Darth Pazuzu

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Member Since: 9/24/2007
Total Mixes: 338
Total Feedback: 427

PAZUZU MIX #63:
Keeping An Eye On The World Going By My Window

Side A
Artist Song
Thin Lizzy  Are You Ready (live version) (1984) 
Motorhead  Dead Men Tell No Tales (1979) 
Rollins Band  On The Day (2000) 
Metallica  Slither (1997) 
W.A.S.P.  The Flame (1984) 
White Zombie  More Human Than Human (1995) 
Alice Cooper  I'm Eighteen (1970) 
The Jimi Hen-drix Experience  Hey Joe (1967) 
The Rolling Stones  Get Off Of My Cloud (1965) 
Lynyrd Skynyrd  Workin' For MCA (1974) 
King's X  Everybody Knows A Little Bit Of Something (1989) 
The James Gang  Woman (1970) 
Iron Maiden  Running Free (1980) 
Judas Priest  Hell Bent For Leather (1978) 
The Ramones  Rock 'N' Roll High School (from Rock 'N' Roll High School) (1979) 
John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band  Love (1970) 
Manic Street Preachers  Solitude Sometimes Is (2004) 
Jane's Addiction  Everybody's Frien-d (2003) 
Robert Plant  I Believe (1993) 
Van Der Graaf (Generator)  Sci-Finance (live version) (1978) 
Bob Dylan  Buckets Of Rain (1975) 
Side B
ArtistSongBuy
Pearl Jam  Breakerfall (2000) 
Guns N' Roses  Out Ta Get Me (1987) 
Megadeth  Angry Again (from Last Action Hero) (1993) 
The Beatles  I'm Only Sleeping (1966) 
Black Sabbath  A Hard Road (1978) 
Van Halen  Girl Gone Bad (1984) 
Screaming Trees  Smokerings (1988) 
Montrose  Ready Willing And Able (1987) 
The Clash  The Street Parade (1980) 
Mott The Hoople  Sweet Angeline (1972) 
Nirvana  Drain You (1991) 
The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello)  California's Dark (2007) 
Journey  Just The Same Way (1979) 
Peter Hammill  If I Could (1978) 
At The Drive-In  Pickpocket (1998) 
Corrosion Of Conformity  Fuel (1996) 
Pantera  The Sleep (1990) 
Blue Oyster Cult  This Ain't The Summer Of Love (1976) 
MC5  Skunk (Sonicly Speaking) (1971) 
Harry Nilsson  I'll Never Leave You (1971) 

Comment:

There's one thing I forgot to mention in my comments for MIX #62: At this particular point in time, I have put together 63 mixes (or 126 CD's!), but believe it or not, until MIX #62, I haven't yet managed to use up all the tracks on one single album (which I suppose is a testament to my desire not to be too repetitive within the confines of any one mix, never repeating the same artist twice)...that is, until now! :-) In my last mix, I used Van Der Graaf Generator's Still Life and Yes' And You And I. So now, I've completely "eliminated" Van Der Graaf's '76 Still Life and Yes' '72 Close To The Edge albums! And it looks like MC5's '71 High Time might be the next one to get used up...

Now, then...on to more current matters! Well, MIX #63 certainly came out...interesting, to say the least! A bit of a shapeshifter, this one. Both discs o-pen up with guns blazing, rocking up a molten-metal storm (especially Disc #1, where we are subjected to a six-song high-voltage barrage from Lynott, Lemmy, Rollins, Jaymz, Blackie and Zombie). And then there's the double-barreled blast of moshpit fury from ATDI and COC in the latter part of Disc #2!

However, this mix also has its fair share of quiet spots. For example, the latter part of Disc #1 consists mostly of ballads of one kind or another, such as Love (from Lennon's official solo debut - not counting the experimental Unfinished Music discs with Yoko), and a couple of little-known beauties from the Manics and Jane's. Disc #1 concludes with the gentle Buckets Of Rain, the closer from Dylan's Blood On The Tracks. And on Disc #2, we get the lovely If I Could, a solo number from Van Der Graaf Generator frontman Peter Hammill.

And the mighty Van Der Graaf itself puts in an appearance toward the en-d of Disc #1, with a scorching number from their '78 live set Vital. Sci-Finance is heavy and menacing, bordering on metallic. Hammill's lyrics are a witty indictment of the excesses and absurdities of unbridled capitalism for its own sake, containing wonderful lines such as "You made some pretty deals along the way / Judas and Faust are in accord / When the revolution comes you may be blown away / But I bet you'll en-d up on the board" and "Now, there is silence on the floor / Clever money-computers chatter privately / No people any more," followed by the damning refrain "Only the money!" And Hammill's vocal delivery, although faux-operatic in places, is nothing less than pure punk rage. (It's no accident that Van Der Graaf was one of the few prog-rock bands that English punk rockers such as John Lydon had any respect for.)

Also, in retrospect, I'm not 100% convinced of my own wisdom in using Harry Nilsson's I'll Never Leave You as the closer, but I've always had a sort of weird attachment to that particular song. It's this very odd, yet lilting and sentimental, ballad which concludes the '71 Nilsson Schmilsson album (from which I've also used Without You, Coconut, and Jump Into The Fire on prior mixes). It's got some very unexpected chord changes, and toward the en-d there's an unexpected rhythmic shift from 4/4 to 3/4 time.

Another interesting thing is the fact that the Screaming Trees' Smokerings is one of three songs I know of which make mention of "cold steel rails." Mott The Hoople's All The Way From Memphis has the line "Now it's a mighty long way down the dusty trail / And the sun burns hot on the cold steel rails," and the Screaming Trees' Smokerings has the line "Ice-cold kiss on a cold steel rail." And if you'll remember, the title track from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here invokes the same image: "Can you tell a green field / From a cold steel rail / A smile from a veil?"

Feedback:

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Darth Pazuzu
Date: 3/17/2008
There are a few more comments regarding the Nilsson Schmilsson album that I wanted to make in the comments section, but I exceeded the 4000-character mark and had to shorten things up. Anyway...:

When I was just a little kid, Nilsson Schmilsson was one of many albums in my mom's (and grandma's) record collection that I enjoyed listening to. And for some reason I always felt a strange sadness when Nilsson sings "I'll never leave you,", probably because I've never felt confident in anyone's ability to keep that sort of promise. Whether out of weakness or simply our own mortality, everybody ends up leaving you sooner or later. And I've always felt this to be true long before my own mother and both of my grandfathers passed away. (I am also reminded of the character Louis Ironson abandoning his gravely sick lover Prior Walter in Tony Kushner's Angels In America.) I guess I was worldly-wise long before I should have been (ha, ha). One thing's for sure: Nowadays, I very rarely ever cry at anybody's passing on anymore, and there are times when I really wonder whether that's a good thing or not... :-(

Oh well, enough autobiography! ;-)
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Darth Pazuzu
Date: 3/18/2008
I know I've said it once before, and now I have occasion to say it again. To wit:

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!

A few words of clarification:
I originally put Mott The Hoople's All The Way From Memphis as the second song on Disc #2 of this mix. Unfortunately... *SIGH* It turned out that I had actually used that song already on an earlier mix (MIX #45, to be exact). How embarrassing! I mean, me, of all people, who prides himself on never ever repeating a track throughout his own mixes!

Oh well, nobody's perfect, I guess! Anyway...Last night, I revised the tracklisting, removing All The Way From Memphis from the #2 spot and inserting another Mott song, Sweet Angeline, into the #10 spot. Problem solved! :-)
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mahdishain
Date: 3/18/2008
for All the way from Memphis you could make an exception.
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Darth Pazuzu
Date: 3/19/2008
I guess I could have make an exception, but I'm a bit of a purist about these things. :-)