A Playlist For Nonsensical Times

In the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, “Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn't meant to be reasonable.” Mr. Vonnegut, I am definitely exhausted. Time for some tunes.

The universe itself probably has its act together, more or less, but the human beings occupying it clearly do not. Some days it takes all of my patience and focus (and a very large box of Milk Duds) to keep faith that there might still be some sort of sense to be made of what’s going on around us. I want to believe that we’re not as foolish as we seem. I sincerely hope that there is still room for logic in this world. I still have optimism left in me. It’s around here somewhere…

But in the event that I run out of chocolate-covered caramel blobs, I’ll need back-up. In times of tumult or confusion, I make playlists. To soothe one’s bruised psyche, there is nothing like a random, weird collection of tunes, tossed about in no particular order, and served up with a side of satire.

I present to you a soundtrack for nonsensical, messed up times like these. Here are thirteen songs that have absolutely no relation to one another, other than their gleeful celebration of goofiness. No hidden messages, no deep interpretations, and in some cases, no discernable real words among the lyrics. Set this up on your device of choice, hit shuffle, and for about 45 minutes, just lean into the noise. Don’t think too hard about it. You can go back to trying to figure things out later, or you can just lean into the weird for a while longer.

In either case, enjoy.

1. I Am The Walrus (The Beatles)

2. One Step Beyond (Madness)

3. Mumbles (Oscar Peterson with Clark Terry)

4. Mahna, Mahna (Cake)

5. Everything You Know Is Wrong (Weird Al Yankovic)

6. Cotton Tail (Ella Fitzgerald)

7. Chacarron (El Chombo)

8. Flowers On The Wall (Statler Brothers)

9. Prisencolinensinainciusol (Adriano Colentano)*

10. Angry Birds Theme (Pomplamoose)

11. Bang Bang To The Rock and Roll (Gabin)

12. Ramalama (Roisin Murphy)

13. Entry of the Gladiators (any version)

*You really should look up the story behind this one. That in itself is a lesson in nonsense.