Friday, February 10, 2006

Seven Songs

Trista challenged me in her latest blog entry to list seven songs that are currently on my "hot list." I am supposed to ask seven other people to do the same, but she's already tagged almost everyone I could. So, here is a listing of my seven songs. If you'd like to join me, let me know!

"Mr. Brightside" by The Killers - This song is one of my current favorites – even though it’s not really a current hit anymore. It’s my ring tone. I love it. What more can I say? Well, I do advise others not to research lead singers they like on the Internet. As with Michael Stipe, the more I know, the less I like. Look up Brandon Flowers on Wikipedia. I choose some doosies!

"Fire Woman" by The Cult - It reminds me of my youth. It is played two out of five times I listen to my radio. Given the total amount of time I get to spend listening to “my songs”, I believe it’s true that this song is stalking me and making me feel old and used up! Here’s the story:

One Friday night just before my 18th birthday, my college roommate and I were sitting around drinking a few beers. Ann was quite a character. Despite the fact that both of her parents were professors, she flunked out at the end of freshman year. Out of nowhere, she decided that she wanted to take a road trip that night. She had a rusty red truck and I had nothing better to do. Before long we were headed down some country road in her pick up. She was a hard rock fan and had just bought Sonic Temple that week. She put it in the cassette deck and started playing it full blast. “Fire Woman” is the second track and I fell in with it the first time I heard it. For whatever reason, songs with the word “fire” in them always appeal to me – especially if fire is sung in a distinct way. I made her play it over and over. At one point, I rolled down the window, leaned out to nearly my waist and belted out the chorus at the top of my lungs. The cold, October wind was ripping through my hair and shirt. All the while, I was pounding the beat of the song with my hands against the roof and the door. I felt so alive. For those few moments, I was that fire woman. I commanded the entire world that stretched out before me. A far cry from supervising technical writers and trying to get my children to sleep at night at a decent hour! :)

"How Soon is Now" by The Smiths - I’m not exactly sure what it is about this song that fascinates me. Mostly it’s the music and how it leads into the opening lyrics: “I am the sun and the air…” I can listen to this song over and over and over and over and over…

"I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness - This song really gets me in a good mood. The singer is crazy in more ways that one. He could probably sing the most mundane hymn and breathe life into it. Their music is a lot like some of the harder 70s music. In fact, the lead singer does have a similar fashion sense as Steven Tyler. This song is so much fun to dance to! Unfortunately I can’t get Emma to dance to it with me. She’d have fun with this song if she’d let herself.

"Alison Kraus" by The Stills - The Stills album came into my life while I was expecting Allison – but before she was named Allison. After Allison was named, I really got into this song. I love the way the name Allison sounds when he sings it. Did I forget to mention that this song is not about the singer Alison Kraus but about a made up German prostitute? Boy, you'd think I had really high hopes for Allison. :)

"Guiding Light" by The Veils - The thing that intrigued me first about this song is the title. How could the song not be wonderful? It’s the name of my favorite soap opera for crying out loud! The song is really catchy. The Veils are another one of the bands that Danny has introduced me to through his musical network. To be honest, without him my list would be made up of all children’s artists – which leads me to:

"Ponies" by The Wiggles - I’m the mom of a preschooler and a toddler. For the most part, I get to listen to music in the car. When I’m in the car, my daughters are with me. Let’s face it. I have long since lost my role as the "Music Sheriff" in the Conner Family Minivan. That role belongs to Emma now. Ever since Thanksgiving, I’ve been listening to Christmas music. Come the end of January that gets very old. I would now strangle Burl Ives if he were alive and standing in front of me! Thank God for the Wiggles! I cannot tell you how fortunate I am now that I bought the girls some Wiggles DVDs. They have saved my sanity. Danny has since won an eBay bid for seven Wiggles CDs. Now I can put Christmas in the past and instead contemplate about the sounds made by horse tails and horse shoes! I can’t help but find myself singing “swish, swish, swish” at just the right moments. Thankfully, this is one song that Emma has granted me permission me to sing. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You bring up an interesting musical question: Do ring tones count as songs? ;-)

Jennifer said...

When your 3 year old daughter is the Music Sheriff it sure does! :)

Trista said...

Good list, although I feel incredibly dowdy by reading it. I haven't listened to alternative music in ... well ... a few years, I would guess. Since the arrival of the knee-biters, my collection is pretty limited to toddler tunes. It interests me how all of your bands start with "The". hmm.