Submissions brought to you by Joe...

This volume has been one of the tougher ones because there are so many songs that I want to put on but due to time constraints it is simply impossible. Oh the humanity (mortality) of not having enough time!!

Anyway, thanks Mike for not making this volume a christmas theme. I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but it I have to hear Bing Crosby's rendition of "Here Comes Santa Clause" one more time I think I'll get violently ill a la A Clockwork Orange. Ok, maybe not that bad, but its possible.

Cream - Crossroads
I'm not much of a Clapton fan, but this song is awesome. It really needs no introduction, so I wont give one.

Diamond In Your Mind - Solomon Burke
Originally written by Tom Waits, Burke really breathes life into this song. Recorded for his 2002 album, Don't Give Up On Me, this song makes me think of someone sitting on a step thinking "How can it possibly get any worse?" Well, it's always darkest before the dawn, or as TD likes to say "It's better than pushin' up daisies..."

Bad Astronaut - The "F" Word
This song comes off their third and final album, Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Dissapointment. A side project for Lagwagon frontman Joey Cape, this album is very touching as the drummer for Bad Astronaut, Derrick Plourde, decided to take his own life in 2005. Cape decided to go on and finish the album without him as a final farewell. I believe this is one of the songs that was finished without him, as the lyrics deal with being alone in the world without his friend. I feel as though I'm looking straight into Cape's soul through this song. Deep...painful...mortal...

Submit to the Professor!

Thanks a million Mike! After the countless hours spent dusted out of my skull on PCP with a face full of Rock&Roll trying to forget about my mortality, you go and pull this one out. Well, I guess there's a couple ways we could look at this.

First, let's look at this from the other side. No, not the ghosts and lost souls but at the ones pulling the strings.

Get a Room - Jim O'Rourke
Jimbo is about as kind to his characters as Chris Ware and was a fitting soundtracker for Love Liza. Here, acting as a malicious God in the mold of the ancient Greeks, he gives this poor sap one night to live, and being a base creature the sap hurries out to find someone to give him some last minute corporal delights. Back at the motel though, his date falls asleep "I gotta work tomorrow, you understand", and he's left listening to her snore as is measly life slips away, the numbing rush of the inevitable.

or there's the dignified perspective

I Hear You Calling - Bill Fay
Bill was a trobadour in the Tim Buckley mold with some jazzy touches and some even heavier baroque lyrics. This is from the album Time of the Last Persecution which deals mostly with 2 tons of apocalyptic imagery. Here he talks about meeting the end quietly in the same manner as he's come on to his shift every day at the plant. All his time is lying on the factory floor (you said it brother), but he's gonna get it back at the end. He hears the calling like he hears the whistle at the end of the day.

But I prefer to look at it this way

Farewell - Boris
As a explosion of consciousness, without understanding a single word we get the picture loud and clear. Really the end is just when we become everything at once... again. This is going to melt your speakers, find the largest stereo possible to listen to this and crank it to 11, we're goin' out big.

Mix and Match vol 5 - submissions from the captain

An interesting topic indeed...in the immortal words of Camus "It's no use reminding yourself daily that you are mortal: it will be brought home to you soon enough." and so i present for your consideration:

The Descendents - When I Get Old
Sure, they didn't want to grow up, but then Milo went to college and they realized that everything sucks. a great song that reminds you you are a bad mother fucker.

Sugar - Hoover Dam
i loved Husker Du, but i think i may have loved Sugar even more. just the way mould's voice played out in the second trio worked better for me. this particular song is all about doing this episode's assignment: "Standing on the edge/Of the hoover dam/Im on the centerline/Right between two states of mind"

Svarup Damodar Das - Je Anilo Prema-dhana
The actual name of this song is Saparsada-bhagavad-viraha-janita-vilapa, which loosely translates from the sanskrit as "Lamentation due to separation from the Lord and his associates." It was written as a part of a much longer poem called Prarthana by Narottama dasa Thakur an Indian saint from the 15th-16th century. basically Narottama das Thakur is lamenting that he can no longer be with his very devout friends and associates. so deep is his love for them that he sings in the fourth stanza "pasane kutibo matha anale pasibo gauranga gunera nidhi kotha gele pabo", which means "i will smash my head against the rock and enter into the fire. Where will i find the reservoir of all wonderful qualities?" intense, to say the least.