I think the 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook was one of the coolest Facebook time wasters they ever came up with. I decided when I was finished with the challenge I would write a blog about my choices and kind of go into more detail about why I made some of my decisions. This is the second part of what will be a three part series.
Part II - 20-11
20. A Song I Listen To When I'm Angry
I remember the exact moment I first listened to "OK Computer" by Radiohead. Nick Bradford and I had just gone to the book barn to spend money on CD's, and Nick bought it. He told me he had owned the CD at one time, but his ex-girlfriend stole it when they broke up with each other, and he'd always loved the album. Radiohead was a band I only had a passing familiarity with. I knew "Creep" and "Karma Police," and that was about it. Nick couldn't believe I had never heard the album before and after we bought it we drove around in his red Mustang and listened to the entire album. "This is quite possibly the most angsty album you will ever hear," he told me. To this day I think he was right about that. At that time, right out of high school and just starting college, I was in a weird place emotionally. I was bitter toward love, pissed off at God, and sinking into the vacuum of nihilism. In short I was mad at everyone and everything, and this album, and in particular this song, became my banner. The song starts at such a passive, emotional place, and builds to this all out assault of anger, ending on maybe one of the most hateful phrases in songwriting history, "We hope that you choke, that you choke." Yes, for the years that followed, this song would be played many more times, and from time to time I still rely on it.
19. A Song From My Favorite Album
Dylan had to make this list eventually. It was inevitable. My favorite album of all time is Dylan's Bootleg Series Volume 4: 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. If I could save one of my albums from utter destruction it would be this one. Here, we see Dylan at a crossroads - his departure away from folk and his embrace of rock and roll. It is a snapshot into a very significant point in modern music history (top 5 for sure), and the album itself illustrates this - a Dylan concert in two parts: an acoustic set where the crowd is warm and inviting and an electric set where the crowd boos him and at one point yells "Judas!" at him. "Visions of Johanna" is by far my favorite Dylan song, and this version of that song is the one I prefer above all others. It's slowed down, acoustic, and personal. That's all I can say about this entry, as I've already written a post about this song. I invite you to read it.
18. A Song I Wish I Heard On The Radio
I don't listen to the radio...at all. I hate the music that's played on it. So yes, I would like to hear some Mountain Goats on the radio. Why wouldn't I?
17. A Song I Hear Often On The Radio
In the rare event I do listen to the radio it's usually an oldies station, and it never fails that I hear this song. Also, I really hate this song!
16. A Song I Used To Like But Now Hate
In 7th and 8th grade I was all about Led Zeppelin. I used to crank my Zeppelin Greatest Hits cassette tape while I played Secret of Mana on Super NES. As time went on, though, I became interested in other kinds of music, and Led Zeppelin became less and less impressive to me. It also didn't help that every time I went into a bar, or a head shop, or talked to any skeezer about music Led Zeppelin was usually a band that was playing or talked about. For me Zeppelin is a lot like Jerry Maguire - great the first time I saw it, but annoying after the next 89,000 times. The same holds true for "Stairway To Heaven."
15. A Song That Best Describes Me
I said in my original post that there were several reasons I chose this as a song that best describes me. I will now point out those reasons.
1. It's Muppets. My love and admiration of the Muppets is well documented, and they have been a cornerstone of my life, and have shaped a lot of my attitude toward life.
2. It's Comedy. The secret to comedy is timing, and this sketch is one of the best examples of it. Kermit sets up the bit as Irish themed. We see the curtain go up, and there are a few seconds before the singing happens and we see, Swedish Chef, Beaker, and Animal in green hats. There is a pause. We know something funny is coming, but we're still not prepared for it, as the three most inarticulate Muppets sing Danny Boy, a song that is supposed to be sorrowful. It makes me cackle every time I see it and hear it. I love to laugh, I love to make people laugh, so this song being so steeped in comedy also describes me very well.
3. Like I said before, the song is "Danny Boy," a sad Irish ballad about someone who has died. My family has deep roots in Ireland on both sides. Irish music stirs a lot of emotions in me that can only be explained as old and ancestral. And it's a sad song, which typically are the kinds of songs I like to listen to and create.
14. A Song No One Would Expect Me To Like
Kellen Neubert and Gordon Campbell and I used to listen to Wu Tang on the way to lunch everyday during high school. I associate a lot of great memories of playing chess in Mr. Bastin's classroom during lunch to "Bring Da Ruckus." Plus, I have a secret obsession for hardcore gangsta rap.
13. A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure
"Coney Island Baby" isn't so much the guilty pleasure here. Barbershop music as a genre is the guilty pleasure. Ever since I was like seven years old I wanted to be in a barbershop quartet. I think they are the pinnacle of coolness. I'm also a dork.
12. A Song From A Band I Hate
I really hate Hanson. I hated them when they were popular. I hate them now as an adult. To me it was just bubble gum music. I had a girl in high school try to explain to me that there was a deeper meaning to "MmmBop," that it referred to a fleeting moment in time that you can't describe in words. I told her I thought it was just a stupid song hook. At any rate, I really hate this song!
11. A Song From A Band I Love
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a very close second behind Dylan's Bootleg Series Volume 4: 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert as an album I'd want to save from total destruction. It's another one of those snapshots of a crossroads in modern music. Here the Beatles have decided to stop touring, their manager has died, and for once they are at a place where they can really explore their potential as musicians and artists. Before "Pepper" came out, there had been a period of several months where no one heard anything from the Beatles. Many critics thought the band was done, another flash in the pan that couldn't survive under the weight of their own success. Then they released "Pepper" in 1967, and it was similar to when Dylan went electric. Their old fan base hated them and turned away from them, but their reward was a much greater, much more appreciative fan base. The album changed the kind of band they were, and became the measure for the kind of music that followed. Even to this day when we talk about the best album by a particular band, we refer to it as that band's "Sgt. Pepper."
At the end of "Pepper" is what I consider the Beatles strongest song - "A Day In The Life." This song has so many things go on that make it great. I hope I can hit them all.
First, the vocals are haunting. George Martin did a fantastic job weaving John's already brilliant vocals around the main song, and blended Paul's bridge into the middle beautifully.
Second, with the exception of maybe "Across The Universe" or "Elenor Rigby," I think lyrically this song might be the strongest. The meaning sits on the edge of ambiguous, but the combinations of words is a vivid tapestry.
Third, it builds. MY GOD DOES IT BUILD! We climb this mountain with this musical mountain or lyrics and instrumentation. At one point we think the symphony is taking us someplace great, but we're dropped down again into Paul's bridge, only to be carried back down on John's voice to the final verse, but then the symphony rises, and rises, and rise, and then all of sudden BONG!!!! The song ends in quite possibly the most perfect way.
Welcome to the Hodge Podge Edition of Things People Assume I Like But I Really Don't. It's a hodge podge because I really didn't have enough material to make full blogs out of each of these things, so I decided to mesh them together and make one blog. So here we go!
"I'm going to recall something from my childhood in a very intense way with a lot of body movement.
Isn't that funny?"
Yeah. I really don't like Dane Cook. He is second on the list of comedians who I just cannot stand to listen to, and he's only second because Jeff Dunham exists. Most people can understand my hatred of Jeff Dunham, or Larry the Cable Guy, or any of those other Blue Collar rednecks who keep their comedy low brow and rely on fart jokes for punchlines. However, few people can understand my dislike for Dane Cook, but I think it's easy enough to understand - his comedy is boring...plain and simple. If you really sit down and listen to his set there is absolutely no substance to it at all. There are a lot of obscenities, a lot of jocularity, and a lot of Dane Cook describing things or life situations in a very intense way. A prime example of this is his bit about the Price Is Right where he describes in intense detail watching the Price Is Right.
When I first heard this bit I thought it was amusing. Like Dane, that was a show I watched when I was home sick from school, and yes, all of those games were just the way he described him. After the bit, however, I thought "Well was that really funny? I mean, was there comedic value to this bit?" Because for me it was just intense recollections, and for me that just isn't funny. Then again I like some pretty weird comedy, so who knows? All I know is that Dane Cook is a comedian I don't like, and people are surprised by that.
I saw an elephant do this once.
I love the creative process. I write songs and draw pictures all the time. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the artist and the creative process. That is why many many many people are shocked when they find out that I don't like Jackson Pollock. "He painted energy, man. How can you not love that?" That's something someone once asked me after I told them I didn't care for Mr. Pollock's work. My response was somewhat pointed, "I saw an elephant do a painting like that once."
Art, like so many things, comes down to personal taste. Pollock may have had some sort of plan, or he may have really been into the passion of the moment artistically (which I can respect), but as viewers of art we are not privy to that kind of thing. All we have is the work in front of us and our own emotions to go off of. Many people connect with Pollock on some level. I don't. To me it just looks like the random splatters of an elephant painting. So for me, I echo the sentiments of Georgia O'Keeffe when she was asked in an interview what she thought of Jackson Pollock. "They can have him," she said. I for one agree.
Meh.
Okay, let me begin by saying I DON'T HATE BOOBS! I like them alright. I'm just kind of tired of them. Let me relate something to you that best illustrates me sentiments.
When I was a kid it was a rare treat to have shrimp for dinner. I lived in Carthage, and the grocery stores didn't have fresh shrimp. For that you had to drive to Joplin and go to Dillon's. We hardly ever went to Joplin for groceries, and even if we did it usually wasn't for shrimp. Shrimp was pretty expensive too, so we only got to have boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce once a year, in the summer, and that was it! So, as such, shrimp was one of my favorite things to eat for a long time. As I got older, though, my attitude toward shrimp began to change. Stores in Carthage began carrying shrimp. The production of domestic shrimp made them more abundant and cheaper to buy. Soon, shrimp began showing up in all manner of foods, in all manner of restaurants. My rare treat was establishing itself on the table of mediocrity. These days you can get shrimp anywhere. Hell, I could go to Long John Silvers and buy some right now. It's not that I hate shrimp now. It still taste good to me. It's just that when I go out to eat or I have dinner, I'd rather cook something else. My attitude toward boobs is pretty much the same.
When I was a young teenager, bursting with hormones, a boob was something I only got to see once in a great while: at a friend's house in one of his dad's dirty magazines, on a video my sister's forgot to take back to the video store, in my imagination as I thumbed through the pages of Victoria Secret. I had an old beta copy of the movie Colors with Sean Penn and Robert Duvall. There was one boob scene in it that I rewound until the tape eventually broke. It was hard to see an actual boob, but when you did manage to catch a glimpse of one it was well worth the reward. I have found as I get older, as television becomes more lax about the kind of content it allows, as the internet makes boobs more readily available to my attention, that they have become kind of boring to me.
I am reminded again of another time in my life that echoes this sentiment. My friend had his bachelor party at a local strip club (the only such party I've ever been to with strippers). I was on my third lap dance. A busty woman had my face buried a mile into her chest. I could feel the vibrations of her boobs on the side of my head. It was neat, but I couldn't help but think to myself, "You know, if this is the extent of the activity this evening I'm going to get bored really fast." And I was right. I can't recall leaving that place and thinking, "You know, I really think the boobs were my favorite part of the evening." For me that's boobs. They look nice. They feel nice. But ultimately, there are so many other things I find interesting about ladies that I could really take them or leave them.
I think the 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook was one of the coolest Facebook time wasters they ever came up with. I decided when I was finished with the challenge I would write a blog about my choices and kind of go into more detail about why I made some of my decisions. This is the first part of what will be a three part series.
Part I - 30-21
30. My Favorite Song At This Time Last Year
My Uncle Frank was responsible for introducing me to Mumford and Sons. My uncle gives me a lot of burned CD's that he thinks I'll like, and most of the time it's generally stuff that I don't get overly excited about. I'm not saying I hate, or dislike, the stuff he gives me. I just don't do back flips over it. One day he came by to help me clean my carpet and gave me a stack of CD's. There was some Joe Bonamassa (take it or leave it), some Derek Trucks Band (meh), and a CD by this band Mumford and Sons. "You should listen to that one first," he said. "It's veeeeeeeeeery good." So after he left I popped it in my CD player. I thought it would probably turn out like all the other attempts at trying to sway my musical tastes. I was wrong. From the first song on the CD (this one, in fact) I was hooked. I loved the build of all their songs, the heavy handed pub feel of the vocals, and the blend of their instruments. But what I loved most of all were the lyrics! The person writing these words knew what they were doing, and what's more, had the ability to craft songs that teetered on the balance of commercial and abstract.
Out of all the songs, and there are some ones of notes - The Cave, Winter Winds, Little Lion Man - I kept coming back to Sigh No More. It's probably a sentimental choice for me because a bulk of the lyrics are taken straight from Much Ado About Nothing which after Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play (despite my animosity toward Shakespeare I have learned to enjoy at least some of his works). In fact the first line of the song - "Serve God, love me, and mend." - is what Benedict says to convince Beatrice either to convince her that she should marry him, or he says it to her after they're married. I can never remember which. Also, "Sigh No More" are the lyrics to a beautiful ballad from that same play.
So that is why this song was my favorite song at this time last year.
29. A Song From My Childhood
I could have picked any song from Sesame Street or the Muppet Show to answer this question. There are so many songs from the Muppets that bring me a lot of vivid memories of childhood. I picked this one for a lot of reasons, but really, for three main ones.
First, this was probably my favorite song on Sesame Street. It always felt like a treat when I'd watch an episode and this song came on. Even as a child I knew this was a very pretty song that made me think about stuff beyond the normal ABC and 123 themes of Sesame Street. I remember thinking how much I agreed with Ernie, how if I lived some place far away I would probably long for home and the people I loved. What I didn't know at the time was that Sesame Street was preparing me for the future. Growing up is like living on the moon. We grow farther away from youth, we have to part with loved ones, and we move away to new places, and it's scary. As an adult, I think this song has an even greater effect on me than when I was a child for this very reason.
Secondly, this song prominently features Jim Henson. Jim Henson was a cornerstone of my childhood, not only because of my love for the Muppets, but because his death was something that shook me. The death of Jim Henson was like a wake up call for me. It showed me that nothing was permanent, and that at any time something you're very used to can be snatched away from you forever. Did I mention I was 10? That's a lot of stuff to go through the mind of a 10 year old, particularly one who had personal dealings with death. Ultimately, though, Henson's death taught me to enjoy the time you have with people you hold dear, a philosophy I still practice to this day. This song, more than others he sang through the mouthpiece of his Muppets, drives that point home a little more for me.
Lastly, it's just beautiful. The chord progression is gentle and sweet, and the lyrics, for a children's song, are brutal and honest. I want to hug Jeff Moss for writing it.
28. A Song That Makes Me Feel Guilty
I didn't really have a good one for this category. I couldn't think of any song that made me feel guilty. So, because I'm a smart ass, I posted this one.
27. A Song I Wish I Could Play On An Instrument
In high school band we played this as a warm up. The percussionists didn't have to play during the warm up. I can't express in words the way the music made me feel when the woodwinds and the brass sound would swell and crescendo to this song. It was a very personal and spiritual experience, and I've only had that kind of experience with a few songs. Anymore, all I have to do is here the first few bars of this song and I'm instantly back in high school and all these memories and emotions come bubbling to the surface. Yeah, that's probably why I wish I could play this.
26. A Song I Can Play On An Instrument
I play ukulele. I didn't want to go with the typical Somewhere Over The Rainbow (which is becoming the Stairway To Heaven of the ukulele in that everyone knows how to play it) for this one, but all the other ones I know how to play didn't seem too great either. I ended up choosing this one because I think The Mountain Goats are great and I think more people should like them. Also it's a really great song!
25. A Song That Makes Me Laugh
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE SONG BEFORE READING FURTHER!
Let me tell you why this song makes me laugh so much. For starters, I'm kind of a fucker. For the most part, I'm a nice guy. I do onto others as I would have them do onto me. However, there are times where I am taken over by some sort of evil, and I do things to people that I really shouldn't do - like give someone a mint that has been in my ass, or pay a tuition bill with money that I have blown my nose on. Usually, I only commit evil when I am wronged in some way (which in my defense...those two previous examples were my reaction to some endured injustice). However there have been times, though very infrequent, where I have done things to people that otherwise didn't deserve them. I am about to tell you about such a time. And let me say, in retrospect, I am not proud of this.
One year at the YMCA, we had a group of volunteer counselors that would come in every couple of days and help out with the summer day camp. The paid staff could not stand these people. They were lazy, annoying, and in some cases would actually get into physical confrontations with the kids. One of these people was someone I went to high school with. He was a couple of years below me and was known throughout the school as that kid who had a heart attack. For anonymity's sake we will call him Bob. Indeed, Bob had a heart condition, and had, at least once in his life, had a heart attack. I even remembering being the computer lab once, and Bob, seated next to me, just collapsed and fell out of his chair. He didn't have a heart attack, but it was pretty weird just seeing this guy fall out of his chair.
So one night, we had a family mixer/campfire for the kids and their parents. There were hot dogs, and campfire songs, and skits. The paid staff had a skit lined out for the volunteers to be in. At the end of the skit one of the volunteers, WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE, was going to get doused with a sizable quantity of bitterly ice cold water. The staff had a caucus to decide which volunteer was going to get doused. We went around the circle. Every vote cast was for Bob. I was the last vote. Now, at this point I could have objected, told them that it might not be a good idea, clued them in to his heart problem, but for some reason (mainly morbid curiosity) I said, "Yeah, Bob sounds good."
So the sketch goes off without a hitch. Everyone delivers their lines. The timing is great. The water hits its target - a terrific success. So everyone is laughing and clapping, and Bob, stunned by the blast of cold water wanders off and collapses in a patch of thick grass. The paid staff rush over to him. No, he wasn't having a heart attack. He was stunned, and felt like he needed to lay flat to catch his breath. However, when the staff rushed to him to see if he was alright, he told him he had a heart condition, and it became known that I knew this fact. So of course, they asked me why I didn't tell them this after they decided to dump a gallon of cold water on him without his knowledge, and all I could say was, with a morbid chuckle, "I just wanted to see what would happen." No one really looked at me the same way again.
Long story short, I'm a terrible person sometimes, and this song is an homage to terrible people, and reminds me of this story.
24. A Song I Want Played At My Funeral
This song is such a simple, yet deep, piece of existential philosophy. It will not only remind people of where I have gone, but where they will be soon. Nothing like making people ponder their own existence after seeing me off at the end of mine! It's how I roll.
23. A Song I Want Played At My Wedding
I don't plan on getting married. The handful of ladies that I have encountered who had wife potential have all been duds. Unless some Southern Belle comes along and sweeps me off my feet, I see a long chain of high end whores in my future. However, if I do get married, I want this song to play at my wedding. It's one of those love songs that has a tinge of cynicism in it. I call these bittersweet love songs, and I love them. There's a line in this song that goes, "The book of love has music in it./In fact that's where music comes from./Some of it's just transcendental./Some of it's just really dumb." I think this sums up my view of love to a tee. Sometimes love is pretty special, worthy of song, and beauty, and all these things that speak of heightened experience. And sometimes (most of the time), love is just fucking stupid.
22. A Song I Listen To When I'm Sad
I listen to a lot of songs when I'm sad. I chose this one because it has a couple of my favorite song dynamics going on.
First, it's mainly piano-centric. Newman employs some very simple chords and phrases them in very simple ways. It's not flashy. It's almost as if he is in the middle of writing this song, and the recording is a peek into that process. The orchestration is conservative and doesn't over power the tune.
Second, the lyrics are very simple. They're almost a throwback to the old jazz and ballad songwriters like Hoagy Carmichael. Randy Newman isn't hiding the fact that he's sad behind a bunch of poetry (which I also like, don't misunderstand). He's listing all these failures, and all this lost he's endured, but the real reason he's sad is because he lost this unnamed "you." You don't need to explain that. You don't need to delve into the meat of those lyrics. It's a situation we're all familiar with. It's the mark of a good songwriter when you can do something like this.
It's such a pretty song.
21. A Song I Listen To When I'm Happy
This song makes me happy for one reason, and one reason alone. It was the song my Papa Longan sang when he was happy, and I like this version because there are a lot of similarities between the way my Papa sang and the way Willie Nelson sings. My Papa Longan could carry a tune, but he wasn't a singer. He didn't hold notes, and he had a deep vibrato that was more noticeable as he developed lung problems later in life. Every time this song came on the radio, or if I played it in the car, he would sing along, and sing every word with a smile on his face. Every time I hear it I can't help but be happy.
