SAP Music Anti-Valentine Mix 2011

As promised here is the first annual "Anti-Valentine Mix". I hope to make this a tradition. It's great to be in love on Valentine's Day, but if you aren't it can be a lame holiday. Having a soundtrack to those feelings may be just the thing you need to get you through all those mocking pink hearts.

As implied by the cover artwork, this is the exact opposite of yesterday's "Valentine Mix". These songs are darker. They are full of pain and heart break. Some are full of anger and perhaps even revenge (see tracks 3 and 4). I've thrown in a couple heart wrenching break ups on there. One not listed in the track listing, but is buried in there is the break up of Ross and Rachel on Friends. Now I never watched Friends beyond maybe the first 5 or 6 episodes, so hearing this dialogue was a first for me. I had no real attachment to the characters and I've never been a Jennifer Aniston fan, but this scene really got to me. I could feel both of the characters' pain. Well done. I guess that is why people watched that show.

Anyway, I've got a great scene from "Lost" in there. I'm a huge fan of that show and recommend it to everyone. Even if they've seen it I tell them to watch it all through again. You make all sorts of new connections each time you watch it. The acting is great and the Michael Giacchino score has to be one of the all time greatest scores, not only on TV but in film as well.

You'll see some of my favorite artists from the Valentine mixes showing up here as well. Romance faves like Sam Cooke could also sing about the pains of love as well. She & Him as well as Cee Lo show up on both mixes.

So if you're in a bad relationship, just got out of a relationship, had your heartbroken, tired of trying to find love or if you just don't get what all this fuss over love is, then this is the mix for you for the month of February.

For a better view of the track listing click here.

Enjoy!

SAP_Music_Anti-Valentine_Mix_2011-128K.zip

Printable CD Cover Below.

SAP Music Valentine Mix 2011

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and so I've pulled together another mix this year of songs to get you in the mood for love. At least I hope they do. Love and romance is sort of a subjective thing, so maybe these songs will connect with you and maybe they won't.

This year I've done the mix in garageband, so it isn't just a playlist. Songs flow into each other and make for a nice continuous listen. I've got some fairly recognizable songs as well as some deeper album cuts. I've got bit of soundtrack score and dialogue from TV shows. There's pop, rock, Hawaiian, R&B, reggae. There is old and and new. It really runs the spectrum of musical flavors.

If Valentine's Day isn't your holiday and you hate it, then check back in tomorrow. I'm got an "anti-Valentine mix" all done and ready to go. It's is pull of break up songs, love sucks songs, I hate you because you broke my heart songs and even one song about VD. Don't want to miss that.

For a better view of the tracks click here.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Valentine Mix 2011_128K.zip

Printable Cover is below.

Styx - Come Sail Away 7" - 1977

Who would have thunk that finding the 7" version of
"Come Sail Away" would be so hard? A good friend of mine and friend of the blog sent me a message earlier today asking if I had the 7" single version of "Come Sail Away". It runs about half the length of the album version. I wasn't sure, but I thought perhaps I had the record. However I was at work and couldn't confirm it. So in the mean time I thought I would just short cut it and find it online. Surely someone else had digitized this or that it was available on some CD somewhere so I could download it. I searched on and off throughout the say, but I just couldn't find it. I couldn't believe it. In away it actually made me even more excited to get home and see if I did indeed have the record.

Well, as you might have guessed by now I did have the record. I kind of thought I did because I was pretty sure I recognized the cover. Sure enough I did have the record and I had scanned the cover years ago. I must admit that when I was scanning years ago it wasn't for the blog and so I wasn't as thorough which means I didn't scan the back and I didn't scan the record. I'll get around to it and perhaps update the post again, but that's not for tonight. The goal tonight is to just get the post up and get the music to my friend.

A big disclaimer is that the record is by no means pristine. There is some really annoying noise during the opening piano solo, but it passes quickly. Even with the noise and the pops and crackles near the end, the record is interesting to listen to because of it's edited brevity. If you are familiar with the album version you will be listening along and thinking the song is going to go one way and then it goes another. Gone is the instrumental bridge section of the song that normally kicks in at about the 3 minute mark. You know the part with all the synths that sound like lasers at first. It gets all spacey and trippy and then the big guitar chords kick in bringing everything back to the "angels" section of the song.

So have some fun remembering what this song sounded like on pop radio back in the day with this single version of the song. I've included the b-side for kicks as well. More of a prog rock piece really.

Enjoy!

01 Come Sail Away (7" Version).m4a

02 Put Me On.m4a

Here is a cleaned up version. This is the same recording, just cleaned up by a friend. It is a little better.

01 Come Sail Away (Single Version).mp3

Here is the 6 min. album version if you'd like to compare.