I listened to Miles Davis "Nefertiti" for the first time, while playing Scramble on Facebook. I've heard other Miles Davis albums like "Kind Of Blue" and "Rebirth Of Cool" before, and hearing this one definitely makes me want to hear more. This is the kind of album (are they even called albums anymore?) that you can have in the background while you're working and just groove. Also good background dinner party music.

Other experiences of the last few days have been Mary Chapin Carpenter's pop country "Come On Come On" (different enough to be interesting), Rufus Wainwright's sensitive indie-rock "Poses" (a little woosy, but I'll give it another try...Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk is a good song), John Legend's I'm-so-sexy R & B "Once Again" (while I was driving, he's got some talent but I don't understand why so much hype) and the new Bob Dylan album "Together Through Life" (ruggedly masochistic).

And my best workout experience was a Van Halen mix that I put together on shuffle, which was as follows: Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (Live), Why Can't This Be Love, Judgment Day (Live), Panama (Live), Best Of Both Worlds, Hot For Teacher, Right Now (Live), Jump (Live), You Really Got Me/Cabo Wabo (Live). It was kick ass. The highlight was Panama, the guitar intro was a real calorie burner. It's an awesome song. Listen to it. Listen to it RIGHT NOW!

You may ask, how would anyone think of spending a morning listening to new-age pianist George Winston and 70's hard-rock band Thin Lizzy? Are there any two artists more dissimilar? (Or less similar?)

I've blogged about my "Never Played" playlist (see the For Starters entry). I often choose this playlist on Album Shuffle when I'm feeling indecisive about what to listen to (usually). So as I began my workday, the melodic strains of Winston's "December" gently wafted into my ears. I found it quite soothing and a fine complement to balance the tasks before me.

Later that morning, as I went to the gym still rocking said playlist, I found myself accompanied by Thin Lizzy's greatest hits. I was not familiar with the band but I did recognize the song "The Boys Are Back In Town". Hard classic FM rock, guitar driven, ass-kickin' music.

Now, since this was a random playlist, what would have happened if Thin Lizzy started rocking during my work and George Winston played during my workout. If I let the music play, I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on my data analysis and I would have fallen asleep during my cardio. But now that I am familiar with each album, I can play them again in an appropriate setting.

No particular songs stood out on either album, but each presents a unique listening experience to cultivate a specific mood. Now I can add Thin Lizzy to an Arena Rock playlist and George Winston to a New Age playlist, increasing the variability of choices available to me within each genre.

Another successful experience in the discovery of new music.

Whoa, Nelly

The song of the day is "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado. I listened to her album "Loose" and it is funky, funky, fresh and funky. It just makes you want to get up and move, and shake it.

Also, I forgot how awesome Squeeze was. "Take Me I'm Yours", "Goodbye Girl"? I totally forgot about those songs. Also The Church, Rufus Wainwright, old Pink Floyd (Obscured By Clouds) and some of Madonna's more unpopular songs.

AC/DC Rocks

So I started today listening to a mix from my "Never Played" playlist, with the title track from Bob Dylan's new album "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'". The album is released Tuesday so I'll see how it grows on me. Also some New Radicals, Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5 and Studio 54 soundtrack.

The musical highlight was during my cardio workout today in which I listened to the AC/DC "Back In Black" album in its entirety, followed by "Dirty Deeds" and "Highway to Hell" which are not on the album. "Hells Bells" really gets me going, it reminds me of Trevor Hoffman for some reason. "What Do You Do For Money Honey" also hit me good today. In the car ride there and back it was Steely Dan's greatest hits. "A Decade Of Steely Dan", compressed into about 45 minutes.

John Coltrane

As I create this blog tonight, I am listening to John Coltrane for the first time. I borrowed The Best Of John Coltrane from a friend and am finding it very beautiful and soothing. Recommended songs: My Favorite Things and Naima.

It's real groovy.

For Starters...

Hello! Welcome to the Music of Gary Cohen. This is a new blog in which I discuss my music collection and what I am listening to currently.

In addition to having a varied musical palate, I am also a database developer. That means I can be a bit fanatical in the organization of my music. I will also be discussing methods and challenges of such. I dream of having each song perfectly organized and categorized, assigned the correct artist, album, year and genre. At some point, I would like to make my entire collection available online for browsing.

Over the years I have borrowed...er....shared music with many people with different tastes. As a result, I have over 2000 songs in my collection which I have actually never listened to before, at least according to the Play Count. If you read this blog regularly, you will learn that I am quite obsessed with the Play Count. I wish the Play Count would reflect true reality, but in fact it reflects the number of times I have heard songs within iTunes since July 2005 when I started transferring all my CD's into iTunes. I hear a song in the department store? Not reflected in the Play Count. One day the technology will be available to fix this problem.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah...the 2000+ songs with a Play Count of Zero. I have created a playlist called "Never Played", which is a Smart Playlist with one simple rule: "Play Count = 0". As I listen to this playlist over time, I will have eventually listened to all my music.

Will I update you on the music I have been listening to?? You betcha!

One other thing. I am new to the blogosphere, and I would love for this experience to be interactive. So please feel free to leave comments on any of the music, or your iTunes experiences, or even just to say "screw you". Just don't mock my musical taste...although I definitely own some bizarre stuff, with a collection of almost 15,000 songs, I can just about guarantee that I have at least one song you like!