Join Together

Inspired to post again, 'cause this odd one hit me out of nowhere today. It's not one of my most tapped Who songs, but it's got a good groove. It's also 42 years old, as of this summer. Much like me.

Artist: The Who
Year: 1972
Rating: Warm

Hold Your Head Up

I think Aimee Mann and Ted Leo might get a kick out of the fact that this proggy 70's gem was the first song in my head this morning after seeing them perform at Bottom of the Hill SF last night. #notThinLizzybut...

Artist: Argent
Year: 1972
Rating: Warm

Turn to Stone

ELO always reminds me of my ex-girlfriend's parents. One of the rock bands they returned to loving after having banned all pop culture for several years to do right by Jesus. Interesting that this song evokes the story of Lot in Genesis. Hopefully none of us will turn to stone for enjoying ELO; we might rock out, though.

Artist: ELO
Year: 1977
Rating: Luke Hot

Apologies for bad puns.

Tom Sawyer

This song was hot in 1982 when I was in a fifth-sixth grade combination class at Daves Avenue School in Los Gatos, California. One of the sixth graders convinced Mrs. Ringsted to play it in class during the time we were reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The class also took a field trip to the Town & Country shopping center on Winchester and Stevens Creek Boulevard in San Jose to see a revival screening of the 1973 film Tom Sawyer, starring little Johnny Whitaker and everybody's favorite Surprise! Hollywood! Lesbian! Jodie Foster.

Post Script: The janky, underpopulated Town and Country Village is long-since defunct, and currently the site of upscale "Satan Row" as we call it in the San Jo vernacular. Where have all the old strip malls gone? Sigh.

And this is the string of memory I recall whenever I hear that opening Middle Earth-Meets Outerspace synth line and firm Neil Peart drum intro.

Artist: Rush
Year: 1981
Rating: Hot!

If You Leave Me Now

Cheesy or not, Cetera and Co. hit on the anticipatory anxiety of loss that is a nearly universal human emotion: leave me, and part of me, surely, will die. Am I feeling this epic about the anticipation of lost love today? Part of my mental tinkerings always go to this well-trodden topic.

Artist: Chicago
Year: 1976
Rating: Luke Hot

Another classic tune from the Bicentennial Year!

Note: This song has appeared in the blog before, as part of a Chicago retrospect entry.

Father Christmas

Occupy Xmas! First holiday song that's been in my head this season that I haven't actually heard in the Ethers yet.

Artist: The Kinks
Year: 1977
Rating: Luke Hot

A Day In The Life

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1967
Rating: Luke Hot

Sweet Home Alabama, Redux

Last in my head on July 30, 2009

Immediate upon waking, clear as a freshly pressed vinyl album in 1974.

Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Year: 1974
Rating: Warm

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Perfect, if embarrassingly literal, refrain after a lusty full-moon weekend.

Artist: Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Year: 1974
Rating: Warm

Can't Get Enough

...and then there's just straight-up, unambivalent, hard-rockin' love.

Artist: Bad Company
Year: 1974
Rating: Warm

Black Water

Been remiss at updating lately. Life is just too dense with the obligatory right now, including my ever-elusive battle to get to work on time every day. The other thing is that most of the songs I've been waking up with lately have been strictly due to recent exposure (hearing it on a playlist or at the grocery store, etc.) and I've, by and large, refrained from blogging about those particular songs, because, while recent exposure is clearly my number one source for earworms, that phenomenon is just less interesting to me than when a song seems spontaneously to generate from some unconscious depth or memory trigger or other more poetic means. Anyhow, the Doobs entered the neural paths a couple days ago, and I have a moment to share 'em now. These guys just hold so much nostalgic warmth for me. I love 'em. And they happen to be from my home town.

And I ain't got no worries
'Cause I ain't in no hurry at all

I'll throw a question out to you, the reader: where do your earworms come from?

Artist: The Doobie Brothers
Year: 1974
Rating: Hot!

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

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

A song that really should be in everyone's head, all the time. I unabashedly, unironically, love it.

Enjoy the weekend!

Artist: Elton John and Kiki Dee
Year: 1976
Rating: Hawt!

Another great song from 1976!

Come Sail Away

Starting to amass quite an arsenal of Styx music in the bloggic record of songs in my head. This one suits my emotional set of late, struggling with the obligatory logistics of life under considerable emotional stress over the last couple years:

I'll try, oh lord, I'll try (EPIC PIANO BREAK) to caaaaarrrrry on!

The similarity ends at the whole aliens/starship thing, though.

70s prog rock: Where Middle Earth meets Outerspace.*

Artist: Styx
Year: 1977
Rating: Luke Hot

*Tip o' the hat to Liz Bohm.

Do You Want Crying? or Two (or Three)-Hit Wonders

As I was waking up yesterday, I heard a baby crying somewhere outside my window. I opened the blinds, and saw a man walking with a toddler on the other side of the street, and the kid was sobbing all the way down the block. This relatively obscure secondary hit song by 80s popsters Katrina and the Waves then emerged in my head and stayed with me all day.

It's sort of timely, because Scott and I were recently talking about making a playlist of lesser hits by artists that only had two or three charting songs. You probably recall Katrina's bigger hit a lot better than this one, right?

Or you know how this song immediately springs to mind when you think of Crowded House? Well, instead, we'd put "Something So Strong" on the mix.



I've always preferred it, actually, even though (or maybe because) it's gotten way less air play over the years.

Or, take the band Thin Lizzy. You probably quickly conjure up this 1976 hit, but if you perk up your mind's ears a moment, you might remember this one:



So, readers, what are some other second-rate songs you love by Two (or Three)-Hit Wonders?

Artist: Katrina & the Waves
Year: 1985
Rating: Luke Hot

Dear Prudence

I always loved the White Album, all 30 songs lending themselves seamlessly to the whole, but "Dear Prudence" has only recently popped out at me as a stand-alone masterpiece. The gathering momentum of the orchestration, the loving encouragement to coax us out of our shell and into the world of experience. What a life-affirming mantra. Holy shit, it's so beautiful.

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1968
Rating: Hot!

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.

Love the One You're With

There's a girl right next to you
And she's just waiting for something to do...

Artist: Stephen Stills
Year: 1970
Rating: Luke Hot

Still the Same

Officially the first tune in my head in 2012. I spontaneously started whistling it on Muni last night on the move between two New Year's destinations. I knew it was a Bob Seger song, but couldn't come up with any lyrics or the title. When I whistled the melody to my friend Ricky, he made a great guess: Best of My Love by the Eagles. The tunes are incredibly similar. The magical internets have helped me solve the problem, so I don't have to resort to posting a Mystery Song entry. :)

Happy New Year, all!

Artist: Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Year: 1978
Rating: Warm

Golden Years

Two songs for the price of one today, lookathat! And, interestingly enough, both have a color and a measure of time in the title. The song I woke with yesterday, which I posted a few minutes ago was Blue Morning, Blue Day by Foreigner. Today's official tune is Bowie's Golden Years. I wonder if there's an internal juxtaposition here about my potential for healing over time, where once I was blue, now things are golden. Or somethin' like that.

Unfortunately, this amazing clip of Bowie performing the song on Soul Train was not embeddable, so you should view it at the YouTube.

Artist: David Bowie
Year: 1975
Rating: Luke Hot