Random Rules
For those of you who are wondering what’s on my iPod, I’m the subject of today’s Random Rules in the Onion AV club. I like this interview format very much: I put my iPod on shuffle and we talk about what happens. Kind of terrifying because I’ve always felt a little subconscious (blarg: I mean self-conscious) about sharing my taste in music, ever since 1982 when a neighbor kid asked me what bands I liked and I panicked and said “Um, Air Supply?” Fortunately nothing really embarrassing came up. Though I fear that I may have said too much about Billy Joel and Paul McCartney and how they’re not as good as they used to be – what if I meet them in person and they hate me because they read this interview?
Please do not forward this link to Billy Joel or Paul McCartney.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Don’t worry Joco I’ve always questioned my taste in music also, bubblegum pop and pop what was i thinking ^^ great interview
June 20th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Pretty funny stuff.
You’re into a lot of old music…
Whatever, to each his own. No need for self-consciousness.
Air supply?
Hahaha.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Could be worse. When I was in 5th grade, we were all given one of those “autograph” books and the front page had a “My Favorites” page to fill out. I knew nothing about music and wrote in “Hungry Like The Wolf” for favorite song.
I wish I chose Air Supply~
June 20th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Jonathan, now that I know how you feel about me I will no longer be supporting your UK tour.
Sir Paul McCartney
[ha ha ha ha!! sorry JoCo, couldn't resist...... Paul would never drop you, at least not without a better reason...lol]
June 20th, 2008 at 10:19 am
McCartney? He should be so lucky as to meet JoCo! When did *he* ever feature zombies or robots in a song? …other than Wild Honey Pie …and, Revolution #9.0, respectively.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I’m reading in this interview that for at least one part of an answer you adopted a British accent. I think I’d like to hear said adoption, and I bet I am not alone.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I lerv Pink Floyd. I really dug them when I was a kid, and as an adult, I had stopped listening to them for some reason. I guess because I didn’t still have hours and hours to sit in a room by myself with my headphones on.
So true, so true. I miss being able to do that.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Nice interview, Jonathan. I look forward to catching your show for the first time when you swing through Boston again.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
According to the pre-interview bio, “Ikea” was from Thing A Week?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
billy joel is awesome. wish he would just make another full length album with new stuff. dunno if it would be good but still…
June 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
“I met him and gave him a copy of my CD, and it felt like I was handing a piece of poop to an angel.”
Bwaaa ha ha ha ha!
June 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
” I don’t think I’ve ever made a song that I think is awesome.”
Aww. Don’t worry, the rest of us think your songs are so awesome, we’ve got you covered.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Love is over.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
McCartney was at his best when he was in competition with Lennon, The Beach Boys and others and before he was a multi billionaire….you know maybe just a pauperly millionaire. But in spite of that, he just recently still put out some good tunes on Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard. On the other hand, I didn’t care for much of anything on Memory Almost Full. Nobody bats a thousand all of the time.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Jon, this might make you feel better (or not). I just noticed that in my site’s blogroll, your name falls in between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Wordpress provided the sorting.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I think you’ve graduated past the title of ” ‘Self Proclaimed’ Internet Star” to just full-on “Internet Star” by this point, wouldn’t you say?
Silly, silly Onion.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
If you want a perfect example of the perfect 2 minute pop song, listen to “All The Things I Wasn’t” by the Canadian band Grapes Of Wrath.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFQYf94BGGc
They’ve written other wonderful pop songs like “Peace Of Mind”, but All the things I wasn’t is quite possibly the most perfect piece of fragile music ever written by humanity.
June 20th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Why aren’t there any other bald, white guys shouting out to Parliament and Dr. John in here?
June 20th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Air Supply? Try “All Out of Love” by Air Supply feat. the Celtic Tenors. Priceless.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
“Dark Side of the Rainbow” is on Youtube in about 6 different sections. It’s pretty grainy, but it’s awesome! This is a link to the first one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmCfvcfHwKA&feature=PlayList&p=9253314B492605AD&index=0
June 21st, 2008 at 9:00 am
wish you were here is my number one.
i absolutely roared with laughter at the felt like handing poop to angel moment. completely identified with it. the wife thought I went crazy there laughing to myself.
and, um, the best beatles songs were George’s! Frank Sinatra once said in an interview that the best Lennon/McCartney song was Something. So there ya go!
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 am
Now I’m curious. What IS the most embarrassing thing on your iPod?
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
You dissapoint me by claiming a three-Jo(h)n situation when there were clearly four. Good read, though.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I think claiming 3 Johns is appropriate. We don’t know what vicinity Linnell was to the situation, which is necessary to decide whether to count him or not.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Scott: my name is not John.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Glad to know I’m not the only one who gets slightly stabby when their name is misspelled.
Very fun interview btw.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:33 am
From a pronunciation standpoint, it’s four Johns. Whether or not one goes by “Jonathan,” they’re still a “Jon.” At any rate, it’s cool.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:51 am
Tangentially, my physics teacher in high school did the Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz sync for all his classes.
He’s one of the most awesome teachers ever, by the way. He let us shoot water balloons at him for a lab, for example.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:45 am
My Zune shuffles onto McCartney, Billy Joel and Beatles constantly. Oh. And Jonathan Coulton.
I actually liked Billy Joel’s last couple albums. Sure, they weren’t The Stranger or Turnstiles, but there’s some good music there. It’s actually been 15 years since his last album (River of Dreams). I hope he does take another crack at it one of these days. But his only new song since then, All My Life, sounds more like warmed over Sinatra than anything else. I’m not holding out too much hope. (Guess I can report back after I see Joel in concert next month for the first time in 20 years.)
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 am
Beatles, Billy Joel era comment number 2:
The 60s and 70s are over. Rest in Peace, George Carlin.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Well, I missed Air Supply when they were big — I went on a pop music walkabout and was listening to other stuff. But I had season passes to the music festival in the town I lived in, and I have to tell you, those guys are cheesy, but they give 110% to the cheese. There are people whose music I’ve admired more who could learn something from their whole-heartedness.
So, no shame in mentioning them.
July 4th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Shuffle can be evil, but numbers don’t lie. For ex., my Last.fm stats show my overall favorite artists as:
10 Indigo Girls
11 Weezer
12 Jonathan Coulton
13 The Beatles
14 Gipsy Kings
14 John Mayer
22 Billy Joel
38 John Lennon
(Sir Paul didn’t make the list).