“Perfect Playlist”?
The local “alternative rock” station, 94.7 KNRK (sigh… an “Entercom Station”) has a feature at 5:00 where they play a selection of five songs suggested by a listener. About a week ago, I was listening in and getting a weird fuzzy feeling as I pondered the meaning of the song selection that was unfolding before my ears.
Song #1: Angry Johnny, by Poe. Lyrics sample:
Johnny, Angry Johnny, this is Jezebel in Hell
I wanna kill you, I wanna blow you…away
I can do it you gently
I can do it with an animal’s grace
I can do it with precision
I can do it with gormet taste
Chorus:
But either way
Either (way), either way
I wanna kill you
I wanna blow you…
Away
I can do it to your mind
I can do it to your face
I can do it with integrity
I can do it with disgrace
Okay. So far so good. Next song! It’s… Smashing Pumpkins with Disarm:
I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my voice
What’s a boy supposed to do
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love – I send this smile over to you
The killer in me is the killer in you
Well… you can read into this “killer” whatever you may, but … it’s there. Okay… what’s the next song?
Why… It’s the Latest Single by the band “The Killers”!! (The song itself doesn’t really matter.) Okay. There’s a theme here. I imagine this to be the “Perfect Playlist” suggested by Kleebold and Harris or whomever before going on their shooting rampage as a little signal of what they’re planning. Or something to this effect. What are we supposed to hear next? Pearl Jam’s “Jermey”? Maybe I’ll get to hear Talking Heads’s “Psycho Killer”?
For what it’s worth, the next two songs are some depressed lullabye by Depeche Mode, and the Garbage song “When I Grow Up”. Shrug it off… scratch your head… turn the station… move on.