Showing posts with label hard rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hard rock. Show all posts
Never
Not my favorite Heart song, but we can't choose the earworms visited upon us. That is the essential beauty and randomness of the phenomenon. One might prefer Barracuda, but one does not get served up Barracuda. Nevertheless, these ladies certainly do rock.
Artist: Heart
Year: 1985
Rating: Warm
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
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.
Sympathy for the Devil
What an eery, contageous, epic song, though I don't have a good reason for it to be in my head today. This being the eighth Stones song I've blogged about (in addition to mentions in other entries), they are a well-represented band in my head. It's probably the fact of their ubiquity alone that brought the song to mind. Or maybe it's all the political turmoil of late? (Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints)...but that would probably be a touch of revisionist history.
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Year: 1968
Rating: Luke Hot
Note: Anytime this song is played, it should be announced by a proper Englishman wearing a tie.
Fly By Night
My ship isn't coming, and I just can't pretend.
Unlike my last entry about a Rush song, this one has emerged spontaneously from my unconscious. ("Limelight" back in 2010 was a carbon copy mental image generated from listening to classic rock radio.) So, there Rush is, a bona fide presence in my neural pathways, one might say "crackling with life" in the "invisible airways" of my brain. Ahh, sweet prog geekery.
Artist: Rush
Year: 1975
Rating: Warm
Down In It
I dunno, two months ago or so, this song was featured in the music round at The Castle Quiz, and Carl, the Quizmaster, wrongly attributed it to Rage Against the Machine. Our team, the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, knew better.
Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Year: 1989
Rating: Lukewarm
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!
Cherry Bomb
Hello, Daddy, hello, Mom...
Artist: The Runaways
Year: 1976
Rating: Luke Hot
Another song from the Bicentennial year!
Love Walks In
Some Hagar-era Van Halen rounding out the year for ya. If I wake up with a song tomorrow, I'll blog it. Otherwise, stay tuned for the statistics from 2010, coming at some point in the near-future at The Songs In My Head. You can peruse the summary from 2009 right here.
Artist: Van Halen
Year: 1986
Rating: Lukewarm
Happy New Year, all! Thanks for singing along these last two years, and for all your support and comments. May the songs in your head this coming year be enjoyable, whether sincerely or ironically.
--Sooze
Jump
My strongest association with the song "Jump" is an argument my friend Julie and I had the summer after our senior year of high school. It was about six years after the song's release in 1984, and thus, well into its influence on the rock radio canon. I had argued that the song paled in comparison to the brilliant music of Phil Collins. Julie contended that "Jump" was a better song from a musical standpoint than any Phil Collins song, hands-down.
I wouldn't argue that a Phil Collins song could beat up a Van Halen song behind the bleachers after school; my argument contended that Phil Collins's songs, including, naturally, the Genesis repertoire, were more robust from a sort of quasi-intellectual standpoint. I was basically just arguing against butt rock in favor of art rock. My argument, of course, was dashed from its inception, since by 1990, Phil Collins had long abandoned unconventional prog for soulless pop like Sussudio and insultingly vague altruism like Another Day in Paradise.*
Julie's argument, however, contained actual substance. A student of voice and music theory, she lectured me on the musicality of "Jump," the complexity of the arrangement, the layered instrumental elements, and the tonality of the entire composition. From her words emerged the grey scale picture of Collins's work placed next to the dynamically technicolored break out single on Van Halen's diamond-certified 1984 album.
I was bested.
Either that year, or a couple years on, Julie and I found ourselves at the same New Year's Eve party (at our friend Jen's place). We were listening to our local rock station's New Year's countdown of the "Top 100 Songs of All Time" (or perhaps the Top 105 Songs, or the Top 1,045 Songs). Imagine the cosmic comeuppance Julie felt when Van Halen's "Jump" was announced as the Number One song.
Julie was right: my esteem for Phil Collins only plummeted with the passing decades, and although I couldn't call it the Number One song of All Time, "Jump" has serious staying power. In my head.
Artist: Van Halen
Year: 1984
Rating: Luke Hot
* (Note to the earworm gods: please don't put either of those songs in my head now. Thank you.)
Limelight
This song represents ever more tainting of the songs in my head from my rock station-listenin' lately (though I do dig me some Rush). I'm fearing that my blog is turning out to be an unwitting advertisement for The Band, The Bone, and KFOG (though I don't mind supporting the latter, 'cause it's truly an awesome, home-grown Bay Area radio station, even though it's now owned by broadcasting monolith Cumulus).
I've actually considered just not listening to any music at all in order to devote my mental pathways to replaying only music I generate from internal memory, associations, and emotions, and the occasional replay of music input I receive from passive listening at the grocery store, ambient music in public, and the like. That would be kind of pathetic, though, to deprive myself of new musical input just to enforce some sort of artificially-imposed "purity" onto my blogging project. What do y'all think? Maybe it's time for another reader poll...
Artist: Rush
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm
Living On A Prayer
I blame my friend Dina, who alerted me to this "movement" recently:
I wonder if there really are people who want to rename their state for Jon Bon Jovi. I think naming Jersey in honor of Springsteen makes a lot more sense, just sayin'.
Artist: Bon Jovi
Year: 1986
Rating: Warm +
Shout out: Dina!
Don't Bring Me Down
Loud and clear this morning. Am I bringing people down with all this death, shooting, nostalgia, I wonder? Well, nuts to you. How can you be down with such a rockin' song in your head?
Artist: ELO
Year: 1979
Rating: Luke Hot
Two Tickets to Paradise
Monday, I was almost in Paradise, and then Tuesday, I woke up with this song in my head. I can't really say that life has been all palm trees and coconut cocktails lately. Probably just simple associations one day to the next with the key word, and a recent reference to Eddie Money's other hit song in my entry about the Ronette's Be My Baby.
Artist: Eddie Money
Year: 1978
Rating: Warm
Peace Of Mind
Been in my head for days. Shout out to the Geo-Rock!
Artist: Boston
Year: 1976Rating: Luke Hot
Another great song from the Bicentennial Year!
Don't Fear the Reaper
Couldn't wake with a more perfect Halloween/Dia de los Muertos song if I'd consciously tried to.
And, yes, this song really could use more cowbell.
Artist: Blue Öyster Cult
Year: 1976Rating: Warm
Find Your Way Back
Not quite the calibur of shark-jump as We Built This City from an even later offshoot of Jefferson Airplane; in fact, a decent single from the Mickey Thomas era of the band, on which Grace Slick played for the first time in several years.Artist: Jefferson Starship
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm
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