Since my shoulder surgery 4 weeks ago, I've been spending a lot of time developing software and listening to Pandora. The pain meds (oxycodone & hydrocodone) put me in a bit of a brain fog, limiting the effective breadth and depth of my thinking (and doing), but a reasonably well-defined coding task seemed ideally suited to my power of concentration … and I've always found listening to music while coding helps put & keep me in "the zone".
The Pandora fremium online music service has developed such an accurate model of my preferences over the past few weeks that I've upgraded to Pandora One. The annual subscription version of the service has eliminated commercials and increased the length of time I can listen per day, and eliminates the pause and prompt asking "Are you still listening?" if I don't interact regularly with the site.
The one annoyance that remains is that there are certain songs that I believe should never be played without also playing the song that immediately follows them on the original album / CD. This strikes me as the musical opposite of a non sequitur - examples of which are virally proliferating as we slog through the U.S. presidential election season – so I propose the following name for this phenomenon:
Among the examples I've noted over the past week [update: now augmented with examples shared in comments]:
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / With A Little Help From My Friends (Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)
- Falling In and Out of Love / Amie (Pure Prairie League, Bustin' Out, 1972)
- On the Run / Breathe / Great Gig in the Sky (Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
- Any Colour You Like / Brain Damage / Eclipse (Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon)
- Happiest Days of Our Lives / Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (Pink Floyd, The Wall, 1979; contributed by Eric)
I'm probably dating myself with these examples, and by my uncertainty about whether contemporary bands are producing songs that are intended to flow so naturally from one to the other. Perhaps it was solely or primarily a trend of the late 60s and early 70s.
I'll update the list with additional examples as I encounter them, and would welcome any other examples anyone is inclined to share in the comments.
Comments
3 responses to “musica requitur sequitur: songs that must be played in sequence”
Kia ora Joe,
Been out of the loop a bit so my best wishes for a continued recovery on your shoulder. I can write that two years out now from having my hip replaced that it was worth the recovery and effort. Enjoyed your words about songs – particularly the Pure Prairie League for some reason, but certainly true. I find myself recently bypassing my ipod and sound dock and going back to cd’s (wish I could write albums) and just really enjoying the whole concept of the album, and the gems we so often miss. I spent some time in Madison with Jeff recently. He wanted to play me some of his most recent favourite band, Trampled by Turtles. I had to sit in a chair facing the speakersm, cold beers in hand, and listen. It went on for a couple hours. It was no hardship. Hope all is well Joe. Noho ora mai ra e hoa. Kia kaha!
Robb
Another Pink Floyd combo to add to the list: Happiest Days of Our Lives and Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.
@Robb: nice to read from you. Thanks for the updates, and the encouraging words about joint-related surgery. Jeff was quite the tastemaker with his album collection in college; I’ll create a Pandora station for Trampled by Turtles to learn more about Jeff’s more recent tastes.
@Eric: thanks for the the contribution; I’ve added it to the list. Seems that musica requitur sequitur is more the norm than the exception with Pink Floyd’s albums.