Pete's Log: Garden of Velvet Clouds

Entry #2561, (Music, World Wide Web)
(posted when I was 46 years old.)

Jamie recently introduced me to Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb, and it triggered a need to create a playlist.

  1. melodysheep - Garden of Your Mind
  2. Propellerheads - Velvet Pants
  3. The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
  4. Anders Enger Jensen - DiscoVision
  5. Sofia Kourtesis - By Your Side
  6. The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
  7. Alpha Rhythm & Ritual - Venus Fly
  8. Guerilla Welfare - Aggression
  9. Public Service Broadcasting - London Can Take It
  10. Strfkr - Hungry Ghost

I made a YouTube playlist, but it'll probably be cluttered with ads that disrupt the flow. If you ask me nicely, maybe I'll burn and send you a CD.

The first few songs came to me quickly from my collection, but then it took a while to find the rest. I'm very happy with how it turned out, though. And my collection has grown as a result.

Instead of trying to describe what I was looking for, here are a few songs that came close but didn't make the cut:

  • Daft Punk - Giorgio by Moroder
  • Gorillaz - Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head
  • The Crystal Method - Trip Like I Do
  • Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC2
  • Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice

I encountered a side quest of figuring out what Velvet Pants was sampling. I had to make certain the "lyrics" were sampled in order for it to fit the theme of the playlist. But briefly it felt like the internet was gaslighting me, since at first all I came across was dozens of lyrics sites intertwined with lame AI essays interpreting the lyrics ("Ultimately, the song celebrates individuality, personal expression, and the impact that fashion can have in shaping one's identity").

But then once I found the answer I was looking for, the search engines conspired to pretend it was never difficult to begin with. I think it was a combination of not switching to Google soon enough and also neglecting to use the word "sample" in my first few search attempts.

So anyway, the samples are from a 1969 recording called The Groupies which featured groupies discussing their lifestyle. I downloaded it and it's an interesting listen. The samples in Velvet Pants all seem to be from what in my download is labeled "Scene 1: The Recording Session" and for what it's worth I tagged some time stamps of the phrases sampled in the song:

  • 1:28 - It's groovy I guess
  • 1:40 - And they played records
  • 1:52 - Everybody had long hair
  • 2:03 - We hustled our way in
  • 2:55 - That's all she talks about
  • 4:57 - He's got a nice body
  • 4:59 - He's wearing velvet pants
  • 6:09 - All the people I know are musicians
  • 6:33 - I revolve around music
  • 8:48 - They each got their own little thing that they like