I’ve been meaning to post my wedding songlist–not in its entirety, there’s too many–but a sample of what we had going on, just to give you the flavor of it all (or to bring back memories). One of the most enjoyable parts of my wedding was that I had complete control over the music, so there was no “chicken dance” or hokey-pokey bullshit (sorry if you did–really, I’m very sorry for you).
I put together a “quiet set,” a “medium set,” and a “dance-y set” for the various parts of the evening, but today we will focus on the quiet set, which played during most of the post-ceremony/drinking and eating appetizers portion (bride and groom spent a good chunk of this time on the beach taking pictures), and also continued into dinner.
But first, the song that played while my lovely bride walked down the stairs and to the beach with her father was “Love” by John Lennon. I can’t tell you how perfect that song was–except that I just did. And then, after the ceremony ended, the guy who I left in charge of my iPod accidentally played “Untitled” by Blonde Redhead (off of Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons) as we walked down the aisle/sand, and it was totally perfect. I’m pretty sure the guy couldn’t understand a word of what I saying when I gave him directions, but he just smiled and nodded his head, sure, si, si! Anyway, nice job, sound guy from Cancun.
Here’s a sample of the Quiet Set:
A Love Supreme–John Coltrane (the whole thing)
“Playground Love”–Air (from the Virgin Suicides soundtrack)
“Brother Woodrow/Closing Prayer”–The Afghan Whigs
“New Orleans Instrumental No. 1”–R.E.M.
“Videotape,” “Kid A” and “Treefingers”–Radiohead
“Fly” and “Road”–Nick Drake
“Waltz #1”–Elliott Smith
“Bombed”–Mark Lanegan
“The Seer’s Tower” and “Concerning the UFO Sighting…”–Sufjan Stevens
“My Man”–Billie Holiday
“Blue Spanish Sky”–Chris Issak
“Postcards from Italy”–Beirut
“Naked As We Came”–Iron & Wine
“Nobody’s Fault But My Own”–Beck
“Black Eye”–Jeff Tweedy (from the Sunken Treasure dvd)
“Good Woman”–Cat Power
“Blue Red and Grey”–The Who
“Tom Traubert’s Blues” and “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)”–Tom Waits
“Measuring Cups”–Andrew Bird
I also threw in a Thom Yorke solo piano version of “Analyse,” some instrumental songs from the “Until the End of the World” soundtrack, and various great jazz songs from Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. Ah, listening to it right now…