durdle.com » Music

Life on Mars Soundtrack (again!)

Howard — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:58:11 +0000

This post in which I collated (nearly) all the music used in series one of Life on Mars continues to be the most visited and most commented article on my site. The page has turned into a little community of 70s music lovers who have helped each other compile what must be the most complete list of music for the show. Thanks especially to “Sam” and “Mike K” who have contributed so much to the list. The post has proved so useful that I discovered recently that it is referenced on the Wikipedia article for the soundtrack album. Wikipedia fame!

Almost as impressive: there is now a BitTorrent floating around that contains all the series one tracks I originally collated for the page. I had always intended to create an iTunes “iMix” as per Richard’s suggestion – I still might if it hasn’t already been done. I can do the same for series two now my army of helpers has detailed all the tracks used.

Isn’t the web great?

The Almost Complete Life on Mars Soundtrack (Series 1)

Howard — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 09:13:51 +0000

Life on Mars has just started again on the BBC – I’ve not got round to seeing the new episode yet (Sky+ has it stored away safely for me) but it seems the new series has provoked renewed interest in my previous post about the excellent soundtrack the first series had. It looks like the BBC have taken down the page I referenced to get the music information, so for the benefit of the many people who have asked for it, here’s The Almost Complete Life on Mars Soundtrack (Series 1). I expect I shall get together the Series 2 music once it’s complete…

Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song
David Bowie – Life on Mars
Blue Oyster Cult – Stairway to the Stars
Lou Reed – I’m So Free
The Who – Baba O’Riley
Deep Purple – Rat Rat Blue
Deep Purple – Fireball
Cream – White Room
Wings – Live and Let Die
Deep Purple – No One Came
Willie Lindo & The Charmers’ Band – Drum Song
Thin Lizzy – Saga of the Ageing Orphan
Deep Purple – Lazy
Pink Floyd – One of These Days
Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz
Uriah Heep – Gypsy
Free – Wishing Well
Atomic Rooster – Head in the Sky
Hawkwind – Brainstorm
David Bowie – The Jean Genie
Jethro Tull – Cross-Eyed Mary
Hawkwind – Silver Machine
Slade – Gudbuy T’ Jane
Rolling Stones – Wild Horses
Sweet – Blockbuster
Thin Lizzy – Call The Police
Status Quo – Good Thinking
Thin Lizzy – The Rocker
Cream – White Room
T Rex – Jeepster
Roxy Music – Would You Believe
Hawkwind – Urban Guerilla
Roxy Music – Mother of Pearl
Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel to be Free)
Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World
The Hollies – I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top
Peters & Lee – Welcome Home
Nina Simone – Sinnerman
Atomic Rooster – The Rock
John Kongos – Tokoloshe man
Atomic Rooster – Ear in the Snow
Atomic Rooster – The Devil’s Answer
Wizzard – See My Baby Jive
Lindisfarne – Meet Me On The Corner
Free – Little Bit of Love

That ought to keep you busy searching your music collections (and iTunes)!

Edit (10 April, 2007): Corrected spelling of Uriah Heep (not Heap!), thanks to Dave in the comments. :)

Edit (6 December, 2007): There is a BitTorrent file floating based on this (Series 1) list.

Testing the K800

Howard — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 12:05:26 +0000

I’ve been hankering after the K800i since it was announced some time ago. 3.2MP camera, 3G data, mp3 player, lots of memory and all sorts of other bells and whistles meant it looked like a good replacement for my Samsung D600 and my aging digital camera.

As it happens, I ended up buying a new Canon IXUS 7MP camera before I went to Ascot recently, but since I’d already pre-ordered the K800 there seemed little reason not to entertain a new toy! Vodafone delivered it a couple of weeks ago, and as Richard has commented, we’ve been comparing notes since he has the K750 – this phone’s predecessor.

The photo on this post links to a set on Flickr that I took while wandering around the Longacre’s garden centre this past weekend. Without changing any of the default settings, or moving to macro mode or anything else I just snapped away allowing the camera to auto-focus as necessary. I’m quite pleased with the results, and Phil and Richard both seemed reasonably impressed too!

Technically the rest of the phone is excellent. The menus are responsive, the 3G makes checking email (and RSS feeds) a breeze, and I can even watch TV as long as I’m in a strong 3G signal area. Applications like Google Maps run beautifully – looking great on the K800’s screen, and again loading quickly thanks to the 3G connection. My next challenge is to work out a way to stream my MP3 collection from home to the media player on the mobile. It ought to be possible, I think!

The Almost Complete Life on Mars Soundtrack

Howard — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:03:36 +0000

After a little encouragement from Richard, I finally got round to watching Life on Mars – almost all of it in one sitting. I thought it was great, and not least because of the fantastic soundtrack. The BBC have been good enough to list all the tracks used in each episode, along with a little note that “there are no plans to release a soundtrack CD for Life on Mars”. I imagine the red tape involved in releasing all those tracks for one compilation would be nightmarish, but a notice like that is a red rag to a bull for someone with my kind of music collection.

Half an hour (and several trips to iTunes for missing tracks) later, I have completed my “[Almost] Complete Life on Mars Soundtrack”. I say almost because I’ve deliberately left out the tracks from Episode 7 where Sam hears modern music on the radio… I think my soundtrack can do without Britney Spears and Pulp. Not that I have anything against them – it just ruins the 70s cop-rock aesthetic!

I shall enjoy a 70s cop-rock inspired journey to work tomorrow – although not driving quite like Gene does in the show…

Update (Feb 2007): With the release of the new series there’s a renewed interest in the soundtrack. Since the BBC have removed the link I used, here’s a track list of my “Almost Complete” soundtrack.