My Music Collection on Shuffle

I sometimes see people posting about how broad their musical tastes are. “Ooo, look how random my playlist is!” they say when there’s a mixture of hip-hop, pop, and rock. Maybe there’s even a country song!

They don’t know what musical diversity is.

The insanity that occurs when I put all the songs in my Apple Music collection on shuffle borders on the humorous.

I have a large assortment of songs that play at Disney theme parks around the world, which I’ve collected for many years. One of the reasons I prefer Apple Music to other services is that I can upload tracks like that that are not available for streaming into iTunes and play them right alongside streamable ones. (I think YouTube Music has that feature too.) I also frequently upload my own works in progress so that I can take them on the road with me. 

I will admit that there are gaps. I’m human. I have my preferences. You’re not going to find a lot of hip-hop or rap, contemporary pop is underrepresented, and though there is hard rock I don’t think I have any metal. I lean pretty heavily into the acoustic genres (folk, Americana, singer-songwriters), music from my formative era (60s, 70s, 80s), and the aforementioned theme park tunes.

So I put my songs on shuffle today and it was no surprise that Disney made a couple of appearances. Here are the first ten songs that came up:

• “Goodnight Ladies” from the now-closed Splash Mountain area at Disney World, an instrumental bluegrass version.

• “The Devil is an Englishman” by Thomas Dolby, a bonus track from his album “The Flat Earth” which originally appeared on the soundtrack of the film “Gothic.” This is a weird and humorous rap track that I don’t think I’ve ever even heard before. (There are quite a few things I’ve added over the years that I haven’t gotten around to, especially in bonus tracks.)

• “Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 13 (Arr. for Violin and Piano): III. Allegro moderato” by lesser-known German Romantic composer Friedrich Seitz, performed by Takako Nishizaki & Terence Dennis. OK, I don’t even remember adding this album to my collection. But it’s lovely! I’ll have to listen to the rest sometime.

• “Skate” by Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, & Silk Sonic. Gorgeous 70s-style soul. Do yourself a favor and listen to this whole album, “An Evening with Silk Sonic.”

• “Dueling Banjos” but not the original version. It’s a Middle Eastern-sounding arrangement that used to play at the (now defunct) restaurant Aladdin’s Oasis in Disneyland. It’s kind of hilarious.

• “Levon” by Elton John. A true classic.

• “Rock Point Lane - Jig” by Séamus Connolly. Here’s another example of something you won’t find on streaming services. I downloaded this from the website The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music which is hosted by Boston College. It’s a wonderful resource for traditional Celtic music.

• “Gone” by John Hiatt, from his rootsy album “Crossing Muddy Waters.” Bluegrass-influenced Americana.

• “Hero” by contemporary British singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka. This kind of sounds like a record from the early 70s but it’s only from 2019. If you like new music in an old style, you owe it to yourself to listen to Kiwanuka.

• “Can’t See Me in This Light” by Rich Krueger, a terrific singer-songwriter from Chicago who also happens to be a pediatrician! (A neonatologist, to be exact.) It’s from his self-released album “Life Ain’t That Long.”

Honestly, this shuffle came out a little less varied than it often does, being pretty heavy on folk-influenced stuff. I love having juxtapositions like a Stephen Sondheim Broadway show song followed by Foo Fighters. I remember once getting a Paul McCartney song, followed by a Beatles song, followed by McCartney playing a Beatles song live. So maybe the randomness isn’t always that random.

But today’s list made for a really nice listen, the Thomas Dolby track being the real wild card. I’m always surprised when Richard Thompson doesn’t come up, since I have so much of his music.

Maybe next time.