This is continued from the last post about making a Dragon*Con playlist.

As said before, I would really like to get this playlist up to 5 hours, so that it will last the entire distance. To this end, I would appreciate any suggestions for songs that may make a good addition to this list.

Some of these tunes are, to be honest, kinda grasping at straws, but when you need the playlist to last 5 hours, and you want as little “filler” as possible, it becomes a matter of, “Do I want this song, whose subject matter may be more appropriate, or do I want this song, which I actually really like, but which may only be connected in my head, and even then, by a thread????”

I have, most times, chosen the song that I actually like and that rocks, rather than a song that I don’t like but fits the theme better.

And I haven’t even touched my entire Rhapsody catalog yet! But that may take some serious “separating the wheat from the chaff” time, which I have not yet been willing to partake in.

11. Jailbreak ~ Thin Lizzy

One trick of playlist-making, which my cousin introduced me to, is to whet the appetite of your audience with a song by an artist whom they expect to hear more of. As in, you play Billie Jean because, in their minds, the audience really wants to hear Thriller… then you hit em with Thriller and they freak out! This song is a good bro-down song about a group of guys breaking out of jail and busting heads (of course).

The Thin Lizzy song you really want to hear for your “boy’s weekend out” is, of course, “The Boys Are Back in Town”. This is its appetizer.

12. Castlevania Theme ~ Nintendo (?), Konami (?)

I downloaded this from the internet for my Halloween mix, but it fits here, for sure. This song is actually pretty groovy. In my college days, I was briefly in a band that was trying to recreate the 8-bit Nintendo sound. That was like 20 years ago. We should’ve stuck with it, because now we’d be rich. A friend of mine commented, “This shit sounds like a bunch of drunk Transformers!” I nearly shit when he said that.

13. Prisoner of Mars ~ Stereolab

Mars and stuff. Also, a short film by Kenneth Anger that may make you feel like you ate some bad acid.

14. Mirror, Mirror ~ Blind Guardian

Mine, and many others, favorite Blind Guardian tune. Also from the “Nightfall on Middle-Earth” album. I have referenced this song dozens of times in this blog, as it also appears on my workout playlist.

15. Mammal ~ They Might Be Giants

TMBG has tons of songs about science. In fact, they have entire albums dedicated to the subject. This is one of my favorite TMBG songs, and is a dedication to the Dragon*Con Science Track.

16. Vampires ~ Pet Shop Boys

If you’ve never heard this song, I would encourage you to look it up, as it sounds like the way that the atrium in the Marriott Marquis looks. Like I can just picture all my fellow Dragon*Con weirdos lurking about in the atrium when I hear this song. Plus it is about Vampires, and D*C will be hosting the cast of something called “the Vampire Diaries”. I have no clue what that is and would like to keep it that way.

17. Legends of Azeroth (World of Warcraft Main Title) ~ Tracy Bush

Another video game theme, WoW has been a bonding agent for me and my friends at various points in my life. Though I no longer play WoW, it will always hold a special place in my heart… and you never know when I might be back in Azeroth. No one gets out alive.

18. Winter’s Wolves ~ the Sword

Lots of metalheads do some serious hating on The Sword. From what I have gathered, it is mostly because they had a song on Guitar Hero. Thus they are clearly sell outs.

I don’t really care about that, but I know these lyrics are totally fitfordragoncon:

“Can’t you see what you have wrought here?
Bloody battles will be fought here

May the mountains rise against you
May the forests block your path
May your axes chip and shatter
And know it is my wrath

I would mount your head on bloody spears
Outside your palace gates
And watch as crows pick out your eyes
And your cities laid to waste

Can’t you see what you have wrought here?
A curse to you and all your kin
Bloody battles will be fought here
Await your doom at empires end

May the rivers rush to drown you
May the earth swallow your hosts
May the winter’s wolves surround you
And rip the life from your throats”

19. The Battle of Evermore ~ Led Zeppelin

I don’t know how I forgot about Led Zeppelin, with all their cryptic references to Tolkien, but I did. Added this song today, 8/2/12.

20. Stonehenge ~ Spinal Tap

Many thanks to my friend Lauren for reminding me of this gem. Fits in perfect with Circulus and the other pseudo-Renn Faire stuff.

21. Lord of the Rings ~ Blind Guardian

Another Tolkien song from Blind Guardian. No brainer.

22. Heavy Metal ~ Sammy Hagar

Theme song from the movie of the same name, heavily referenced by South Park in that one episode. The movie comes from the magazines, of course, which are awesome.

23. Ramble On ~ Led Zeppelin

Gollum. Mordor. Days of old when magic filled the air.

Possibly my favorite Led Zeppelin song, and it helps that it fits the theme.

24. Tres Brujas ~ the Sword

Three witches. I should probably space these Sword songs out a bit more, and I may get to that eventually, but for now they make a Blind Guardian sandwich.

From their concept album “Warp Riders”. Here’s what the band said about it:

This is what you’d technically call a ‘concept album,’ though I’d describe it as more of a soundtrack to a story I came up with. All the songs are about aspects of the story, but they don’t cover every detail from beginning to end. It’s a science fiction story, and it deals heavily with themes of light and dark and perceptions of time. One of the main settings is a planet, which has experienced tidal locking, creating a side of perpetual day and a side of perpetual night. The reason for creating a narrative to base the songs around was essentially to provide interesting and varied lyrical subject matter with a core theme to tie it all together.

25. My Body is Made of Sunlight ~ Circulus

This is what you would hear if you went to a Renaissance Faire and ate a bunch of acid (which seems to be a recurring theme for some reason). Don’t believe me? Check this out:

26. The Time Warp ~ Rocky Horror Cast

Last time we were at Dragon*Con, my D*C buddy and I drunkenly stumbled into a performance of Rocky Horror at like 3 in the morning. It was opportune that it was just before the Time Warp started, as we did the Time Warp… sort of. I am sure that we made quite a show for the people at the show, who may or may not have been there as it was too dark, and I was too drunk, to see anyone.

27. Lost in Space ~ Kool Keith

This is from Kool Keith’s sci-fi album “Black Elvis/Lost in Space”. Probably the only sci-fi concept album ever made by a hip hop artist.

28. Dancin’ Across the USA ~ Lindsey Buckingham

Any song from National Lampoon’s Vacation qualifies as a road trip song. I thought this was the Statler Brothers for forever.

29. Teenagers from Mars ~ the Misfits

Last time I was at D*C, I met Tom Savini and got his autograph. There are definitely some horror fans, and panels, at Dragon*Con, but it is a very small percentage of the attendees. So this song is for that very small contingent of my fellow conventioneers.

Also, I like to think this is what some innocent old person would think if he accidentally wandered into one of the host hotels during Dragon*Con.

30. On the Mountain at Dawn ~ OM

At nearly 20 minutes long, this epic masterpiece from doomy drone experts OM is the soundtrack for me when I play Warhammer 40k (that’s the tabletop game). You can just picture some dark sci-fi doin’s going down while this song is playing.

31. Graceland ~ Paul Simon

Just before I got out of college, my roommate and I took a roadtrip to Graceland in Memphis. This was our soundtrack, which cemented this song forever in my mind as a quintessential road trip song.

32. Martian Hop ~ the Ran-Dells

One of my absolute favorite songs on the playlist, this song is about martians who throw a dance for a bunch of humans. This song is so poppy it might make your teeth hurt.

33. Why Does the Sun Shine? ~ They Might Be Giants

Another science song from TMBG. I don’t love it the way I do Mammal, but there’s something endearing about the part where they talk about all the metals that are gasses on the surface of the sun.

34. Ghostbusters ~ Ray Parker, Jr.

Possibly my favorite movie of all time, there are tons of amateur ghostbusters at Dragon*Con. Last time I even saw Ecto-1 cruising the perimeter.

35. Legend of Zelda Suite ~ London Philharmonic

I have long considered the original Legend of Zelda to be the greatest video game of all time. The first time I heard this version of the theme, I nearly got all misty eyed.

36. Dragonaut ~ Sleep

Slow metal about riding dragons. Hence the name.

37. To Take the Black ~ the Sword

The Sword shows up again, this time with a tune based on George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice & Fire” books.

38. Ride the Dragon ~ Manowar

Fast metal about riding dragons. Hence the name.

39. Wild Wild Life ~ Talking Heads

This is just a party song, but it fits because you are partying at Dragon*Con with people in some wild costumes.

40. She Blinded Me With Science ~ Thomas Dolby

The coup de grace of science songs. This one is almost too easy.

41. Intergalactic ~ Beastie Boys

Besides the fact that it’s a great song, and about sci-fi, the Futurama connection plants this one on the list with no reservations.

42. Revenge of the Nerds ~ the Rubinoos

This is the theme song from the movie. I wanted to find the Voodoo Glow Skulls song from back in the day, but it talks about killing people and stuff, so maybe that’s why I can’t find it. It was also on a tiny record label, which might have something to do with it.

Anyway, check out the foresight of the Rubinoos in this chorus:

So go ahead, put us down
One of these days we will turn it around
Won’t be long, mark my words
Time has come for Revenge of the nerds!
Revenge of the nerds Revenge of the nerds
So if they call you a dork, a spazz or a geek
Stand up and be proud, don’t be meek
Beautiful people, haven’t you heard?
The joke’s on you, it’s revenge of the nerds

We are in the eye of the storm of the revenge of the nerds right now. Nerd/geek culture is absolutely at its zenith and the world is our oyster.
I think this movie was my first glimpse of “bush”.

43. Stargazer ~ Rainbow

I wanted to include at least one song by Ronnie James Dio, but chose his band Rainbow as his representation instead of the eponymously named “Dio”.

All you need is this, the cover of the album that this song is on:

44. the Mollusk ~ Ween

As evidenced in my post on swimming, I love this album. This one is one of the straw-graspers, but I figured it had enough stuff about mollusk biology to vaguely fall into the “science” category.

45. Forever My Queen ~ Pentagram

Another straw-grasper, this song is bad effin ass. Something about kings and queens, but who gives a crap when the song is so rockin.

46. Barbarian ~ Electric Wizard

Heavy as an elephant standing on top of a cement truck, this song is about none other than Conan himself, the Barbarian and ex-costume dream of myself. I may need to include a couple songs by the band Conan, just for good measure.

47. the Alchemist ~ Witchcraft

I don’t know what “alchemy” is exactly, but somehow it is always associated with evil dudes in fantasy. I think alchemists were responsible for figuring out how to turn base metals into gold. They also mixed health and stamina potions.

This song is about one of them.

48. Dovahkiin (the Dragonborn Comes) ~ Malukah

A song played in many of the pubs and taverns around Skyrim, this cover of it by a girl on youtube is freakin awesome, especially when coupled with the original Skyrim live-action trailer, as seen here:

49. White & Nerdy ~ Weird Al Yankovic

Including a Weird Al song was a given, but which one? The first time I used Ventrilo and played WoW, one of the first things I heard was one of my friends singing the original version of this song, which I thought was hilarious. I nearly included the original, but killed two birds by knocking out a Weird Al song and “Ridin'” in one shot.

50. I’m Seein’ Robots ~ Kool Keith

Another sci-fi hip-hop song by Kool Keith. This is about how everyone is really a robot, kinda like how Dawn of the Dead is about how everyone is really a zombie anyway.

51. Walk on the Wild Side ~ Lou Reed

A song about partying with weirdos, which is what Dragon*Con is all about. Or can be. I included this one because my Dragon*Con buddy is a big Lou Reed and Velvet Underground fan.

52. Blitzkrieg Bop ~ the Ramones

A road trip song. Mostly because of its infamous chorus, but also because it is featured in National Lampoon’s Vacation.

53. See the Constellation ~ They Might Be Giants

Yet another science song by TMBG. Great tune from the great album “Apollo 18”.

54. Weekend ~ Wet Willy

I think Wet Willy is from somewhere around here, and I grew up hearing this song on the radio every Friday, so it is forever in my brain as the ultimate weekend song.

55. I’d Much Rather Be With the Boys ~ Reigning Sound

Garage rock kings Reigning Sound sneak in with this song about hanging out with the guys, instead of “girls like you”.

56. Hair of the Dog ~ Nazareth

Totally badass song about kicking someone’s ass. Goes out to the asshole in the Phantom of the Opera costume from a couple years ago at Dragon*Con.

57. the Boys Are Back in Town ~ Thin Lizzy

This one is almost too obvious. I’m almost too embarassed to have it on here.

Almost.

58. Holiday Road ~ Lindsey Buckingham

The greatest road trip song of all time. By miles. Thousands of them.

59. Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band Disco ~ MECO

In college, my roommate and I would wake up and play this record every day. If you’ve never heard it, here it is via youtube:

Apparently it was a huge hit.

60. French Castle ~ Monty Python

I took the step of including a “talking” track on here, which is my favorite part of Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Fake French accents are endlessly hilarious to me, but the line “I told him we already got one” destroys me.

Even the Simpsons acknowledged that Monty Python stuff is nerdy (remember when Homer went to college?).

61. The Touch ~ Stan Bush

The main song from the only Transformers movie that I will ever like or acknowledge. Anyone guy my age will completely lose his mind when he hears this song.

62. Immigrant Song ~ Led Zeppelin

If this song doesn’t fit in with the songs about barbarians and dragons, I don’t know what does. Check out a snippet of the lyrics to this paradigm of rock:

“Come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!”

One of the heaviest Zeppelin songs, and one of the reasons Led Zeppelin is pointed to as one of the forefathers of modern metal. Like Auto always says: “Zeppelin Roolz!”

63. Georgia On My Mind ~ Ray Charles

Slow, but great tune. A true classic. Too cheesy? Mmmmmaybe. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great song. Dragon*Con is in Georgia. Ray Charles is the shit.

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That’s what I’ve come up with so far. Thoughts? Suggestions?

30 Days!!!!