Gotcha!

How's this for obscure? The movie theme song from a 1985 romantic espionage flick starring Anthony Edwards. Watch the trailer - it's classic 80's.

Artist: Thereza Bazar
Year: 1985
Rating: Lukewarm

You and Me and the Moon

Joyous and sad. Certain Magnetic Fields songs will always remind me of Amber. She's moving into her new place this week. There are boxes of books stacked up in the hallway with labels like "Deutsche Literatur" and "Feminist Theory" written in Sharpie. Despite the complex circumstances of our break up,

The sound of your voice [still] sends shivers up my spine.

Artist: Magnetic Fields
Year: 1995
Rating: Hot!

Ufaratza!

Woke up with a spirited Jewish song in my head, "Ufaratza," a song we sang/shouted on a weekly basis at Camp Shalom every summer of my childhood. Above, some amazing footage of Chasidic rabbis singing the song in the 1970s.

The song is based on the Old Testament verse in Genesis (28:14) in which god tells Jacob that his people will spread out like the dust of the earth, to the west, east, north, and south, and that all people will be blessed by this spreading out. In the most Zionist/evangelical interpretation, this is a mandate for the Jewish people to populate the entirety of Israel. Thankfully, I grew up quite liberal/secular, and so my own meaning from the song is simply an affirmation of the Jewish diaspora, that our people and culture have spread out throughout the world, and that this sharing of culture is a benefit to all humans.

In looking up this song, I came across a great progressive Jewish blog, written by Rabbi Jared Saks. Here are some of his thoughts on the teaching in the song. His blog entry also includes a new interpretation of the song, reggae-style.

Artist/Year: unknown (Saks credits Avi Maslo with the original song, but I'm not sure that's correct. Anyone know?)
Rating: Warm

Waltz of the Flowers

Thanks to my friend Lisa for identifying this song for me. All I had was a vague rendition of the most famous portion of the composition, whistled through a cell phone exchange. She entertained my indulgent query, and nailed the tune, even though I interrupted her life at 10:00 pm on a school night. That's what friends are for. :)

Artist: Tchaikovsky
Year: 1892
Rating: Warm

Who's Crying Now? (Redux)

Last in my head on June 20, 2009.

Artist: Journey
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm

2011 Review, Part 2: Genres & Whatnot

Finally done tabulatin' the data for 2011. I present to you the genres of music most frequently appearing involuntarily in my head: (Click charts to embiggen!)

Classic rock took the biggest leap this year, looks like. And the pop category has a big jump only because I've been using it recently as more of a catch-all category. Likely the tags for commercial pop and contemporary pop will phase out over time.

The "Whatnot" tags are dear to my heart, those categories in the blog that aren't exactly genres but are groupings I wish to track.

Noteworthy this year: posts containing personal anecdotes and meta or self-referential info are gaining in popularity (due to my ever-increasing narcissism). It looks like songs from the U.S. Bicentennial year, songs by bands named after geographical locations, old camp songs, and songs best left to the sharks are all dying breeds in my head, at least in 2011.

New to the category, the Barry-Mix tag, songs that have featured in mixes my dear friend Barry has made me over the years. I have retroactively imposed this exciting (ahem, navelgazy) new category on previous years' entries, so now we have its complete bloggic history.

Excised from the Whatnot stats is data on the earworms tag: my new policy is to use that label on every entry in order to get the bots to recognize it as a keyword to improve hits to my blog. Ergo, the number of times I use that tag is pretty meaningless for personal interest, but might serve a more nifty marketing purpose.

Jump to 2011, Part 1: Artists, Eras, and Ratings

Okay, done. I humbly thank you, my loyal readers.

xo, Sooze

Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo

When one writes a blog such as this, one wonders when a song such as this will pop up. In this case, I'm flouting my usual rule of no blogging a song if it's in my head due to recent exposure; I heard a snippet of it last week at my pub trivia night, in the music round. (I nailed it.) But the song begs to be mentioned as one of those insane earworms we all carry around with us.

Lordy mama, light my fuse!

Artist: Rick Derringer
Year: 1970/73
Rating: Lukewarm

Note: Yes, there is a comma in the title of this song.

Wouldn't It Be Good

Artist: Nik Kershaw
Year: 1984
Rating: Luke Hot

Cornflake Girl

Dreamt about singing Tori Amos songs around a campfire last night. Woke with "Cornflake Girl." Above is her performance of the song on Letterman from 1994, which I viewed with friends in Santa Cruz on its original air date. It was the moment I realized how brilliant she is. I was a bit behind the curve; "Crucify" really annoyed me. But, fuck, can she rock a piano bench.

Artist: Tori Amos
Year: 1994
Rating: Hot!

Note: Tori's album Under the Pink, which featured "Cornflake Girl," was released exactly 18 years ago. Weird!