Stupid iTunes tricks

[tahnan]

iTunes Smart Playlists are a constant source of entertainment. The iTunes website suggested setting up a playlist of all your MP3s with "love" in the title, for instance. (In my case, that turned out to be a bad idea; I got "I Know What Kind of Love This Is" by the Nields, "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" by Annie Lennox, "I Love Trash"...some love songs, but mostly it didn't get their desired effect.)

I just tried listening to everything I have that's less than a minute long, but that didn't work very well either, mostly because a lot of it was short snippets from the Buffy musical (which I've listened to quite enough), or poems from "Free to Be...You and Me", or such.

But I'm now entertaining myself with what one might call "A Lipogrammatic Smart Playlist": MP3s for which the title, song, and artist all do not contain the letter "e".

That's 15 songs, from four albums (plus a fifth, "Roots of Rock: '80s"). Which leads one to the probably uninteresting puzzle: do you know enough about my taste in music and about the alphabet to tell me what those four album/artists are?

(Note: "All That Jazz" from Chicago might have qualified, except that the album is listed as "Chicago - The Musical". Bear that in mind when guessing.)

"6 4" by 3 8 (three songs)
"6 7" by 2 5 (five songs)
"6 5" by 6 5 (two songs)
"4" by 5 (three songs)

And for bonus points, the 80s song is "2 1 3 7" by 3 7.

Comments

well the 80s song is easy

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

That's one of my faves too:

In a Big Country by Big Country

-- Toonhead!

[thedan.livejournal.com]

So much for my guess... I thought you might have some things from "4" by 4 7.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything by any e-less 4 7, it turns out. My fiancee owns some Phil Collins, but none of his albums are e-less. So I have, as I feared, no idea who you meant, which makes me suspect that the four I have aren't guessable.

[flynngrrl.livejournal.com]

It saddens me that I don't know you well enough to even begin to guess.

When you two have some time, let's have dinner and rectify that.

I make a very good "stress less about the wedding" souffle.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

You don't have "3 3 3" by 3 3 3? (I don't have any actual guesses here, though if I try this on my collection at home I might come up with some.)

Re: well the 80s song is easy

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I got that one with a regexp on my album collection - and then felt bad for not figuring it out without help.

Re: well the 80s song is easy

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

The repetition helps.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that out of just over 2,000 songs that I have almost nothing that fits the bill: just three songs by 4 on the album 2 (which is also the name of one of the songs).

-- Toonhead!

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

So I take it you were a big fan of La disparition?

Indeed!

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, SLATW-souffle. What a terrific idea!

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Amusingly, though I don't have "3 3 3" by 3 3 3, you do realize that two of the three members of the group have no e's in their names? I don't own anything by one of them.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I've always meant to read it, but never have read it. But, well, you know. Puzzles. How could one not like it? :-)

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

So it just occurred to me--aren't the artists for 'Chicago--The Musical' Kander and Ebb? Two E's.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

As it happens, no: they are the composers, yes, but the artist for "All That Jazz" in my MP3 collection is "Chicago - Bebe Neuwirth". (The musical is listed first so that, when I sort by artist, I don't end up with the musical scattered throughout my collection; but I wanted the actual singers listed, so that I could set up smart playlists that excluded Ann Reinking, whose voice I cannot stand.)

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I count 4 lipogramattic songs on "6 4" by 3 8. Unless you didn't rip the title track?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The third track has a subtitle. :-)