Rob Conroy

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Member Since: 1/22/2001
Total Mixes: 629
Total Feedback: 9267
  • Submit Date: 9/8/2004
  • Format: CD
  • Category: Theme

It's my wife and it's my life: songs of smack and devotion

Artist Song
The Only Ones  Another Girl, Another Planet 
The La's  There She Goes 
The Rolling Stones  Monkey Man 
Tim Buckley*  "All we are saying is give smack a chance... " 
The Beatles  Happiness is a Warm Gun 
Tim Hardin  Red Balloon 
Rickie Lee Jones  Magazine 
Spacemen 3  Walkin' with Jesus 
Blur  Beetlebum 
The Ramones  53rd & 3rd 
Elliott Smith  Needle in the Hay 
Bert Jansch  Needle of Death 
The Velvet Underground  Heroin 
Suede  The Living Dead 
Dirty Three  Some Summers They Drop Like Flys 
Love  Signed D.C. 
The Heartbreakers  Chinese Rocks 
Lynyrd Skynyrd  The Needle and the Spoon 
Peter Fonda*  "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do..." 
Iggy Pop  Turn Blue 
Grant Hart  The Main 
Neil Young  The Needle and the Damage Done 

Comment:

* = spoken clip. Stop me if you've heard this one before (I can't imagine that I'm the first person here to do this, but can't recall seeing another mix with exactly this theme), but this is a backhanded tribute to heroin and its contribution to much of the music that I love and adore (I can't say that the drug has done much for anyone who actually uses it, but its musical dividends have paid off for those of us who participate vicariously through such tunes). Nothing in the way of massive obscurities here, but the tracks obviously tell a tale. Title from the VU track, obviously.

Feedback:

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Slack-a-gogo
Date: 9/8/2004
Wow - I never knew the horse could be so melodic! Nicely played sir. I didn't know "There She Goes" and "Another Girl" were smack songs. Are you planning a second volume or are you just going to go cold turkey?-Dale
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p the swede
Date: 9/8/2004
nasty
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The Misfit
Date: 9/8/2004
Great idea, great mix!
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French Connection
Date: 9/8/2004
Apologies in advance for asking Rob but where's The Stranglers Golden Brown? Great mix filthy substance!
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James Jackson
Date: 9/8/2004
Quite a ballsy mix, but a damn good one.
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McDonald12
Date: 9/8/2004
Great mix, Rob. If I was doing a mix about heroin, then these are the songs which would undoubtedly be there. I am an advocate of complete freedom where drugs are concerned, but must say this is one substance I have never tried and never plan to neither. You only have to look at what it's done to many of our musical heroes to see it's effects. Also, these songs ain't particularly happy, much as I love them. That should be a hint and half for anyone wanting to dabble.
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Mr. Mirage
Date: 9/8/2004
Balls, son, sheer balls. Now, howzabout one on my side of town: LSD?
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Sean Lally
Date: 9/8/2004
As a junkie, I give this my abnormally thin thumbs-up. Oh, I kid. I don't know - heroin is so easily romanticized, and yet every junkie I've ever known was about the most fucked up person I could imagine. It had better feel that good to change your life so dramatically.
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Rob Conroy
Date: 9/8/2004
FYI, I have absolutely no desire to ever try heroin, nor do I encourage anyone else to do so (see Lally's comments re: junkies that he's known, esp since a lot of those folks overlap in our lives). I was just saying that it's inspired a lot of great songs and (sadly) has been a musical inspiration for a lot of worthwhile musicians.
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G-Sphere
Date: 9/8/2004
Excellent mix. It's too bad that so much good music comes at such a cost. Just watched a Charlie Parker film the other day and wondered about the smack effect on his music. Of course there was no doubt about the smack effect on his life. The same could be said about so many other great artists.
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12vman
Date: 9/8/2004
I was listening to a local jazz station that was playing a Bird retrospective the other day for what would have been his 80th(?) birthday. Imagine if Parker had lived - Imagine the wonderful, creative, incredible music the world would have today. I agree w/McD - do as you wish, but the costs of H far outweigh the benefits in my estimation.
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12vman
Date: 9/8/2004
b/t/w - great mix.
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hemizen
Date: 9/8/2004
Nice songs-bad stuff. I've been listen to a lot of Charlie Parker lately. Did the H help or hurt his creativity!
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Salman1
Date: 9/8/2004
nice...but where's the Nirvana? Just kidding. great mix.
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Bear
Date: 9/8/2004
Great stuff... some interesting comments here too. I dunno. Rock stars will always do drugs, and it sometimes produces thrilling results. Hmm. But then it sometimes produces some pretty nasty results too.
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Dom1
Date: 9/8/2004
An excellent mix, here Rob!
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Siobhan
Date: 9/8/2004
This is brave, but very well executed - for me, Iggy Pop is definitely a prime example. And songs such as "Heroin" itself, much as I love them, also scare me quite a lot. Re: French's comments, I didn't actually know that Golden Brown was about heroin until yesterday. I'm so naive. Anyway, well done here!
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jaime b
Date: 9/9/2004
if i received a tape like this i think it would be very romantic. nobody i know makes tapes like this. sigh.
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CBlaze
Date: 9/9/2004
Lots to like here... as everyone has been telling you. =)
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lo-fi jr.
Date: 9/10/2004
A musical salute to heroin? Interesting concept for you to tackle Rob.
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Pop Kulcher
Date: 9/10/2004
Nifty. Contenders for future revisions? Mary Lou Lord, "Jingle Jangle Morning" ("My dance with Mr. Brownstone got too rough..."), plus that Dandy Warhols song with the amazing video.
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Curtis_Burns
Date: 9/12/2004
Fantastic. I love heroin, er, uhm, loathe heroin...love, loathe, love, loathe...Wonderful mix Rob. I will always love the "The Needle and the Damage Done" despite it's overly censorious vibe.