Sweet Home Alabama

Fascinating that I'd get a notoriously racist song into my head (though this interpretation is up for debate) following a song that helped break down barriers of racism in popular culture and the music industry.

Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Year: 1974
Rating: Warm

Diamonds of the Soles of Her Shoes

Many fond memories of riding in Jodi's car in the mid-'80s listening to Paul Simon's marvellous Graceland (on cassette, natch). This is one of the album's finest songs. Simon created a major international controversy recording in South Africa during the cultural boycott of Apartheid, but he also helped propel a number of Black South African musicians and artists (such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo) into international stardom in the process.

Artist: Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Year: 1986
Rating: Luke Hot

The Waiting

What is it that I'm waiting for, anyway?

Artist: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm

Little Deuce Coupe

I'm not really a "car song" person, but when Mike Love hits the low notes in the bridge, "There's one more thing/I got the pink slip, Daddy," it still gives me chills.

Artist: The Beach Boys
Year: 1963
Rating: Warm

Back In Time

Back to the Future montage lovingly crafted by YouTube user Ramzilla.

By far not my favorite Huey Lewis song, but I think it's in my head this morning 'cause I've got so much paperwork to do to wrap up at the clinic that I need a DeLorean to take me back in time a couple weeks to get it all done. Anyone got a flux capacitor?

Artist: Huey Lewis & the News
Year: 1985
Rating: Lukewarm

Cut Your Hair

Basically, just woke up with "Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh" in my head.

Songs mean a lot
When songs are bought

Oddly, this Pavement rant against commercialism became their biggest-selling single.

Artist: Pavement
Year: 1994
Rating: Hot!

Use It

Great video! I'd never seen it before. Yep, that's David Cross as one of the puppet-operators.

Two sips from the cup of human kindness
and I'm shit faced, just laid to waste

Guess I'm on a New Pornographers kick. Not complaining.

Artist: New Pornographers
Year: 2005
Rating: Luke Hot

Here Comes the Sun

And speaking of perfect pop songs...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting...

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1969
Rating: Warmly warm

Tears of a Clown

One of the most brilliant pop songs ever written and recorded. Hands-down. In my head because I've been brainstorming an entry 'bout what makes a perfect pop song. Tune in to find out.

Music by Stevie Wonder, lyrics by Smokey Robinson.

Artist: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
Year: 1967
Rating: Hot!

All The Old Showstoppers

Yummy acoustic version of this song from the New Pornographers' most recent album. Not sure why I woke with it. Here's a gander at some ideas about the meaning of the lyrics.

Artist: New Pornographers
Year: 2007
Rating: Luke Hot

I Would Die 4 U

Sorry folks, looks like Prince and/or his record company are banning audio on YouTube. So get out your vinyl or cassette of Purple Rain and dance 'round your living room to the Messianic gender fuck in my head!

Artist: Prince and The Revolution
Year: 1984
Rating: Luke Hot

Country

Did you see me? Did you touch me?
I didn't even know you were here
They'll wonder where I've gone

Artist: The Mekons
Year: 1985
Rating: Luke Hot

Uncle John's Band

Weirdly intense dream last night: I was on death row for the petty crime of smoking pot! I felt incredulous about the mockery of justice that was taking my life, and I was terrified. I ingested a poisoned liquid administered by the prison staff and eventually felt myself drifting off to eternal sleep. It was then that I woke up with this Dead tune in my head.

Their walls are built of cannon balls; their motto is "Don't tread on me."

Artist: The Grateful Dead
Year: 1970
Rating: Warm

People Take Pictures of Each Other

The Kinks, ever the formative existential rock band, present to you a problem in experiential living:

People take pictures of the Summer,
Just in case someone thought they had missed it,
Just to proved that it really existed.

It's one of our essential human dilemmas: how do we live in the moment without an excess of reflecting on the moment, or attempting to preserve or prolong the moment while we're living it, only then to return forever after to the moment once it's gone?

People Take Pictures of Each Other bookends an album that, earlier on in the track listing, has presented a similar meditation on the capturing of experience, Picture Book, which popped into my head back in February. I wonder if there's been something occurring in my life betwixt February and now that I'm trying to trap, as an insect in Amber, for all time.

Artist: The Kinks
Year: 1968
Rating: Luke Hot

Can't Fight this Feeling

Oh, god. Certainly one of the very cheesiest the 80's has to offer us. I'm particularly chuckling at the lines after the first refrain:

It's time to bring this ship into the shore
And throw away the oars, forever.

You fall for somebody and totally give up your self-contained navigational abilities? How coey is that?

Artist: REO Speedwagon
Year: 1984
Rating: Warm

Love is a Battlefield

Click here for the must-see video.

I'm trapped by your love, and I'm chained to your side.

Artist: Pat Benatar
Year: 1983
Rating: Hot!

Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)

This is kind of an odd Styx song for me - there are a few others that usually rank higher in my mental soundtrack. But good stuff, nonetheless. Also, amazing self-important/whimsical prog rock cover art! Evidently inspired by/borrowed from René Magritte's painting Carte Blanche.

Artist: Styx
Year: 1977
Rating: Luke Hot

I'll Never Tell

If you're not (yet!) a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this song/video might not make too much sense. Standing alone, it's amusing, but in context of the show, it's undeniably genius. In the 2001 episode Once More, With Feeling! a spell is cast on the entire town of Sunnydale, forcing its residents to burst out in song and further the dramatic arc of the show through lyrics. If you're currently watching Buffy and haven't made it to Season 6 yet, you might skip watching the video, 'cause it's got plot spoilers.

Artist: Emma Caulfield and Nicholas Brendon as Anya and Xander.
Year: 2001
Rating: Hot!

Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Found more footage from the the Rock En Seine festival in France. Last linked when Neighborhood #2 (Laïka) was in my head. These folks give good show. In my head because I heard it last night on a shuffle.

Artist: Arcade Fire
Year: 2004
Rating: Luke Hot