In anticipation of my Spokane visitors' arrival, I attempted to create an iTunes playlist that we could all enjoy, or at least all tolerate. This is no small task, as the husband is an unrepentant redneck who's pushing 60. For posterity, I recorded the process of creating my "Old Redneck" playlist.
We start with my computer's library of 3,620 songs. Surely we can pull together something from that.
First to go: anything recorded after 1980. 2,197 songs remaining. No surprise there. I gravitate toward older music.
Classical, you're out of here. 2,041 songs remaining. No surprise there, either. There's, like, one track for each movement.
Black artists, you can forget about this crowd. 304 songs remaining. Holy crap. What just happened here? Tell me what "Black Music Month" is about, again? Isn't that like "Female Nurse Month?"
Latinos, you too. I'm looking at you, Carlos Santana. 281 songs remaining.
Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Wild Cherry, you're insufficiently white. 239 songs remaining.
Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, you're insufficiently heterosexual. 199 songs remaining.
Instrumental movie scores, you're too gay too. 127 remaining.
This leaves mostly random files that lacked filterable properties. Painstakingly applying the criteria above, I whittle them down to 33.
The Eagles? Who burned that? 17 remaining.
Leonard Cohen, I can stand you for about two minutes. 8 remaining.
And here we are, the elite eight. Thank you, Quentin Tarantino:
Fool for Love (a lousy country song by Sandy Rogers)
Magic Carpet Ride (Bedlam)
Hooked on a Feeling (Blue Suede)
Son of a Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield)
Vacant Chair (Kathy Mattea, from the Civil War PBS series)
Amazing Grace (Judy Collins, which is how it escaped the filters)
Tennessee Stud (Johnny Cash, from a soundtrack)
Long Black Veil (Johnny Cash)
I like only half the songs, but I played the list anyway. It lasted 15 or so minutes before the request came. "John?" the husband drawled. "Can we maybe listen to something else?"
I leapt up. Why yes. Yes, we most definitely can. I might have something else here.