30 October 2009

jenny jenny jenny!

[27jennifers.jpg]

title: 27 jennifers
date: 25 october 2009
format: cd
packaging: backwards jewel case with fluorescent [not according to the scanner, apptly.] orange/yellow cover (do you know what that's a picture of?), typewritten tracklist.

1. Jenny Jenny – Little Richard
2. 27 Jennifers – M. Doughty
3. A Song For Jenni – The Fairways
4. Jenny Ondioline [excerpt] – Stereolab
5. What Makes Jenny Run? – Laptop
6. Jenny Wore Black – Men Without Hats
7. Jenny – The Lurkers
8. Photo Jenny – Belle & Sebastian
9. Jenny – I'm From Barcelona
10. Jenny Again – Tunng
11. Jenny & The Ess-Dog – Stephen Malkmus
12. Jenny – The Mountain Goats
13. Poor Jenny – The Everly Brothers
14. Jenny – Sleater-Kinney
15. Jenny – Avner
16. Little Jenny Dow – Bill Frisell
17. Jennie Lee – Jan & Dean
18. Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge) – De La Soul
19. Crass Jenny – Bumps
20. Jenny From The Block – Jennifer Lopez
21. Jennifer – M2M
22. Jennifer Juniper – Donovan
23. Jennifer Eccles – The Hollies
24. Jennifer Louise – of Montreal
25. Jennifer Save Me – Golden Smog
26. The Stairs of the House that Haunted this Town (Jenny, Jenny, Jenny) – Montt Mardié
27. Jenny Take A Ride! – Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

liking this one. even though i've barely listened to it in its completed form, the playlist has been growing for a couple months now (itunes makes this kind of mixmaking way too easy...) and you know what? there are a lot of really good songs about jennys!

made it for my housemate (guess) on her 29th birthday. total conceptual coup would've been if it were her 27th, but this is still pretty good. 27 songs is already a lot to squeeze into 80m – bump's 0:26 beat-snippet was helpful, and i had to chop stereolab's semi-epic/semi-boring "jenny ondioline" down from 18m to around 2 (the very end bit), which wasn't too great of a loss. i don't think the words mention "jenny" anyway.

other (non-instrumental) songs titled "jenny" with no actual jenny-referencing lyrics:
• sleater-kinney's (what is this about?)
• avner's (it's in swedish, but even so. why is this guy on sincerely yours? i don't understand)
• the mountain goats's (but it's still a great song. i always assumed this was in reference to "pirate jenny," which i almost included, but nina simone's and marianne faithfull's versions were too long, and lotte lenya's too silly and in german. plus "jenny" isn't actually in that song either.)
• i'm from barcelona's does include the name, but only once in the first verse, and it's kind of inconsequential.
• so basically, pretty much every song titled "jenny" except for the lurkers's, who i have never heard of, but i like that it's punk rock and is about murder (like the tunng song) and prison (like the everly brothers' song) and that it goes die-die-die. otherwise, kind of dumb, but whatevs.

i like how (unintentionally) stylistically unified this tape is (more or less.) why are there so many straight-up twee indie-pop songs on here? (at least 5 or so, depending on what you count.) is jenny a particularly twee-pop name? or are girl names in general just a twee-pop thing to use in a song title. guess i should conduct an experiment sometime to answer these quesions.

top 5 straight-up awesome songs on this cd:
1. "Poor Jenny" by the Everly Brothers
[yes!! band of the year! it's 1957 this year, right?]

2. "Jenny Again" by Tunng
[so shy. sooo shy. soshy. this is song is so goddamn cool.]

3. "Jennifer Eccles" by The Hollies
[la la, la la la la la! my favorite Hollies song of 2009, with "I can't let go" and "The air that i breathe" as runners-up.]

4. "Jenny Take a Ride!" by Mitch Ryder
[which is half a cover of the little richard song that opens the tape (spinny spinny spinny!) and half a cover of "see see rider", which i'm also very into these days. also i just saw bruce springsteen do a medley of this and "devil with a blue dress/good golly miss molly," which is an efficient way of covering four songs in two. or possibly six, depending how you count.]

5. "Jennifer Louise" by of Montreal [this song has a place of certain significance in my personal history, but that's not why it's on this list.]

honorable mentions:
• "27 Jennifers" by M. Doughty
[i just saw him, and he played this, but also like the early version "lisa lang and lucy liu" that's on smofe + smang. good thing he changed it though, so that i could make this mix!]

• "Jenny and the Ess-Dog" by Stephen Malkmus.
[just has a way of making you feel good...]

• "Photo Jenny" by B&S
[mostly for the lines about drugs and lesbianism. cute and fitting.]

oh, one other thing: i'm not sure if i have ever heard the tommy tutone song. but i couldn't find it, anyway. probably would fit in well with men without hats (who have numerous songs about jenny – she plays bass, btw) and laptop. but tell me this: is it as good as "634-5789"? or "Beechwood 4-5789" (why are those even different songs?) or "54-46"? hm, i don't think so. this is sad.

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