1 New Book, 8 Is Not Enough, and 10 More Songs! (part 5 of 10)

So, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter you might know that I have a new book that came out Tuesday. If you aren’t sick of saying so, then perhaps I am not doing my job guerrilla marketing enough. So I may as well add a blog post about the book before I get to the 5th group of 10 songs in my top 100 list.

The Book: WWE 100 Greatest Matches. I got to be part of some amazing books during my seven years working at WWE. (Hell, I got to be part of a few amazing wrestling books before my time at WWE. The three books I did at Sports Publishing LLC probably helped me get the WWE gig in the first place.) While I did write one book while working at corporate (10 Count Trivia) and contributed to several others, this is the first book I wrote solo. We solicited authors, wwe.com contributors, Superstars, and more to get a vast range of opinions of the greatest matches in WWE history. I built the list of 100 using these lists as a guide. For each match, I then rewatched them a few times, and wrote about the leadup to the match, the match action, and then the aftermath. Each match is a two-page spread accompanied by several awesome photographs from the WWE library. I also was super lucky, because Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, who’s match with Macho Man Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania III was a no-brainer addition to the list, wrote the introduction, giving the book’s authoring team some much needed star power.

Are you already interested? The book should be at your local Barnes & Noble in the sports section, or you can order it from Amazon Here!

The reviews: Still not convinced that this should top your summer reading list? How about some awesome reviews that really stoked my ego at a time that my self-esteem could use the boost. Here’s one and here’s another! The real kicker is that WWE even made a video promo for the book. If you ask me honestly, the WWE Encyclopedia is still the project I am most proud of working on, but this is pretty darn close.

The real heroes: Other than my involvement, what is the primary similarity between my new book and the Encyclopedia? The editors, designers, production team of DK/Brady/Prima. I’ve worked in the publishing industry for decades, so I already knew of the magic Rube Goldberg  machine that took text to finished product, but it’s even more stunning when it’s my crappy words that get turned into a spectacular visual product.

I am sure I won’t continue to bring up this book–hopefully, I will soon have another project to announce and I can move on. Worst case scenario, it’s only 3 to 300 more blogs tied to the book. But let’s make this one a best seller in the meantime by buying this book for dads, moms, brothers, sisters, your letter carrier, Seth Green, Bill Simmons, that lady who lives down the street–it’s the perfect gift for anyone.

Back to my music list and the reason for the music list in the first place–listening while exercising. My previous blog, Renewing My Fitbit Vows (part 4 of 10), mentioned that I was back to hitting my 11,000 step, 5.5 mile goal–with 5 straight days. I am now on an 8-day streak, although upping it to 9 will be a challenge, as we are driving to North Carolina tomorrow for a First Communion weekend.

• Falling in Love (Uh-Oh)–Miami Sound Machine
• No Myth–Michael Penn
• Heroes–David Bowie
• Hip Hop Is Dead–Nas (featuring Will.I.Am)
• Rapper’s Delight–Sugarhill Gang
• And She Was–Talking Heads
• Let’s Go Crazy–Prince
• I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)–Hercules Soundtrack
• Crazy For You–Madonna
• Us and Them–Pink Floyd

I always thought a “Guilty Pleasure” album featuring acclaimed music acts doing covers of  songs you wouldn’t expect them to perform would be a great concept album. If I was such an artist,  I have no doubt that Miami Sound’s Machine’s “Falling in Love (Uh-Oh)” would be my contribution to the project. I’ve always had a soft spot for soft rock. I love Air Supply for example, but I did not put any of their songs on my 100. There is another song that represents this side of my personality to come, but there is no guiltier pleasure than this Gloria Estefan number. The other candidate from this batch is the romantic song from the animated movie Hercules. This song was already on my list, but then my daughter made me love it even more by using it for a college film project.

For a long time, Michael Penn was the ultimate one-hit wonder as I absolutely adored “No Myth” from the first time I heard it. “What if I was Romeo in black jeans?” is a question I can hear sung any time and it makes me smile. The driving chords from the acoustic guitar are also so distinctive. But I had not heard another song from Penn, the brother of actors Sean and Chris Penn, since (by the way, that seems like a brutally talented trio of siblings–what are my kids going to do to match that? No pressure!) But 12 years later, Penn performed a duet with the incredible Aimee Mann (his wife and the former lead singer of ‘Til Tuesday) of the Beatles song “Two of Us” for the I Am Sam soundtrack. (I cannot recommend the movie at all, but the soundtrack is definately worth owning.) That’s a song  that just missed this list.

The two music giants that we lost this year are represented on this group of ten. I had already talked in some detail about Prince in the blog entry Royal Discography but David Bowie was another crushing loss in 2016. Like Prince, I do not ever remember a time in my life when Bowie wasn’t cool. He was making his “comeback” so to speak in 1983 when I first started really paying attention to music.  His three hits from the Let’s Dance album were mainstays on American Top 40 that year, and they are such incredible songs to sing along with anytime they play on the radio. Loving those songs inspired me to work backwards on his catalog, and I was so delighted to discover his earlier work. Again, any number of songs could make a favorites list, but “Heroes” is theone that makes the cut for me.

I am glad that the premise of the Nas song that makes my list, “Hip Hop is Dead,” is decidedly not true. Not only is this a song that I love hearing any time it comes up, but often I have to tilt the randomness of my ipod by specifically selecting the song to play. The sampling of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is inspired and the wordplay on the song about the commercialization of the genre is fantastic. I can’t say I am a hip-hop/rap expert, but I have loved having it in my life back to the days of “Rapper’s Delight.” I remember being obsessed with that song in 1980. I was in fifth grade and I would constantly rap the lyrics anywhere and everywhere. I have a lasting memory of (I thought) quietly doing them at my school desk and the girl sitting in front of me turning around and hissing the request that I please shut up.

My favorite band for years was the Talking Heads. They were my first real break from Top 40 music, even if “Burning Down the House” was a top ten hit. Seeing the concert movie Stop Making Sense as well as listening to “And She Was” and the rest of the Little Creatures album did it for me. Not seeing them in concert was one of my great musical regrets. I am not proud to finally admit that the only reason I started to listening to them in the first place was to impress a woman. I was a bus boy in high school and Danielle, two years older than me, was a big fan of the band. I wanted to impress her, so I started listening to their music to have something to discuss. While my initial reasons were not pure, I loved what I heard and they remain a favorite of mine. In fact, another song will be coming as well as a song featuring David Byrne.

The first of two Madonna songs to make my list was the absolute greatest slow dance songs from my high school years. We used to have dances in our church basement, and my friend Aaron and I would DJ them (this is not to say we were DJs in the way people DJ now–we just played one song after another and would come up with idiotic prizes for dance contests–thank god cameras were not so ubiquitous back then–I would not liked to have seen my moves preserved on  YouTube for the rest of my life. But “Crazy for You” was an excellent tune to slow dance to if you could convince a girl to do so. Looking back, it is amazing I ever got anyone to do so. I was a dork back then, not the dashing and suave hero I am now.

Finally, my love of pop music, American Top 40 (or more specifically Billboard  magazine charts), numbers, and records intersected with the amazing fact that Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd spent more than a decade on the Top 200 album charts. Don’t get me wrong–like all white American middle schoolers, I eventually got into Pink Floyd and love that album, as well as the song “Us and Them” in particular. But that is just an amazing number–more than 700 weeks and 15 years on the chart. I’d settle for 700 readers or 15 straight Fitbit goal days in a row.

Renewing My Fitbit Vows (part 4 of 10)

OK, fact #1–I am overweight and badly need to lose many, many pounds. Fact #2–I love numbers. This combination of facts led me to purchasing a Fitbit a little more than a year ago. Before I did, I thought the concept of “wearable tech” was a stupid fad. However, my record of exercising has been spotty at best, and the idea of hitting a number on a daily basis appealed to me. Over the next twelve months, my Fitbit has pushed me to hit daily goals on a fairly regular basis. I even upped my thresholds from 10,000 steps to 11,000 steps and 5.0 miles to 5.5 miles daily. I was regularly hitting my exercise goals 5 to 6 times a week and even had 25+ day streaks on three occasions. My cardiac procedure in early April set me back a bit with the hospital time and the recovery, but I think I’m back in business, as yesterday was the fifth consecutive day I hit both step and mile goals.

I know the Fitbit and other wearable tech is not for everyone, but if you’re on the fence, I highly recommend it. There’s nothing more motivating to me than sitting on the couch at night, ready to veg in front of the TV, but looking at your step counter and seeing you’ve done fewer than 5,000 steps is a real call to action. Particularly if you add friends and family to your Friend list. It’s the reason I’d suggest Fitbit over the other wearable tech options–it has the biggest base of current members, so you can add people and then compete against them to see who can get the most steps in a day, work week, or weekend. So when I am nowhere near my goal, it pushes me because I want to do better than others and I am sure they are looking at my lack of activity and judging (which logically, I am sure no one is doing–but leave me to my self-centered paranoia, OK?)

Now the Fitbit isn’t perfect–for example, if the arm that the device is located on is locked, the steps don’t count. So if you are pushing a grocery cart around a store, it will not give you credit for your steps. You have to be moving arms and legs to increase the counter. So in my cart example, there are two workarounds. Push the cart with one hand while continuing to swing the other arm–don’t worry,  it doesn’t make you look like an idiot to all the other shoppers (actually, it does). It also makes steering the cart a bit of an adventure. That’s why the second solution, put the tracker in your pocket, a better workaround. This also works in other armlock situations, like riding a stationary bike or walking on a treadmill (if you plan on holding the heart sensors for any length of time). Speaking of heart sensors, my Fitbit model does not include a heart monitor in it–that was the next model up. However, I heard from a cardiologist that he does not recommend getting an exercise tracker with heart monitor–he thinks people obsess too much about the pulse numbers. He did like the idea of an exercise tracker–so if you want to get onto the wearable tech craze–save yourself some money and get a model without heart rate checking. And let me know if you do–we can be Fitbit friends!

On to part 4 of my 100 favorite songs list. There are links to parts 1-3 at the end, but now that I’m walking more again, let’s look at the next 10 songs that come up when I listen to my top 100 playlist:

• Welcome to the Terrordome–Public Enemy
• Around the Dial–The Kinks
• Eminence Front–The Who
• Scar Tissue–Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Set Adrift on Memory Bliss–P.M. Dawn
• Floating Vibes–Surfer Blood
• You Can Call Me Al–Paul Simon
• Invisible Sun–The Police
• Your Love–The Outfield
• New Year’s Day–U2

I will admit being late to appreciated the genius that is Public Enemy. I first heard them as part of the Do the Right Thing soundtrack. It was already a powerful film, but I got to see an advanced screening of it introduced by Spike Lee while I was at MIT. Of course, I was disappointed at how the Larry Bird Celtic jersey was used in the film, but the movie blew me away. A big part of that was “Fight the Power.” One can argue that with songs like it and “911 Is a Joke,” Public Enemy was the most effective act to fix popular music and politics since the protest singers of the late 60’s. However, the Public Enemy song I enjoy the most was a different release from Fear of a Black Planet–“Welcome to the Terrordome.” All of their songs have such raw power and anger behind the lyrics, and this one is no different. I know that Flavor Flav has become a punchline in recent years, but his work on “Welcome to the Terrordome specifically and all of Public Enemy’s work in total is amazing.

As I said when I first started talking about my 100 list, I refused to place artificial constraints like one song per artist on the list, and a few artists have more than one song from the same album. One such album is Give The People What They Want by the Kinks. I remember my older sister listening to the cassette tape of the album all the time when she got a boom box for Christmas along with it, Working Class Dog, Escape, and Candy-O. I enjoyed all four albums, but the Kinks release was the best. A second song from the album cracks my top 10, but “Around the Dial” has always been a favorite, right from its radio-tuning opening. I’d argue that the message of the song–the corporatizing of radio stations–is more apt today in the Clear Channel era than it was at time of its release, although to make it more timely, we’d have to change the lyric “FM, AM, where are you?” to “FM, XM, where are you?” as you only find political, religious, and sports zealots on AM these days.

After two Who songs in the previous group of 10, they are right back with a third entry on my list. There were almost two versions of this song on the list, as a member of Sons of Sam Horn shared with us a mashup of “Eminence Front” and “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like That)” by Digable Planets. He called it “Cool Front” and it’s an amazing combination of two distinctly different tunes. I would recommend it, but I know it’s unavailable and I shouldn’t share it for copyright reasons. The Red Hot Chili Peppers then make their first, and only, appearance on the list with “Scar Tissue,” which like many songs by the Peppers effectively mixes rock and mourning.

Remember cass-singles? When I was carless in graduate school, I rode with a friend from Bloomington, Indiana to Tampa, Florida for holiday break. Three of those cass-singles dominated our listening time during the trip–“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, “O.P.P.” by Naughty by Nature, and “Set Adrift in Memory Bliss” by P.M. Dawn. The new age-i-ness of the song always drew me in, although the song was almost permanently ruined by the parody of it done in Fear of a Black Hat. By the way, if you haven’t seen the film, I cannot recommend it enough–it’s a rap version of This Is Spinal Tap, but it really nails the different song styles, the gangster culture, and more. The soundtrack is top notch and the parody/homage to the NWA Detroit situation portrayed in Straight Outta Compton is dead on. It’s a hard movie to find, but worth the effort.

I mentioned Sons of Sam Horn earlier, and for those that don’t know, it is a online community devoted to fans of the Boston Red Sox. However, the site is not limited to baseball talk or even just sports. The site has many members knowledgeable about a number of different topics, and thanks to some, I have received some great new music recommendations. It was on the site that I learned about an indie band named Surfer Blood. Looking at the name, I would have assumed they were some sort of heavy metal group, but their sound is more pop, more surf music than blood music. I’ve become a big fan, owning all three of their albums as well as their EP. I can listen to their music at any time, but “Floating Vibes” from their first album is still my favorite.

The list has multiple Simon & Garfunkel songs, but it also has a solo song from Paul Simon. Almost anything from Graceland could have made the list, but I chose the hit, “You Can Call Me Al” (with “Boy in the Bubble” being a close runner-up). Another 80’s group that could have had numerous songs on the list, but just got one, was the Police. I love their hits, but I seem to gravitate toward their odd, darker songs like “Invisible Sun” and “King of Pain.” I’d probably put “Synchronicity II” in that category as well. But the dystopian world presented in “Invisible Sun” takes it to the top for me.

The last two songs in this batch are also 80’s entries, and from opposite bands for a number of reasons. Most guys I know that went to high school in the 80’s loved the Outfield’s album Play Deep and their hit song “Your Love.” Unfortunately for the band, most guys I know did not buy any of their subsequent albums. However, their big hit has had a bit of a resurgence recently, as the Patriots play it in their stadium and the song was part of the soundtrack for Rock Band 4. That game also is the first game of its type to have U2 songs in it. Unfortunately, you can’t play “New Year’s Day” yet, but “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from the same album is available. This is the only U2 song on the top 100, a surprisingly small number, but when you’re this limited, you have to make some tough choices. Sorry “Grace”!

If you want to read any of the earlier parts of this series, the links are below:

In Some Particular Order (part 1 of 10)

Mission Entirely Possible (part 2 of 10)

Self Tributes, and the Reason for the Star Wars Season (part 3 of 10)

Captain America 3 or Avengers 3–the real Civil War

I am beginning to think that any day a Marvel Cinematic Universe film is released should be considered a national holiday. (To be fair, any Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, or Fast & Furious films should be a half day as well.) The weekend of the release is enough to get me to take a break from my Top 100 playlist countdown to talk about the film as well as the Marvel canon in a bit more detail. It still blows my mind how successful comic-book movies have become in the past twenty years. But Marvel continues to make smart film choices–we just need DC to get their crap together and then we could have three great movie universes. (I can’t imagine Fox will ever give back the X-Men properties to Marvel, but that’s OK–they have enough great characters there to make their own ongoing series of films.

There’s a lot of talk these days about Marvel vs. DC because of the recent release of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the natural comparison between it and Captain America: Civil War. However, I’d like to make a different Captain America/DC comparison before getting into a discussion of the new film. In the summer of 2011, both comic-book companies were getting ready to release films featuring square-jawed heroes–Steve Rogers aka Captain America in Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger and Hal Jordan, the fearless test pilot turned intergalactic peace officer Green Lantern. Among us nerds, there was great concern about the casting choices in both films. In the comics, both Rogers and Jordan were earnest, serious heroes that other heroes in their respective universes could look up to as a role model and leader. Yet both films hired actors known for playing smarmy douchebags–Chris Evans for Not Another Teen Movie and the first two Fantastic Four films and Ryan Reynolds for pretty much his entire film catalog. Well, Reynolds made the choice to play the choice to play Jordan as a cocky smartass as opposed to the serious and fearless test pilot the comics always presented. Evans played Rogers exactly like you’d expect a cinematic representation of the Captain to be–earnest, patriotic, a little square, but always looking to do the right thing and stick up for the little guy. Green Lantern was savaged by critics and audiences alike, while Captain America: The First Avenger accomplished all its goals–introducing the character to the film-going world, helped to build and connect the Marvel world to an eventual payoff in the Marvel’s The Avengers, and make a little money in the process ($176 million U.S., and $370 globally–numbers that seem small today by Marvel’s standards, but were damn good back then). Evans has been a crucial part of the five Marvel movies he’s made since then–his character being the heart, soul, and conscience of the Avengers. No one has mentioned Green Lantern as a live-action character since.

I don’t want you to think I am placing all the criticism of Green Lantern’s failure at the feet of Ryan Reynolds. I hadn’t seen the film in years until I caught a little bit of it on cable last week. The story and writing are weak, and many other of the casting choices were uninspired as well. The CGI took you out of the story as opposed to enhancing the visuals. The bottom line is that I don’t believe many of the creative forces behind the movie fundamentally understood the source material. Earlier this year, we learned that there was a place for a sarcastic prick Reynolds character in the comic-book world. Deadpool was fantastic and Reynolds was a huge reason why the film worked. This again points to understanding the source material–Reynolds is a huge fan of the Deadpool character and had been trying for years to make the film.

Back to Captain America: Civil War. You will probably not be surprised to learn that I loved the film. I know I am far more forgiving of nerd culture films than others–I am, at my heart, a fanboy. The first question any film like this needs to answer–Is it fun? That box is checked off easily. One of the impressive feats of the trilogy of Captain America films is that each one gets significantly better (and, while not always the case in Hollywood, each one will do significantly better in the box office). It’s a little unfair in this case because many feel like this is more of an Avengers movie than a Captain America film. It’s true that this film is stocked with heroes, but the story is still focused primarily on Captain America and his relationships with Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). There is a lot to like about this film:

• Great new characters: The film does feel like an Avengers film with all the heroes in it, but two of the core Avengers–Thor and Hulk–are not present in the film. That’s OK, as in exchange we are introduced to a pair of new characters. The first is the latest take on Spider-Man, portrayed by Tom Holland. He’s a younger version of the character than the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield big-screen versions we’ve seen, but they handle Peter Parker’s roots and fighting style well. In some ways his introduction here is a way to reboot the character before his next solo film, but he was also an nice injection of light entertainment into a serious film. The other new edition, Black Panther, contributed more on the serious side. He has not been in previous films, but he does have a solo outing coming in 2018, and after this film, I am excited to see where they take him.
• A well-balanced script: I have made my feelings about Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice clear–it’s a slog of a film that takes itself so seriously, resulting in a joyless ponderous journey. Just like that film, Civil War has heroes battling each other as opposed to a villain, but it also has humorous moments as well. Spider-Man is not the only comic relief character, and a film featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man would not be complete without his quips and cutting nicknames, but the film also manages to organically add lighter moments between the more somber characters, particularly Steve’s two closest friends Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
• A great battle scene: A necessity in any blockbuster film is a great action sequence, and Civil War delivers several. There’s a great opener, a fun chase, and a intense personal hand-to-hand battle, but the fight between the two groups of former teammates really delivers. There’s even an exciting surprise and a shocking moment that is something I will want to see again both in theaters and home.
• Interesting philosophical questions: Most blockbuster film are all about memorable destructive scenes. We even saw a meta commentary about that in a trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence, which had Jeff Goldblum’s character mention “they like to go for the landmarks” after aliens  destroy a major target. (If you remember the original, one of the most iconic images from the film was the destruction of the White House.) You are supposed to enjoy these big battles and then move on. However, Marvel doesn’t do that in their films. Past releases have seen major damage done to New York, Washington, D.C., and made-up foreign countries, and Avengers: Age of Ultron and this one both ask its heroes to consider the cost of property and more importantly, human lives that these battles rack up. It is the driver of the plot in this film in particular. That also leads to another strength of this film, or at least a strength to come. Like an ongoing comic book series, there will be ramifications to what happened here. How these characters interact going forward will be fascinating to watch. Things will not just go back to normal.

The film was not perfect, so I had a few nitpicks, although I probably seem stupid for bringing one of them up.

• The location font: This is a global film, so they have to tell us every time the action shifts somewhere new. This is true for most films, which usually label the new place with a small phrase in the bottom left or right corner. Not this film. The location is displayed in huge letters across the screen. That’s offputting enough, but there was something annoying about the font as well. It looked like it belonged in an ad for United Colors on Benetton more than a major film. Each time one of these location reminders popped up, it took me out of the film.
• Marvel’s ongoing villain problem: Obviously the studio had a workaround for this issue by having the heroes battle each other for the conflict. But there still was an antagonist in this film and he carries on the major Marvel tradition of being one of the weakest links in the films. Don’t get me wrong–I appreciate the attempt to give him some nuance to his motivations, but the Marvel Universe films still need to build some worthy adversaries for their incredible heroes. Some people point to the fact that these films cannot use some of Marvel’s biggest villains because they are tied to the Fantastic Four (Dr. Doom and Galactus in particular), the X-Men (Magneto and Apocalypse), or even Spider-Man until now (put a bunch of his rogues together to create a Sinister Six). But that seems like a rationalization. There are some good villains from the Avenger, Iron Man, Thor, and Cap universes–there just needs to be more attention paid to their development. They’ve done it with Loki, so they can do it with others.

So overall, I’d give this movie a thumbs up, or 3 1/2 stars out of four, or some other highly positive review on a nonsense scale. It is my third-favorite Marvel movie to date (counting only Marvel Cinematic Universe films–Spider-Man, X-Men, and Wolverine movies are not on the list, and the less I say about the Fantastic Four films, the better). If you actually care about how I would rank this particular batch of films, I have enclosed a blog-ending list of my favorites top to bottom.

1. The Avengers
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. Iron Man
6. Iron Man 3
7. Ant-Man
8. Thor
9. Captain America: The First Avenger
10. Avengers: Age of Ultron
11. The Incredible Hulk
12. Thor: The Dark World
13. Iron Man 2

Self Tributes, and the Reason for the Star Wars Season

 

Happy May the 4th! I do hate how commercialized this holiday has become. With all this starkiller base and pod-racer shopping, as well as Alderan key parties, people forget the true meaning of Star Wars Day–how many midi-chlorians you have in your bloodstream. Also, remember today is more than just Earth Day–remember that the Bluths also set it as Cinco de Quatro.

In honor of such a momentous day on so many levels, it’s time for the third set of songs from my top 100 list. If you missed the first two, well I’m making a sad frowny face in your direction, but I will help you overcome such an oversight with the help of the two links below to parts 1 and 2.

In Some Particular Order (part 1 of 10)

Mission Entirely Possible (part 2 of 10)

• Mercy–TV on the Radio
• Ruby Tuesday–The Rolling Stones
• Smoking Gun–Robert Cray
• Love, Reign O’er Me–The Who
• Another Tricky Day–The Who
• Mandinka–Sinead O’Connor
• Days/This Time Tomorrow–Ray Davies
• Man on the Moon–R.E.M.
• Amie–Pure Prairie League
• Silent Lucidity–Queensryche

The 2013 song “Mercy” by TV on the Radio is far and away the most recent song to make my list. It’s not even from an album–it’s a single they released that did not hit any charts. The song starts off great and intense, but it kicks it up a notch or twelve as the song goes on–the beat is relentless. I am not a big concert goer these days, but I think I’d go see TV on the Radio just to see this song performed live.

The British Invasion’s Fab 4 bands (the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and the Kinks) are a prominent part of this group of 10, with every group but the Beatles showing up in this list of 10. Of the four, the Rolling Stones is probably the group I listen to the least, but “Ruby Tuesday” is my favorite song of theirs (although I would probably have another three to five Stones songs if the list expanded to 500 or so–I just would be adding many more Beatles, Who, and Kinks songs).

When I first started listening to music, I was more about singles than albums. If I would listen to an album, it was often because three or more “hits” from the record had received radio airplay. The first album for me that was different was Strong Persuader. Sure, the song “Smoking Gun” first attracted me to the album, but it was the first album I remember liking from beginning to end. I think the fact that it was this blues sound I was not hearing in most pop songs that day. I loved listening to that cassette tape over and over, and would even say it was my first “Desert Island Disc.” It even resulted in me buying Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark on its release date. I will admit that I did not enjoy that album as much as Strong Persuader, but I still love Robert Cray, with his cover of “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” being my favorite number from the Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll soundtrack.

Back to the standard bearers of the first wave of the British Invasion. I love the Beatles in total the most, but I think there’d be more Who songs on my favorites list in total. I know that I’ve said this repeatedly, but a longer list would be dominated by even more Who songs. A top 200 list would have 2 songs from Quadrophenia for example, but only 1, “Love Reign O’er Me”, made the top 100. (The other song that almost made the list was “5:15”.) I think most people would list Tommy as their favorite Who rock opera, but I am more of a Quadrophenia man myself. When doing some followup research for this blog posting, I was surprised that “Another Tricky Day” was never a chart hit. In my opinion, it is a much stronger single from Face Dances than “You Better, You Bet.”

Speaking of songs that weren’t hits, I was exposed to “Mandinka” through college radio airplay. I was the cliche kid who learned more about alternative music once I went to college. My freshman year in college saw the music acts 10,000 Maniacs, R.E.M., and Sinead O’Connor added to my musical rotation. After The Lion and The Cobra came out, I would have expected Sinead to be a much bigger artists, but her only big hit was the Prince-penned “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

My Kinks entry in this batch is more of a Kinks-related entry. Ray Davies released an album in 2011 in which he re-imagined Kinks songs by performing them with other artists. The album has an eclectic batch of contributors, including Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Lucinda Williams, Black Francis [of the Pixies], Jon Bon Jovi, Paloma Faith, and more. But to me, the strongest pairing on the album is the work with Mumford & Sons on the medley of “Days” and “This Time Tomorrow.” Those that have been following this blog know I have a real soft spot for tribute albums (and my number two song of all time is from a tribute album–how’s that for a teaser?), and this is one of the more unique tribute albums as it seems to be an artist paying tribute to himself.

One of the other college alternative artists I began listening to as a freshman (thanks to my record album purchase of Document) was R.E.M. I have come to love their early work, but the two songs that make this list are later releases. The one in this group is from another desert-island disc candidate for me–Automatic for the People. Every song on the album is phenomenal, but “Man on the Moon” is my favorite. I also loved hearing it on the trailer for the movie by the same name. That’s a movie I have not seen in years, but I think it might be worth revisiting with my kids this summer when they are home from college.

When making these kinds of lists, it’s always interesting to think about when I first really connected with a song. For the Pure Prairie League’s “Amie,” it was thanks to Freaks and Geeks. (If you have not watched that show, go an do it RIGHT NOW, and not just because it launched the careers of James Franco, Seth Rogan, Jason Siegel, Busy Phillips, and Linda Cardellini. Every one of the 18 episodes is so powerful and raw–it was the first show that got the high school experience perfectly down. I believe it is on Netflix instant, so go and watch it. One episode featured them going to the local planetarium for a laser Pink Floyd show, but show up on the wrong date and end up seeing a country and western show instead. Sorry for the spoiler, but I promise it will not lessen your enjoyment of the entry. Over the closing credits, “Amie” plays–by the way, the acting and writing are the best thing about the show, but the soundtrack is also pitch perfect.

The last song on this batch is a power ballad and one of three songs that makes me think of my father. I already mentioned “My Way” by Frank Sinatra in part one, and “The Living Years” probably the most on-the-nose choice, by Mike + the Mechanics, did not make my 100 (but would make the 200). “Silent Lucidity” in specifics and the album Empire more broadly, feels like the closest another band got to re-creating the Pink Floyd sound. This song is one of my go-to numbers if I want something to help me drift off from a stressful day–it is the perfect capper to a tough day, and the perfect ending to a group of ten songs.

 

Mission Entirely Possible (part 2 of 10)

What better way to spend the weekend (or the weekend time between going for exercise walks and getting your car stuck in mud) than to follow up the last post with the second group of songs from my 100 favorites of all time playlist? So on to the second batch of songs!

What? You actually care about how I got my car stuck in the mud? It is a treacherous tale that involves high-speed chases, attempts on my life, homemade explosives, stolen government defense plans, illicit love affairs, and a wisecracking robot sidekick. Unfortunately, if I shared the details with you dear reader, I would be putting your life in danger–they will stop at nothing to silence anyone that knows the truth. So instead, I will share the cover story. I was heading to our local branch library to return a book (Stephen King’s The Dark Half), CDs by the Gin Blossoms and Pistol Annies, and the movie Furious 7. Unfortunately, the library had some sort of fair going on in the parking lot, so parking was limited. However, a number of cars were parked in the grass in front of the library, so I parked there and ran in with my returns. (My wife was with me, but she stayed in the car. She had also suggested that I pull up to the front, drop her off with the returns, and circle around, eliminating the need to park. I nixed this solution as I wanted to go in and make the dead drop see if I wanted to check anything else out.) When I returned and tried to leave, the wheels started spinning–we were stuck. My wife got behind the wheel while I pushed. In a terrific visual bit of luck , the wheel threw some mud up and over my legs, which were now caked with wet dirt (and not the blood of the countless ninjas and assassins trying to steal the plans). I was able to move the car a bit, but luckily some young men helped us push and get the car back on firm asphalt. I know this story makes me look like an idiot, but if that is the price I have to pay for our nation’s security, so be it.

• For What It’s Worth–Buffalo Springfield
• Smoke–Ben Folds Five
• Against All Odds–Phil Collins
• Secret Garden–Tom Cochrane and Damhnait Doyle
• Gypsy–Suzanne Vega
• Shadow of the Day–Linkin Park
• Dirty Work–Steely Dan
• How Deep Is Your Love?–The Bee Gees
• Africa–Toto
• Out of Touch–Hall & Oates

Is there a Vietnam movie out there that doesn’t feature “For What It’s Worth” on its soundtrack? Until today, I always assumed this song was a protest number about the war. However, according to the never-wrong folks at Wikipedia. the song is about the Sunset Strip Riots (also known as the “Hippie Riots” Read Wikipedia if you don’t believe me!). Really saps a lot of power from the song, right? I did not know this information when I put it on my top 100, but I don’t think it’s enough to bump it off, unless Beyonce writes an amazing tune about Jay-Z actually cheating on her with Rachel Ray.

Before the advent of iTunes/steaming music services, it was fun to occasionally make a “roll the dice” album purchase. You know, you hear one song from an artist you don’t know and decide to buy the whole album because of it. I think the first time I did that was after hearing “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits and deciding to grab Brothers in Arms. That clearly worked out great, and it got me to work backward on their musical catalog. In fact, an old song from the band will be appearing later on this list. One of the other great leaps for me was buying Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five based on the strength of “Brick” (now there’s a song to listen to anytime you want to feel good!). Again, I loved the album and “Smoke” is my favorite track from it.

Like “Don’t Answer Me” from the last list, “Against All Odds” might be another ashamed to admit favorite. It was also one of two Phil Collins soundtrack hits from the 80’s I am ashamed to admit liking. The other “Separate Lives” (a duet with Marilyn Martin) is not even part of my music collection these days–I had the 45 but have not added the song in the digital era. If I was going to add a Phil Collins duet to my collection, it would be “Easy Lover” with Phillip Bailey from Earth, Wind, and Fire, a song that would probably make my Top 200. The interesting thing about these two soundtrack hits is that while I love the songs, I have not seen either movie (Against All Odds and White Knights). Ironically, I haven’t seen three other movies that Collins contributed soundtrack songs to either–Tarzan, Brother Bear, or Buster. The first two are odd misses as my kids were right in that Disney animation sweet spot when they were first released, while the last miss makes complete sense.

I assume that almost anyone who creates this list will have a few songs that most people would say “who or what is that” when they see it listed. The “Secret Garden” song is probably that. It is a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song featured in Jerry Maguire. Now I love the Boss, but I am telling you this duet version from Light of Day, a double album of Bruce Springsteen covers, is an incredible improvement over the original. The male/female duet makes the lyrics seem more poignant and sadder. Another one people might not know is “Gypsy” by Suzanne Vega, the first of two songs by her on my list. This one is on her Solitude Standing album, which also has her most famous hit, “Luka.” That is her only top 80 hit in the United States, which I find crazy. She has a rich selection of songs, but none are as beautiful as “Gypsy,” with the chorus

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

(I know I haven’t quoted lyrics until now, but I’d like to make a secondary mission of this particular blog entry to get people to sample more Suzanne Vega.)

My list is skewed to older songs, but I do have a few post-2000 entries, including “Shadow of the Day” by Linkin Park. But my list jumps back four decades after it with a pair of 70’s efforts that feature in films too. Obviously “Dirty Work” was originally just an album cut from Steely Dan’s debut album Can’t Buy a Thrill. But after seeing it in the opening credits of American Hustle, I added it to my digital music collection and listened to it enough to add it to my top 100. The other 70’s song, “How Deep Is Your Love?” probably gets a little lost in the anti-disco fever that erupted at the end of the decade. Actually, I am not sure where we stand these days–is disco awful, cool, retro, kitsch–where do we stand? Regardless of that answer, “How Deep Is Your Love?” is a generational ballad that transcends the genre anyway.

It will almost always come back to the 80’s for me, and the last two songs on this list are square in that wheelhouse. I started listening to top 40 music regularly in 1983, so I missed the peak of the album Toto IV by a year. (Side question–who’s four was better? Toto IV with “Rosanna” and “Africa” or Foreigner 4 with “Urgent”, “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, and “Juke Box Hero? Do you give bonus points to Toto for its fancy use of Roman numerals? Or do you vote for Chicago IV? That last on is a trick–Chicago’s fourth album, between Chicago III and Chicago V, is titled Chicago at Carnegie Hall. So they are out of the running!) Anyway, I didn’t need to hear it on the radio daily to appreciate the joy of the song “Africa” and it has been a list candidate for decades. My last song is the only top 100 entry from one of my favorite bands, Hall & Oates. They were, along with Men at Work, my first favorite artists. I think if I made a top 500 list, they’d have a dozen songs, but “Out of Touch” has always been my favorite from the group.

In Some Particular Order (part 1 of 10)

I’ve enjoyed expanding the topical reach of this blog, but I also liked last weekend’s column where I pontificated about Prince songs throughout the years after listening to a playlist of them. It was a throwback to the original point of this blog, where I was going through all my family’s music in alphabetical order by song title. I actually got pretty far into it before life got in the way of constant exercise and constant posts. Now I am back to exercising–particularly thanks to my Fitbit as nothing is more frustrating that looking at the number of steps I have on a particular day and thinking how far I am from 10,000 steps/5 miles. But I use my iPhone as my electronic workout buddy, and it is harder to fit music on it, forcing me to be a bit more selective in my choices.

However, one playlist that is a staple on my phone is DEAN100. This is a list I created of my 100 favorite songs of all time. It’s the kind of idea that starts off easily enough–50-70 songs absolutely have to go on it. Then as the remaining number of slots dwindle, difficult choices have to be made. However, once I settled on the 100, it has remained solid. I think there was only 1 or 2 changes due to me remembering a song I had completely forgotten. One quick note–there was no limit on the number of songs from a particular artist or album. I never understand these types of artificial constraints on these lists. If you are picking the 10 greatest movies of all time, and want 5 of the Fast & Furious films there, go for it! So several artists are represented more than once.

I also started to put them in order 1-100. This proved to be a frustrating experience, and once I realized that I listen to my list in shuffle, I decided it was pointless. However, my top 10 or so did stay up high, so seeing that I will be walking through the list in groups of 10 starting from the bottom, my absolute favorites will only appear at the end of this–properly building up your anticipation. So this batch is not 91-100 by any stretch of the imagination, just the first group.

• My Way–Frank Sinatra
• Secret Separation–The Fixx
• Don’t Answer Me–The Alan Parsons Project
• The Magic Number–De La Soul
• Head Over Heels–The Go Go’s
• (Keep Feeling) Fascination–The Human League
• Do You Believe in Love?–Huey Lewis & The News
• Slip Slidin’ Away–Simon & Garfunkel
• Nuthin’ But a “G” Thing–Dr. Dre Featuring Snoop Dog
• Word Up!–Cameo

My father died in a car accident when I was seven years old, so my memories of him are spotty at best. One of the things I never really knew about him was his pop-culture touchstones. What movies did he like? What TV shows did he try not to ever miss? (Well, I can guess that there was almost nothing on that second list as he was a bartender so he tended to work nights, and this was before one recorded shows with a VCR, let alone DVR.) I do remember him liking certain hymns at church (“Let There Be Peace on Earth” and “Go Forth” in particular) and I remember being told “My Way” by Frank Sinatra was his favorite song. For this simple reason, I always had an affinity for the song, and I purchased a Sinatra CD to make sure I could always listen to it. Before I bought the CD, the only Frank Sinatra song I owned was his duet of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” with Cyndi Lauper on A Very Special Christmas 2.

I mentioned having to tweak my 100 list a couple of times because of a sudden realization that I had forgotten a song. The first one of those was “Secret Separation” by the Fixx. I think I’d even put a different Fixx song on the list–“Stand or Fall.” I even listened to it on the list once or twice before realizing I meant to include a different Fixx song–“Oh yeah! Secret Separation!” These both come from the same CD, and the only Fixx album I own, React. I had purchased it thinking it was a greatest hits album, not knowing it was a live album until I got it home. I kept it, as their live versions of all their songs are pretty great.

I am hoping this blog is a safe space, one where I can freely admit to some potentially embarrassing choices without being mocked too badly. I would think that having “Don’t Answer Me” is possibly a choice like that. My first encounter with the Alan Parsons Project was winning a 45 of “Eye in the Sky” at a Bar Mitzvah, but it was “Don’t Answer Me” that really caught my ear. It also caught my eye, as the goofy animated video was a favorite of mine as well.

De La Soul came into my life during my year of graduate school as a friend had Three Feet High and Rising on cassette and played it fairly constantly in his car. The album is entertaining beginning to end, but the group’s tribute to Schoolhouse Rock is my favorite track. Years later, I tried to buy the album on iTunes or at a store, but could not find it anywhere. Luckily it was available on Amazon.com, so now the CD is a proud part of my collection. It even came with a second disc of rare tracks and outtakes.

Seeing that I started listening to Top 40 music on the radio in the 1980’s and seeing that 80’s music is awesome, it should come as no surprise that my 100 list has a significant number of 80’s tracks and groups represented, including the next three songs. I figured most people would pick one of “We Got the Beat”, “Our Lips Are Sealed”, or “Vacation” if asked to name their favorite Go Go’s song, but for me it’s “Head Over Heels” and it’s not even close. (Side note–when the Go Go’s reunited and toured in 1991, I got to see them play in Boston. I went with someone from my college, but she was joyless at the show, refusing to sing along or dance to the music. Meanwhile, about five rows in front of me were other friends who I did not know would be at the show and they were having a great time with audience participation. To this day, I wish I had gone with them.) I remember loving “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” when I first heard it back in 1983, and it has remained one of my favorite songs ever since. Finally, I was a Huey Lewis fan, owning both Picture This and Sports on cassette back in the day, but their first chart hit is the one that has most stuck with me.

The second live song in this initial group comes from the famous Simon & Garfunkel concert in Central Park. (Spoiler alert–this will not be the only appearance of a song on this list, but you will have to wait to the final group–my top 10–before you see them again. I have always said that I think Paul Simon continued to write Simon & Garfunkel songs for the first decade after the duo broke up, and “Slip Slidin’ Away” is a perfect example. The Paul Simon version of the song is good enough, but when he performs it with Art Garfunkel, it becomes transcendent. It just sounds like it was written specifically for their combined vocal styles. To be fair, this may be true of all music and not just 70’s Paul Simon.

My relationship with West Coast rap got off to a rocky start. I remember not wanting to listen to Straight Outta Compton because the song “Fuck tha Police” seemed disrespectful. (I was a bit of a toe-the-line kind of teenager.) However, thanks to MTV I was able enjoy the first few releases from Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. After purchasing the album on CD, I have made it a regular part of my listening rotation, and the track “Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’)” almost made the top 100 as well, and would certainly make the top 200 list. But “Nothin’ But a ‘G’ Thing” was a lock for this list, and if I had order the top 100, it would have been much higher, in the top 50 for sure. By the way, thanks to the film last year, I finally picked up Straight Outta Compton and I regret not doing it sooner. The album is dynamite from top to bottom, and “Express Yourself” is just below the top 100 for me.

The last song from this first group is another 80’s hit and another song that’s been in my favorites since I first heard it on the radio 30 years ago. (Do you ever find yourself catching your breath when you realize how long ago something happened? Here’s one–next year is the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.) I just knew that “Word Up” was completely unlike any other pop song I’d ever heard, so I bought the album back in high school and still own this track to this day. I am all for this song getting as much exposure as possible, and I often love covers, but I think it is a crime that the Korn version of this song is the one available in the Rock Band video game franchise. It should be Cameo all the way.

 

Late to the Commie Party

One of the greatest new developments in pop culture over the past five years is the ability to binge watch television programs. This viewing pattern shift hit us just at the right time–we don’t watch as many programs as we used to and we’ve gotten far more selective on films we see in theaters. (I remember about 10 years ago, when it seemed like I had appointment television almost every night of the week, with most nights having multiple shows. My Tivo got quite the workout back then. The change away from this habit is partially due to the rise of reality television, but also an unwillingness on my part to invest in programming when the network could pull the plug after half a season or so.)

This pickiness has led to an opportunity for my wife and I–spend our free nights and weekends binge-watching programs, particularly ones that got great in their second or third seasons. It does lead to you deciding what camp you are in with respect to streaming services. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu–each has its highlights and not everyone wants to pay for all three. For years, we were Netflix only, and I will always subscribe to Netflix as a way of saying thanks for more Arrested Development, Bob & David, and the Marvel series. Plus, my wife and daughter love Orange Is the New Black. I also sometimes watch their older network series, particularly The X-Files, Parks & Recreation, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On that last series, no one has watched it (and its spinoff Angel) as much as my oldest daughter. I think she has watched each series all the way through four or five times, each with a new friend. She wanted to introduce each of them to these shows–she was serving as Joss Whedon’s personal Pied Piper.

There’s a number of other shows on Netflix that people rave about, yet we’ve never watched when they were originally on TV. Chief among these are The West Wing and Friday Night Lights. Until recently, you could have added House of Cards to that list, but we have now watched the first two seasons of that show. We would have kept going on that, as well as the second season of The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt (which served as a comedy sorbet any time the machinations of Frank and Claire Underwood got a little too much to take), but we’ve taken an Amazon-related detour.We never had Amazon Prime until recently, but it has opened up our binge-watching possibilities. Both my wife and I had heard so many raves about The Americans that we’ve decided to dive right in. What a great choice–all the plaudits are well deserved. The show really threads a needle, getting the viewer to root for Russian spies. That might be the most surprising anti-hero movement since The Sopranos. Getting to know both the Russian spies and the golden boy of the FBI leads to a nice programming balance. We are already seven episodes into Season 1, and I’ve heard the next two seasons get even better.

After we get through The Americans, Amazon gives us some additional binge possibilities, including Hannibal, Deadwood, Veep, The Man in the High Castle, Transparent, Catastrophe, and Justified. (The last one is a bit of a stretch–I have actually seen Justified all the  way through, but I want to make others watch it as well, and I’d be happy to see it again. I guess that makes me an Elmore Leonard or Graham Yost pied piper).

So what do people think? Is our list of binge candidates solid and complete, or are we missing some great possibilities? And of the ones we haven’t seen yet, what should be our next priority? Just don’t suggest getting fresh air and sunlight–no one wants to binge that.

Royal Discography

As I mentioned recently, I tend to listen to podcasts more than music when exercising these days, but in light of the passing of Prince, it has been 48 hours of Prince songs (I had to dig out the o…

Source: Royal Discography

Royal Discography

As I mentioned recently, I tend to listen to podcasts more than music when exercising these days, but in light of the passing of Prince, it has been 48 hours of Prince songs (I had to dig out the old iPod to do this). Prince on YouTube, Prince on AppleTV, and Prince while walking on the treadmill.

When I first heard that he had died, I stated that Prince’s death was going to be tougher on me than Bowie. Not just because Prince was a bigger artist and I liked his music more–both are true, but they are not the only reasons. I did not really get into music until 1983. Sure, I would listen to the occasional family 8-track tape before that, but popular music (and Saturday mornings listening to American Top 40) did not start until then. While I know that Prince had three albums and several hits before that year, it felt like he truly arrived with the late 1982 release of 1999. I do now enjoy much of his earlier work, particularly “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” (although as a piece of advice, if you are trying to rev your wife’s engine, saying that your sex life is like a Prince song, with you being “Soft” and her being “Wet” does not work that well), but 1983 is when I started to love Prince.

• “1999”
• “Little Red Corvette”
• “Delirious”

I think more people at the time loved “Little Red Corvette, but the jarring combination of uptown dance beat and “the world is ending”lyrics was so damn appealing. At one point I was sure that Prince sang all the parts on the song, including the female-sounding parts. Going by the expertise one finds at Wikipedia, I have now learned that Wendy and Lisa from the Revolution handled the ladies singing. When “1999” came out in 1982, the year seemed so far off, like 100 years in the future. It was less than two decades away,  and we did not get our flying cars and monkey butlers. (Although, when Prince sang about people who “…run from their destruction…” do you think he was predicting the Y2K problem?)

• “Let’s Go Crazy”
• “When Doves Cry”
• “Purple Rain”

I did not see Purple Rain in theaters when it came out in 1984–it was an ‘R’ rated film and I was a nerdy-follow the rules 15-year-old (as opposed to now, where I am a nerdy-follow the rules 47-year-old). It wasn’t until three years later that I saw the movie on VHS. The film was amazing, but my favorite part of the film was Morris Day and the Time. I purchased their album Ice Cream Castle based on their appearance in the film. I enjoyed their record, but the soundtrack was inescapable that summer and for the rest of the year. While these three were the big hits from the album, I remember having that soundtrack on cassette and listening to it beginning to end almost nightly. That’s an album I can brag about listening to all the time, along with Born in the U.S.A, Synchronicity, Thriller, and Strong Persuader. It’s a little harder for me to brag about how often I listened to Chicago’s 17.

• “Raspberry Beret”
• “Pop Life”

Like everyone else, I was dying to see how Prince would follow up the success of Purple Rain. I remember initially having mixed feelings about the song “Raspberry Beret,” but the more I heard it on the radio, the more it grew on me. Both of these songs from Around the World in a Day seem more airy than Prince’s earlier work, but his ability to shift gears really made him stand out from his musical contemporaries.

• “Kiss”

Talk about standing out–I needed no time for this to grow on me; I loved it from the first listen, and I ran out and purchased it on 45. I also enjoyed the cover of the song done by Tom Jones and the Art of Noise. (If you want an underrated greatest hits album, go get the best of the Art of Noise).

• “Sign o’ the Times”
• “U Got the Look”

Once again, Prince shifted gears, giving us a powerful song about the issues of the day. Thanks to “Sign o’ the Times” I learned what horse was. I also learned that the sweet, innocent Sheena Easton of “9 to 5 (Morning Train)”, “For Your Eyes Only”, and “We’ve Got Tonight” was gone, thanks to the raw sexiness of “U Got the Look.” Frankly, I should have figured that out sooner, particularly when she oh so subtly asked people to spend the night inside her “Sugar Walls.” Like horse, it took me time to understand what exactly she was getting at.

• “Alphabet Street”

This is the single I have been listening to the most since I heard of his passing. I think it’s the “slipped through the crack” song. You know when an artist has a deep catalog of songs, some do not get the attention that others do, and you often re-discover the song later. Sometime you think “cool, so-and-so has a new album out” only to discover that it’s a song years or even decades old.

• “Thieves in the Temple”

One song I do not have in my Prince selection is “Batdance.” When Batman came out in 1989, I made the choice to purchase the instrumental soundtrack by Danny Elfman rather than the Prince release. This was clearly a mistake, as thanks to ownership complications, none of Prince’s songs from it can appear on his greatest hits/B-sides CDs that I listen to. I mentioned on Facebook recently that no artist could have taken “Batdance” to #1 other than Prince and I still believe that. I think it would have seemed like a joke in the hands of any other, but if you watch Batman, it’s clear the film was influenced by Prince and not the other way around. Prince’s success with the film is nice to see, as it was clear with Under the Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge that Prince was not going to replicate the success of Purple Rain, at least not on screen. The album by the same name worked, producing “Thieves in the Temple,” which is not a favorite of mine, but still a good song.

• “Cream”
• “Gett Off”
• “Diamonds and Pearls”

I am not sure how I feel about the transition from the Revolution to the New Power Generation. I guess the important thing was the constant Prince, but I loved the the Revolution as well. These three songs from Diamonds and Pearls did make the transition a smooth one. I was always a big fan of “Diamonds and Pearls” even if it has spelling within the song.

• “7”
• “Pink Cashmere”
• “Nothing Compares 2 U”
• “I Feel for You”

I always had meant to buy the Prince box set, but I was a broke new worker fresh out of graduate school, so I settled for the two discs of “The Hits/The B-Sides”, which not only had all his big hits (sans “Batdance”), but also his versions of hit songs that he wrote for Sinead O’Connor (“Nothing Compares 2 U”) and Chaka Khan (“I Feel for You”). Of course I also knew about “Manic Monday” being written for the Bangles, but it was only recently that I learned he also wrote “Stand Back” for Stevie Nicks.

• “Cinnamon Girl”
• “The Marrying Kind”
• “Life ‘O’ the Party”

Sadly, I lost interest in new music from about the mid 1990s until 2004 or so. However, thanks to my time at WWE, I received a copy of Musicology. I remember when I first got home thinking how odd it was that Prince would cover a Neil Young song. But his version of Cinnamon Girl was all his own, and the album was an incredible return to the world of Prince. I didn’t partake of much of his music after that, but now that he’s passed away, I feel it is time to do just that, giving me an opportunity to keep his musical spirit in my life.

Embracing the Dreadful

After two autobiographical posts, I thought I would get back to the original spirit of this blog–forcing readers to listen to my ramblings about what I listen to when I walk to get some exercise in. Again, thanks to my iPhone and its more limited storage space, I am not listening to all my songs in alphabetical order. Instead I have been listening to focused playlists (including one I made of my top 100 songs, which I plan to cover in a series of future posts) as well as podcasts. I believe podcasts are one of the extremely undervalued content forms in history. People put so much time and effort into creating unique niche long-form content in a variety of topics and genres. They are great to listen to during walks, commutes, and long car trips. Most people really came to know about podcasts thanks to the runaway success of Serial in late 2014, but the format had been around for years.

(Side note on Serial: Like almost everyone else, season 1 of the show hooked me with its fascinating story of Adnan Syed. You can debate all you want whether he committed the crime, but there is no way he committed the crime in the timeline the prosecution presented–it is a sham that he was convicted based on the presented evidence. I know many people weren’t as happy with season 2 of the show about Bowe Bergdahl. I understand the complaints–there wasn’t the “solving a mystery” element that season one’s story had, although the show tried to make it seem like what happened to Bergdahl would be solved over the course of the season. Once the show abandoned this subtext after the first few episodes of the new season, it got stronger. Also, it would have been almost impossible to recapture the cultural lightening in the bottle of the first season. However, there was a third reason the second season would have never reached the dizzying heights of the premiere season. The Joe Buck effect. If you don’t know Joe Buck, he’s a lead baseball/football announcer for the Fox network, and he has the unique skill to be hated by all fanbases. When he is broadcasting a Red Sox/Yankee series, for example, all of the Red Sox fans (myself included) feel that he is openly rooting against our team and pulling for the Yankees. However, if you ask Yankee fans about Buck and the same games, they too feel he is biased against their squad and is acting as Pravda for the Red Sox. The only team he doesn’t generate this feeling for is the St. Louis Cardinals, because he does subtly root for them–and it’s easy to understand why as his father was a longtime announcer for the team. Anyway, the Bergdahl case is so politically charged that no matter where you fall on the spectrum, you’d feel that the Serial squad was carrying the water against what you felt the case reflected. This is the danger in modern America to covering both sides of a story–each side openly whines that you spend any time giving credence to the other.)

Back to podcasts in general. I love a spectrum of offerings, but my favorites, my week-in-week-out listens tend to clump in two categories: sports and comedy. One of the latter entries is a film-focused offering called How Did This Get Made? On this bi-weekly show, three comedians–Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas–along with one or two guests spend 60-90 minutes discussing a “so bad it’s good” movie. If you’d like to see a list of the 130+ movies they have covered since late 2010, here’s a list: Wiki for How Did This Get Made. In addition to listing the movies, you can also see who was the guest in case you have a favorite comedian. Does it help if you have seen the film they are discussing? Absolutely. Can you enjoy the podcasts even if you haven’t seen the films? Absolutely. Each member of the cast brings something special to the discussion, but for my money, Jason makes each show. If you’ve ever seen The League, Jason played Rafi on that show–he was also Dennis Feinstein on Parks and Recreation and Detective Adrian Pimento on a recent run of Brookly Nine-Nine episodes. His willingness to criticize others as well as his absolute love of craziness in film shines in almost every episode. The episodes can vary in quality, but if they have a top-notch guest, the shows are almost guaranteed to be hilarious. For a first-timer, I’d recommend 108 Con Air, 109 Face/Off, or any of the Sharknado episodes. They’ve also done each of the last three Fast & Furious movies with Adam Scott, and those are always fun as well.

The interesting thing about this show is that it has gotten me back into caring about things that are so bad they are good. I have been, and always will be, a pop culture maven. When I was younger, I was interested more in the bad things as well as the good, but as I got older, I found it harder and harder to justify spending time watching that category of camp. My twins find it frustrating–they want me to watch films like Mac & Me and Birdemic with them, but I often refuse. Ironically, both of those films have been covered by How Did This Get Made?, so perhaps I should find a bit of time to squeeze them in, scoring quality family time and preping myself for another enjoyable podcast. I’m not sure if I’d be doing it for John and Alice, or Paul, June, and Jason.