Sunshine Superman

Woke with a strong sense of the melody of this song, but only a very vague sense of the lyrics and no clue about the recording artist. I found it by googling the only bit of lyric I could conjure: "when you make your mind up." Now that I'm hearing it, of course it's Donovan. I thought maybe Turtles, Small Faces, but knew I couldn't quite get a bead on it. The magical internets also tell me that Jimmy Page (then of the Yardbirds) and John Paul Jones (later also of the Yardbirds; both soon after of Zep fame) play on the track. Kind of an epic song in the rock canon, it seems, and good trivia for a future pub quiz!

Artist: Donovan
Year: 1966
Rating: Warm

Over the Hills and Far Away

One of my favorite Zeppelin songs, probably one that many a high school boy back in the day would've said was one of their "girlie" tunes. In fact, the last time I heard it on the radio, several months ago in the car with Scotty, I believe his sentiment on the acoustic intro was, "Wow, that's gay!"

The above performance is great, though the audio level is low. Best with headphones!

Artist: Led Zeppelin
Year: 1973
Rating: Hot!

Black Dog

I've always wanted to play this song on kazoo.

Artist: Led Zeppelin
Year: 1971
Rating: Luke Hot

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight

Given that R.E.M. is one of my all-time favorite bands, it's surprising they've only made it into my head three times since the start of this project; this is the second R.E.M. song to come 'round in a week's time. In fact, it's been ringing in my head for days, ever since Barry and I listened to it on his ipod shuffle while on the road between Durham and D.C. last week. It's such a catchy, fun, inexplicable song amidst Automatic for the People's more down-tempo, reflective tracks. As usual, I'm happy to recommend the Pop Songs review for another perspective.

Artist: R.E.M.
Year: 1992
Rating: Warm

Noteworthy: The Zep's John Paul Jones arranged the string section.

Repeat Loops

Three recent head-songs are replaying this morning. Woke up with the Entertainment Tonight theme again; then a repetitive medley of Zeppelin's Immigrant Song leading into Closer by Nine Inch Nails.

As I progress with this project, I'm finding that the songs manifesting in my head are certainly influenced by blogging about them. A song that would perhaps have been long gone into the unconscious reaches might resurface again and again just from writing about it or re-reading one of my entries. I'm also noticing that I have a slightly anxious anticipation upon waking, in an active wondering of what song might surface. This has possibly "pushed" songs to consciousness that otherwise wouldn't have arrived; some of them due to having blogged about them already, some due to recent exposure from actually hearing the song played. I'm attempting to dismiss songs that feel "forced" upon waking, and opting to blog about the songs that seem to float in more organically if possible.

Also, only two more days to vote for your favorite Geo-Band! Do it now! And if anyone out there has an idea about what the next poll should be, please leave a comment!

Immigrant Song

Weird to wake up to Robert Plant wailing, "Ahhhh--ahh! Ahhhh--ahh!" but there you go. This song has an absolutely bitchin' guitar/bass/drum progression, but the Viking imagery and Plant's voice sort of ruin it for me.

Artist: The Zep
Year: 1970
Rating (music): Luke Hot
Rating (lyrics/vocals): Lukewarm

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin

Ah, the Zep. Many people have very strong opinions about this band, love/hate feelings usually more than just that they're meh (and, by the way, did you know that "meh" is now officially a word?) Not that I wanted intentionally to start a debate about whether Zeppelin's songs are meh, but a good many of them are, at least to me.

Here's my feeling about this band: they were musically excellent—some of their songs are beautiful—and hugely influential, if lyrically a bit too "Middle Earth" for my aesthetic. But the vast majority of bands that patterned themselves after Zeppelin were mediocre hair bands. So thank you, Plant/Paige/Jones/Bonham for rocking hard and leaving a legacy of metal dudes screaming at the top of their lungs trying to mimick Plant's tenor vocal peaks that even he was straining to reach.

Year: 1969
Rating: Warm (no, not meh.)