February 08, 2008
Friday random ten: Super Friday!

The follow list of ten random songs has nothing whatsoever to do with the Presidential primary, and very little to do with politics of any sort.

1. "Turn the Beat Around" - Vickie Sue Robinson. Resolved: Every disco song ever written is in some sense about disco itself. Discuss.

2. "Rock Lobster" - The B-52s. I've mentioned before how it can be disconcerting to finally hear the original version of a song for which you'd only heard the Weird Al Yankovic parody previously. The same is true for MOB-arranged songs, of which this is one. I'd probably played the MOB version for a decade before I ever heard the B-52s rendition. Let's just say that Ken Dye does an amazingly good job at distilling tunes like this to their essential core, and then quitting while he's ahead.

3. "Everybody's Everything" - Santana. Another MOB song, with an even longer interval before I heard the original. Having now heard it, I wonder why it took so long. This is a hot little tune, and I can't quite understand how after twenty years of Classic Rock prevalence, it never once made it onto any station's playlist. What do "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" have that this song doesn't?

4. "Quartet (A Model Of Decorum and Tranquility)" - from the "Chess" soundtrack. I love contrapuntal music.

5. "We Will All Go Together When We Go" - Tom Lehrer. There are days in which I think this is a hopeful song. Those are not good days.

6. "Train Train" - Blackfoot. I'm pretty sure the opening harmonica riff was the inspiration for Eddie From Ohio's "Train Song". Everybody's got a folk song about a train, after all.

7. "I Know A Little" - Lynyrd Skynyrd. Is it just me or does anyone else think it's a little weird that the same group that blithely told Neil Young to kiss its redneck ass also did one of the more strident pro-gun control songs out there? That has nothing to do with this song, but it seemd like as good a time as any to bring it up.

8. "Bustin' Loose" - Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. Nothing like a little good funk.

9. "All the Way to Memphis" - Mott the Hoople. I know we're all inured to the Dave Barry concept of thus-and-such making a great band name, but I'd always wondered about this one. Turns out it's taken from a novel, much like Steppenwolf and (after a fashion) Steely Dan. Does anyone still name their bands this way?

10. "Your Racist Friend" - They Might Be Giants. Just a guess, but I don't think this song is on Kelly Siegler's iPod right now.

That's all for now. You may begin mocking in the comments at your leisure.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 08, 2008 to Music
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