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Day 53 - Drive (Incubus)
October 29, 2018•0 comments
Let’s start this countdown with something from the new millennium, and let’s dedicate it to my nephew Chris, a.k.a. the Phurk, a.k.a. Paging Dr. Faggot, on this day, his 30th birthday. When Drive, by Incubus was popular on the radio in 2001, Chris was a thirteen year old prodigy drummer, with very interesting taste in music. Being raised by Baby Boomers will do that; he was bred with the likes of Steely Dan and Billy Joel and the Beatles, among other classics from way before his time. Admittedly, when this song was first popular, I couldn’t stand it. It sounded basic and insistent. But my nephew with the eclectic ear really liked this band so I gave it my interest, and now that it’s retro, I have to say I love the damn song. Aside from the obvious connection to my nephew, I do like the pared down simplicity in the lead singer’s voice and the sweetness of the guitars. I can even appreciate the record-scratch sound. And the song has a pretty good message about overcoming fear, which has gripped many of us too many times to count in our lives.
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Day 52 - New Year’s Day / One (U2)
October 30, 2018•0 comments
As one of my favorite bands of all time, U2 has had a song in my countdowns before. It’s inevitable that multiple songs from their endless catalog should end up on my lists, especially considering this band was such a huge part of my eighties and early nineties experiences. Perhaps I’ve talked about the life-changing experience that was my first time seeing U2 at the Hartford Civic Center (not shockingly, I remember the date - May 9, 1987) in my previous entries about one of their songs, but in the context of this diary, the essence of that moment should find its home again. It was the closest I’d ever felt to the existence of a god and community and love. I was at the concert with my brother Mike and Jan and Jayne and Kenny, and these people were my family, the walls of my house. I was also amongst a crowd of humans from everywhere who swayed and sung and cried to the rattle and hum of the Irish rock phenomenon. As we exited the venue. Zombie-like, it was full-on lighters lit as we all were still singing, How long to sing this song? Today’s two particular U2 songs couldn’t be further away in style and feel from each other, but they are each as meaningful and powerful to me and my whole life. The first is from my time peeking out through the slats on the closet door, way back in my sophomore year of college, when longing for boys across the campus or in the dorm was my only course of action AND study. The second is from after the closet door was broken off its hinges, at a time when I was in the throes of self-discovery, learning responsibility and forging lifetime friendships. I give you New Year’s Day, a gritty tale about an ongoing bloody struggle, and One, about disharmony and disappointment and the ramifications of those things.
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Day 51 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack (Various Artists)
October 31, 2018•0 comments
Happy Halloween, Ghosts and Ghouls and Sweet Transvestites from Transsexual Transylvania! The Rocky Horror Picture Show is, quite possibly, the most well-known cult film of all time, but the fact that the music is unbeatably amazing is why the soundtrack has ended up in my countdown. Granted, the fact that the movie encourages you to sing along with audience participation, is probably the reason these songs are embedded into my hippocampus. Naturally, much of the music is glued to images from the film, so it can be difficult to separate the two, but so what? That’s part of the cult charm. It’s a wink to be in on the joke, to be able to lipsync along with the lips in the opening sequence during the opening number, Science Fiction Double Feature. Clearly, not all the songs are favorites, but as a whole the movie soundtrack holds up to the task. My personal stand-outs are, of course, Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me, sung by the ingénue, a very young and innocent Susan Sarandon, and the songs that comprise the penultimate floor show, which happens to be a visual feast as well. I always know when I meet someone who is also into this movie and the songs from it, that I am going to be friends with that person.
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Day 50 - What Do You Got / What Do You Got / What Do You Got (Bon Jovi)
November 1, 2018•0 comments
This is basically a snapshot of the best of Bon Jovi, I know. Clearly, they were one of the best bands of their genre to emerge from the eighties, and keep on keepin’ on, for many years after that particular lighter flame should have faded. Anyone who’s alive knows Livin’ On A Prayer. And likely 97% of those people love it and sing along to it the way they do to Don’t Stop Believin’, Journey’s mega-hit. This song was reminiscent of its classic rock ancestors including Zeppelin and Frampton, but it has that eighties edge that, strangely, still holds up right to this minute. With their hair-band notoriety on point, Bon Jovi even does a chord change at the end that would make any Bee-Gee or Manilow fan proud. From the same 1987 album came Wanted: Dead or Alive, a different kind of rock anthem. This one was more reminiscent of Bob Seger or the Eagles than heavy metal, and it resonated just as much. With such an amazing instrumental bridge, it’s impossible to not jam out your best air guitar and mimic that squinty face Richie Sambora made as he killed it. The harmonies between Jon and Richie at the end though, are why I love this song, and it’s about 2 simple words: Me and Kenny. It was the summer he and Cristine fell in love, in which the three of us were inseparable; movies, drinking, camping, Bon Jovi. Fast forward 13 years: under the radar comes a ballad called What Do You Got. This ballad deserves honorary mention because it has such a pretty lyric: What do ya got if you ain’t got love? If you ain’t got love, it’s all just keepin’ score.
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Day 49 - Bad Girl (Madonna)
November 2, 2018•0 comments
Madonna has been in my countdown before, obviously, with both a ballad and a dance song. This time it’s another ballad from my favorite of her albums, Erotica. Bad Girl reminds me of so much. The arrangement of this song, to me, has become synonymous to the crashing waves on the rainy, cold shores of Montauk, where I’d stare out in sadness every time I’d spend that January weekend with Jan and the girls at Gurney’s Inn. I’d sit and reflect on what a terrible, calculating human I was. Without going into detail, that is what would go through my mind as I’d stare out the window of room 525 with the CD player on repeat (shocking), listening to Madge pour her emotions out.
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Day 48 - I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Helen Reddy)
November 3, 2018•0 comments
As a small boy, I had no idea this song was from a musical. It was part of the soundtrack of my childhood that had been provided by W.G.B.B. in our small kitchen in Lynbrook, where Mommy would comb my stubborn hair and send me off to West End. The singer had a soft, interesting voice that drew me in; the lyrics, about her love for a man, didn’t matter to me, and it NEVER occurred to me this song was written as a ballad sung by Mary Magdalene to Jesus of Nazareth. It was in the way her voice climbed to such a delightfully golden soprano, the crescendo of the chorus, that was so simply breathtaking. The singer, Helen Reddy, had had several songs in the morning soundtrack. Among them was Angie Baby, which was one of my mom’s favorite with which to sing along, since it was her name. But I Don’t Know How To Love Him, for certain, is the most beautiful of all of the songs sung to pitch perfection by Helen Reddy. There have been many versions of this song, most famously that sung by Yvonne Elliman who’d sung it in both the stage and screen productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as the recent (and brilliant) version by Sara Bareilles. Helen’s, though, remains my gold standard.
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Day 47 - I Can’t Hold Back (Survivor)
November 4, 2018•0 comments
I am not sure how to categorize the music of eighties band Survivor. What I do know is that, while their moment was happening, my cousin and I were obsessed with them. I Can’t Hold Back is sort of a rock ballad, a love song that, when you listen to the words, is pretty overtly sexual. But that’s not what this song means to me. I listen to the beautiful tenor of singer Jimi Jamison‘s voice, and I am instantly transported to being the boy who lived in Aurora’s basement, all full of wonder and worry and hope. I had so much hope, but also too much self-doubt and fear. I could have been the next Stephen King or Paul Levitz. I certainly had the talent. Here’s the boy who really never followed his dreams, the boy who let life take control instead of taking control of life.
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Day 46 - Nobody Wants To Be Lonely (Ricky Martin And Christina Aguilera)
November 5, 2018•0 comments
I love a good duet, right from Elton & Kiki, to Olivia and Cliff. So it’s no surprise that I love this duet by sexy nineties mega-stars Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera. It’s actually not that great a song when you break it down, but I just happen to like the combination of their voices. Anyone with ears has to know she is one of the most amazing talents of our time. I don’t particularly love most of her pop songs, but the bitch can sing. And Ricky is just delicious Puerto Rican syrup, so there’s that.
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Day 45 - La La (The Verve Pipe)
November 6, 2018•0 comments
The late nineties and early ohs presented us with many progressive bands that had a similar feel to their angst-ridden sound. Not that that’s a bad thing; there’s something comforting in commonality. There are several songs on this year’s countdown by bands in this genre. The Verve Pipe is known for their one-hit wonder called the Freshman. It garnered a ton of airplay in 1996 and 97. But the song I love by this obscure band is called La La. It wasn’t even released as a single, so finding a video for it was impossible. And I actually had never heard this song until I started working at Cablevision. We were testing out a music partner called Rhapsody, so my account was complimentary as long as I provided feedback from a beta tester standpoint. I came upon La La quite randomly. Lead singer Brian Vander Ark’s voice is distinct and raspy-sweet, and the song starts out quiet, but soon erupts with a beautiful rock melody with harmonies reminiscent of the ones I loved by the band Ambrosia from the seventies. I love pretty much everything about this song and I am glad I discovered it. It brings me a sense of roots, of both longing and belonging. Today is November 5th and it would have been my 17th anniversary at Cablevision. This song and that date will forever be tethered.
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