@metametheus' song challenge aims to take the song challenge started by to next level. You can read his post here! which springboards from @connecteconomy's 30 day challenge.

I've never been keen to go in one of these challenges because my taste of music is so darn eclectic. What if I post ONE song and you pigeon hole me as liking a particular genre? I don't know why that bothers me but it does.

I also find it hard to play favourites. I've got a Spotify playlist of 'Songs to Play at My Funeral' which I've told my son about, but it's kinda about 500 tracks long at the moment and I don't know how the old folk will cope with some of the punk rock or if anyone's going to appreciate bluegrass following acid house following dub reggae or dancehall. But if my ghost is there, I'll get a kick out of it for sure.

However, I was sucked in by @metametheus reference to mixtapes - I was the QUEEN of mix tapes or just cassettes in general, going round to almost strangers house because I knew they had a particular vinyl I couldn't afford and virtually showing up with a fresh TDK120 and begging them to record it, then popping over a week later in the hope they'd had the time to do it for me. I remember travelling around Australia with a pack of 10 tapes which was almost nearly 15 albums. Imagine that - 15 cassettes for a year. You got to know those albums pretty well.

I was also intrigued by this table which kinda made it a bit easier for me to make my first choices:

I'm going to go for Track 15, Track 14 and Track 37, because they immediately brought a song to mind, so I best go with that! I'm covering 3 or it'll take me forever to get both sides steemed! And don't hate me for cross referencing other songs that come to mind - it's all just the way I relate to music.

Side A Track 15: A Song You Like That's Covered by an Another Artist

The Mercy Seat by Johnny Cash. What's not to love about Cash? Though I thought Dad was a total dork for playing him (what the hell is this Dad and WHY are you listening to country?) you just wake up one morning and you're a Cash fan. It happened to my son too, though he swore that day would come over his dead body. But to talk about this song, I have to talk abut the 1988 original by Nick Cave and Mick Harvey.

The Mercy Seat by Nick Cave is one of my favourite songs of ALL time. There's something brilliantly gothic, horrifically shocking and haunting, and cruel about it. I love Cave's skinny wailing frame in this clip, and he's so young. Cave knew how to write lyrics, that's for sure:

It began when they come took me from my home
And put me in Dead Row,
Of which I am nearly wholly innocent, you know.
And I'll say it again
I.. am.. not.. afraid.. to.. die.

I began to warm and chill
To objects and their fields,
A ragged cup, a twisted mop
The face of Jesus in my soup
Those sinister dinner deals
The meal trolley's wicked wheels
A hooked bone rising from my food
All things either good or ungood.

And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I'm not afraid to die.

Interpret signs and catalogue
A blackened tooth, a scarlet fog.
The walls are bad. Black. Bottom kind.
They are sick breath at my hind
They are sick breath at my hind
They are sick breath at my hind
They are sick breath gathering at my hind

I hear stories from the chamber
How Christ was born into a manger
And like some ragged stranger
Died upon the cross
And might I say, it seems so fitting in its way
He was a carpenter by trade
Or at least that's what I'm told

Like my good hand
tattooed E.V.I.L. across it's brother's fist
That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.

In Heaven His throne is made of gold
The ark of his Testament is stowed
A throne from which I'm told
All history does unfold.
Down here it's made of wood and wire
And my body is on fire
And God is never far away.

Into the mercy seat I climb
My head is shaved, my head is wired
And like a moth that tries
To enter the bright eye
So I go shuffling out of life
Just to hide in death awhile
And anyway I never lied.

My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L.
Wears a wedding band that's G.O.O.D.
'Tis a long-suffering shackle
Collaring all that devil blood.

And the mercy seat is a-burning
And I think my head is flowing
And in a way I'm hoping
To be done with all this weighing up of truth.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And I've got nothing left to lose
And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of proof
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway, there was no proof
And nor a motive why.

And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
A life for a life
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway there was no proof
And I'm not afraid to die.

Now the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is smoking
And in a way I'm hoping
To be done with all these looks of disbelief.
A eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of proof
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
But I'm afraid I told a lie.

Man, it's killer. It also could be a song that I NEVER get sick of. I love the way he anticipates death and protests that he told the truth and the last line - 'I'm afraid I told a lie' a last minute admission of guilt. And to get Johnny Cash covering that song, who played in prisons, most famously with his album 'Folsom Prison Blues' (I hear that train a -coming, it's rolling round the bend, I aint see the sunshine, since I don't know when) really floated my boat. There was nothing Cash couldn't do and he chose his covers wisely. He's not better than Nick, but nor is Nick better than him - they are like the tattoos on the guilty hand, good or evil, don't know which.

I also love his version of 'Hurt' - again, no better than Trent Reznor, just different, and the crackle of his old man's voice doing this song speaks of the pain of years. And Cash had his problems with drugs too - he feels like an authority here. Many people cried when they saw this video - Cash was 71 years old and the love of his life would die within 3 months and him within 7. It spoke of the crumbling of a life - 'my empire of dirt' kills me in this context. The house in which he lived for 30 odd years, where this video was filmed, burnt down in 2007

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I will keep myself
I would find a way

Side A Track 14: A Song You'd Love to Be Played at Your Wedding

I already got married and it's highly unlikely I'd get married again, unless we divorce and remarry. We didn't choose a wedding song just the way I didn't choose much for my wedding - just getting married was hard enough! It wasn't that I didn't want to, but I didn't want all that FUSS to go with it. We got married in a church (there goes my idea of a beach wedding, but that wasn't possible in England really - this was the cheapest option, and it was a 700 year old church in rural Dorset, so seemed quaint and romantic) and one of my mates played Spanish guitar as I walked down the aisle, something I can hardly remember as I was so darn nervous. We then had a folk band from Dorset we'd found a few weekends before at a nettle eating competition at a pub, who were fun. Later we partied til the wee hours to some awesome techno because we were pretty high by then.

However, maybe coz I was thinking about Nick Cave that the twinkling, orchestral sounds of the Ship Song came to mind. There's something heartbreakingly beautiful about it and I've loved it all my life. Seeing it performed in Melbourne - three or four times now? - was incredible. There was something almost religious about it as Melbourne burst into song with Nick. We love Nick here in Melbourne! The lines 'when I crawl into your arms, everything, it comes tumbling down' gives me goosebumps and reminds me of the vulnerability of lovers, the defence walls crumbling.

The Ship Song by Nick Cave

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything, it comes tumbling down

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

Side B Track 37: A Thunderstorm Song

I have a lot of thunderstorm songs I could reference here - they're quite atmospheric. I was thinking of Wreckless Eric's SO English accent as this song opens:

'There's thunder in the air/I could waste myself/I don't feel too concerned about my state of health/it's too bloody hot/for self denial/I won't resist/I couldn't if I tried/all the other boys are being as good as gold/they're talking to the girls who work the telephones/but I can't thin of any reason I could ring one/I've got this funny feeling that I can't put my finger on'

.... at which point I want to air drum as he screams

I WISH IT WOULD RAIN!!!!!!!

Something about long hot Australian summers and Dad playing this on the turntable makes me recall how I felt went I heard that song. It's the build up of tension in the song and that recall of the tension before a thunderstorm that kills me. Yeah, I think this one might make it to my mix tape...

But there's also The Door's 'Riders of the Storm', which I forever associate with a surfing movie called Storm Riders which we used to watch over and over on VHS when I hung out at the surf shops in Torquay when I was a kid. It came out in 1982! Here's the opening ffrom the film (I'm sure you all know the Doors song and clip, right?)

Speaking of Dad's vinyl, maybe the thunderstorm song should be Peter Tosh's. It depends on whether I carefully order the songs on this mixtape or not. It was the last track of the album 'Bush Doctor', which me and my sister thought was quite naughty as it had a scratch and sniff marijuana sticker on it.

I never believed in God as it were but there was something majestic about this song, the sound of the beach and gulls and the brewing storms. It's Tosh's version of a psalm and I think I admired that closeness of man to nature and God, the voices celebrating Jah, all that is. It still reminds me of the power of music to comfort like a hymnal, even if it might not officially be one, and that music can be about glory and the divine as well as love and pain. It's a celebration of CREATION - to me, it felt like it was a celebration of all the majesty IN NATURE and whatever force was behind that, Jah or otherwise.

(King of Kings, hallelujah)
(Lord of Lords, hallelujah)
(King of Kings, hallelujah)
(Lord of Lords, hallelujah)

In the beginning was the Word
And the Word was with Jah
And the Word was Jah

In the beginning Jah created the heaven and the earth
Then he created man of his own likeness and image
Gave unto man wisdom, knowledge, overstanding

Jah is my life and my strength
So whom shall I fear
He is a shield upon my right and my left hand
Jah is my keeper

Jah is my light and my salvation
So whom shall I fear
He is my guide throughout this Creation
So whom shall I be afraid
Jah is my keeper

Jah is my guide
In my resting and my rising
So whom shall I fear
He is my guide when I step out and forward
So whom shall I be afraid
Jah is my keeper

I'm sorry that I pretty much broke all the rules here - I know I didn't include a single song for each category but I can't choose, I just can't. I did love writing this post though - I had a bit of a trip down memory lane and listened to a whole lot of tracks doing so. Highly recommend you take up this challenge yourself!