{"id":1843,"date":"2019-02-09T17:16:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T00:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:12","slug":"for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy-dont-pick-billy-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2019\/02\/09\/for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy-dont-pick-billy-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"For the love of all that is holy, don’t pick Billy Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Every six months or so, Paul and I sat down at my computer to pick a new set of music to play in my car. My 2000 Hyundai Accent had a tape player and I purchased an adapter so my CD player could be used. It was easier to burn a CD full of music than a cassette tape. On July 21, 2008, we only owned one car and Paul decided he wanted to pick the music.<\/p>\n

Listening to the same fifteen to twenty songs gets tedious and boring. Finding a decent radio station is futile. We travel a lot and would prefer to listen to music we enjoy rather than what is force-fed through whatever the radio station thinks we should listen to. That is, if any radio stations other than Christian music or Country music ever came in.<\/p>\n

Whenever I got bored, I would make my own CD. Paul never had a desire to choose, or help choose, but he sure did know how to whine when I picked something he didn’t like. This time, he wanted to pick to, \u201cmake sure there was good music in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

I fired up my old 120 GB external hard drive where I kept all the music I had. It had 1.98 GB free, far too little space. Once should always leave about ten percent free so the computer can seek and process requests without slowing down or belching up errors.<\/p>\n

The drive is divided into a series of folders, organized to make sense to me. He already has a list in his head of the songs he would like to hear. Paul tells me which songs he wants and I click on \u201cFull Albums\u201d first to listen to the highest quality versions as possible.<\/p>\n

Although I have a folder named, \u201cSingles\u201d I try not to click in there unless I have to. Many of the songs are from pre-Napster days. Some are from Napster<\/a>, BearShare<\/a>, eMule<\/a>, and a host of other places one could \u201cobtain\u201d music in the late 1990s. Some of that music is no longer available in any format, so I keep them handy just in case.<\/p>\n

Paul begins naming songs. I click through to the typical music he grew up listening to \u2013 David Bowie, Simple Minds, Prefab Sprout. We avoid The Pet Shop Boys<\/a> despite them being his favorite band. We have a cassette tape of nearly two dozen PSB songs that we can listen to whenever we want.<\/p>\n

After a few selections, Paul leans in closer to the screen. As he picks a few songs, I continue to scroll, dreading what I know will happen.<\/p>\n

I think to myself, \u201cNot Billy Ocean. Please don\u2019t pick Billy Ocean.\u201d I say this to myself over and over, hoping that, somehow, I might have just magically gained the ability of mental telepathy and I can force Paul not pick any Billy Ocean<\/a> music.<\/p>\n

I try to keep the folder scrolled down past \u201cB\u201d so he can’t see. Fate has not smiled upon me this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOoo, Billy Ocean,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

My heart stops. I want to swear. I want to scream and tell him what crap Billy Ocean is, but I refrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d is all I mutter as I double click the \u201cBilly Ocean\u201d folder, revealing some of the worst music ever made. I already know what song he\u2019s going to pick before he says it.<\/p>\n

My hand starts to move the mouse towards the song and I hear, \u201cWhen the Going Gets Tough<\/a>. That\u2019s a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n

No it isn\u2019t, but I click it and drag it over to Nero, adding it to the list of music. We agree on a couple of more songs, including the theme song from Casino Royale, You Know My Name<\/a>. I like the song so much that it\u2019s still the first song on my old 128MB Creative Nomad Muvo<\/a> MP3 player<\/a>. I listen to it every morning when I ride my bike. We go through some Prefab Sprout<\/a> and Paul picks a couple of their songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about that song by your Led Zeppelin guy?\u201d Paul asks. \u201cYou know, the one Imus<\/a> likes too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, I know what song you\u2019re talking about, however, I don\u2019t like it too much either.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean Robert Plant<\/a>?\u201d I ask, knowing that the song is not by Robert Plant, but Mark Knopfler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that one, and he sings it with that hippy chick.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hippy chick? He is so off bas, it\u2019s not even funny. I want to play dumb, but I don\u2019t want to take forever burning this CD, so I ask, \u201cYou mean Emmylou Harris<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well she doesn\u2019t sing with Robert Plant. It\u2019s Mark Knopfler. And the song is \u2018This is Us<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever. Do we have it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we do,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

I am at once slightly aggravated that he doesn\u2019t always know the names of musicians and used to conversations like this.<\/p>\n

I drag the mp3 over to Nero<\/a> and prepare it for burning.<\/p>\n

Some of the songs Paul picks aren\u2019t completely terrible. His taste in music is…..different than mine. Okay, some of his musical choices are garbage, but I did promise he could make the CD.<\/p>\n

I make sure all the settings are right and burn the CD at the lowest speed possible to make sure the transfer is goo.<\/p>\n

We stick it in the car and my life of torture begins.<\/p>\n

For those interested, the track listing is as follows:<\/p>\n

01<\/a> When the Going Gets Tough \u2013 Billy Ocean
\n02<\/a> True Faith (Morning Sun) \u2013 New Order
\n03<\/a> Life on Mars \u2013 David Bowie
\n04<\/a> I Did It \u2013 Dave Matthews Band
\n05<\/a> The King of Rock and Roll \u2013 Prefab Sprout
\n06<\/a> Hey Manhattan! \u2013 Prefab Sprout
\n07<\/a> Salisbury Hill \u2013 Peter Gabriel
\n08<\/a> Mr. Blue Sky \u2013 ELO
\n09<\/a> True \u2013 Spandau Ballet
\n10<\/a> You Know My Name \u2013 Chris Cornell
\n11<\/a> This is Us \u2013 Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler
\n12<\/a> All The Things She Said \u2013 Simple Minds
\n13<\/a> Alive and Kicking \u2013 Simple Minds
\n14<\/a> If You Leave \u2013 OMD
\n15<\/a> Sowing the Seeds \u2013 Tears for Fears
\n16<\/a> Ordinary World \u2013 Duran Duran
\n17<\/a> Chains of Love \u2013 Erasure<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Paul got his own car a month later and my car has been full of nothing but the best music in the world ever since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every six months or so, Paul and I sat down at my computer to pick a new set of music to play in my car. My 2000 Hyundai Accent had a tape player and I purchased an adapter so my CD player could be used. It was easier to burn a CD full of music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53,248,254,378],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","tag-billy-ocean","tag-music","tag-nebraska","tag-travel"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3768,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions\/3768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}