40 posts tagged “song of the week”
This is a favorite of mine. Of course, I'm referring to the Simon and Garfunkel version-I like to pretend that the others, like Clay Aiken's, do not exist. This song isn't THE favorite, but it's definitely one I can listen to repeatedly and still have love for. It's just such a soothing, relaxing song. I've read that Paul Simon regretted letting Art Garfunkel sing the solo, but I can't imagine the song without the solo. It's so powerful.
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When you’re weary, feeling small, When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all; I’m on your side. When times get rough And friends just can’t be found, Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down. When you’re down and out, Sail on silvergirl, Like a bridge over troubled water |
So last week, Dr Pepper (my favorite beverage/addiction) announced something completely hilarious: if Axl Rose releases his long-promised Chinese Democracy anytime during 2008, they'll give a free drink to everyone in America (except Slash and Buckethead).
Patrick and I had a very serious discussion about Chinese Democracy this past winter break after hearing "Paradise City" on the radio, which made my brother headbang and flail his arms so ferociously that passing drivers stared at us. Because once upon a time, Guns N' Roses used to be AWESOME. I mean, they had every ingredient necessary for a hedonistic, good old rock and roll band: a hot lead singer, great guitar riffs, lots of excess, and of course, good music. (I became a GnR fan when I was seventeen and eighteen, because in their heyday, I was all of four or five). It's sad what they are today: a fractured band, with Axl as the only original member (and homeboy should really lay off the plastic surgery while he's at it). And from what I remember at the 2002 VMAs, his once-soaring vocals aren't what they used to be.
To be honest, as much as I would LOVE a free Dr Pepper, I wouldn't care to have Chinese Democracy released. Ever. I mean, you know it's going to blow. It's only been in development for FOURTEEN FUCKING YEARS. Even the last Harry Potter book would have sucked if it had taken that long to be released-how can something live up to such heightened expectations? And Shaquille O'Neal is even supposed to rap on one of the songs. Because, you know, having Shaq rap is always a recipe for success.
So even though Guns N' Roses is just a joke nowadays, we can always remember them from their glory days. I think my favorite song of theirs is "Paradise City." Yeah, "Sweet Child O'Mine" is great too, good guitar riff, blah blah, but it does not kick ass as much as "Paradise City" does.
The video is nothing special, but if you fast-forward to the 4:48 mark, the song gets fucking amazing. If I hadn't been driving that one time Pat and I heard it on the radio, I probably would have started headbanging and acting like a total idiot too.
I know, I know, this song came out over two years ago; I'm not that behind. Back in Spring 2006, this song was my JAM (not because I have any intentions of finding me a rich sugar daddy, it's just a really good song).
However, this song is dedicated to Ms. Heather Mills, she of dubious intentions who is now currently divorced from Sir Paul McCartney (my favorite Beatle, if you must know) and is receiving a cool $55 million from him. She originally wanted $250 million, but even the judge could see what a huge bitch she is and slashed her request. She responded gracefully by dumping a glass of water on McCartney's attorney's head. (I wish I were making this shit up.) And has anybody seen what her annual expenses are? The fact that she spends $80,000 on alcohol annually, even though she supposedly does not drink, blows my mind.
Poor Paul McCartney. Dude should have holla'd for prenup.
So, confession-I love oldies. At work, I like to play the VH1 Radio's Oldies station (though the DJ seems to have his definition of "oldies" mixed up, since the station today was playing The Bangles and Pat Benetar. The 80's should not be considered oldies yet. But I digress.)
Anyway, the station began playing the Aretha Franklin version of this song, and my immediate reaction was, "What is this my ears are being subjected to?" While I do like some Aretha songs, I'm not a huge fan. And she certainly didn't do any justice to this song.
Sam Cooke's original version is the best-smooth, catchy, and timeless. Just what I love about oldies.
Okay, so I realized that my last two posts have been complete downers. I want a slightly more uplifting entry for my faithful reader(s).
Tonight was 80's night on American Idol (yes, I'm still keeping up with it. Shut up! Shut up!) I didn't watch it because I was too busy Halo 3-ing it on Xbox Live. Anyway, one of the contestants covered "Hallelujah" and did a fairly decent job at it.
Of course, his performance leads to the inevitable discussion-who has the best version of "Hallelujah?" Some argue Leonard Cohen, the original singer. Others are Rufus Wainwright fans. I find myself in the Jeff Buckley camp-his version is so ethereal and gorgeous. The others don't touch it.
When I was growing up, I thought that I was more like my dad. But in recent years, I've had to re-evaluate this. I'm much more like my mom than I'd originally thought. We're both smart but somewhat absent-minded and random. We were both well-behaved girls growing up, neither of us qualifying as the stereotypical party girls, but we both had a slight rebellious streak. We're extremely stubborn and usually get what we want. We love fashion.
Another thing to add to this list: if we have a favorite song, we will listen to it over and over again until we are absolutely sick of it.
My mom has been doing this all my life. When I was a little girl (think 3 or 4), it was her tapes of Italian music. Even now, I can remember and recognize songs from those tapes, even if I haven't actually heard the songs in 17 or 18 years. U2's Joshua Tree, my mother's favorite cd, and the Grease soundtrack were on rotation a lot when I was a kid. But nothing my mother ever played beat how many times she listened to the Steely Dan Greatest Hits cd during the summer of 1997. If you were in the car and my mother was the driver, that cd was played. Every. Day. You can imagine my relief when the cd went mysteriously missing for a couple of years (I swear I had nothing to do with it). It took me a long time to get over my aversion to Steely Dan. Even now, I can't listen to "My Old School" without conjuring up memories of a hot car and the smell of sunscreen.
But now, I'm the same way. I will kill a once wonderful song because I've played it for too many times. Here is a current list of songs I've been listening to in the past week or so.
1. "Tiny Dancer," Elton John -This has been one of my favorite songs since high school. It's such a lovely song.
2. "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues," Elton John - Again, just a great, solid song.
3. "Wake Up Call," Maroon 5 - If you had asked me back in 2004 if I liked Maroon 5, my response would have been "eh." Maybe because I heard "This Love" on the radio every three seconds. But after the hype died down, I gave Songs About Jane a chance and liked it. I really like "Wake Up Call." It's so peppy and catchy that I didn't even realize what it was about the first couple of times I listened to it (it's about a man shooting his girlfriend's lover).
4. "Piece of Me," Britney Spears - Everyone went crazy over this song when her cd came out, and I thought, "Man, this song kind of sucks, what's the big deal?" It grew on me though.
5. "One More Try," Timmy T. - I used to hear this song all the time in elementary school, and I completely forgot that it existed until I heard it on the radio yesterday. It's so wistful and lovely. I'm not even pining over anyone (that sounds so old-fashioned), but I'm a sucker for good little romantic ditties, no matter how cheesy (listen for the spoken word ending, a true sign of early 90's awesomeness).
So this week's song is dedicated to your guilty pleasures-those times that a song comes on a radio, and you immediately get happy and start dancing to it in your seat. And then when the song is over, you feel ashamed. You realize that you should be kind of embarrassed for your love of the song, and that even the original artists have divorced themselves from this song. But then you kind of forget about your embarrassment and keep dancing in your seat, keeping your shameful secret to yourself.
"Good Vibrations" is one of these songs. Marky Mark YO.
I don't care how cheesy this song supposedly is-it's such a soothing little ditty. Listening to it reminds you that no matter how frustrating or scary life can get sometimes, it's a blessing to be alive.
I love this little song. And I know it's supposed to be about a break-up, but I've never heard it in that context. I heard this song played during my freshman orientation camp, when we were supposed to reflect on high school and what we were leaving behind. I've heard it used for class songs, too. So maybe I'm as delusional as those people who choose "Every Breath You Take" and "I Will Always Love You" as first dance songs at their weddings, but this song sums up my college experience for me.
I couldn't have done it alone, and I will keep this brief, because those who are important to me already know how much they matter. I couldn't have done it without my parents' incredible support, and I think my success in college is more of a reflection on their own hard work and struggles when we were little than my own.
To Patrick-thank you for being an insomniac and letting me rant all the time.
To my friends-thank you for keeping me sane. Even though some of you may be far from here, I still care about you all. Thank you for the hyper marshmallow nights, dorm crushes, basketball games, making up an entire fake band and naming songs after environmental engineering subjects, rolling down hills, "Old woman in a shoe," trading Chuck Norris jokes online, talking for hours on the phone about our crushes and boyfriends, the margarita/Scrabble/ghetto taco night, "Gettin' chiggy wit it," dinners at Pita Pit before class, and the study sessions where no one really studied.
To the handful of professors who genuinely care-thank you.
Thanks for the memories. Goodbye, Cowboy Country.
One of my favorite movies is American Beauty.
I was only fifteen when I saw it, and there haven't been many movies since that were as absorbing and mesmerizing as this one was to me (then again, maybe it's because I haven't seen too many movies.) Also, it started my crush on Kevin Spacey that lasted a couple of years. But you didn't hear that from me.
When I was a freshman in college, it took me weeks to download this movie, thanks to the firewalls on campus (these were the days before Youtube or the dearly departed TV Links). The day it finally downloaded, I remember going to a "floor slumber party" that night, wishing I could be antisocial so I could leave and watch the film. (I ended up leaving early anyway, since the girls on my floor were mostly pretty stupid, and especially after a "friend" of my roommate's dismissed Rabia's absence by saying, "She's at some stupid Muslim thing.")
The song appears in the pivotal scene between Lester and Angela, and I remembered thinking it was one of the prettiest songs I'd heard. It's an Annie Lennox cover of the Neil Young song, and it's very rare when I like covers as much as this one. It has such lush orchestration and haunting vocals. I listened to this song so much during Spring 2003 that it deserves the long introduction.
