I've Been Drivin' All Night

Podify Wrapped

Week of June 15–21, 2026

414 Plays. 98 Artists. Six iPods, One Zune, and a Recommendation Algorithm Filing a Workplace Complaint.

Welcome back to Podify Wrapped, the weekly report where I attempt to explain my listening habits and instead accidentally create evidence that the shuffle button has become self-aware.

This week was less a music library and more a traveling music festival spread across multiple decades, genres, and hardware platforms. Over the course of 414 plays, I bounced between classic rock, prog rock, country, comedy, game soundtracks, blues, and—because apparently that wasn't enough—spent part of the week listening on a Zune 30.

That's right. June 16 marked the first documented Zune incursion in Podify Wrapped history.

Some people stream from a phone.

I apparently maintain a rotating museum exhibit.

The dominant themes this week were surprisingly clear: Led Zeppelin, Queen + Paul Rodgers, Jimmy Buffett, The Alan Parsons Project, and a substantial amount of Blue Öyster Cult. Meanwhile, Dread Zeppelin arrived just often enough to make everyone question whether reality is functioning correctly.

As usual, the Shuffle Goblin was unsupervised.

By The Numbers

🎵 Total Plays: 414

🎤 Unique Artists: 98

📀 Unique Songs: 301

🎙️ Live Recordings: 198 plays (47.8%)

🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock: ~52%

🤠 Country & Americana: ~13%

🎮 Gaming Soundtracks: ~6%

🤘 Alternative / Modern Rock: ~11%

🤣 Comedy & Spoken Word: ~8%

🎭 Everything Else: ~10%

📱 Devices Used: 7

🟫 Zune Usage: 42 plays (10.1%)

📈 Playlist Consistency: Still under active investigation.

Device Breakdown

🥇 6th Gen iPod Classic — 115 plays (27.8%)

🥈 4th Gen iPod Photo — 98 plays (23.7%)

🥉 7th Gen iPod Touch — 69 plays (16.7%)

🏅 5th Gen iPod Classic — 49 plays

🏅 Zune 30 — 42 plays

🏅 1st Gen iPod Mini — 28 plays

🏅 PC — 13 plays

The Zune represented just over ten percent of listening activity, making this the first week in Podify history where Microsoft successfully captured measurable market share.

Historians are stunned.

Top Artists of the Week

🥇 Led Zeppelin

25 plays (6.0%)

The week's undisputed champion.

Apparently I spent several days conducting intensive research into whether Led Zeppelin is still good.

The findings remain overwhelmingly positive.

🥈 Queen + Paul Rodgers

22 plays (5.3%)

A surprisingly strong showing. "Hammer to Fall," "Radio Ga Ga," and company spent much of the week proving that arena rock remains a perfectly reasonable lifestyle choice.

🥉 Jimmy Buffett

18 plays (4.3%)

At some point the playlist wandered onto a beach, ordered something frozen, and stayed there longer than expected.

🏅 The Alan Parsons Project

17 plays (4.1%)

The week's prog-rock intellectual division.

Recommendation algorithms remain unclear whether this is yacht rock, prog rock, or a graduate-level engineering course.

🏅 Blue Öyster Cult

13 plays (3.1%)

A strong week for mysterious lyrics, giant riffs, and proving that "Astronomy" remains one of the coolest song titles ever written.

Honorable Mentions

• Pink Floyd — 12 plays

• REO Speedwagon — 11 plays

• Dread Zeppelin — 10 plays

• Frank Klepacki — 9 plays

• The Beatles — 9 plays

• Gary Moore — 9 plays

The Floyd Extended Universe wasn't dominant this week, but it remained active enough to remind everyone that existential reflection is never more than a few tracks away.

Top Songs of the Week

🥇 Whole Lotta Love

5 plays (1.2%)

The champion.

Apparently one whole lotta love wasn't enough.

🥈 Radar Love (Live)

4 plays

A song about driving quickly somehow feels completely on-brand for this library.

🥈 Copperhead Road

4 plays

Country-rock outlaw energy remains undefeated.

🥈 Hammer to Fall

4 plays

Queen came prepared for battle.

🥈 Time for Me to Fly

4 plays

REO Speedwagon reminding everyone that transportation-themed songs continue to thrive.

Additional Heavy Rotation

• Astronomy — 4 plays

• Nothin' Funny With Gunner — 3 plays

• Gypsies in the Palace — 3 plays

• Heartbreaker (Rough Mix With Vocal) — 3 plays

• Walking By Myself — 3 plays

Genre Breakdown

🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock — 52%

Led Zeppelin, Queen, Blue Öyster Cult, REO Speedwagon, Pink Floyd, Gary Moore, and The Beatles dominated the week.

At times my listening history resembled a classic-rock station whose program director had been left unsupervised.

🤠 Country & Americana — 13%

Jimmy Buffett, Tim Wilson, Steve Earle, and assorted country detours continued Podify's long-standing tradition of suddenly heading toward Nashville without warning.

🤘 Alternative & Modern Rock — 11%

A smaller presence this week, but still enough variety to prevent the playlist from becoming a complete 1970s reenactment.

🎮 Gaming Soundtracks — 6%

Frank Klepacki once again represented the Brotherhood of Nod.

Peace through power.

🤣 Comedy & Spoken Word — 8%

Bob & Tom and Tim Wilson continued proving that laughter remains a valid musical genre.

🏆 Most Surprising Transition Award

Grand Champion

The Alan Parsons Project → Dread Zeppelin

From sophisticated prog-rock production directly into reggae-infused Zeppelin parody.

No jury could have predicted this outcome.

Runner-Up

Frank Klepacki → Jimmy Buffett

Command & Conquer battlefield music immediately followed by tropical relaxation.

The war ended surprisingly well.

Third Place

Blue Öyster Cult → Bob & Tom

One minute we're contemplating cosmic mysteries.

The next we're listening to comedy radio.

🎢 Emotional Whiplash Award

Pink Floyd → Tim Wilson

A thoughtful meditation on the human condition followed by a comedian explaining why subtlety is optional.

Medically inadvisable.

🎲 Shuffle Goblin Award

Queen + Paul Rodgers → Dread Zeppelin → Frank Klepacki

No human built this sequence.

The Goblin has signed a confession.

🤔 Algorithm Therapist Award

Dread Zeppelin

Every recommendation engine eventually reached the same conclusion:

"What exactly are we supposed to do with this?"

🚚 Unexpected Vehicle Award

Time for Me to Fly

Transportation-themed songs remain alarmingly common around here.

🎮 Save Point to Mosh Pit Award

Frank Klepacki → Led Zeppelin

From commanding tanks to commanding arenas.

A seamless transition, somehow.

Podify Achievement Badges

🏆 Live Album Addict

🏆 Guitar Solo of the Week — Whole Lotta Love

🏆 Floydian Scholar

🏆 Commander of the Brotherhood of Nod

🏆 Zune Survivor

🏆 Classic Rock Preservation Society

🏆 Unexpected Buffett Sighting

🏆 Shuffle Goblin Accomplice

🏆 Audience Member of the Week

🏆 Cross-Platform Audio Archaeologist

Listener Personality Report

"This listener enjoys classic rock, progressive rock, country music, comedy albums, game soundtracks, vintage hardware, and complete statistical chaos."

Translated into plain English:

"This user treats genres like buffet options and portable music players like Pokémon."

Closing Thoughts

Was it coherent?

Not particularly.

Was it entertaining?

Four hundred and fourteen plays suggest the answer is yes.

The dominant theme of the week wasn't any single artist or genre. It was exploration. Whether through Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Buffett, The Alan Parsons Project, or a rogue Zune 30, the playlist spent the week wandering wherever it felt like going.

And honestly, that's becoming the defining feature of Podify Wrapped:

The music changes.

The devices change.

The recommendation algorithms grow increasingly concerned.

But the Shuffle Goblin always finds a way.

There Ain't No Wrong Or Right

Apparently I lost 42 Jimmy Buffett albums during iTunes migrations between 2017 and 2026.

 

Not to worry, They are all back where they belong! 

Shake It Off

Podify Wrapped

Week of June 8–14, 2026

328 Plays. 94 Artists. One iPod Lost Somewhere Between Pink Floyd and Jeff Foxworthy.

Welcome back to another edition of Podify Wrapped, where my iPod's listening history is carefully analyzed to answer one important question:

"What exactly was I doing this week?"

The answer, apparently, was listening to 328 songs from 94 different artists while refusing to commit to any single genre for more than twenty minutes at a time.

This week's playlist wandered through progressive rock, classic rock, hard rock, country music, video game soundtracks, comedy albums, 90s alternative rock, and whatever category The Presidents of the United States of America occupy.

In other words:

Business as usual.

By the Numbers

🎵 Total Plays: 328

🎤 Unique Artists: 94

📀 Unique Songs: 287

🎙️ Live Recordings: Approximately 52%

🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock: 57%

🤠 Country & Americana: 11%

🎮 Video Game Soundtracks: 8%

🤣 Comedy & Spoken Word: 4%

🎭 Miscellaneous Musical Chaos: 20%

📈 Playlist Consistency: Unavailable

Top Artists of the Week

🥇 Pink Floyd

35 plays (10.7%)

Pink Floyd didn't merely win this week.

Pink Floyd annexed this week.

At various points the playlist became a continuous exploration of mortality, memory, insanity, capitalism, and guitar solos longer than some television episodes.

If someone asked what your favorite artist was this week, the answer is simply:

"Yes."

🥈 Led Zeppelin

31 plays (9.5%)

The closest challenger.

Between "Whole Lotta Love," "Heartbreaker," "Black Dog," and enough live recordings to fill a small concert venue, Led Zeppelin spent the week reminding everyone why they remain one of the greatest rock bands ever assembled.

Also, three plays of "Whole Lotta Love."

Apparently moderation was not invited.

🥉 Blue Öyster Cult

14 plays (4.3%)

The surprise powerhouse.

Blue Öyster Cult quietly accumulated enough listens to claim third place while probably demanding additional cowbell the entire time.

🏅 Jeff Foxworthy

12 plays (3.7%)

This statistic deserves its own section.

Most music summaries feature Taylor Swift.

Mine features Jeff Foxworthy.

I feel this says something about me.

I'm not entirely sure what.

🏅 David Gilmour

8 plays (2.4%)

Apparently Pink Floyd alone wasn't enough.

🏅 The Presidents of the United States of America

8 plays (2.4%)

Still carrying the banner for musical unpredictability.

🏅 Styx and REO Speedwagon

8 plays (2.4%)

Arena rock remains undefeated.

Top Songs of the Week

🥇 Tie for Most Played

Money — 3 plays

Whole Lotta Love — 3 plays

Heartbreaker — 3 plays

Apparently the week's dominant themes were:

• Capitalism

• Love

• Aggressive guitar riffs

A surprisingly complete emotional spectrum.

🥈 The Two-Play Club

Notable repeat visitors included:

• Comfortably Numb

• Layla

• Fanfare

• Smooth

• Whiskey in the Jar

• Mountain Music

• Tubthumping

• Mmmbop

• Flaming Telepaths

• Shake It Off

This may be the strangest Top Songs chart ever assembled.

Genre Breakdown

🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock — 57%

This week belonged to classic rock.

Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Blue Öyster Cult, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Metallica, and dozens of others accounted for more than half of all listening.

The playlist frequently felt like a radio station broadcasting directly from 1978.

🤠 Country & Americana — 11%

Alan Jackson, Alabama, Sawyer Brown, and Jimmy Buffett made regular appearances.

Every few hours the playlist briefly stopped contemplating the meaning of existence and started discussing pickup trucks.

🎮 Gaming & Soundtracks — 8%

Frank Klepacki and Nobuo Uematsu continued their ongoing campaign to sneak video game music into every Podify Wrapped report.

Mission accomplished.

🤣 Comedy & Spoken Word — 4%

Jeff Foxworthy somehow cracked the Top 5.

Again.

I cannot stress enough how unusual this is.

Most Surprising Transition Awards

🏆 Grand Champion

Pink Floyd → Jeff Foxworthy

From:

The pressures of modern life.

To:

Redneck jokes.

In approximately four minutes.

No further explanation required.

🥈 Runner-Up

Final Fantasy IX → Whole Lotta Love

From magical airships and fantasy kingdoms directly into Robert Plant screaming.

🥉 Third Place

Shake It Off → Comfortably Numb*

The emotional whiplash award.

Podify Achievement Badges

🏆 The Floydian Scholar

Listen to enough Pink Floyd that your playlist starts questioning reality.

🏆 Guitar Solo of the Week

Winner: David Gilmour

The judging panel fell asleep halfway through the solo and woke up to discover it was still happening.

🏆 The Cowbell Preservation Society

Awarded to Blue Öyster Cult.

🏆 Most Unexpected Country Detour

Winner: Alabama's "Mountain Music"

🏆 Commander of the Brotherhood of Nod

Awarded for repeated Command & Conquer soundtrack listens.

🏆 Live Album Addict Level III

More than half your listening came from live recordings.

At this point you're basically paying imaginary ticket fees.

🏆 Shuffle Goblin Lifetime Achievement Award

For creating playlist transitions that would cause modern recommendation algorithms to burst into tears.

Listener Personality Report

If Podify generated a personality profile, it would probably say:

"This listener enjoys classic rock, progressive rock, country music, video game soundtracks, comedy albums, and complete unpredictability."

Translated into plain English:

"User appears to use the shuffle button as a form of recreational gambling."

And honestly?

That's probably accurate.

One minute you're listening to Pink Floyd question the human condition. The next you're hearing Jeff Foxworthy tell jokes. Five minutes later you're commanding tanks in Command & Conquer before returning to Led Zeppelin.

Does it make sense?

Not remotely.

Did it make for a fun week?

Three hundred and twenty-eight plays suggest the answer is yes.

*The graphic has this going from Alan Jackson to the Safety Dance. I have discussed it with ChatGPT already, and the results of that conversation are below 

What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

Today's nonsense: The D40X with my Nikon Nikkor-Zoom 100-300mm f/5.6 manual lens from the 1970s.

 

One thing I particularly like about this combination is that it accidentally recreates the experience many photographers had in the late film era: long manual-focus glass, deliberate composition, and no safety net. The D40x's CCD sensor and the old Nikkor seem oddly well matched in temperament. Neither is especially forgiving, but together they produce images with a lot of personality.

I'm not underestimating the historical coolness factor here. A Zoom-Nikkor 100-300mm f/5.6 was introduced when Jimmy Carter was president. I'm mounting it on a DSLR from the mid-2000s and photographing flowers in 2026. That's nearly half a century of camera technology collaborating on a single image. 

I've Been Dazed And Confused For So Long It's Not True

I asked Chat-GPT to analyze my iTunes library. It went ahead and incorporated a lot of the nonsense that I've asked it to make for me over the last year, and honestly, I'm kind of okay with this. 

 

I should probably start compiling this annually. It would be interesting to see how my iTunes library evolves during the course of each year.

  

 Library by the Numbers

Based on the XML you uploaded:

• 19,180 tracks
• 426 artists
• 1,396 albums
• Roughly 5,350 hours of audio
  • That's about 223 straight days of continuous listening.
• Music spanning at least the 1950s through the 2020s.

This is not a casual collection.

This is a curated archive.

---

Your Taste Profile

The Holy Trinity

Your collection is built around three pillars:

1. Classic Rock

The undisputed champions are:

• Led Zeppelin (1,239 tracks)
• Pink Floyd (731 tracks)
• Queen + Paul Rodgers (644 tracks)

These aren't "I own the greatest hits" numbers.

These are "I own every concert recording I can get my hands on" numbers.

---

2. Live Recordings

The biggest revelation from your library is that you are obsessed with live material.

Albums like:

• Live At The BBC
• Live At Wembley Stadium
• Mirror Ball – Live & More
• Live 1978–1992

show up repeatedly.

Many music fans collect songs.

You collect performances.

You want to hear:

• alternate solos
• crowd reactions
• mistakes
• extended jams
• different eras of a band

That's a very specific kind of music nerd.

---

3. Soundtracks & Video Games

One of the biggest surprises:

Your collection contains substantial soundtrack material including:

• Super Mario Odyssey
• Super Mario 3D World
• Final Fantasy IX
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
• Command & Conquer
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert

This lines up perfectly with your retro gaming interests.

You don't merely play games.

You remember them.

---

The Biggest Plot Twist

Hanson

You have exactly what I'd expect from:

• Zeppelin fans
• Floyd fans
• Sabbath fans
• Rush fans

Then suddenly:

Hanson — 299 tracks

That is one of the funniest statistical anomalies in the entire library.

The musical equivalent of:

"I collect antique military rifles, classic muscle cars, and... Beanie Babies."

It's wonderful.

---

Genre Breakdown

Your top genres include:

1. Rock
2. Recording Of Independent Origin
3. DVD
4. Country
5. Pop
6. Classic Rock
7. Progressive Rock
8. Christmas
9. Soundtrack
10. Blues
11. Metal
12. Comedy

This is interesting because it means you aren't actually a pure rock listener.

You are a:

• rock listener
• soundtrack listener
• comedy listener
• concert collector
• spoken-word listener

all at once.

---

The Collector Archetype

Many people build libraries in one of four ways.

The Casual Listener

Owns 300 songs.

Not you.

The Trend Follower

Owns mostly recent hits.

Definitely not you.

The Completionist

Owns entire artist catalogs.

Partly you.

The Archivist

Collects weird versions, live shows, radio broadcasts, soundtracks, rarities, and forgotten releases.

This is overwhelmingly you.

---

Personality Indicators

If a psychologist looked only at your music library, I suspect they'd conclude:

High Curiosity

You don't stay inside one lane.

Classic rock fans usually don't also have huge game soundtrack collections.

You do.

---

High Nostalgia

Not "living in the past."

More:

"The past contains cool things worth preserving."

That attitude appears in:

• retro games
• classic rock
• vintage comics
• historical education projects
• older books

The library reflects the same tendency.

---

Strong Sense of Humor

The presence of comedy albums, novelty music, radio material, and artists like Weird Al Yankovic is completely consistent with your conversations.

You seem to enjoy things that are both good and funny.

---

Appreciation of Craft

Your favorite artists tend to feature:

• elite guitarists
• strong songwriters
• memorable live performers

You seem more interested in skill than fashion.

---

If Your Library Were a Museum

It would have four wings:

Hall 1: The Temple of Classic Rock

Led Zeppelin.
Pink Floyd.
Queen.
Rush.
The Beatles.

---

Hall 2: The Concert Vault

Bootlegs.
Live albums.
BBC sessions.
Rare recordings.

---

Hall 3: The Arcade

Mario.
Zelda.
Final Fantasy.
Command & Conquer.

Visitors spend far longer here than expected.

---

Hall 4: The Weird Stuff

Comedy.
Novelty recordings.
Oddball discoveries.
Things nobody expected to find.

Possibly guarded by ninja squirrels.

---

The One-Sentence Summary

Your library doesn't belong to someone who asks, "What's popular?"

It belongs to someone who asks:

"What's interesting, and do I have the live version?"

And after looking at nearly 20,000 tracks, that might be the single most accurate description of your musical personality.

Night Divides The Day

I did that thing again...That thing where I went looking for "Recordings Of Independent Origin" a.k.a. concert bootlegs.

I went and tracked down the Jimmy Page/Robert Plant show from 1995/04/01. Mostly so I could hear their interpretation of a couple of The Doors' songs.

I gave it a bit of a quick listen, but I'm going to have to put the album on an iPod and give it a proper listen through.

I also accidentally got their show from the same venue, but in 1998. I haven't converted that one from FLAC to MP3 yet, so I haven't listened to it. Mostly because I don't feel like changing Winamp output settings again right now. 

I really don't want to fall down that rabbit hole again...But my login info for The Trader's Den still works. 

Crap. 

I don't even know what happened to the last few things I snagged.  I want to say some Nick Mason shows in something like 2020/2021? I was still at The UPS Store when I did it, so I don't know. Maybe time to find those hard drives and check for some shows? 

She Will Feel Better In A Day Or Two

Here is my Last.fm listening summary for the week (Which runs from Friday to Thursday for some reason):

 

 

Life Is A Highway

Went for a walk around the neighborhood with the Polaroid Now camera and a questionable, old pack of black and white film.

 

Take One Bite Now Come Back For More

 I have the following things in my house, please make me a

 crock pot recipie peas, broccoli, green beans, chicken nuggets, 

ground beef, chocolate chips, sausage, butter, garlic bread, salsa, 

red potatoes, yellow onions, chicken, diced tomatoes, kidney 

beans, pineapple, unsweetened chocolate, tortilla shells, tortilla

 chips, garlic, shallots, diced jalapenos, hamburger patties, 

french fries,shredded hash browns

 

With that pantry/freezer situation, the best crock-pot meal is probably a Chunky Slow Cooker Beef & Bean Taco Stew. It uses ingredients that are actually crock-pot friendly and avoids things like chicken nuggets, fries, and garlic bread that would get sad and mushy.

Crock-Pot Beef & Bean Taco Stew

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2–3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 1 cup salsa
• 2–3 red potatoes, diced
• 1–2 diced jalapeños (optional)
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 1 cup frozen peas
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water (1–2 cups as needed)

Instructions

1. Brown the ground beef in a skillet and drain excess grease.
2. Add beef to the crock pot.
3. Add onions, garlic, potatoes, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, salsa, jalapeños, and 1 cup water.
4. Cook on:
   • Low: 6–8 hours
   • High: 3–4 hours
5. During the last 30 minutes, stir in the green beans and peas.
6. Add additional water if you want it soupier.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve With

• Crushed tortilla chips on top for crunch.
• Warm tortilla shells on the side.
• Garlic bread if you're feeling rebellious and don't care that it's crossing culinary borders.

---

Alternative: Slow Cooker Pineapple Sausage & Potato Bowl

If you want something a little stranger (in a good way):

Ingredients

• Sausage, sliced
• Red potatoes, diced
• Pineapple chunks
• Onion, sliced
• Garlic
• Salsa (½ cup)

Instructions

1. Put everything in the crock pot.
2. Cook on low for 5–6 hours.
3. Stir occasionally if possible.
4. Serve in tortillas.

The pineapple caramelizes into the sausage juices and salsa and ends up tasting surprisingly close to a sweet-and-spicy Hawaiian-style filling.

---

Chaos Option: "Everything I Found in the Freezer" Cowboy Hash

• Ground beef
• Sausage
• Hash browns
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Beans
• Jalapeños

Brown the meat first, then throw everything else in the crock pot with a little water and cook 4–6 hours. Serve in tortillas with crushed chips. It's not elegant, but it will absolutely feed a family and leave enough leftovers for tomorrow.

We Are Smoking In Front Of The Building

The Blue Light Special.

I should be sleeping. Not considering K-Mart. Why that store? There is a blue light plugged into the wall in my kitchen right now.

I cannot help but be a little sad by the world we live in. Each passing day I start to feel a little more like Spider Jerusalem living in the world of Transmetropolitan. I need to find and read those again.