I don’t actually listen to the radio very much, so it’s rare when I hear a song “often” on the radio. There was a time recently however when I did seem to hear Florence + the Machine’s The Dog Days Are Over several times in a very short time span, which is okay, since I enjoy the song, and I had just seen the band live in concert. So here’s Florence singing her big hit.
Of course, the one radio show I do tend to hear quite often is “Standing Room Only,” WERS’ weekend musical theatre show. They do tend to repeat themselves pretty often… from the slightly obscure, like Unworthy of Your Love from Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, to this song, the ubiquitous Defying Gravity from Wicked.
Nothing terribly exciting here… but honestly, that’s what radio is all about.
Okay, so I got this one backwards. It’s supposed to be A song you used to love and now hate, and I’ve been spending the last day or two trying to think of a song I used to hate and now love. So rather than rethink this, I’m changing Day 16 to the more positive point-of-view that ends up with a song I love. I mean really, as I’ve said several times already, why would I want to post songs I hate on my blog?
Anyway, there are a few songs that ran through my mind for this one. In the end, I had to go for two songs, because one I wanted to include here because it’s from my favorite band, and the other is too cool to leave out. The first comes from Fleetwood Mac, my favorite band. Despite being my favorite band, there was a time when Lindsey Buckingham annoyed me. After the amazing feat of pop mastery that is Rumours, Tusk took everyone by surprise by it’s experimental wackiness embodied in the studio hijinks of Lindsey Buckingham. Christine McVie has always been my favorite of the three principal songwriters, and back then, I was a huge Stevie Nicks fan as well. I loved Buckingham’s work on Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, but the direction he moved in for Tusk was very hit and miss for me. It wasn’t the strangeness that bothered me; I loved Tusk, Not That Funny, Walk a Think Line… but songs like Save Me A Place, my first pick for a song I used to hate and now love, really annoyed me. Now, as I look back, I see how much of what made Fleetwood Mac great was the result of Lindsey’s talent to take the songs of the other two and turn them into masterpieces. I also have a new appreciation for some of Lindsey’s songs that I formerly detested (Oh Diane is another one) and Save Me A Place in particular I find to be just beautiful. This crappy recording of the Mac performing the song live during the Tusk tour is especially fun as it features Christine McVie on guitar!
Another song that I used to hate and now love comes from the same timeframe as Save Me A Place (which came out in 1980). I really enjoyed Sweet’s three earlier singles, Little Willy, Barroom Blitz and Fox on the Run, but in 1978 they came out with a song that I just thought was stupid. Love is Like Oxygen seemed to be a nod to the disco era, which was raging at the time, and it really turned me off. Now, of course, years later, when I rediscovered Sweet, I can’t resist the infectious goofiness of this song. They were truly an underrated band in the glam scene, and I adore all their stuff now. I was just going to go with the Mac song until I watched this video… then I couldn’t resist including Love is Like Oxygen as well.
As I have stated in the past, I can usually find something I like in most genres of music, but I’m not really a fan of rap. But with the onslaught of Rap music in the 90′s even I found something to like. Not surprisingly, the rap that I gravitated to came from Salt ‘N Pepa, whose forthright, sexy, girl power rap appealed to my gay, quasi-feminist sensibilities (I said quasi). Their videos were fresh and sassy, and they had such distinct personalities. Salt was smart and sexy, Pepa was tough (and frankly a little scary) and sexy, and Spinderella was soft-spoken, sweet, and quite honestly, kind of dirty listen to her verse in the song I chose. So while some people are probably aware that I’m a fan of Salt ‘N Pepa, there are probably a lot of people I know who would be surprised to learn that I own a couple of their albums! (Of course, I probably could have surprised as many people with the fact that I own a Queensryche album, and as mentioned below, not one, but TWO Corey Hart albums. (I do not own the abysmal Sunglasses at Night.)
Anyway, for Salt ”N Pepa, and the song no one would expect me to love, I’m choosing Whatta man. How can you not love this sexy, fresh, homage to good men and relationships, while representing a strong sisterhood. They’re even backed vocally by the all-girl En Vogue. It’s a slightly raunchy video, but it’s all in good fun, there’s some fine dance moves, and those ladies made some great videos.
Guilty pleasures are interesting things, and I’m old enough not to actually feel to guilty about music I like. I could have gone with some obvious answers like ABBA or some mid-70′s schlock, but now that 70′s music is nostalgic, it’s kind of cool. Also, as I’ve stated before, the point of this exercise for me, is to post about some good music, so the song and band I have chosen I would defend as being good music. I went through a phase in the 80s of liking some unabashedly poppy stuff fronted by “pretty boys” and my guilty pleasure pick comes from one of those. I think I could have picked guiltier pleasures (I do own a couple of Corey Hart albums, and here comes a guilty admission… I was a member of the Glass Tiger fan club… as an adult!) but I’m sure some people will think I have plenty to feel guilty about regarding this band.
The band is Cutting Crew, primarily knows for their hits, (I just) Died in Your Arms Tonight and I’ve Been in Love Before. Cutting crew got the guilty pleasure rap largely I think because of that, “Ah, ha” sung before the line, “I just died in your arms tonight,” and the fact that lead vocalist Nick Van Eede was quite the pretty boy (hey, Scot, doesn’t he remind you a little of Daniel from Days of Our Lives?). But along with Mr. Van Eede (who still performs using the band name Cutting Crew) was lead guitarist and co-songwriter Kevin MacMichael, who happened to be Canadian, played with Robert Plant on one of his solo albums, and was pretty deft with the melodic, rock guitar lick. Tragically, Kevin has passed away in 2002 as a result of lung cancer. The song I’m choosing is one that probably a lot of people never heard It was the fourth single from their debut album Broadcast and didn’t crack the Top 100, although this video did get some airplay on MTV. It’s called Any Colour, and I really love this song still to this day. It’s got some great melodic guitar licks (see above), has nice lyrics, has a great tune, a nice video and gotta confess, I like Nick’s voice and he’s wearing an awesome pair of boots. Hope you enjoy!
While Kate Bush is my favorite artist, I’ve got a couple of bands who vie at any given time for the crown. Heart and Martha & the Muffins always hover around the top of my favorite bands list, but for sheer longevity, and diversity of music, Fleetwood Mac remains on top. While I jumped on the Fleetwood Mac bandwagon like many others during their heyday in the mid-70s, I went back and explored their catalog and their roots as a British blues band starting out in the late 60s. It wasn’t until the addition of Christine McVie that things really came together for me, and obviously, the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks made magic happen for me, like the rest of the world. Since Ms. McVie’s departure from the band over ten years ago, I have to say I haven’t been as interested.
Of course, with all the terrific songs Fleetwood Mac has performed, I had trouble deciding which one to post here. I decided it had to be a Christine McVie track as she is my favorite member. I thought I’d go back to the pre-Buckingham/Nicks days, and I knew I had to choose Heroes Are Hard to Find with its sassy lyrics and funky brass licks. It’s a bit of a departure for Chris, while still recognizably her. If you haven’t heard this track, do yourself a favor and take a listen.
There are a lot of songs I can dance to. I love dancing. I’m not a great dancer, but I can do okay. I like dancing to different kinds of music, from 80s new wave to disco. I wanted to post some obscure song that you probably never heard of here, but the simple fact of the matter is, the first song that sprang to mind for this category, and the song I probably most readily will get up and dance to is Madonna’s Express Yourself.
I’m not really sure what it is about that particular song that makes me want to start grooving so badly. I’m not a big Madonna fan. I like a lot of her stuff, while other leaves me cold. I did see her live once and she put on a great show. Express Yourself has a fun video, a great beat and just makes me want to boogie!
In the world of contemporary pop music there are music people and there are lyrics people. I’ve never really been into lyrics. The words to a song can certainly augment my enjoyment of a song, but they are rarely the reason I like a song. Contrarily, a phrase of melody can bring me to tears. Despite that, like most people, there are lots of songs I know the words to. I do notice that songs I know extremely well I often just make up words to when I sing along. But still, there are many songs, by sheer repeated plays, whose words I’ve come to know. For today’s song challenge, I thought I would pick a song whose lyrics I think are clever, well crafted, and memorable. That song is Barracuda by Heart.
I think songs that are written about something very specific often have the best lyrics. Barracuda is a scathing warning to young up and coming rock stars about the dangers and sleaziness of record company executives, something Ann and Nancy Wilson learned about first hand when they were just starting out back in the mid-70s. Mushroom records took a promotional photo taken of Ann and Nancy for the Dreamboat Annie album, and published it with an article with the quote, “It was only our first time…” implying that the two were lesbian lovers. Please… they’re sisters. After the success of the first album, Heart changed record labels and a legal battle ensued. Ann’s lyrics, and the metaphor of the record company executive as the cold, vicious barracuda are creative and spot on. Enjoy this terrific television clip of the original line-up performing this classic song.
And the lyrics:
Barracuda
Heart
(A.Wilson/N.Wilson/R.Fisher)
So this ain’t the end – I saw you again today
Had to turn my heart away
You smiled like the Sun – kisses for everyone
and tales – it never fails!
You lying so low in the weeds
Bet you gonna ambush me
You’d have me down on my knees
Wouldn’t you, Barracuda?
Back over Time when we were all trying for free
Met up with porpoise and me
No right no wrong you’re selling a Song – a name
whisper game
If the real thing don’t do the trick
You better make up something quick
You gonna burn it out to the wick
aren’t you, Barracuda?
“Sell me sell you” the porpoise said
Dive down deep to save my head
You… I think you got the blues too.
All that night and all the next
Swam without looking back
Made for the western pools -silly fools!
I had a lot of trouble thinking of a song that makes me think of a certain event. The more I thought about it, the more my mind kept going back to concerts. Concerts are probably not events in the meaning of what this particular category is referring to, but all the big events in my life that I could think of don’t really have songs linked to them other than concerts. Still, this song is locked into my memory as linked to this particular concert.
I saw Martha & the Muffins (who I think were calling themselves Martha & the Muffins a/k/a M+M at the time) at the Channel in the mid-80′s. I was excited to see this Canadian band that I loved so much, and I couldn’t really imagine what they would sound like live. When they took the stage and performed their opening song, it just blew me away. They sounded incredible. They looked incredible. I can vividly remember how excited I was and thinking they were just the epitome of all things Canadian (which to me was a great thing.) They’re opening number remains one of my favorite all-time songs. So hear it is, the video of the Martha & the Muffins song, Danseparc (Every Day It’s Tomorrow), which is one of the coollest songs and videos ever.
What? Did I miss yesterday? Sheesh? I was completely prepared too. The day just kind of slipped by. Oh well, back on track now.
Most of the songs that remind me of a particular place have to do with concerts. I hear Over My Head by Fleetwood Mac and I’m immediately back in the Boston Garden seeing them live for the first time on the Tusk Tour. ‘Til Tuesday’s Maybe Monday puts me at the UNH show nursing my not-so-secret crush on keyboard player Joey Pesce.
When I think of the band Spider, and this song in particular, I think of a time, a place, and specific people. Spider’s 1980 debut album, featuring the minor Top 40 hit, New Romance (It’s a Mystery) was a defining collection of songs for me. I loved Spider, featuring Amanda Blue on lead vocals, future hit-making songwriter Holly Knight on keyboard, Keith Lentin on guitar, Jimmy Lowell on bass, and future David Letterman session player Anton Fig on drums. I turned my friends on to Spider. Sue, Becki, Anne… they all loved Spider nearly as much as I did. We each had our favorites on that first album.
When, a little over a year later, their second album, Between the Lines, was released, we were momentarily taken aback. There were some real dance grooves there… almost disco! It took us a couple of listens to accept songs like Going By, although Change, later covered by John Waite, was an instant hit with us. I have such a distinct memory of having my three friends pile into my 1974 Pontiac Ventura and driving down to Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, parking by the banks, and instead of making out (what, I was gay, and there were three of them!) we listened to the new Spider album over and over again. One song in particular resonated. It’s a song you all know as performed by a different artist, but Spider performed it first, and Amanda Blue’s commanding vocals were certainly the template for the much more popular artist who eventually turned it into a hit. I still ahve a very vivid image of Sue sarcastically spitting out the lines, “But did you think I’d just accept you, in blind faith? Oh, sure baby! anything to please you, but you better be good to me!”
This is not the complete kickass song. Much of the amazing instrumental break is edited out unfortunately. Even the CD version doesn’t include the full-length song, which is why I still own the vinyl.
Once again, there are dozens of songs I could list here, because many different songs remind me of many different people. I decided not to go with the obvious, like Chatnal Kreviazuk’s Before You reminding me of my wonderful husband, Scot, or the difficult, like Face to Face’s Wreckless Heart, which I couldn’t find on YouTube, that reminded me of Diane, and old roommate of mine. Instead I picked a song that reminds me of someone who was a very good friend through high school, college and years after, and always makes me laugh because of it.
You Sold the Cottage by Martha & the Muffins is a funny enough song without it making me immediately thinking of my friend Anne. I was always playing new music for my friends, especially Anne. I’d transfer my new vinyl albums to cassette, then we’d go out in my car, drive around and I’d play the new music for them. Sometimes we would go down to the lake and just listen to songs. It was a lot of fun, and kept us busy in a suburb where there wasn’t all that much to do. Anne liked Martha & the Muffins well enough but she always listened to new music critically. What Anne loved to do is smile and laugh. She has a great sense of humor and loved to make other laugh. What sticks to strongly in my mind is during the opening instrumental riff after Martha says, “We’re entering getaway country!” Anne would do this crazy little dance. Every. Time. I. Played. The. Song. It was hilarious. It still makes me laugh today, nearly 30 years later. She probably doesn’t even remember this, but sometime I should play this song for her again and see what she does.