Tell me what the first song that comes to your mind: (By the way – I took this to mean the sentiment expressed in the song itself – not necessarily the way it makes ME feel. Like – the first one – Hate song – the first thing that came to my mind is Everclear’s blistering song about a father who abandoned him. This isn’t MY hate, it’s HIS hate. So that’s kind of where I went with this … if that makes sense. Sometimes the two things overlap – like with “something to talk about” – it’s about being flirty, and having a “crush” – that’s the topic of the song. And it also happens to make ME feel like being an outrageous flirt. Something in the music, or how it’s all put together – puts me in a flirty social mood. So whatever. Onward.)
1. Hate song? “Father of mine” – Everclear
2. Love song? “I saw her standing there” – the Beatles – that’s probably more of a “lust” song, but to be honest, I don’t see the difference. It’s the pheromones, you understand. Converging the two has always worked for me. So “I saw her standing there” stands as my choice.
3. Crush or Flirt song? “Let’s Give ‘Em Something to Talk About” – Bonnie Raitt
4. Fuck song? “Black Hole Sun” – Soundgarden. Also “Crazy On You” by Heart
5. Goofy song? Travis’ awesome cover of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time”
6. Dance song? “Tragedy” – the Bee Gees
7. Rage song? “Kim” – Eminem
8. Slow song? It seems so high schoolish to think of “slow songs”. My mind is a blank. All I can think of is “Purple Rain” because that’s how all of our high school dances ended.
9. Make-up Song? “If you leave” – Good Charlotte
10. Redneck song? Uhm – Toby Keith? Hate that jackass. But not because he’s a ‘redneck’. I just hate him because he’s a big fat phony. But then I also thought of that kind of fun song “I’m a redneck woman” – love it – which has a different fun-loving spin on the word “redneck”
11. Make-out song? “Tempted” – Squeeze
12. Break-up song? “Washing of the Water” – Peter Gabriel – I find that song almost too painful to listen to. Amazing.
13. Happy song? “Fields of Joy” – Lenny Kravitz – also the theme song from The Greatest American Hero which is an amazing song – better than Prozac – it literally has the ability to TOTALLY change my mood. I could be having a blue day, and suddenly I hear it on some nostalgic radio station – and my heart fills with hope and joy.
14. Sad song? “Life Story” from the musical Closer than Ever. Kills me. Also “Your Face” by Cliff Eberhardt. There was a good 5 years when i was unable to listen to that song. Which was a bummer because I loved that album.
15. Corny song? “I’ve never been to me” – Charlene. Yup. This really dates me. I have no idea why this song became such a huge hit. It was played endlessly. The lyrics are so cringe-worthy that you are embarrassed for everyone involved.
Hey lady, you lady, cursing at your life
You’re a discontented mother and a regimented wife
I’ve no doubt you dream about the things you’ll never do
But, I wish someone had talked to me
Like I wanna talk to you…..
Oh, I’ve been to Georgia and California and anywhere I could run
I took the hand of a preacher man and we made love in the sun
But I ran out of places and friendly faces because I had to be free
I’ve been to paradise but I’ve never been to me
Please lady, please lady, don’t just walk away
‘Cause I have this need to tell you why I’m all alone today
I can see so much of me still living in your eyes
Won’t you share a part of a weary heart that has lived million lies….
Oh, I’ve been to Niece and the Isle of Greece while I’ve sipped champagne on a yacht
I’ve moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo and showed ’em what I’ve got
I’ve been undressed by kings and I’ve seen some things that a woman ain’t supposed to see
I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me
[spoken]
Hey, you know what paradise is?
It’s a lie, a fantasy we create about people and places as we’d like them to be
But you know what truth is?
It’s that little baby you’re holding, it’s that man you fought with this morning
The same one you’re going to make love with tonight
That’s truth, that’s love……
Sometimes I’ve been to crying for unborn children that might have made me complete
But I took the sweet life, I never knew I’d be bitter from the sweet
I’ve spent my life exploring the subtle whoring that costs too much to be free
Hey lady……
I’ve been to paradise, (I’ve been to paradise)
But I’ve never been to me
I just have no words. The thing fisks itself. “subtle whoring”? WHAT? Nice justification there, babe. Oh, so if it’s “subtle” it’s not really “whoring”? And what IS ‘subtle whoring”? I am embarrassed to still be asking these questions but I’ve been wondering about it ever since the song first came out.
The spoken-word section makes me want to punch a wall.
16. Christmas song? “Christmas Is a Time to Say I love You” – Billy Squier – I love to have any excuse to reference this song on my blog.
17. Perverted or Horny song? “Hungry like the wolf” – duran duran – the woman moaning in the background at the end always made me feel very uncomfortable in high school when it came on while my mother was driving me to play practice or whatever
18. Boring song? Any time Van Morrison starts “riffing”. Which is in every song. The only Van Morrison song I like is when they do “Raglan Road” with The Chieftains. Other than that? Every 25 goddamn minute song could easily be a 3 minute song, and be FAR better. Stop “expressing yourself”, please.
19. Favorite song? Oh Lord. At the moment? Or eternally? At the moment: “Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. Also “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin. “Holiday” by Green Day as well. Eternally? I’d have to say “Fields of Joy”, by Lenny Kravitz – “Rape Me”, by Nirvana, “Monkey Wrench” by Foo Fighters, “Say Yeah” by Pat McCurdy – I am sure there are a gazillion more, but these just come to mind.
20. Funeral song? Uhm … “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” – I have no idea.
Please feel free to leave your own choices in the comments section!
Don’t be dissin’ Van, lass. He’s my hero he is.
Weird. “Purple Rain” came on iTunes just as I read that line in your post. Spoooooooooky!
Your discomfort during “Hungry Like the Wolf” echoes mine whenever “I Want Your Sex” came on in the car. After an embarrassing incident with my father, I vowed to never again sit through that song with the parents. One day, I was sitting in the backseat when I heard the opening “chicky chicky doink doink” so I rolled up my BOP or Teen Beat magazine and leaned foward between the bucket seats and poked one of the preset buttons on the radio. I didn’t care if it switched over to Lite-FM, 1010 Wins or any other station I usually deemed boring. I just did not want to hear that song with my mother in the car. Of course, I had the Faith album at home and I listened to that song all the time but no way did I want to share that song with my Mom. Awkward!
curly – so embarrassing!!!
“Your discomfort during “Hungry Like the Wolf” echoes mine whenever “I Want Your Sex” came on in the car. ”
Ditto “Feel Like Making Love” by Bad Company when I was a kid (which dates me, I guess). Little as I liked BC, the riff was a fun one, one of the great air guitar songs of all time – but oy, with the parents around…
mitch – hahahaha I love that we all have these songs that made us a little bit embarrassed with the parents around – it’s so funny!
“Oh, I’ve been to Nice and the Isle of Greece and I’ve drinked champagne on a yacht. . . . ” Love it – this is so cringe-worthy. I sort of get seasick whenever that song plays. Here’s a couple of other cringe-worthy ones that come to mind:
Paul Anka:
“You’re having my baby,
What a lovely way to tell me that you love me,
You’re having my baby,
What a lovely way to say you’re thinking of me.”
And later in the song –
“You could’ve washed it from your life but you didn’t do it, no you didn’t do it . . .”
Just ick. Thas’ all. Just ick.
Love this chorus from Chic’s “Good Times”:
“A rumor has it that
It’s getting late
Time marches on
Just can’t wait
The clock keeps turning
Why hesitate
You silly fool
You can’t change your fate
Let’s cut a rug
A little jive and jitterbug
We want the best
We won’t set-tul for less
Don’t be a drag
Participate
Clams on the half shell
And roller-skates (roller-skates)”
Love it, love it, love it.
And this Neil Diamond song used to make me incredibly uncomfortable:
It was the third of june
On that summers day
Well I became a man
At the hands of a girl
Almost twice my age
And she came to me
Just like a morning sun
And it wasnt so much
Her words as such
As the way they were sung
It was the way they were sung
Desiree
Oh, desiree
There I was found
By the sweet passion sound
Of your loving song
Time was right, the night was long
Remember, desiree
Oh, desiree
Somehow I knew
I could only have you
til the morning light
If only for that single night
Sweet desiree, you make it right
I used to try to figure out the math – hmmm, a girl almost twice his age – let’s see now, to still call her a girl she had to be 25, 26 tops, so that means the boy was 12 or 13 – ummmm, huh?!
Very upsetting, probably because I was in my late teens and still a, ahem, virgin.
I think I was about 8-years-old and I was in a bit of a Cheap Trick phase (courtesy of my older sisters and cousins). I had no idea what half the songs meant so you can imagine my confusion when my mother yelled at me for singing “She’s Tight” really loud in the car. At first, I thought she didn’t appreciate my singing voice. Turns out my mother wasn’t nearly as clueless as I used to think.
Stevie – I love that you would try to figure out the math. Of course!!!
“Afternoon Delight” was the song I couldn’t listen to in front of my mother. The thought of some hairy “Joy of Sex” couple “working up an appetite” for some afternoon delight just sceeved me out. Still does, quite frankly.
And David N., I too love Van. “Tupelo Honey” makes me feel like my heart is going to burst into 8,000 pieces. I luuuuuuuuuuv him.
//The thought of some hairy “Joy of Sex” couple “working up an appetite” for some afternoon delight just sceeved me out. //
ewwwww, me too!!
#10 – Freebird !! There really is no other answer. Well, maybe Achy Breaky Heart.
Oh, Just1Beth mentioned Tupelo Honey. Now, I have the hots for her. Sorry, Sheila, but around my home, Van Morrison can “riff” to his, and my, hearts’ content. As I know your affection for discord, I will let it go at that. BTW, a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
As far as songs one doesn’t want to listen to with parents, try Led Zeppelin’s The Lemon Song: “Squeeze my lemon, till the juice runs down my leg.” That always went over well with my Mom.
Make-out Song: The entire Roxy Music Avalon album always worked for me.
Break-up Song: River by Joni Mitchell.
Dance Song: Most anything by Rufus and Chaka Khan–especially Live.
Redneck Song: Rednecks by Randy Newman–off the Good ol’ Boys album. A classic.
Christmas Song: The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole.
Boring Song: Rather than start a fight, I will leave this blank.
Happy Song: Change My Mind by the great Roy Buchanan.
Sad Song: Oliver Messiaen-Quartet for the End of Time. Written and first performed while he was in a German Prison Camp. There is an exquisite beauty and sadness in this piece. The music, and the story of how it came to be written, is otherworldly.
Muchas Gracias for the link! My traffic had dried up to a trickle with the holidays and my out-of-town lack of posting!
Best wishes for 2006, Red!
I am fully aware that I am in the minority with the Van Morrison thing. I feel similarly about The Doors. I kind of can’t abide The Doors either. But I’ll just shut up now, because I know how much V.M. is loved. For me, it’s like talking to a fan of Henry James. It’s baffling! I want to say: “why?? What do you SEE in him?” I am so sorry, everyone! I just can’t like his stuff except for the album with the Chieftains where he TONES DOWN THE RIFFS. His version of “Raglan Road” is my favorite version – I have a bunch of different singers singing that song in my collection – and the Van Morrison one is the best.
Happy new year!
Oh and I must just say YES to the whole Roxy Music catalog comment, DBW!!
DBW – come on, tell me your boring song! I think our relationship can handle it. :)
Gawd, I HATE the Doors. I want to build a time machine just so I can go back to the point in history when whatever person it was that decided that twelve minute organ solos were a good idea and KILL THEM.
I’ve almost managed to block the Doors from my mind. The worst band ever.
Oh, and “I’ve Never Been To Me?” I’m cursed with not only the knowledge that it was a cover – the original was from 1978, by Mary McCormick, a follow-up to the bilious and almost-as-bad “Torn Between Two Lovers”. I had to play both all the time at my first radio job. The Charlene version came out and topped the country charts when I was at my first Country-Western station in 1982 – and then crossed over to pop just in time for my next pop radio gig, later that year.
It follows me, I tell ya.
Mitch – “I’ve never been to me” was a cover??? WHAT? God, it just gets worse and worse.
Oh and yeah – 20 minute organ solos just piss me OFF!!! HORRIBLE band.
That, and I’m SICK of people canonizing a drunken idiot like Jim Morrison. Every time someone describes his incoherent babble as “poetry” I want to rip their face off. He was nothing more than the Courtney Love of his era. A drugged up mess who thought making an ass of himself in front of thousands made him a cool, cutting edge artist. Hell, I can do that without subjecting everyone to terrible music.
I remembered Roger Ebert’s review of it – in reading your last comment Emily – and I went and found it – because the last sentence seems to sum it all up very nicely:
hahaha Totally. He was a loser.
GREAT quote. It’s lines like that one that make me really love Ebert sometimes.
And Morrison’s grave – what a bunch of asses to show that kind of disrespect, especially to OTHER graves. What ever happen to the beautiful, appreciative subtlety of Rudolph Valentino’s lady in black?
Yeah, really. I don’t seem to recall that the lady in black spray-painted “VALENTINO FUCKING RULES” on nearby tombstones.
Number 17 DBW I to remember listening to the Lemon Song and being uncomfortable when my mom was around. Unfortunately I now know what it’s like listening to ‘naughty’ songs with young kids. I was driving my 9 year old niece to her aunt’s home on Christmas last week and Panama – Van Halen came on the radio. When Diamond Dave started in on ‘reach down, between my legs’ I started to blush and quickly changed the channel. It was like listening to porn with a 9 year old. Don’t care to repeat that experience, it was very weird indeed.
My school dances always ended with Madonna’s “Crazy for You,” which was also the song everyone and their sister dedicated to boys who didn’t know they existed over the radio.
My favorite redneck song is, “Friends in Low Places.” My friend wanted to play it at her wedding when we, the bridal party, made our entrance, but her husband wasn’t having it.
I was stationed at Ft Belvoir just south of DC when “Afternoon Delight” came out. The story at the time was that “Afteroon Delight” was the name of a afternoon special at one of the local University cafeterias. :)
and for you non-Doors fans.
“People are strange when you’re a stranger”
“Faces look ugly when you’re alone”
“Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted”
“Streets are uneven when you’re down”
This meme has some real possibility. I can just see it now…”Songs to hate by…” “Songs that sceeved you out…” Sorry Sheila, but Van rocks my gypsy soul.
I love Van even though he looks like a cross between Van Gogh and a little red headed elf. But he can write some lyrics,man! PS Douglas- “Into the Mystic” is great, too!!
Song Association Meme
An appropriate meme at the moment, because I’ve been spending every free minute dicking around with iTunes. Tell me the first song that comes to your mind: I’m using a different method from Sheila in answering these…for these are how
Song Association Meme
An appropriate meme at the moment, because I’ve been spending every free minute dicking around with iTunes. Tell me the first song that comes to your mind: I’m using a different method from Sheila in answering these…for these are how
Song Association Meme
An appropriate meme at the moment, because I’ve been spending every free minute dicking around with iTunes. Tell me the first song that comes to your mind: I’m using a different method from Sheila in answering these…for these are how