Just A Minute

Introduction

As I write this or rather put this together, there are forty-one hours to go before the Vocal "Just A Minute" Challenge, and it got me thinking, what about a playlist of songs that last sixty seconds or less, and there are a lot of good ones that are literally gone in sixty seconds.

I could drop this into the FICTION community and drop it into the Challenge, but although I am making this up, it is not a story and misses the Challenge criteria on so many points.

So here is the sixty-second list with some observations on some of the songs. Obviously, they are all very quick listens.

So without further ado here we go:

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - "Kama Sutra" from "The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse"

Many years ago Shaun Keaveny had a feature on his 6Music Breakfast program where he would eat his breakfast in the time it took a suggested record to play. This was my suggestion. Sean nearly choked on his cornflakes. We both laughed a lot.

Warren Zevon - "If You Won't Leave Me I'll Find Somebody Who Will" from the album "Genius"

A complete story in forty-four seconds. Warren's songs are all brilliant sometimes dark, often funny, always listenable, and this this a wonderful short introduction to the great man.

The song was written as the theme song for a rebooted version of Route 66, but the show never went on the air.

Black Sabbath - "Embryo" from "Master Of Reality"

A short guitar riff that is perfect in the twenty eight seconds that it lasts. I do love the album that it is from, but this is a tiny slice of Sabbath for you.

The Beatles - "Her Majesty" from "Abbey Road"

The story behind this is that they wanted to throw it out, but the contract said that no Beatles song could be disposed of, so they decided to stick it on right at the end of the album just to mess with people. And thank God they did - it's honestly one of the most memorable songs on Abbey Road, never one of my favourite albums by them, and it's far more interesting outside of the medley than in.

This is a very nice song, and it does pack a lot into 28 seconds.

De La Soul - "A Little Bit Of Soap" from "3 Feet High And Rising"

This is fifty seven seconds of fun about telling someone that they need to exercise more stringent personal hygene.

Wire - "It's So Obvious" from "Pink Flag"

One of half a dozen sub-one-minute songs from their 1977 debut album "Pink Flag". Only slightly abrasive and if you want to know what they sound like this is a fifty-seven second introduction.

The Undertones - "Casbah Rock" from "The Undertones"

This is another example of a great song in less than sixty seconds. I'm not sure why this didn't go on longer, but you can just play it again or on repeat if you really like it.

Boards of Canada - "Kaini Industries" from "Music Has The Right To Children"

A very sparse piece of electronica from a favourite band of mine, clocking in at fifty nine seconds.

Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention - "What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?" from "We're Only In It For The Money"

I know this comes in at sixty-three seconds but it is a fun song to finish this playlist of short songs. Many of them are less than sixty seconds so these nine songs will take you less than nine minutes to listen to.

Thank you for reading and I hope you listened to a few of them.