Top 10 Songs Featuring Harmonica

Carlos is not a fan of the harmonica or any song containing it. And I love the harmonica. 

Back in the day, my friend Matt and I each bought $60 harmonicas for the sole purpose of learning how to play - and then woo women.

It was the early 1990's.

I was still dating women then.

I still love the sound of the instrument and any song containing it. Here are my Top 10 Songs Featuring Harmonica. Enjoy. You too, Carlos!

Black Country Woman - Led Zeppelin

From Me to You - The Beatles

I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues - Elton John Featuring Stevie Wonder

Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder

Long May You Run - Neil Young

Piano Man - Billy Joel

Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

Running To Stand Still - U2

What I Like About You - The Romantics

 

What Would You Say - Dave Matthews Band

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I've never been a fan of Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen so I couldn't list their songs. I could have listed many more U2, Neil Young or Stevie Wonder songs. What songs are your favorites?

Top 10 Artists: Badfinger (Revisited)

Back here, I posted my Top Ten Favorite Badfinger Songs (in chronological order).

The site Ultimate Classic Rock - one of my daily reads - recently posted its list of Top 10 Badfinger Songs. Not surprising to me, our list shares exactly one song: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch / Should I Smoke. Their lists in general tend to lean toward the more popular songs by a band, rarely anything from deep in the catalog.

Though I do appreciate their love for Rock Lists!

Here is the song that we both agree on...

Badfinger: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch / Should I Smoke

Ballet

At work, our favorite radio station is 104.1 - "Voodoo 104.1 ... New Orleans". Because of the station, I'm able to kick ass in the Current Pop Music category in the Song Pop games I play with my friends.

One of the songs in current rotation on the station is The Script's song Hall of Fame. Here are the lyrics. The video is below the lyrics.

 Yeah, you can be the greatest
You can be the best
You can be the King Kong banging on your chest

You could beat the world
You could beat the war
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

You can throw your hands up
You can beat the clock (yeah)
You can move a mountain
You can break rocks
You can be a master
Don't wait for luck
Dedicate yourself and you gon' find yourself

Standing in the hall of fame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

You can go the distance
You can run the mile
You can walk straight through hell with a smile

You could be the hero
You could get the gold
Breaking all the records they thought never could be broke

Yeah, do it for your people
Do it for your pride
How you ever gonna know if you never even try?

Do it for your country
Do it for your name
'Cause there's gonna be a day...

When you're standing in the hall of fame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

Be a champion, be a champion, be a champion, be a champion
On the walls of the hall of fame

Be students
Be teachers
Be politicians
Be preachers
(Yeah)

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions
Be truth seekers

Be students
Be teachers
Be politicians
Be preachers

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions

Standing in the hall of fame (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah, yeah, yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

(You can be a champion)
You could be the greatest
(You can be a champion)
You can be the best
(You can be a champion)
You can be the King Kong banging on your chest

(You can be a champion)
You could beat the world
(You can be a champion)
You could beat the war
(You can be a champion)
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

(You can be a champion)
You can throw your hands up
(You can be a champion)
You can beat the clock(yeah)
(You can be a champion)
You can move a mountain
(You can be a champion)
You can break rocks

(You can be a champion)
You can be a master
(You can be a champion)
Don't wait for luck
(You can be a champion)
Dedicate yourself and you gonna find yourself
(You can be a champion)

Standing in the hall of fame

And here's the video...



I'm going through some trying times at work right now and am looking for any kind of inspiration to help me work through this time. One of my philosophies in life is: when I'm not sure how to proceed, throw enough darts at the dartboard and some of them will stick. That is, try enough methods to work myself out of a situation and some of them will work.

Here is where I want to link to the tag of the past times I've discussed some of my other life philosophies, but I see that I have not previously created that link. In the future, I will come back to this post and rectify that. I'll leave this tag for now.

The Script's lyrics and especially the video reminded me of a 1982 Rush song called Losing It. Both songs involve ballerinas - and making a live change. In the Rush song, the ballerina is defeated. In the Script's song, she is not.

The lyrics to Rush's Losing It (with the video following)...

The dancer slows her frantic pace
In pain and desperation
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration

Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire
With just the briefest pause
The flooding through her memory
The echoes of old applause

She limps across the floor
And closes her bedroom door...

The writer stare with glassy eyes
Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined

And streaked with tears of rage

Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision

And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more...

Some are born to move the world
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee... 

And the most representative video...



My point is that adversity is universal. By zeroing in on one example - the life of a ballet dancer shown in two different songs - we see that there is potential for different outcomes.

We make the decisions. We make the choices. We rule our life.

I read Marc and Angel Hack Life regularly. Their post entitled 5 False Beliefs That Are Holding You Back works with my theme, especially their retort #3 (I am stuck in my current life situation.) and #4 (It's too late to start anything.)

Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars is one of those artists who - like Katy Perry or Pink (who I'll discuss one day soon) - are on the charts today that you wouldn't normally think I'd like. But I do.

I especially like his latest single Locked Out of Heaven:




It reminds me a lot of early Police songs, around their Outlandos d'Amour and to a lesser extent Reggatta de Blanc phase. As I did with the song Strawberry Letter 23, before I worked up a whole compare and contrast post, I Googled to see if someone else had already done the work. Sure enough, someone had!

First,  here are the three Police songs that I think Bruno Mars took inspiration from.

#1 - Can't Stand Losing You (from Outlandos d'Amour):




#2 - Roxanne (from Outlandos d'Amour):




#3 - Message in a Bottle - especially the chorus (from Reggatta de Blanc):




Here is the mash up of Bruno Mars's Locked Out of Heaven with The Police's Can't Stand Losing You - Can't Stand Locked Out of Heaven:




Here's an article entitled "Does Bruno Mars Think 'Heaven' Sounds Like A Police Song? 'Hell Yeah!''

Full article here.


Finally, here is the cast of Glee performing the song on their January 24, 2013 episode:

A List of Lists

Constant Readers - to borrow an expression from Stephen King - of my blog know that I love lists.

Click here for past posts tagged with that term.

Today, I was perusing some websites that I frequent when I realized that a few of them were sites about lists. Apparently, even the sites I visit are related to lists. That's how much I like lists.

Which brings me to today's topic: A listing of sites that I like that show lists or...

A List of Lists

Ultimate Classic Rock -
Featuring such lists as:
Top 10 Songs of 1977
Top 10 AC/DC Songs (we agree on three of the choices)
Top 100 Classic Rock Songs

11 Points -
featuring such lists as:
11 Studies That Prove Christmas and Science Mix Wonderfully
11 Wonderfully Misspelled Messages of Anger and Bigotry
11 Very Unfortunate Mistakes on TV News Graphics
11 Magazines with Surprisingly High or Low Circulations (and a bonus point for illustrating each magazine with a Sally Field cover)

Marc and Angel Hack Life -
featuring such lists as:
8 Things You Must Give Up To Find Peace
10 Lessons from 10 Quotes that Changed My Life
10 Things Your Friends Wish You Knew
10 Life Lessons People Learn Too Late


 Those are the ones for today. I'll have a Part II another day.

Boy Bands

So I was driving down Airline Drive on my way home from work today, blasting this song...

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

...when I came to a stop light. The passenger in the large red truck on my left side gave me a strange look. I rocked on.

That got me thinking...

One of my hobbies is trading shirtless photos of celebrities. I guess it's the modern day, gay version of baseball cards.

I run three fairly successful Yahoo groups - 

Male Stars Shirtless

Male Stars Undressed

Male Stars Update

I also frequent and contribute to a message board called Famous Males Forum. Because it's based in the UK, I find out about many stars that never cross over to here in the US.

Even though I have over 100 shirtless photos of, for example, Lee Ryan...

until last week I had never heard a note of his band Blue. That is, until I started compiling my list of...

Top Ten Boy Band Songs of All Time

Or at least that was the original idea of this post. I quickly realized that I liked looking at the members of the boy bands much more than actually listening to their music. Even with 89 listed American Boy Bands -- and 58 listed English Boy Bands - plus the 50+ ones from the rest of the world, this is the best list I could assemble.

Once I assemble a Top Ten Boy Band Members for my other blog, I'll post a link here.

Starting off our countdown is One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful at #7. You saw that video above.

Here's how to correctly remake a song - with style, humor, and a wink to the original version...

#6 - Westlife - Uptown Girl

Bonus points for the best looking member being the one who came out (and the fan base didn't care)...

Here is Billy Joel's original version...

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

The aforementioned boy band Blue has done both a classy remake...

#5 - Blue featuring Elton John - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

...and a fumbled attempt...

Blue (featuring Kool & the Gang and Lil' Kim) - Get Down On It

Here is Kool & The Gang's original version...

Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It

Of the Disney-Channel-spawned band The Jonas Brothers, this is their best song (though they actually do have some other good ones)...

#4 - The Jonas Brothers - Year 3000

The youngest brother Nick is especially talented. I've heard his solo album - and it's quite good.

Going back to 1996, I still sneak this song onto mixed CD's that I create...

#3 - Hanson - MMMBop

Zac Hanson, the 10-year-old drummer in the video, is now 27 years old, and married with two kids. Taylor Hanson, the lead singer, is now 29, married with five kids. Don't you feel old now?

Interestingly, my top two songs both have the same title..

#2 - The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back

The top of my chart of Top Ten Seven Boy Band Songs of All Time was always going to be this one...

#1 - NSYNC - I Want You Back

What are your favorite boy band songs?

Happy Thanksgiving

Back in 2010, I wrote about one aspect of my days as a college radio DJ. Here's another story.

Thanksgiving coming up later this week reminded me of a set of radio shows I did back in college: Back then, I had a Monday noon until 3 pm solo radio show and another one with a partner Tuesday from 9 pm until 1 am.

Each year, right before our break for Thanksgiving, during my Monday show, I would ask my listeners to call me with ideas for music that got them in the mood for the holiday. I would then find the songs in our music library or in my personal collections, and play four hours of Songs About Food during our Tuesday night show.

FOUR HOURS! It was quite a challenge!

The lists of songs that we played during those shows are long gone, but I do remember one favorite...



Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Here is the NPR story that reminded me of my story.

New Favorite Song: Neon Trees - Everybody Talks

Here's my new favorite song this week...

The Bangles & The GoGo's

I was listening to The Bangles recently on Songza. Here's their best song...



Watching the video reminds me of the question I had back in the late 1980's, when the Bangles were hot and when that video came out: Why can't an all-female group just play music? Why do they have to be sexualized to sell albums?

That's a question with many more questions and many more thoughts. For another post.

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We saw them a few years back at The House of Blues here in New Orleans. They're worth seeing live.

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Speaking of girl groups of the 80's and misogyny, the best GoGo's song is Head Over Heels...

Top 10 List: AC/DC Songs

AC/DC is one of those bands that if you like one song by them, you'll probably like all songs by them. From their first album High Voltage (1975) to their latest one, Black Ice (2008), when an AC/DC song comes on, you can tell it's them.

Carlos and I have been trying to keep up with the summer movie releases. Two of the movies we've seen have featured AC/DC songs:

The Avengers - Iron Man's "theme song" is Shoot To Thrill

Battleship - Thunderstruck

Since I love making lists, I thought I'd tackle my Top Ten Favorite AC/DC Songs of All Time. Unlike my entry on Badfinger, however, I'm not going to chart this band's history as I count down.

I will give you a bit of my history with the band.

My first memory of AC/DC is seeing their concert film Let There Be Rock around September 1980 at Lakeside I in Metairie (Louisiana) with my friend Lloyd. We were both 13 so we had my mom drop us off and pick us up. I remember that I was nervous because we were meeting Lloyd's older cousin and her friend. They must have been 14 or 15. I tried to act cool the whole time.

 I have seen AC/DC live once: in the mid 1990's - though I'd love to see them live again. Their encore of For Those About To Rock (We SaluteYou) with the fireworks is incredible.

 AC/DC has never been one of my All-Time favorite bands, but their best songs definitely endure in my mind.

Now the list. Top Ten Favorite AC/DC Songs of All Time

#10 -

Highway to Hell (title track - 1979)

#9 -

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (title track - 1976)

a

#8 -

Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution (from Back in Black - 1980)

#7 - 

Have a Drink on Me (from Back in Black - 1980)

#6 -

Heatseeker (from Blow Up Your Video - 1988)

#5 - 

Shoot to Thrill (from Back in Black - 1980)

#4 - 

Let's Get It Up (from For Those About to Rock [We Salute You] - 1981)

#3 -

That's The Way I Wanna Rock N Roll (from Blow Up Your Video - 1988)

#2 - 

Thunderstruck (from The Razors Edge - 1990)

 #1 - 

C.O.D. (from For Those About to Rock [We Salute You] - 1981)

Lagniappe:

TNT (from High Voltage - 1975)

This one is right outside of my Top Ten. Dedicated to the late Bon Scott. Bits of the song can be now frequently be heard on the cable network Turner Network Television, better known as TNT.

Song: "Never Let You Go"

I bought an mp3 player recently and I'm filling it with Walking Songs. So I can start walking more. I know I need to lose some weight. Music is - as usual - the key to my current project.

I have a longer blog post planned with a list of all my walking songs. For now, here is one...

My favorite song by a band that I occasionally listen to. But the song regularly steady rotation on my Media Monkey.

First, a live version that I found (with a 10-year-old guest guitarist - the son of one of the members)...




And the video for the original version...



I do like other songs by Third Eye Blind. But that's for another day too.

Shuggie Otis

A few months ago, I was listening to WTUL and heard Shuggie Otis's song Strawberry Letter 23 for the first time in 30 years.

I heard the song again today and was planning on researching all the songs that sampled it.

Then I came across this video, which did all the work for me...




If you want to see for yourself, here is The Brothers Johnson cover version of the song...




Outkast's Ms. Jackson that samples the song...




And Beyonce's Be With You that samples the song and lyrics...

These Go To 11

Combining three of my favorite things:
the movie Spinal Tap
great music played loud
NPR

NPR's All Songs Considered had a story this morning - because of 11/11/11 - of...

These Go To 11: Songs Best Heard Extra-Loud

There's no denying certain songs are best experienced when played as loud as possible. Since this Friday, 11/11/11, is Nigel Tufnel Day — the unofficial holiday honoring the fictional Spinal Tap guitarist, who cranked his amplifiers past 10 — this week's episode is all about the songs that instantly make you want to turn the volume up.

Click the link above or here to read the entire article - and to hear all the music.

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Here is a short, partial list of songs that I turn to 11:


Renegades of Funk - Rage Against The Machine





Oh Yeah - The Subways



Think the drummer's cute? Watch the video for him shirtless. Think the singer's cute? Go to my other blog to a post from 2008.



Sabotage - The Beastie Boys





Recently Distressed - Phantom Planet




Phantom Planet is the band that also sang California and whose original drummer was the actor Jason Schwartzman. Here's an live version of the song, before Jason Schwatzman left the band in 2004.




Think the singer is cute? He's Alex Greenwald. He did some Gap commercials...




And appeared in one of my all-time favorite movies...






Vagabond - Wolfmother

The version of the song from the excellent movie (500) Days of Summer where I discovered the song...




The whole song...





A Life of Illusion - Joe Walsh





The Bucket - Kings of Leon





Inside Out - Eve 6





Dammit - Blink 182



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What are yours?

O Death

My friend JoLynn's dad died this week.

Here is how she described his death to me today at the wake:
"He had a stroke a few years ago and has been bedridden since. On Tuesday, he called to Linda [his wife] that he wasn't feeling well, and asked her to sit him up. As she did, they held hands and said the Our Father. He died at 'thy kingdom come...'."

The funeral home was packed: He had seven siblings, and came from a large Italian Catholic family.

He was 68.

Funerals always get me thinking about mortality.

My dad is 77. Although he is very active for his age, his prostate cancer has returned (though he is positive his current treatment will again cure him). I know that one day - hopefully not soon - we will lose him. As JoLynn's dad's mass was going on, my mind was wandering toward which funeral mass I would be attending next. I love my dad. I hope it is not his.

My mind was also wandering toward:
- I don't own a proper wedding/funeral suit. My current one is too small in the waist. I need to give it to Brandon - my only friend who is smaller than I am.
- Who would be the pallbearers in my funeral?
- Who would be the pallbearers in my dad's funeral?


Related Musical Interlude I ...

From (one of the best shows ever!) Supernatural episode "Two Minutes To Midnight": O Death by Jen Titus. ("Embedding Disabled by Request")

Funerals remind me of past funerals. I've been to too many. Tonight, I started to compile a list to post here, but it just felt distasteful while typing "Robert B. - 19 years old, Car Accident, returning from Biloxi while attending an Aerosmith concert, 1988".

This time, instead of posting a list, I think I'll keep these memories close.



Related Musical Interlude II ...

Heaven by Brandi Carlile

For those of you who watch the excellent show Friday Night Lights, the song played in the background when Matt asked Julie to marry him was Brandi Carlile's cover of Bryan Adams's song Heaven.



Tonight was the SERIES finale of Friday Night Lights. You'll be missed. More on that in another post.

Austin: The Mixed CD

Carlos and I are driving to Austin next weekend. I recommended that we bring some music to pass the driving time. I recommended that we each throw out suggestions for themes of three mixed CD's. Then have each of us create playlists based on the suggestions. Besides the listening pleasure, I thought that our contrasting approaches to the themes would be intriguing.

For the math impaired: That's 12 CD's. Austin is 8.5 hours from New Orleans.

I gave Carlos my three themes tonight:
1998
Dance Music
Music From Movies

He told me earlier this week that he is working on his themes - and that the first two were easy (as were mine) and that he would send all three by late tonight.

Updates to our project as they evolve.

Austin, here we come!

Song History: More Than A Feeling (Revisited)

Update

Best Drummer Ever?

At last night's Rush show, there was some discussion about Neil Peart being the Best Drummer Ever.

Back in high school, I played along with Neil Peart in my bedroom with my drum sticks (uh, my dad's screw drivers), dreaming of making a living as a drummer. I also drummed along with John Bonham, Keith Moon, Sib Hashian, Carl Palmer and others.

Through the years, I have had two friends who actually made their livings as drummers in bands.

Marc, whose band put out two CD's here in New Orleans in the early 1990's, played with the same tree-trunk drum sticks that John Bonham preferred and - at least to my ear - tried to emulate his sound.

Kyle, who is the only person that I know personally that has a Wikipedia entry (sorry, no link, I try to keep this blog a bit anonymous), was the third drummer for a still-successful New Orleans rock band. He even played on one of their best-known hits. When he's drumming, he looks and sounds like Keith Moon. His all-time favorite drummer, however, is Ringo Starr.

My point is that Neil Peart is a great drummer, but the title of Best Drummer Ever depends of one's taste.

Who is your all-time favorite drummer?

Incidentally, my all-time favorite drummer is Don Henley...


Eagles - Hotel California by hushhush112