A Year of Songs
Welcome to a sneak preview of the new AYoS Database

Just added -- search titles by word or phrase!

Why a database?

I asked myself. But I already knew the answer.

The Blogger framework that had seemed so heaven sent when I started A Year of Songs had been showing its limitations as an archival tool.

A change in servers seemed doomed to permanently mess up our once-great Google site search (now more or less back up to par, I'm very happy to report).

I did have a very basic dynamic index of files -- but they were listed by the sometimes cryptic blog file names. If a reader wanted to find a particular song or post he was more or less at the mercy of Google or the basic Blogger archive date list.

Some months ago, I got fed up with the situation and set about to create a basic database of all the AYoS posts and songs.

Like any good database guy -- I enjoy creating data systems and automation -- but I despise data entry. And it was precisely that that had held me back so long. However, the complexity of the AYoS posts, with all their links and formatting, had gotten to be way too much like work.

Unsure precisely what I wanted, I developed it in the ultimate database cocktail napkin, Access, and extended it with a number of utilities I coded to create blog entry templates with image and media links and basic formatting in place so I could automate the rather involved drudgery of putting up AYoS posts and... you know... just start writing. (Heh. I think getting the AYoS DB going is a form of writing sublimation.)

I also created subroutines to generate playlists from the database, playlists that feed the now ubiquitous AYoS Players scattered around the site.

In fact, the AYoS Player remains an excellent way of poking through the archives here, since it offers rudimentary sorting, links to AYoS posts for the songs, even the song's picture from its AYoS post -- all in a player format.

There's even a shuffle mode to help you discover great AYoS songs you haven't heard before. (Sadly, it will also help you discover considerably less than great AYoS songs -- but there's something reassuringly democratic, there.)

So the nascent AYoS Database gave me a real boost in services, even as it cut down on my basic labor overhead.

But I'd developed the database here at AYoS HQ (in currently sunny Long Beach, CA, USA) and that's where the data was living. I'd been doing some tinkering with the data structure and refinement of the control panel I designed for it and having the data in the nest made that a lot easier.

But it was time for the wee bird to take flight.

The current version of the AYoS database is certainly not sexy. It doesn't have the curb appeal of the AYoS Player but it allows sorts by date, song title and whether the track is instrumental or has vocals, and has links to the AYoS page for the track, a direct link to the MP3 file, and often other possible download or streaming options.

And -- just added -- is the ability to search the titles for a word or phrase.

As a bonus, you can see my own personal, highly idiosyncratic, wildly inconsistent ratings of the songs.*

If you click on the AYoS Post Dates in the table, you'll be taken to the individual AYoS page for that post.

If you click on the link that cryptically says only "MP3" you'll be linked directly to the MP3 file for the song. Depending on your system, you might need to right-click to save it to your own computer.

The links in the other options column, where there are any, typically go to the host page for a given recording, often at the Internet Archive. (Here's a preformatted search for TK Major content at the Internet Archive.)

Actually, I never meant the ratings to be public. They're just sort of based on how I felt about the song when I heard it and rated it...

Then there's tha natural question: does a good version of a bad song rate higher than a good version of a good song?

How do I know? They're all my children and I love them equally. But if you imagine there's much logic or consistency to my self-ratings, brother or sister, you have another think coming.