The Track Fours

One year ago, I was in and out of the Sonoran Desert for weeks at a time. I was also lucky enough to be on the receiving end of many great song mixes, burned and sent via snail mail or jammed into my hand during May graduations and forever goodbyes. Around this time, my laptop CD-player went on the fritz and I had to upload my burned gifts from my parents' home in Layton whenever I was visiting from Arizona. These trips were spontaneous and rushed and I barely made time for myself to copy the new and beloved song tracks onto a thumb drive and safely into the supple womb that is my Apple lappy.

These mixes came with song lists, hastily written on scraps of napkins, typed neatly onto scented, illustrated parchment, or sent through emails that began, "Oh and by the way: here's the song-listing..." Most of these lists fell by the wayside as I squatted from place to place, though, fortunately, I always made sure to at least ensure that each song list carried an album title of "from [insert so-and-so]."

Now, when my iPod is set to shuffle and I am driving long distances, these mysterious Track 02s and Track 13s appear. I secretly despise that I don't have band and song names for these tracks and am tempted to just skip them over to something familiar, something dependable, something loved. However, some of these tracks swim into focus slowly and suddenly I think, "Wow, I love this song--what is this again?" and then I am shocked that it is a nameless track. Recently, I've realized that an astounding number of the times I've had these epiphanies, it has been a Track 04. Not always, but remarkably frequently. So often, in fact, that I've decided to devote a post to tracking down these tracks (if you will) and bringing them to recognition at long last. It is the first step of many to get rid of all my "Track ??s," though I have already created and enjoy a "Beloved Track 04 Playlist" to forever commemorate the strange and lucky relationship they all share.

The Best of the Track 04s (and the BFFs who bequeathed them to me):

04: Nitin Sawhney's "Sunset" from Beau H.
04: Queen's "Flash Gordon: Savior of the Uni." from Bradley G.
04: A really fantastic instrumental track from another of Brad G's
04: Mew's "Am I Wry? No" from Darren Z.
04: Coconut Records' "West Coast" from Jamesy B.
04: The Delgados' "Clarinet" from Rus Beck
04: Memphis Minnie's "New Orleans" from Eiryn Dubya
04: Lightnin' Hopkins' "Shine on Moon" from Joe G.
04: Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" from J. Price
04: Travis' "More Than Us" from April Sunshine Sanchez
04: Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" from M. Sowder
04: some Korean club-dancing hip hop song from Konradius M.
04: Devendra Banhart's "A Ribbon" from Vincnt
04: The Organ's "We've Got to Meet" from TroyBoy

Note: Not all of the above songs necessitated a Google-search to list here....I think I have at least three copies of Dylan's "Don't Think" at this point in my life since just about every man I've dated in the past decade has given it to me at some point (with the disclaimer of "don't take this literally") but this particular copy still lives on my iPod as an unnameable Track 04 and I listen to its entirety every time it shuffles through.

Note II: Darren's Mew track is my most listened-to song right now. I've put it on repeat twice. James'"West Coast" was my most listened-to song six months ago.

Note III: I have one last mix album from my pal Bradley G. who has long since married and lost contact, though I suppose I could text, who left me a track 04 song I really enjoy and whose lyrics have, as of yet, shockingly do not pull anything from Google searches. If anyone recognizes the following spurts of lyrics, please point me in the right direction. I'd like to know the artist. The voice is somewhat nasally, somewhat Western Statesy, acoustic, somewhat upbeat but casually so.

The snatches of lyrics I feel confident about:
Why, father, why, do you have to go? Why, father, why, do you have to go and *something something*
Take, take with you, your body and your bones. Take, take with you, your body and your bones a-and bury me too.
[a bunch of lyrics]--why oh why oh why oh why oh why my father had to die.
Hike up the canyon, high in the trees. Hike up the canyon, high in the trees a-and *something something*
Suffer like a whale (well?), dried up like bones a-and *something, etc.*

I know it sounds like a real downer of a song, but it doesn't feel that way at all. Nostalgic, yearning, but not whining. Despite the somewhat nasally voice. This isn't being described the right way at all. Can anyone help me?

Cheerz, Gillychan