The Friday Five!
Songs of all types including The Spirit of Radio!
The Friday Five!
1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.
Heh. You know, I always kinda liked Neil Diamond songs. Yeah, I know…ewwww! At least I have the sense to like stuff written before that travesty known as the E.T. song. I have some pride left. I blame my parents for playing the living crap out of Hot August Night (Hee! Chicken Ripple Ice Cream!) but I have to say (just looked it up on All Music Guide) I still like some of those songs: I Am…I Said, Solitary Man, and Holly Holy to name a few. Play Me was stuck in my head for about a week this past January, but only a single line of it. Man, I hate that.
2. Name two songs that always make you cry.
Ummmmm…yeah. See, I don’t get all emotional weepy about music so I don’t think there are any songs that make me cry. There are a good handful of tunes I have been gathering for the “Songs to Listen to and Wallow in Self Pity By” collection but those are more melancholy feeling blue tunes (Songs Sung Blue?). So, in lieu of tears, I’ll just work with two songs that make me feel a kind of bitter sweet sadness.
Jackson Brown’s I’m Alive off of the album of the same name. This entire album is a good one to listen to and wallow in self pity by as a good chunk of the tunes are about a break up or bad relationship. It’s a very good album to curl up and listen to on one of those gray rainy days when nothing is really going right because sometimes, you just gotta listen to sad music.
The second song is Sombody’s Crying off of Chris Isaak’s Forever Blue. I gotta say, this album is pathetic, funny, sad and it makes me smile all rolled up in one package. I think, judging from the song content and the inside dedication, Mssr. Isaak was dumped hard on his ass and this album is his therapy album. Forever Blue is also one of those all album inductees into the “STLTAWISPB” collection but unlike I’m Alive, Blue is a bit more raw in its self pity songs. I think Jackson Brown worked through whatever tragedy happened in his personal life well before the album was written so the songs are more reflective about the bad experience. Isaak must have written as he was coping because DAMN Forever Blue has a ton of “I’m so sorry baby, don’t leave me, take me back, pleeeeeease?” tunes. It also has, and one of my favorites just because of the juxtaposition; Goin’ Nowhere which is a song about a trampy chick who might as well just get naked and do the deed ‘cuz she aint got any other talents. No really! The lyrics go more or less like “Like the clothes, like the tan, like the way you shake it/You’re the kind of girl that looks better naked/You’re the kind of girl who’s going nowhere” Niiiiiiiice. So smack in the middle of the “boo hoo, come back, I’m so miserable” tunes you got this raunchy “Hey, you! Yeah, you! Come over here and do the nasty with me” song. Kinda makes you wonder what exactly was going through Chris Isaak’s head for THAT little ditty now, don’t it?
Ahhh, yeah. Incase you were wondering, “Songs to Listen to and Wallow in Self Pity By” was created back when I was in College. A friend of mine was up and dumped pretty hard and without warning one day and it took him for a pretty bad loop. We didn’t see him for a good three or four days, but after his antisocial misery festing he crawled out of his pity party suite and rejoined society (and I’m not basing the whole pity party thing; sometimes you gotta just cry the cry, you know?). ‘Spiff” was right enough to come back from isolation without melting down but he was still far from being OK and was busy working through his pain for a month or so afterwards. His particular method of therapy was to listen to sad songs that commiserated his misery so we, being friends and all, started looking for good songs for Spiff to listen to. Thus, STLTAWISPB was born and I have been slowly adding to it ever since.
3. Name three songs that turn you on.
Ahhhhh…hmmmm. I think I’ll have to say that music doesn’t do it for me in that way either. Am I a freak? Does music turn other people on as a matter or course? You freaks!
4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.
Now THAT question I can answer. Song one (and always one) The Spirit of Radio by Rush. There is no better way to start out the morning than to have Spirit pop on the radio very first thing as you are waking up or be the first tune you hear in the morning. I love love love that tune. It’s one of those tunes that make me smile (and stop channel surfing every time! THAT’s power) and dance in the car when I hear it.
In the Mood by Glen Miller. Ba-da-da-dup-dup-dup-dup-bada-da-dadup-da-da-da-da-dadup-da. How can you not dance to that tune when you hear it? And the trumpet part! SahhhWEEEET!
Diddley Daddy by…Errr, did Bo Diddly first do that? I am more familiar with the Chris Isaak version of it as found in The Cutting Edge. “Toe Pick!” It’s a good bouncy tune but I think the association with the movie makes it better than it really is solo.
Beethoven! The man rules. Ahhh, Ludwig Van. Do I have to pick just one tune of his? Well, how about a single symphony? Does that count? OK, the transition between the third and fourth movements of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the entire last movement of the symphony will have to be my number four song. I almost blew out a stereo system listening to it once. See, for those of you not in the know, the third movement is this slow, sad, quiet piece that sort of softly glides its way lightly (shhhhh! pianissimo) and ever so gently to the end of the piece where it almost trails off into nothing. Then, not quite before you have a chance to realize it, THE LAST MOVEMENT KICKES IN! big bad and full volume plus. I think every single person in the whole orchestra gets to play so loudly that their head is in danger of exploding. It’s one of those pieces that is much better live because you can still hear the single instrument playing the last strain before the entire orchestra stomps in all fortissimo like without blowing expensive stereo equipment. I’ll say that it was the fastest to date I have ever jumped across the room to change the volume. Whoda thunk such a tiny boom box could shake the room so hard for even that one small fraction of a minute?
5. Name five songs you couldn’t ever do without.
Dude, The Spirit of Radio. Can I say enough about this tune?
Assuming all tunes except for my five are forever wiped out, I would also like to have some Glen Miller. Not necessarily In the Mood, but something kicking like that. String of Pearls would work too, but Moonlight whatsit is way out. It’s gotta swing babE!
Must have some Johnny Cash too. Don’t know what is my favorite yet though. We just got the new album and I like a couple of the tunes from that really well but it’s a new album so I am bound to really like a few of those tunes. Look me up in a year and see whether any of the new tunes have stood the test of time.
Scott Joplin, but not so much The Entertainer. Maple Leaf Rag is good, Fig Leaf Rag is good, Solace is good but a little slow. I think I would like a more zippy tune if that is going to be one of my only tunes. Heh, fortunately sometimes it feels like a good deal of Joplin tunes are the same tune so I suppose it wouldn’t really matter what Rag I picked (Gladiolis Rag!). I’d most likely be happy with it. I know, you Scott Joplin fan boys are going to have me burned at the steak.
Ana Ng. Only because it’s the one The Might Be Giants song that is permanently burned in my head and I can never remember the entire tune so I’m always stuck singing five words and then doing that “la-la-la-la” thing. It drives me nuts. I’d hate to go crazy because I couldn’t remember the one song that has permanent residence in my brain.
Of course, ask me this question next week and I might have a different list (except for The Spirit of Radio. That’s always going to be on the list). I’m a fickle bitch, I tell ya.