I was transported directly (do not pass Go, do not collect $200) to high school a few minutes ago when my iPod presented me with "Beaujolais" by The Alan Parsons Project. Stereotomy was actually released shortly after I graduated from college. I bought the cassette and the album when it came out 'cause the album came with a see-through colored vinyl envelope (blue-green on one side and red on the other) that would change the appearance of the album cover. 'Hard to explain. I guess some photos are in order:

The top image is the album cover without the vinyl envelope. The lower left shows what it looks like through the blue-green side (it has a sticker slapped on the outside) and the lower right shows its appearance through the red side. Pretty wacky, eh? I just had to have the album. I bet I only played it two or three times, though, since I didn't have a turn table in my car! Heh. (I did listen to the cassette a lot, needless to say.) Once I started my CD collection, I went to pretty great lengths to make sure my APP collection was complete. The CD, just like the casette, did not come with the cool vinyl envelope.

Getting back to high school. The Alan Parsons Project was the main band I listened to back then. So, whenever I hear an APP song, I think of high school, regardless of whether or not I actually heard the song in high school.

I just checked and found that I have 114 songs by Alan Parsons and The Alan Parsons Project on my iPod. For a very long time, my APP collection far surpassed any other artist. Not so any longer. Here are the top 10 non-Alan Parsons artists on my iPod:

• 95 songs by Suzy Bogguss
• 98 by Patty Loveless
• 98 by Shelby Lynne
• 108 by Lyle Lovett
• 110 by Trisha Yearwood
• 113 by Fleetwood Mac
• 114 by Mary Chapin Carpenter
• 128 by Kate Campbell
• 142 by George Strait
• 147 by Reba McEntire

Yikes! My buddy Cyrus joined us for dinner the other night. At the ripe old age of 12, he's very impressed with the number of songs on my iPod. He commented that he'd like to have my iPod. And, I pointed out that he'd probably only like about 5% of my collection so it would mostly be wasted on him. After thinking about it for a moment, he decided it might be even less than 5%...more like 1%! But, I don't think so. Despite the fact that the bulk of my "high-volume" artists are made up of Folk and Country artists, only about 60% of my entire collection has that make-up. Surely, there are 50 or so songs in my collection he might enjoy, eh? It seems highly likely.

My, but I can ramble, eh? I was just gonna point out that an Alan Parsons song played on my iPod. But, that wasn't good enough. No. I had to dig out the old album and snap photos. And, then things just took off. Kinda scary the way the old brain works. Ah well...

Posted on July 13, 2006 by Joanna