musical musings, comments anyone?

For our trip, we got satellite radio, in particular XM radio. I play DJ, which drives michelle nuts in that I’m always looking for the next song, and I rarely leave it on one station for long. I suppose it’s my overall tendency to be an opportunist – always looking for the best deal, right?

In this process, over the past nearly three weeks, I’ve heard a ton of music that has either delighted me in that it is new to me or has taken me back to a time in my life. So, I started to write them down to remember to buy some on iTunes, but realized it would be a fun blog entry as well. So, here is the list of songs in the order that i wrote them down - along with commentary on each. Apologies for the length of this post.


The Call – The Walls Came Down
I remember this song on MTV’s 120 Minutes, the Sunday night alternative/new music show that I taped religiously in high school. Everyone I knew thought this song sucked (most of my friends were Top 40 types) but I remember thinking it was well done, and still do.

We Belong – Pat Benetar
Ok, I don’t know what it was about this song, but it was and is by far my favorite Pat Benetar song. I think I thought she was hot in the video too, which may have been a harbinger of things to come…I still love this song and am happy to hear it.

Meatloaf – Paradise by the Dashboard Light
What can you say here? This is just an amazing song, I don’t care what kind of music you’re into. I remember putting this on a ‘mix tape of the moment’ in college at some point and listening to it 1000 times, even though it has obviously long been out at that point.

Saga – On the Loose
While this is a mainstream group and song, I just liked it. I vaguely remember the video on this one too, and that no one else around me liked it. But I did.

Icicle Works – Whisper to a Scream
Oh god, now this song was just riveting to me. I had to have listened to it a billion times. I think my cousin Chris put it on a mix tape for me. He liked cool alternative music and introduced me to so much through just a few mix tapes. This song, however, I just thought was amazing.

Hooters – All you Zombies
I loved the Hooters. I don’t know why, I think because I found them early on and no one knew them. I saw them in concert twice – once with Tears for Fears, and once opening for Loverboy (I was more excited to see the Hooters) – the first show was in junior high and the second was in high school I think. This song was my favorite; though “And We Danced” was a close second. This was out in the summer after 8th grade, which was the summer of the tornado. I remember being in Erie at my Gramma Steff’s listening to this tape in a constant feed, with the TV on mute waiting for the video to rotate onto MTV.

Talking Heads – Road to Nowhere
I think this was just one of those Talking Heads songs that got me over the hump of “they’re too weird” – such a nice variety of different kinds of music in this song. I would kill to have seen them live in their day.

Toto – You Know I Won’t Hold You Back Now
I don’t know why, but this song illicits a completely emotional response. I must have been madly in “love” with someone in 6th grade when it was out, because I can physically feel my stomach ball up in that total-and-complete heartache sort of way when I hear it. Though Toto was mainstream, I loved this and “Africa” – and anytime I stumble upon them on the radio today, you can bet I will stay in the car until it ends, even if I’m at my destination.

KLF – Justified and Ancient
This is so college for me! I used to go out to the InterBelt nightclub in Akron, OH with all of the gay boys who raised me to be a good lesbian. I remember one night counting over 40 people I knew there, which I suppose isn’t any sort of surprise if you know me at all, but it was Ohio in 1992 and somehow I was just in pig heaven being out and surrounded by all these people whom I just loved being friends with and going out with. This song was one of those “anthems” of the time, and I still can smell the Interbelt and hear that awful siren they’d play when I hear it.

The Fixx – Red Skies at Night
Oh, here is another song that just makes me want to cry, and who knows why that is. I suppose I was yet again in love with someone in high school whom I couldn’t have, or even tell for that matter. I’ve listened to this song no less than a billion times and could easily listen a billion times more without ever getting bored of it.

Kiss – Rock & Roll All Night
Somehow, I’m always surprised to find that Kiss sings this song – I’m not sure why. I always think of Kiss as singing crazy hard rock that you can’t understand (like Metallica, who I do like, don’t get me wrong). Anyhow, this rock anthem is just that – quintessential in those 70s rock and roll collections you can only get from K-tel on TV.

Aerosmith – Angel
Again, some sort of highschool angst. It reminds me of those painful slow dances in highschool when I would always claim to have to go pee, when really it was the ‘fat girl out’ for not having anyone ‘real’ to dance with. I had guy friends who would dance with me, I wasn’t that pathetic – but this was one of those songs where I’d always wish I had someone “real” to dance with.

Better than Ezra – across the board, every song by them is good. Heard “Desperately Want”
I have just never really listened to Better than Ezra, but realized that I’ve heard a ton of songs by them on this trip and will promptly be going to iTunes to get a collection of there songs added to my pod.

Charletans UK – remember them?
I didn’t write down the title of the song I heard, but they sing this fantasic other song that I loved called “The Only One I Know” which is just an amazing song. I remember buying a CD just for this song, and also selling it back when I was broke at some point when I lived on Capitol Hill. I’ll have to repurchase it…

Adam Ant – Strip
By far my favorite Adam Ant song, I don’t know what it was about this song, but I just loved it then and still do now. It’s on my iPod playlist of “best songs ever” and I’m always thrilled when it pops up in the rotation. I loved the video on this one too – I also remember thinking “he just HAS to be gay – good lord – look at that puffy shirt? And that eyeliner!” It must have been out in early junior high, because I can see it in my mind on our TV in the pre-tornado house.

The Kinks – Lola
This is just a phenomenal song. I don’t know what it is, but it is by far my favorite Kinks song. Amazing – not for the lyrics per se, as it’s about a transsexual from what I can tell – so I guess it must be the melody and energy of it.

Billy Joel - Only the Good Die Young
Wow, this song always makes me sad. My dad being a funeral director would always say this to me when a young person died and I was lost in understanding why. I remember this song being out at some point when someone young died (like my parents age at the time, in their 30s). My young pre-teen brain was thinking that while you couldn’t bring someone back who was dead, you could take some solice in the fact that they must have been an amazing person to die young, since only the good die young. But I still remember thinking it was a rip-off when it happened, even though most of the people my dad buried were strangers to me at that time.