I know that a lot of you often post a Random Ten from your iPod or MP3 players. This is sort of a take-off on that sort of post. But, first -- a little backstory.
I was a member of an online group of people devoted to the wonderful and greatly-missed television show "Homicide:Life on the Street." I developed great friendships with some of the other people who also inhabited the group, one of them being our very own Songbird. (Big "Hi!"s also go out to La Binsk and Karin (a sometimes lurker here) who will occasionally come over from the group to see what's up in BlogLand.) As fans of the show, we often got together to discuss plot lines, characters, and situations that happened on the show.
One of the things that was so great about Homicide was the use of music to underscore all of the moments (important and otherwise) that developed. The musical director, Chris Tergesen, was a master at finding the perfect song to accompany any given bit of the show. One of our group members took on the Herculean task of assembling this music that provided the aural ambience that the show came to represent to us, the fans. It turned out to be a massive 4-disc set. And then, that one person -Morpheus - in a move of stunning good-will, mailed those home-grown compilations to various members of our little community. I was fortunate enough to be one of those people. I loved the whole set, but there were just some songs that I could not get out of my brain, so I further condensed them down into one disc. One disc with the best that Homicide had to offer. The interesting thing to keep in mind was that H:LotS ran from 1993 to 1999, and some of these bands were not even yet blips on any label's radar. There's a lot of pretty great music in the making there. And here's the playlist for you to enjoy:
The Best of Homicide:Life on the Street
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1) The H:LotS Theme
2) Tell Me What's Wrong -- The Subdudes
3) Only Happy When it Rains -- Garbage
4) Don't Think Twice -- Love Riot
5) Walkout -- Matthew Sweet
6) Circle -- Big Head Todd
7) What a Good Boy -- Barenaked Ladies
8) It Could Be Sweet -- Portishead
9) Crucify -- Tori Amos
10) I Alone -- Live
11) Cure for Pain -- Morphine
12) The Bridge Song -- Dishwalla
13) Raining in Baltimore -- Counting Crows
14) What Would Happen -- Meredith Brooks
15) Boom Boom Boom -- The Iguanas
16) Super Bon Bon -- Soul Coughing
17) Bleed -- Collective Soul
18) Feel Me Don't You -- Dada
19) In Your Wildest Dreams -- Rev. Horton Heat
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My family hates it when I put that disc in, but I play it all the time, and sing my lungs out, and relive the glory days of my favorite TV show. Homicide, how we miss you.
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16 comments:
I still enjoy my CD set!
And I am fortunate; my two sons both love H:LotS and enjoy it on DVD (the first three seasons, I haven't gone further in purchasing; I have the other seasons on Netflix, but who knows when they will get to the top of the queue!).
Love, love, love and miss, miss, miss H:LotS. *sigh*
KLee will stop at nothing to get me to break me of my non-blog-posting habit.
Along with Both KLee and Angry Pregnant Lawyer's additions, I'll toss in "What Would Happen" "Well-Repected Man" (And I'm not even a Kellergirl!),"I'll Stand By You," "Cold, Cold Ground," and "Can't Find My Way Home." Even "Crucify." Isn't that "Allelulia" song in there, too - I love it, but don't see it listed. Oh - "Blood Makes Noise," "Boom, Boom, Boom" and even "Super Bon Bon." Why? Because they all scream Homicide to me.
KLee called me Karin (short for my old screen name that rhymed my middle initial with my dog's name), but these days I go by La Reina. Hello to all of KLee's friends!
La Reina (hoping Morph is staying clear of angry trees)
Crucify & I Alone... two of my personal faves.
Never saw HLOTS though. Sorry.
La Reina -- a lot of those that you mentioned were on my "Best Of" disc -- "Crucify" was there, as was "What Would Happen", and "Super Bon Bon" and "Boom Boom Boom".
As for all the other H:LotS junkies out there -- now you know you are not alone. :) It was SO hard to winnow those four discs down into one. The set is not very portable, so I had to pick and choose very carefully. This just happened to be my top choices.
I didn't go "Stand By You" because I can't stand the Pretenders. Something about Chrissie Hynde's voice makes me want to "clean my boat" a la Mikey Kellerman.
I did miss out by not including "Hurt" though.
H:LOTS was my all-time favorite tv show, bar none. The music and the camera work made it stand out from the crowd. I miss it, too.
Somehow it's always fun seeing posts about music I'm not really familiar with. I like hearing about it.
never saw homicide, but the music sound awesome! i would love to have all those songs on one disc!
Never saw the show, but the music includes lots of my fave bands. Cool.
KLee, tell your family to get with the program! This is the BEST CD that you will ever own. (Why would I lie?) :)
Some of my other favorites from the show include Buddy Guy's version of "Feels Like Rain", Joan Armatrading's "Down to Zero", John Lee Hooker's "I Cover the Waterfront", Belly's "Full Moon, Empty Heart", and the Cowboy Junkies' "Something More Besides You". Great stuff - all of it. How thankful I am to Morph that he put a box set together! And I echo La Reina's hope that Morph is not running (literally) into any more trees. The trees could use the relief. ;)
Someday, I hope to get the rest of the Seasons on DVD. Currently, I only own Season 1. (I'm so ashamed.)
Binskie -- don't feel ashamed...that's all I own, too. After all, if I could afford only one, it was the ONE to get. I'd like to have "The Documentary" on DVD, but it's not crucial. I have "Three Men", I have "Night of the Dead Living", and I have "Gone For Goode." I'm okay.
:)
Night of the Dead Living is my favorite, by far.
And now I've got Boom Boom Boom running through my head...
Songbird, me too. I love the hunt for the candle lighter. :) Love that Beau Felton!
Well, Season 1 is the most consistent season, artistically speaking. And, of course, "Three Men and Adena" is a personal fave - though heartbreaking.
Hey, did you know that the 15th anniversary edition of The Book by David Simon was recently released? The new edition includes some photos of the real-life detectives as well as photos of their TV counterparts. Plus, there is a new afterward that discusses what has happened to everyone in the intervening years. It's trés cool.
KLee & Binsky were discussing H:Lots videos. According to King Jim, I believe, there's a boxed set now of all the seasons and the TV movie. They said it costs less than buying everything separatly, but it's still gotta be more than I can afford.
And well...if it's everything that means the dreaded peach, boxing, and hotdog scenes are included. And what's the common denominator of those scenes ov revulsion? Calzone.
La Reina --
You HAD to bring the hot dogs and peaches into it?! Man, I just lost my appetite!
:)
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