More Music

At the risk of annoying everyone, here's more music stuff. I initially was going to make a list of my thirty favourite songs, but quickly abandoned that, as what I might want to listen to today wouldn’t necessarily be exactly the same a month from today, or even tomorrow, depending on my mood, and what I happen to be thinking about. So, this is just a list of 30 songs that mean something to me, and that I (mostly) still listen to today. It would definitely make for a good start on a Desert Island collection. So, in no particular order…

1. Tomorrow Wendy, Concrete Blonde – From the solid middle of the “angry young man” (AYM) phase. While the song as a whole is excellent, the rebellious lyrics are really what got me going. Back in the day, I put this on almost every cassette tape I made.
2. 18 and Life, Skid Row – Yeah, a little aged and cheesy, but in that AYM timeframe, it seemed to fit. Another good one is Slave to the Grind, with the same rebellious attitude.
3. Here Comes the Flood, Peter Gabriel – The sadness and melancholy are tangible. The revised version on the Shaking the Tree album is better, although both it and the original are incredible. “When the flood calls, you have no home, you have no warmth. In the thunder crash, you’re a thousand minds within a flash. Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see. The actors gone, there’s only you and me. And if we break before the dawn, they’ll use up what we used…to be.”
4. Something I Can Never Have, NIN – Although many of the songs on the first album haven’t aged particularly well, this is still one that I find myself returning to again and again. “In this place it seems like such a shame. Though it all looks different now, I know it’s still the same. Everywhere I look, you’re all I see…” Probably compounded by a break-up around the timeframe that the album came out.
5. The Way You Look Tonight, Steve Tyrell – I discovered Steve Tyrell thanks to Father of the Bride (the one with Steve Martin), and this track is one of my favorites. I’m hoping it will play at Maggie’s wedding one day. I cannot explain how strongly I resonate with that film.
6. Home, Michael Buble – Sentimental, yes. Beautiful, yes. When you’re on the road, nothing else seems to fit quite like this one. “I’m just too far from where you are. I gotta come home.” It has picked up additional meaning in my stay here.
7. Acrobat, U2 – There had to be at least one U2 song on here, or Michelle would have pitched fits. Out of all of them, if I had to pick just one, it’d be this one or Love is Blindness. Besides being a decent fit for that time in my life, it’s just another example of my penchant for melancholy.
8. Three Wishes, Roger Waters – Of the triumvirate of songs that close out Water’s album of the same name, this one sticks out, mainly for the bluesy guitar.
9. I’m Not Okay (I Promise), My Chemical Romance – For anyone who has ever been broken and angry.
10. Superman’s Song, Crash Test Dummies – Yes, I bought the album for Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, and then went and bought the preceding album. Something about the fallible nature and humanity of a superhero is just appealing to me. Another melancholy song.
11. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper – After looking at everything I had listed above, I had to put in something a bit more upbeat. Plus, this was the reason I bought this album, which was also my first rock’n’roll album. The album itself was, and is, still good, with other tunes on it including All Through the Night, Time After Time, She-Bop, and Money Changes Everything. She has also done a jazz/classics compilation which I like.
12. Rock Me Amadeus, Falco – While we’re on 80’s cheese-pop, this was one of my favorites. I used to think I was cultured because I liked it and “Amadeus” was in the title.
13. Master of Puppets, Metallica – I bought the album because the song was in a guitar magazine at the time, but without having heard the actual music. Metallica then became one of my favourite bands and you would find this in my car (if I was in the States) more frequently than you might expect, although I don’t play it as loud as I would have in the past.
14. Hurt, NIN – Behind the wall of nihilism, there’s the same broken person that’s inside all of us. The end lyrics are particularly good. “If I could start again a million miles away, I would keep myself. I would find a way.”
15. I Dreamed a Dream, Les Miserables – The music is good, the lyrics moving, going to the core of the human experience. “But there are dreams that cannot be, and storms we cannot weather.” If you haven’t heard it, then you are missing something.
16. Jump, Van Halen – While this song hasn’t aged particularly well, it’s one of the songs of my youth. This was the point when I realized that I actually liked “hard rock”, and I can still remember listening to it, volume down very low to avoid waking my parents, in my bedroom at night. I subsequently went and got the entire Van Halen back catalog, but 1984 remains one of their best albums, in my opinion.
17. Summertime, Peter Gabriel – Being an avid Gabriel fan, I bought the ‘Glory of Gershwin’ compilation simply because this song was on it. It opened up the whole world of Gershwin and jazz for me. If you’re looking for accessible Gershwin, you can’t go wrong with this.
18. Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd – To be honest, I could probably put the entire album on the list, as it has more great songs on it than some bands ever make in a lifetime. I was one of the weirdos that even liked the stuff toward the end, like The Trial and Waiting for the Worms, but this is one of the songs that almost signifies the whole of the album, even though now trite and overplayed.
19. Somebody Told Me, The Killers – A couple of years ago, I was despairing that I would ever find anything worthwhile in the rock genre again, outside of a few select bands, as it seemed to be diving down a deep hole of awfulness. This song was fresh, poppy, and renewed my hopes. The entire album is excellent. Sam’s Town, while still good, is lacking a certain something that the first album had.
20. Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand, Christopher Miner, lyrics Henry Allford –The arrangement by Christopher Miner and the lyrics bring tears to my eyes almost every time I hear or sing it. The promise and desire for our future victory are overwhelming. “Oh day for which creation and all its tribes were made. Oh joy, for all its former woes a thousandfold repaid.” “Thine exiles long for home.” Maybe not enough sometimes, but don’t we?
21. The Three Shadows (Part II), Bauhaus – The list wouldn’t be complete without something by Bauhaus. This was on the Swing the Heartache album, which was basically a greatest hits collection. Quite disturbing, and extremely odd – like most of Bauhaus. The album also has an excellent cover of Ziggy Stardust.
22. Ship of Fools, Robert Plant – Wonderful guitar, suiting the lyrics almost perfectly. I’m not a huge Zep fan, nor have I particularly followed Plant in his solo career, but this is one of his best. More melancholy.
23. Purple Rain, Prince – It’s been largely overplayed, but this is definitely a classic. I didn’t actually want to like Prince, but ended up owning everything he made until the Sign O’ The Times album. I rarely drag anything by him out now, but back in the day, he was the stuff.
24. Welcome to the Jungle, Guns ‘n Roses – This stayed in my cassette deck in my car for probably a year or so. I don’t own the album today, but if I did, I’d probably listen to it for this track alone. Very big in the early AYM phase.
25. Guns in the Sky, INXS – Another high school fave, perhaps a bit more generally accepted than GNR. While the song is a socio-political commentary on war, I really just liked it for the music. I’d say the same today. Having seen them in concert, I can say that Michael Hutchins connected with his audience like few other people can.
26. With or Without You, U2 – Another U2 song, but it never seems to get old. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times now, and there are still days when you play it and it’s just right. Although Michelle might argue with me, in my opinion, this is THE song from The Joshua Tree album, although it is pretty difficult to pick just one.
27. Family Snapshot, Peter Gabriel – Since I’m double dipping now, I’ll go back to another of my favourite artists. The music absolutely fits the lyrics, and the final snippet is unbelievably moving: “All turned quiet – I’ve been here before. A lonely boy hiding behind the front door. Friends have all gone home. There’s my toy gun on the floor. Come back, mom and dad. You’re growing apart; you know that I’m growing up sad. I need some attention. I shoot into the light.” Seriously, if you haven’t heard any Gabriel, pick up Shaking the Tree and give it a listen.
28. Rock of Ages, Def Leppard – Yeah, I was definitely into hair bands, but this one still rocks some twenty-odd years later. This is one of the more memorable cuts off what is arguably their best album, and the album still holds together after all these years. It’s a shame that they failed to put Too Late for Love on their greatest hits collection. Yes, I still listen to this one from time to time.
29. Pray Your Gods, Toad the Wet Sprocket – While there are other songs that are better known, this is the one that I stuck on repeat for endless times. I finally sat down one day and worked out the guitar fingerings to it and still play it from time to time.
30. No Woman No Cry, Bob Marley – There was a point when I thought I was really into reggae, and although I still enjoy the occasional reggae song, it’s not really the beach music that it is commonly perceived to be, as it usually has strong socio-political overtones. This one is no different, but it is definitely one of the best by one of the best.

There are quite a few songs that didn’t make the list. Some are just too recent for me to really say that they are going to be able to stand the test of time, and others are ones which just don’t hold my interest as they used to.