewpoints that reflect our current obsessions (read: neuroses). benobo's are obvious, and fizhburn is in the mode of hashing out a peculiar naturalistic philosophy that I think even he does not know the extent of. Anyway, for those of you with interweb piracy expertise or large libraries either one and are happy puzzling out, puzzle out with the above soundtrack.

And in the winter of your twenty-fifth year the cold root of your heart will respire brisk new air. Yay for mixed metaphors!