workoutwednesday

A forty-minute run, a messy freeform mix. Pure in form, wayward in intention.

152 bpm 2: Back In The Fight Always Forever Now – The Passengers 200 Ans d’Hypocrisie – Les Negresses Vertes Who Is “In,” Who Is “Out” – Mick Harvey Back On The Chain Gang – The Pretenders No More Heroes – The Stranglers Open My Eyes – The Nazz Teardrop – Massive Attack with Liz Fraser Formaldehyde (Last Words Of A Lottery Loser) – Johnny Boy Lace Virginia – An Emotional Fish Transmission – Joy Division (cooldown) The Queue (edit) – Winter Equinox

Notes—brief this time, cos that’s how I’m feelin’ it:

I always though “Always Forever Now” sounded like a great movie. Too bad it’s not real; oh, Brian Eno, you scamp!

I used to be in a band that did a version of “No More Heroes.” This comes as no surprise to anybody who’s ever met me: you can’t listen to the radio for five minutes without me saying, “I used to be in a band that did this!”

The Nazz, of course, were an early Todd Rundgren outfit—the finest British Invasion band to emerge from Philadelphia. Watch your step during the guitar solo: there’s a series of wicked (and impeccably executed) time changes that might throw you. Just keep going; it all ends up on the one again.

“Teardrop” is better known these days as the theme to House. I don’t watch House, myself. I’ve seen it once or twice, and watching it with a medical professional beside you on the couch is an interesting thing. One of D’s maxims is, “When you hear hoofbeats, don’t look for zebras”—because, naturally, 99.99% of the time it’s going to be horses.

There’s a Sufi proverb that says much the same thing: “If he tells you a dog has run off with your ear, do you chase after the dog, or first look for your ear?” On House, though, it’s All Zebras, All The Time, and the dogs run in packs with ears dangling from their jaws.

In this context, “Teardrop” is in half-time—that is (to get technical), while for most of the songs in this mix the running cadence plays out the four-four pulse, here your feet are tapping eighth-notes. I think it works here to break up the monotony and give you the perception of a breather (though your pace never actually slackens).

Two songs by An Emotional Fish in as many weeks? That’s damned odd.

Actually, I remember now how that happened. I reworked this mix a while ago: originally I had a different song in this slot—Jarvis Cocker’s remake of “I’ve Just Come To Tell You That I’m Going.” It’s another one in half-time, and in the end it was just too languid, came too soon after “Teardrop,” sapped all my energy.

And it was maybe too much Gainsbourg for one mix. The thought of using Gainsbourg’s songs for self-improvement and healthy living would no doubt have horrified him, and after a while these things just collapse under the weight of their own irony.