Pentadecadent Me

In my last post - 5 Decades - I said I was going to compile a list of 35 songs, one for each year that I have lived, from 1979 till 2013. I came up with some rules that I had to follow, which is why it took me a while - more than two months - but I was finally able to complete the project.

Here is the song list. The compilation can be downloaded here: https://bit.ly/PentadecadentMe__

Pentadecadent Me

1979 - "Shadowplay" by Joy Division
1980 - "A Forest" by The Cure
1981 - "Show of Strength" by Echo & the Bunnymen
1982 - "In Shreds" by The Chameleons
1983 - "Not Now John" by Pink Floyd
1984 - "Running Town" by Siouxsie and the Banshees
1985 - "Barbarism Begins at Home" by The Smiths
1986 - "Serpent's Kiss" by The Mission
1987 - "Rocket Queen" by Guns N' Roses
1988 - "River Euphrates" by Pixies
1989 - "About a Girl" by Nirvana
1990 - "Halo" by Depeche Mode
1991 - "Snail" by The Smashing Pumpkins
1992 - "Would?" by Alice in Chains
1993 - "Far Behind" by Candlebox
1994 - "Fall Down" by Toad the Wet Sprocket
1995 - "Southbound Pachyderm" by Primus
1996 - "Burden in My Hand" by Soundgarden
1997 - "The Down Town" by Days of the New
1998 - "Secret Prayer" by Joe Satriani
1999 - "Bad Light" by Built to Spill
2000 - "Raahayn" by Rushk
2001 - "Schism" by Tool
2002 - "Concertina" by The Mars Volta
2003 - "Nothing (93 Returning Mix)" By Holden & Thompson
2004 - "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" by The Arcade Fire
2005 - "Twilight" by The Raveonettes
2006 - "Map of the Problematique" by Muse
2007 - "Reckoner" by Radiohead
2008 - "Closer" by Kings of Leon
2009 - "The High Road" by Broken Bells
2010 - "The Mystery Zone" by Spoon
2011 - "Irresistible Force (Met the Immovable Object)" by Jane's Addiction
2012 - "Taro" by Alt-J
2013 - "Late Night" by Foals


A very special thanks to Sadia Khatri for lending a hand with the artwork and to all my radio listeners for helping me hash this out in my mind over the past few weeks.

5 Decades

Some of my friends were over from out of town in winter and we were talking about how long it has been since we've known each other, have been out of school, etc. and one thing that struck me then was that I've lived through 5 decades. Even though I'm in my 30s, I was born in 1979 and it's 2014 now, so technically, I've seen the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 2010s so far. This got me thinking and I started exploring alternative music of each of these decades in depth. The 70s, not so much because I only "saw" one year. The 80s, I went completely nuts, as I dug further and much deeper into bands like Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division (later New Order), Pixies, Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Smiths, etc. and genres like goth-rock and dark wave. The 90s and onwards I have pretty much been following the music in real time, but still looked into some of the more obscure bands, different music scenes, such as the Madchester scene that grew out of 80s British new wave, post-punk and post-rock scene, the US post-grunge indie scene, etc.

So I got to thinking that since I've listened to and explored all this music, what it is that I should do with all of it? Naturally, I decided that I'm going to make a compilation. After considering several different concepts and formats, I've finally come up with the idea of having one song for each year, which means there will be 36 songs in all if I include 2014. That is going to be quite difficult because every year has had so many great songs. There will be hundreds of songs to choose from for each year and thousands of songs to choose from for the 36 years. So many things have to be considered, e.g. genre, style of music, upbeat or slow and date; basically a song might have been written in 1979, recorded in 1980, released as a single in 1981 and in an album in 1982. Since there are quite a lot of genres and styles, it means that there can be several different lists that can be compiled. For instance, I can come up with a very electronic list, or a very guitar-driven rock list, or a list of dark-themed songs, etc.

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I've been working on this for the past couple of weeks and it's turning out to be a very personal list and it's surely going to take a while. I've started with putting down some of the bands and songs that I know must be there, but choosing other songs for other years is proving very difficult. Sometimes very good songs I want overlap - the most problematic year so far has been 1985; can't believe they released such good music in that year - other times the songs do not fit the theme. As of now, I have only gotten about 9 songs but and am not even sure of all of them. At least I am 100% sure of the 1979 song, so that has worked to set the mood and theme for the rest of the list.

I've also decided I would use the original release date of that particular version of the song. So, for example, if a song was released as a single in 1984 but then again on the album in 1985, that song would go in 1984. Some songs were released first in the album but later on as singles, and those would go in the year when the album was released, so basically whenever the song was first released. Sometimes, a band has released different versions of the same song in different years. For instance, Pixies released "Vamos" on their EP Come on Pilgrim in 1987, but they re-released a slightly different version of the same song on their 1988 album Surfer Rosa, so particular versions of songs for the respective year is going to be another consideration.

Another rule is no repetition of bands. So, if I use Slash's Snakepit's "Dime Store Rock" for the 1995 song, I can't use Slash's "By the Sword" for 2010. Also, if I use Guns n' Roses, Slash's solo albums also become ineligible, because it's basically the same band with a different vocalist; Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke both appear in Slash's Snakepit 1995 line up and Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler all worked on the 2010 album. And Axl Rose's cover band also disqualifies. This also means that I can't use both Joy Division and New Order; same goes for Nirvana and Foo Fighters; Soundgarden/Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave; Tool and Perfect Circle; Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, etc.

Also, no cover songs, only original songs by the bands/artists. And not doing 2014, since it's not over yet, so it will be a total of 35 songs.

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This list's giving me insomnia. I keep getting up to make changes, listening to songs and it is not even a quarter done! Can't decide which songs to put for so many of the years. A lot of good songs have to be sacrificed. Sometimes I think of doing more than one list but that doesn't make sense, as that would dilute the whole idea. Going a bit insane in the membrane. HEY! ISN'T THAT A SONG FROM 1993?! But it's ok. It doesn't fit the theme.

Enjoying every bit of it though. Rediscovering some really good songs that I had forgotten.