I mean to post this yesterday, but totally forgot... Jonathan Wight asked how many covers of "Ring of Fire" one had in one's iTunes library. For me, the answer is two: Joaquin Phoenix's from the "Walk the Line" soundtrack, and the oldie but goodie from Social Distortion. This led to the following random tracks being played after shuffling the results of a search in iTunes for "fire": 1. "Ring of Fire" -- Joaquin Phoenix, Walk The Line Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2. "City of New Orleans" -- Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire, Disc 2 3. "Consuming Fire" -- Third Day, Offerings: A Worship Album 4. "Ring of Fire" -- Social Distortion, Social Distortion 5. "Fire Woman (N.Y.C. Rock Mix)" -- The Cult, Fire Woman EP (import) 6. "Far and Gone" -- Day of Fire, Cut & Move 7. "Waiting" -- Fireflight, The Healing of Harms 8. "Shine" -- By The Tree, World On Fire 9. "Reborn" -- Day of Fire, Cut & Move 10. "Wake Me" -- Day of Fire, Cut & Move Apparently, my copy of iTunes has a thing for the Man in Black and Day of Fire. I can live with that.

1. "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" - Def Leppard, Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection
2. "The Big Chair" - Tears For Fears, Songs From The Big Chair
3. "Joe Bean" - Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
4. "Blue Train" - Johnny Cash, The Complete Sun Singles, Volume 2
5. "The Cross Has Said It All" - Matt Redman, The Friendship And The Fear
6. "It's So Easy" - Harvest, 41 Will Come
7. "Call Back When I'm Honest" - The Almost, Southern Weather
8. "The Planets: Mars, The Bringer Of War (Conclusion)" - London Symphony Orchestra, Heavy Classix
9. "Flashpoint" - Whitecross, Triumphant Return
10. "Never Been Unloved" - Michael W. Smith, The Second Decade 1993-2003 As with yesterday, all links are to the Amazon MP3 store, with the exception of Heavy Classix, which is only available on CD.

From earlier this morning, when I was in a music-listening mode: 1. "The Steward of Gondor (Featuring Billy Boyd)" -- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
2. "Flicker" -- Audio Adrenaline, Some Kind of Zombie
3. "Invisible Sun" -- The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics
4. "Dirty World" -- The Traveling Wilburys, The Traveling Wilburys Collection
5. "I Hate Everything" -- George Strait, 50 Number Ones, Disc 1
6. "Big Yellow Taxi" -- Counting Crows, Hard Candy
7. "Before My Eyes" -- Tesla, Five Man Acoustical Jam (Live)
8. "Least of These" -- Justin Nevins, Nada One
9. "Hallowed" -- Jennifer Knapp & Phil Keaggy, City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia
10. "Raise Him Up (Electric)" -- Lost And Found, Something Different All links are to the Amazon MP3 Downloads store, with the exception of Tesla's Five Man Acoustical Jam, which is for the CD, as it's not available as a download. Why Amazon over the iTunes Store? For a lot of songs, Amazon offers the same or better bit rate than iTunes, which means a better listening experience, and there's absolutely no DRM on Amazon's songs. This is the case only with certain songs, not all, on the iTunes Store. And I've just been buying more music of late from Amazon than from the iTunes Store...

I've had this playlist since, well, since before there were playlists. It started as a mix CD I put together in the very early aughts, before the iPod was released. It has continued life as a playlist in iTunes, and I put it together today as a Mixwit mix to try out that service. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, the services which Mixwit uses to pull tracks didn't have everything in my original "Phischmix". Here's the full playlist, with the missing songs in italics: "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet
"Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down
"Everything to Everyone" by Everclear
"My Hero" by the Foo Fighters
"Push" by Matchbox 20
"Closing Time" by Semisonic
"Man on the Moon" by R.E.M.
"Three Marlenas" by The Wallflowers
"Come On Eileen" by Save Ferris
"Walkin' on the Sun" by Smash Mouth
"Fire Escape" by Fastball
"She's So High" by Tal Bachman
"John Hughes 2000"by Menthol
"Heroes" by The Wallflowers One of the little eye candy things I like about Mixwit is the fact that as you go through the playlist, the tape moves from one side of the cassette to the other, just as its analog predecessor does. It's those little things developers pay attention to that make the whole experience. Enjoy!

Originally slated for inclusion on the Joshua Tree album twenty years ago, this song remained unfinished until just recently:

It can now be found on disc two of the 20th anniversary edition of Joshua Tree. [Wave of the phin to the Fontosaurus.]

Tom tagged me, asking I note the last five songs I've purchased. Since I don't often purchase individual songs, my list will mostly contain my favorite songs from the last few CDs I've purchased. 1. "Once Bitten Twice Shy" -- Great White
Tried out the new Amazon MP3 store and got this. It's the only Great White song I've ever liked, so why bother buying an entire album to get it? 2. "Disarray" -- Lifehouse, Who We Are
I really like the way this song kicks off the album. 3. "Every Man" -- Casting Crowns, The Altar and The Door
I love the reminder this song gives me that everyone needs the salvation God offers in His Son, no matter who they are. 4. "Dirty And Left Out" -- The Almost, Southern Weather
Because what's a rock album without a ballad? And boy, have I felt this way at times. 5. "Long Live the King" -- Aaron Shust, Whispered and Shouted
Shust builds this song perfectly. I don't usually associate the words "anthemic" and "fist-pumping" with worship music, but this one gets the blood moving. I don't really like "tagging" folks and propagating Internet memes--gee, I guess if I really feel that way, I should stop participating in them, shouldn't I?--but I confess, I am curious as to the last five songs purchased by Brent, Nathan, Michael, Wes, and Raena. (If you don't feel like blogging your response, lady and gents, feel free to leave it in the comments.)