Back in the olden days, I used to buy a lot of albums and singles, and most of those would end up on a cassette, as a recording of the full album or on a mix tape. Tapes were convenient, they could be listened to on the hi-fi, in the car, or on a personal or portable stereo. When going on holiday, or for a longer change of scene, a selection of cassettes would normally end up in the rucksack or suitcase.

The track list would be constrained by the physical properties of the format, and by the means of access to the original recordings. Thirty or forty-five minutes each side of the tape, with a break halfway through. You could plan how to start and end each sequence, taking care to select the final track so that the tape wouldn’t run out before the song. Songs could be taken from your own record collection, borrowed from friends or taped off the radio, though I tended to stick with the first of these. Mostly, I bought the latest releases from local independent record shops. More obscure or specific tracks would have to be sought out in specialist music shops or at record fairs. Unknown songs or artists wouldn’t be considered. You’d buy the music you wanted to own by the bands and musicians your cared about. Once a tape had been completed the running order was normally fixed; for me it would be unusual to record over a mix tape once it had been added to the archive. The mix tapes would record the passing of the analogue years.

All the time, it was a slightly guilty pleasure. Home taping, we were told, was killing music, and it was illegal. In my case, though, it was just encouraging me to spend more. Maybe I was the exception. Luckily for me, the phonographic constabulary never called round for an inspection of my TDKs or I would have had to plead guilty to all charges.

Fast forward to the digital age. I was a late adopter of music streaming. After making playlist reconstructions of the mix tapes that had been gathering dust in the attic I started to think about making new themed playlists. Each track had to have a strong connection to the theme, either in the title, chorus or subject matter. They started off with a few dozen songs, and I thought I’d eventually find a natural, optimum length for the playlist and stop once I’d added enough tracks. However, over time, it seemed like the opposite was true.

These playlists didn’t face the same constraints as the mix tapes. Songs have been taken from the vast reservoir of recorded music that’s now available on streaming services. The running order isn’t fixed; new tunes and recent discoveries can be inserted at any time. These are dynamic, expanding entities that might be subtly different each time they are listened through. Most importantly, there is no constraint on the length of these playlists. I’ve been working on some of these for three or four years, and some of these playlists are over 24 hours long.

These are excessively, ridiculously long, and far too long to listen to from beginning to end in one sitting, unless you’re an extreme insomniac. They can all divided in sections depending on the subject matter, a main list made up of many minor sub-lists, each with a beginning, middle and end, peaks and troughs. However they can be thought of as reference books or novels rather than articles or short stories, to be consumed in chapters or chunks, dipped in and out of, not necessarily in sequence. It’s way of reframing these songs to maybe help consider them in a different context, grouping them by subject matter rather than by release date or artist.

These themed playlists have lined up songs from across genres into a series of musical journeys with a departure point and a destination. One song leads into another either by subjective selection or because of some arbitrary rule, leading to complementary transitions and jarring juxtapositions, but both often seem to just work. To me, the song, the sequence and the segue are intrinsic to the fun of listening to these playlists. They are not random selections of tracks.

The playlists feature hundreds of different artists, some international stars with billions of streams, some unknown or forgotten acts with barely hundreds. They mix up pop, rock, classical, folk, show tunes, theme tunes, comedy songs and more. I’ve added as many classic tracks as I can think of as they occur to me, loads of songs by artists I’ve seen live over the years, some I’d heard once or twice on the radio, and some I’ve just found by plugging in certain search terms to add to the range of tunes that were already in the lists. This isn’t a definite collection of all possible tracks for each category and to some extent it’s a reflection of my personal taste but I’ve opened the doors wide to include as much variety as I can.

The other advantage of the digital playlist is that it can be shared online, and I’ve been meaning to add these to my blog for some time. I’ve made these lists for my own amusement but maybe other people might find some unknown pleasures in these sonic sequences, or might be inspired to make their own excessively long playlists to cover different ground.

Here are my six favourites, in no particular order.

A name playlist

There’s a simplicity and directness to songs written about a named person; a connection between the songwriter, singer, subject and listener. Many of these songs are about real people,  some famous and some not, or about fictional lives, whether they have an established backstory or just exist within the confines of a three-minute pop song. An entire roll call of human lives and experiences. Songs about Caroline and Jack and Mary and Sally and Tom. Imagine therefore listening to a playlist of hundreds of songs about these characters, in alphabetical order, from “You can call me Al” to “Ziggy Stardust”. Start at the very beginning, search for songs about your own name, or I could recommend taking a deep dive into the J’s, L’s or M’s.

Colours and Sounds

A musical spectrum of songs, from red to violet, pinky blue to golden brown, all set down in black and white. Start listening to your favourite hue and end up with all the colours of the rainbow.

After Time

A chronological selection of songs with a myriad of references to the passing of time, from a million years ago to a million years in the future. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, Sunday to Saturday, January to December, now and forever.

Space, Man

Taking a journey into space, through the solar system and out into the universe. Become a star man or space girl on a rocket ship with a ticket to the moon or a night flight to Venus. Settle in to the planet suite and end the night dancing out in space.

I started collecting songs for this sequence to inspire me to work on the script for my epic outer space masterpiece but, like the playlist, it will probably never be completely finished.

All over and around the world

Take a trip all over and around the world via musical destinations in the UK, Europe and beyond. There’s a slight anglocentric bias according to my familiarity with music from British and American artists but maybe over time I’ll check out more world music to broaden the horizons of this international song cycle.

Inevitable Numerology

I finally caved in to my better judgement and made a play list of songs with numbers in the title. That’s all it is, it’s a simple idea that still produces an entertaining selection of songs. Going up…