From stopping for the bus to walking by.

Here’s a mix I just made, based off the mix cd “2″ that Joe and I listened to on our way to Chicago a couple of summers ago. I went back and added a couple of songs from the same time period as the majority of the mix and then put them in order of the story of the story arch of a relationship. The result:

1. Bus Stop    The Hollies

From what I know from our road trip, this is one of Carlye’s favorites. It starts off the mix this time because it captures the moment of meeting somebody, at a bus stop, and the best circumlocutory-but-fits-rhyme-scheme way of saying that he plans to marry her one day.

2. Then He Kissed Me   The Crystals

A song by my favorite 60s girl-group that perfectly captures the magic of a first kiss.

3. A Minha Menina    Os Mutantes

Esta canção dos mutantes marca o primeiro tempo que o protagonista homem sente-se comfortável chamando-se a menina “minha.” O céu é o límite, “pois ela é o meu amor.”

4. Don’t Worry Baby    The Beach Boys

A song ostensibly about the comfort of having somebody love you, but actually an extended euphemism for the embarrassment of premature ejaculation. Either way, this is about the time in the relationship that this comes up.

5. Linus & Lucy    Vince Guaraldi Trio

An interlude. Life is good in the relationship, not much adversity but the initial reason to sing has lost some of its lustre.

6. Baby    Gal Costa

Talvez seja uma canção de o crescimento das crianças, mas talvez seja  sobre o desenvolvimento das expectativas que um namorado começaría de ter para o outro neste lugar do relaçionamento, lhe dizendo “você precisa de isto … você precisa de isso também e etc.”

7. Debora    Tyrannosaurus Rex

One of the lovers throws back childish insults ála “you look like a zebra.”

8. Laisse Tomber les Filles    Gall, France

9. You’re Gonna Miss Me    13th Floor Elevators

10. Never My Love    The Association

Three song arch where our lovers go between declarations that they will forget each other, but that the other won’t be able to forget them, They briefly get back together and declare that their love will last forever again, yet their sentiments are tinged with the very real possibility that there will come a time when they grow tired of each other.

11. Some Velvet Morning    Hazlewood, Lee & Nancy Sinatra

12. Bonnie and Clyde    Gainsbourg, Serge & Brigitte Bardot

Two song arch with two of the most bad ass male-female duets from the 60s. In the first, we learn that drug use may be taking its toll on the relationship. In the second, we wonder if they stay in their crime-fueled relationship that they won’t end up dead.

13. The First Cut is the Deepest    Arnold, P.P.

Still the best single ever recorded, even if Cheryl Crow did her best to ruin the song. The trebled dissonance of the sparse percussive background perfectly compliments P.P.’s cathartic invocation of finding yourself suddenly out of a relationship.

14. Surf’s Up (Solo Piano Version)    Wilson, Brian

Yet as we know people on the rebound can push the limits of being bearable to others. Like this song by Brian Wilson, that makes you want to empathize and help someone out but makes you not necessarily look forward to the prospect of being in that position or listening to the song for long.

15. Walk on  By    Warwick, Dionne

Dionne sings softly but packs a mean punch with this song about keeping it cool and telling an ex off even while some saudade remains.

16. Moulty    Barbarians, The

One of the lovers puts on their headphones and finds redemption in the power of music to take us higher.