Top 10 Songs: A Challenge

Inspired by this guy who decided to put up a poll to discover the top 10 "iconic" songs of Rock and Roll, I've decided to try to come up with my top 10 favorite songs of all time. This will be a huge challenge, probably won't work, will be completely arbitrary; I'll probably leave off some really good songs that I'll get mad later that I didn't include. In fact, the list could be completely different tomorrow. But for now, let's try to get through this. Perhaps it will spark some debate.


First, the criteria:


I enjoy songs that move me. Not necessarily songs that make me want to dance (though that often helps), but songs that have a fantastic rhythm, or songs that have a fantastic mood, or even songs that have a fantastic lyric. So it has to be a song that I enjoy on many different levels. There are plenty of songs that I really enjoy, but often for only one or 2 reasons: they make we want to dance, they make me want to play air guitar, they make me want to play real guitar, they make me want to laugh or cry, they make me nostalgic, they make me want to do something like run away and start a new life in New York, or propose marriage to a beautiful girl, or travel the world and never stay in one place more than a week. Songs can inspire many, many different feelings. Most of the songs on my list will inspire lots of feelings. Some won't, and in those cases, if they made the list despite inspiring only 1 or 2 emotions, you can be sure that those are powerful songs.


Musically, it has to be a beautiful, well-written song. You may disagree when I go with a song that has 4 chords, 3 verses and a chorus, but so be it. Sometimes simple is much more beautiful and well-done than over-the-top, complex, multi-level songs. But I'm sure there will be some of those too.


Influence: I will weigh heavily a song's (or, in some cases more accurately, a band's) influence upon an era, later musicians, and society as a whole. This will be nowhere more evident than in my first choice.


Intangibles: there are some songs that I probably won't be able to explain. We'll call them the Derek Jeter songs: they're very good and deserve a place in the top tier, but are still completely overrated for reasons that remain a mystery. Or maybe it's just because they've hooked up with Mariah Carey, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, and numerous other hot, famous celebrities.


Finally, the last disclaimer: I reserve the right to break any and all rules at any time. What's Rock and Roll without breaking the rules?*


*And yes, I'm aware how pre-packaged and cheesy that line is. Doesn't that show us how far we've come from Rock and Roll being this revolutionary, rebellious force that destroyed all pre-conceived notions about race, music, society, morals... to simply a way for schmucks like Nickelback, Rihanna and that guy who wrote that country song about putting a boot up someone's ass (what's his name? God, he's awful) to make money and sedate our country's youth until they have no real idea about what music is?**


**And if I sound cynical, just come with me when I teach 6th grade.


On with the list:


1. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana -- Well, you knew it was gonna be on here somewhere right? So let's just get it out of the way.


There is still a debate raging among people who were alive and cognitive when Nirvana burned brightly for a few years, then burned out. The debate is between those who believe Nirvana was the destructive, creative force that brushed aside the schlock of the hair bands and ushered in our current state of rock, or whether it would have happened without them, or if Pearl Jam should get that credit. The folks with the latter argument claim that if Eddie Vedder had killed himself instead of Kurt Cobain, P. Jam would get the attention Nirvana now does. There may be some truth to this.


The way I remember it, though, was "Teen Spirit" was overwhelming. It was everywhere. Everyone liked it. Hard rockers, teeny boppers, whoever. It was all over MTV (you know, back when they still played videos). You couldn't escape it. Pearl Jam on the other hand, was not the massive force Nirvana was. Sure, they were huge. "Jeremy" was probably a better video, and nearly as good a song as "Teen Spirit", and they deserve a lot of credit for putting us all in a flannel-wearing, shoe-staring funk, but Nirvana possessed something more.

It's like this: Nirvana was the crazy, hot, wild party girl who EVERYONE wants to be with, but after her 20s is burned out, used up, possibly OD'ed on drugs and noone wants to settle down with. Sure, she'll teach you a few things, but in the end, she'll probably end up hurting you and leaving you for some guy with tattoos who plays in a Poison cover band. Pearl Jam, on the other hand, was her cute friend who is consistently attractive, but never wildly hot. Until you hit your 30s and suddenly, you realize she's exactly what you want because even though she was at the same parties, she doesn't have all the mileage and baggage of the crazy girl. Even that metaphor doesn't get it quite right.


I don't want to spend all my time on this. Suffice it say, I can still hear the beginning of "Teen Spirit" and get fired up. It's a classic song, and will always define my generation.


2. "Nuthin' But a G Thang", Dr. Dre -- Ah, and quickly on the heels of the grunge movement, came this classic which introduced the world to real rap. Looking back on my youth, if I had to pick 2 songs to define it, these 2 are the ones I would go with. This song was unstoppable. Like "Teen Spirit", it represented an underground (or at least, not largely recognized) musical movement that finally broke through to massive popularity. Sure, we'd had "Rapper's Delight", and Run DMC, and even the Beastie Boys, but "G Thang" was it. Again, everyone knew it. Even rockers had to respect it. And you can't turn it off if it comes on. Go ahead, try. You can't do it.


3. "Folsom Prison Blues," Johnny Cash -- So now that we've gotten those 2 out of the way, we can get to some of my more personal selections. Many people would not put Cash in their top 10 rock artists. For me, he's in my top 5. The man is essentially American. His songs are classic: simple, quick, everything a rock song should be. This one represents Cash the best, to me, but you could really choose any of about 15 songs to call his "best."

4. "Ball and Chain," Social Distortion -- my first selection that's probably not well-known. To me, this song is quite possibly the perfect Rock and Roll song. It's a great blend of honky-tonk, blues, and punk. It works as a rock song with electric guitars, a great solo, and yelled choruses, and it works as a stripped-down, honky-tonk, old-school-country acoustic song. The lyrics are nothing short of majestic, powerfully matched with the bluesy feel of the music. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.

5. "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts," Bob Dylan -- You could pick any number of Dylan songs. This just happens to be my favorite. It's nearly 9 minutes long, has no chorus, and no bridge. I have no clue what it's about, but I love listening to it. The man may not be able to sing worth a damn, but I love to listen to his poetry.


6. "Train in Vain," The Clash -- I love the Clash. This is probably my favorite of theirs, but if you wanted "Rock the Casbah," or "Should I Stay or Should I Go," or even "London Calling," I wouldn't argue. As an album, "London Calling" might be the most complete, unified, influential, perfect album of all time. "Train in Vain" was a originally a hidden bonus track. That should tell you how good that album is.

7. "What I Got," Sublime -- Probably some controversy here. Sublime is recognized as neither influential, immensely popular, nor as particularly good musically. And yet, in the late 90s, after they were gone, I listened to them non-stop. Maybe it was all that pot I smoked* or maybe it was just that everything on the radio then was crap. Whatever it was, Sublime has played a huge role in defining my personal musical tastes. I couldn't leave them out.

*A joke. Hi Mom!

8. "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," The Ramones -- I had a lot of trouble coming up with #8: With only 3 spots left, where do I go from here? Well, I love the Ramones. To me, they're punk rock more than those poser, British, "we're a-holes just to be a-holes" The Sex Pistols. The Ramones brought Rock and Roll back to what it was supposed to be. I once read somewhere that in a time when over-produced stadium rock was king, The Ramones did the opposite: they said what they needed to say, and got out. That's it. Their songs were simple, quick, and loud. But that's all they needed to be. Sometimes 3 chords, 3 verses and a chorus are all you need. No flashy guitar solos, no huge, over-designed massive rock opera shows; just 4 guys with instruments, buzz-sawing through power chords, banging on the drums, and yelling at you. What can be better than that?

9. "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," Barry White -- I could have easily gone with "Let's Get it On" or "Got to Give it Up (Part 1)" by Marvin Gaye, and tomorrow, I'll probably kick myself for not doing it. Marvin Gaye had some kinda way about him. And a helluva voice. The man made ladies knees buckle. How can you not respect that? But for me, this Barry White song was my first introduction to smooth R&B (or maybe you could call it "babymaking music"), and it's been one of my favorites ever since.

10. "Could You Be Loved," Bob Marley -- And what list would be complete without Bob? Most people would probably go with "No Woman, No Cry" or "Redemption Song". Certainly those are the most well-known, and even the one I've chosen is probably too well-known. His more obscure songs are undoubtedly better than those you'll find on "Legend," but really, any Bob Marley is good Bob Marley. His music is still loved all over the world. To put it another way -- and to quote one of my favorite shows -- the character Michael from "LOST", upon hearing someone sing Marley, and then ask him whether he likes Marley, says, "Man, who doesn't like Bob Marley?"

And there you have it. My attempt at a top-10 list. It is probably skewed heavily toward the last 30 years, or roughly my lifetime, but so be it. What's interesting, though, is that there's not a song from the last 15 years on it. I could probably have listed any of the music I currently listen to, and I would give an honorable mention to "Mahgeetah," by My Morning Jacket as well as a few others from the past few years.*

Another interesting note is that I have only just over half (6) of these 10 songs on my iPod currently. In fact, the first 2 songs are NOT on my iPod or in any rotation of music I listen to.

*In fact, I couldn't resist a quick list of Honorable Mentions (strictly from the last few years):
The Avett Brothers
The Arcade Fire
Bon Iver
"Eurotrash Girl," Cracker
Josh Ritter
Radiohead
The Shins

For most of them, I couldn't pick one song, because either a) they didn't have a definitive "hit", or b) they have so many that are good, I simply couldn't pick one and be happy about it to represent them.

So there's my list. I can't believe I just spent almost 2 hours putting this together. But rip it apart, agree, criticize, adjust, whatever. It's fun.

History Made

I was teaching 6th grade today, and all of the middle school stopped still just before noon to take in the Presidential Inauguration. It was an historic day, and my students -- often poorly behaved and talkative -- calmed down, sat still and listened. A few were hard-headed and unattentive, but for those who understood, they captured the moment, and took it all in.

I myself was rather excited to watch the proceedings. For the first time in a while, I look forward to where our nation is headed, rather than being upset about the course we are on. I watched with rapt attention as our new President was sworn in. But I was even more interested in his speech. He did not disappoint.

I did not take notes so I cannot go back through the speech point by point, but the general overall theme that I took away was this: a call to action. He admitted that our nation faces some of the toughest times we have known. He stressed that it would not be easy to pull out of it. And he called for an "era of responsibility". This really impressed me.

He was authoritative. He was eloquent. And he made clear that he is our leader, and that he requires everyone's help to make America as great as it can and should be. He made clear that division would not effect progress, and that the time for that was over. Instead of distracting ourselves with new issues, we need to confront the difficulties that we face. We have to lean on our traditional American values of responsibility, hard work, ingenuity, and commitment to the ideals of freedom. As a conservative, these themes really struck me. I enjoyed hearing them.

And so, I am excited for our new President. I sincerely hope he can bring the change he promised. It seems as though in one fell swoop, our standing in the world has been restored, the respect from other nations is restored, and our optimism is restored.

I don't want to overstate things, but it's hard not to be hopeful today. The atmosphere surrounding the events of the day was immensely positive. I am proud again to be American, and for that, even though I may oppose some of his ideals, I thank our new President. I hope he continues to earn my and everyone's pride and respect.

Ever Wondered If You Can Find True Love on TV?

Well, apparently plenty of people in America have. And they are on in primetime for your guilty pleasure enjoyment.

As my descent into domesticity continues, I was introduced last night to every red-blooded American females' TV obsession NOT called Grey's Anatomy. That's right, it was The Bachelor. A bit of a disclaimer before I sink into the madness:

Before 3 months ago, I had never seen an entire episode of a "reality TV" show in my life. I was quite proud of this. Oh sure, I looked at Survivor and the Real World briefly, just to see what the all the hubbub was about. I turned them both off after only moments, in order to save my sanity, my vocal cords, and my (probably somewhat limited) intelligence. I've never seen more than snippets of American Idol.*

*So I see that we're headed for another season of this fantastic program. My question is: how many American idols can there be? Isn't the definition of an "idol" that he or she is somewhat unique; in other words, there is no one else who can provide what they give us?

Anywhoo, this "The Bachelor" is riveting television. Basically, they find an attractive single man with the personality of a dish sponge, and surround him with 25 women with souls, motives and masks so thin they're transparent. It really is an astounding display. One gets the feeling that a talented sociologist could write an entire book-length dissertation on what this show illustrates about our culture, our values, our relationships and our societal health.

But despite how this show represents the downfall of Western Civilization (not to overstate the thing), it does provide endless fodder for jokes, questions, observations, and domestic arguments (and who doesn't love a good domestic argument?).

The women they find for this show are -- in a word -- incredible. I think, without looking it up, the Bachelor himself is 32. So the majority of the women are in their 20s. Now, right off the bat, we can divide the age groups into 3 types of women: those in their early 20s -- say, 23 (I think that was the youngest) to about 26; the late 20s: 27-29; and those in their 30s (I think the oldest was 34).

Those in their early 20s are mostly rather simple. They're still innocent enough to believe in some kind of overwhelming true love and a resultant, endless domestic tranquility. They all have decent jobs to support themselves, but we know that most of them will leave these careers in the near future when they finally snag a man and start having kids. However, while they are deluded enough to believe that they can find happiness on a television show, they -- for the most part -- have not really begun to freak out about their biological clocks.

Next we have the late 20s group. This group is almost universally defined by the way their biological clocks have begun chiming... loudly. This chiming seems to drown out anything else they can hear, including that inner voice that everyone has which controls one's inhibitions, emotions and reasoning. All they know is that they need to find a man soon, and everywhere around them it appears all the good ones have been taken. Delirious, they begin to believe that this man they've seen on a television show is the perfect man for them, and them alone. And so they throw themselves into this chase. And they don't care who gets in their way, or how they get said person OUT of their way.

Finally, we reach the women in their 30s. I think there was only a couple of these women on the show. One, who is clearly a front-runner, and the one I immediately spotted as the sentimental favorite, is a very self-possessed, cool, confident 34-year-old single mother. Her husband was killed in a tragic (she's never wont to remind us of that word) plane crash when her baby girl was only a few weeks old. Now, after 3 and a half years, she's ready to love again. And she thinks this Bachelor character could be the one for her. Still delusional, just not quite as desperate and scary as the late 20s girls.

Now on with descriptions of a couple of women specifically. I don't know how much can be attributed to good editing, or whether these women are as silly, strange or stupid as they appear. I think it's probably a combination. Regardless, there are some contestants* who are simply astounding, and provide us with the knowledge that we are not anywhere near the dumbest, weirdest person out there, and that we are not a failure because we did not quit our jobs to go on a TV show looking for love. And yes, one woman did actually quit her job so that she could go on a TV show looking for love. Quite the desperate move. But, for the first round of cuts** at least, it seems to have worked.

* After all, aren't they all contestants to be the one that dumps this guy 2 months after the show when they get their first call from a casting agent?

** I love to call them "cuts" because, basically, the eliminations are like cuts from your local high school Varsity basketball squad. "Sorry, honey, you didn't make enough free throws, your footwork is slow, and you kiss like a nun. Better luck next year."

So, we met one woman, in her late 20s of course, who is a dental hygienist. Her teeth, while straight and white, are actually probably her worst feature. They're large, and they seem to protrude from her mouth whenever she laughs or giggles, which is, unfortunately, too often. She's clearly entered the Bat-sh*t-insane portion of her late 20s in which all she can see are potential mates, she's a borderline stalker (she knew the Bachelor's brother and the woman HE is currently dating, as well as his height, weight, eye color, bloodtype, shoe size, and preferred sleeping position -- it was frightening), and she's almost guaranteed to make it to the final 3 women because the producers want to keep around as long as possible just to see if she'll do any or all of the following things:

1) get the Bachelor into a hot tub, and possibly have some sort of sexual relations with him in front of the cameras,

2) get in a yelling match, and/or physical altercation with one of the other women, or

3) bite someone.

My money's on all 3. In the same day.

Another of our crazy women was one from LA, who was originally from somewhere like Topeka, Kansas or Minnetonka, Minnesota or something. She's 29 I think, and has been in LA too long without getting any callbacks for anything other than a movie about vampire hookers and ads for hand lotion. She's painfully skinny, because you have to be in LA. But the real kicker was her constant discussion of her "vision boards". You remember those boards that 16-year-old girls would make where they'd cut out words from Seventeen magazine, and make a collage with them and pictures of their best friends, and guys from boy bands and teen movies? Well, basically, this woman did that, but with things that she would like to happen in her life. They actually had footage of her pasting words like "marriage" and "happiness" next to pictures of her and the Bachelor onto poster board. She told the guy about this when she got her 2 minutes alone with him. Sadly, but not surprisingly, she didn't make the first cut. One can only hope that she can find a new use for her scissors and hot glue gun.

I'd love to go on and discuss how catty, yet somewhat restrained these women were during the first episode, but this post is too long, especially since it's about something so terribly unmasculine. I need to go fix something, and watch Sportscenter in my underwear.

But stay tuned for further updates concerning our hero's quest for love on national primetime television. Me, I'm hopeful that he'll find his soulmate. What about you?

I Have Ice Skates

And I went ice skating yesterday and today. I went yesterday out on the lake on which I live. It's been frozen over since about early November. There are random spots of snow and random patches of clear ice, but it's pretty fun to get out there. It froze over pretty smoothly.

I got ice skates for my birthday in early December, as well as a hockey stick and a couple pucks. I think -- I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure -- that I'm required by law to take up playing hockey upon my establishing residence here in New Hampshire.

Today I went ice skating with L (my girlfriend) in New London, a picturesque New England town, complete with a 150+ year-old private liberal arts college; a large, colonial Inn still in operation; and an ice rink on the town green. We like to go to the town to do laundry* and while we were waiting for the clothes to wash today we went skating. L got some skates a couple of days ago, as well as a hockey stick. She seems to have some desire for me to hurt her while playing hockey together. It doesn't make much sense. Anyway, we were surrounded by several kids, and I actually fell down a couple times. I blame it on the children. Punks. Hang on, I think I hear some on my lawn -- I have to go yell at them.

*Well, we don't LIKE doing laundry, but you get the idea.

All in all, though, it's been a very nice start to 2009 for me. Last night, L and I went down to Boston for the Celtics-Wizards game at the FleetBankNorthTDCenter Garden (or whatever the name is). I won Cs tickets on the radio last year, which also included a membership in "Club Green", the Celtics booster club. I was unaware of this, but apparently my membership also included free tickets to this game this year, as well as membership for this season. So that was cool. The Celtics won big, as usual.

The highlight of the night for me, though, was the "Gino" video. If you haven't heard, during the waning moments of a Celtics victory, the JumboTron will show a clip of an old '70s American Bandstand episode. The PA system plays The Beegees "You Should Be Dancin'", and about 30 seconds into the video, you see a handsome fellow with his name on his shirt: Gino. The crowd eats it up, and on the JumboTron, they cut in people from the stadium dancing it up as well. Anyway, it's a classic way to celebrate a blowout victory, and -- well, here, see for yourself:




Pretty incredible.

Welp, no time or space here for my 2009 goals, resolutions, future failures, etc. Maybe tomorrow.