I guess I am IT now...

Please pardon my corrections to the initial questions. Some things I just cannot let go.

1. Total number of music files on your computer right now:
1,500, unless you count music files used by games and those purchased from iTunes for my wife, but the latter have been moved to her machine and only remain on mine as backups.

2. The last CD you bought was . . .
CD? You mean that physical disc thingy? Oh hell, now this will take a moment. Let me go look.
OK, without the receipt, I can't say which was last, so you get all four, each of which I own on casette as well.
90125 by Yes (including six remixes and unreleased tracks)
Toto by Toto
Hydra by Toto
Toto IV by Toto
Those last three were packaged together.

3. What is the last song you listened to before reading (responding to, in this case) this message?
I was listening to "The Old Apartment" by Barenaked Ladies, but the last one I got all the way through was "Top of the Morning" by Mike Oldfield. They are the third and second tracks, respectively, on my drivetime CD.

4. Write down 5 - 10 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
"I'll Find My Way Home" by Jon and Vangelis
Even some friends who don't like Jon Anderson's voice cave on this one. He just soars with hope, going places he doesn't always reach when he is singing with Yes.

"Spanish Steps" by Toto
I guess it's a combination of the sound and the familiar scenes of Rome. I shot the picture at the end of this post (I'll get it working) at 10 a.m. on Easter Sunday 1986. The church pictured there stands at the top of the Spanish Steps.

"It Will be a Good Day (The River)" by Yes
I can lose myself in the lyrics. When Yes is on with an arrangement, I find myself drifting. I must have listened to this one ten or twelve times while waiting for the bomb squad to clear ONT of a piece of abandoned luggage suspected of being a bomb. It really didn't feel like a two-hour delay before my flight with this song to keep me going.

"Heaven and Hell, Part 1" by Vangelis
I refer specifically to the excerpt that was used as the theme for Cosmos. Carl Sagan, stoner that he was, could have picked no better music for carrying 1980 into outer space.

"Party in Simon's Pants" by Los Lobotomys
OK, if the title seems weird, think about nicknames for drum solos. Add to that the drummer's name: Simon Phillips. He and Steve Lukather were, according to the liner notes from Candyman, simply jamming . . . in 17/8 time (yeah, like that is so darn simple) and came up with an annoyingly difficult piece to appreciate for the first 90 times through or so. After that, though, there's no denying the sound.

"No Matter" by Colin Hay
Hay's post-Men at Work career is superior to what made him famous. I don't even know if I have the right name for this little hidden track (it is appended to the last official track, though there is a blank 2-second track right after), but it is beautiful in its simplicity, edited to sound like some interstitial afterthought, a snippet of a song never finished.

"Sandman" by America
I won't say this is America's best song, but there is something about "Cuz I understand you been runnin' from a man who goes by the name of the Sandman. He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye of a hurricane that's abandoned," that gets me as it drags me from Dewey Bunell's appropriately plodding recounting of years past and opportunities unrealized.

"Ghost Train" by Marc Cohn
Damn the iTMS for not selling this tack, but maybe I just need to buy the album on CD. Cohn did something too few people in music manage anymore: he earned his Grammy for Best New Artist. His debut album hasn't a bad track on it, though a couple are just OK. "Walking in Memphis" is fine, and "True Companion" has more thoughtful lyrics than perhaps any other love song I have heard, but this one is my favorite by him.

"Crystal" by Elton John
It's not a good song, really. But a friend was going through a tough time while her sister was in labor. The baby had a 50% chance, which was a damned sight better than the mother had. Mother and child made it, and the baby was named Crystal. When I returned from the hospital, I found that my brother's girlfriend had given me a tape. Side two, track one was "Crystal." She had no way of knowing.

"Every Time You Go Away" by Hall & Oates
This is the original, and anyone who doubts that these two came to have their names connected with soul by any means other than their songwriting has clearly not heard this tune. Sure, the cover made a fine addition to the final scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but Paul Young never understood it to sing it properly.

I can tag three people? Hmmm. OK. David at Scrivenings, Fluffy at fluffy as a cat, and Bill at Twelve Two Two Fondue.