76. "Ordinary Dream" by Electric Light Orchestra [iTunes? Yes] {Video: Ordinary Dream. (Once again, a video of a live performance by Jeff Lynne actually makes the song seem duller than it is. As much as I love his music, Jeff Lynne doesn't seem to be a very enthusiastic or energetic live performer.)}
Sometimes people say stupid things.
A while back I was listening to the radio one day and the DJ (remember DJs?) at the classic rock station was talking about how annoying it is when you go to a concert and the group insists on doing a song or two from their new album. He then said that not only should they stop playing new songs at their concerts, but that the groups should stop putting out new albums altogether!
Like I said, people say stupid things.
Who is to say when a group should stop putting out new albums? Foreigner's third album, Head Games, was pretty crappy. Maybe they should have stopped there. But, if they had we would have missed out on "Juke Box Hero," "Urgent," and "I Want to Know What Love Is."
One of the problems with the current radio format is that there is no outlet for new songs from old groups. New music stations won't play songs by old groups, and classic rock stations won't play any new songs by old groups, because the songs aren't "classic" yet. There's no way those songs can ever be "classic" if no one ever gets to hear them!
In 2002, Boston came out with the album Corporate America, which featured the excellent song "I Had a Really Good Time." No one noticed. In 2003, Styx released the album Cyclorama, which had a lot of great songs on it. Not many people cared at all.
In 2001, Jeff Lynne decided it was time for the return of the Electric Light Orchestra. He planned a big tour to go with the release of the album, which was titled Zoom. And then, the crickets chirped. Jeff Lynne found out that the ELO name couldn't sell out big stadiums like it once could. Radio stations didn't care to play anything off of Zoom, because ELO wasn't relevant and none of the songs were "classic." Life sucks.
As an album, Zoom was pretty scattershot. Half of the songs on the album are so instantly forgettable that I forgot about them. (Instantly.) There are three or four songs that are pretty good. And then there is this song, which is fantastic! It's one of those soaring, floating songs that I like so much, but it also has a jarring little guitar bit repeated several times through the song that compels me to air-guitar along with it every time it plays. It's just well-crafted songmanship. Jeff Lynne is a very talented man.
That DJ was, of course, an idiot. These are the musicians who wrote and performed the songs we love. Why would we deny them the chance to write more music? What I wouldn't give for Billy Joel to come out with some new material. Who knows, for all the great songs he's written over the years, maybe Paul McCartney has yet to write his greatest song? And if the price of maybe getting some more great songs is that we have to listen to a song or two we aren't familiar with at a concert, well I'm willing to pay that price.
COMING UP NEXT: How do you like your egg, man?
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
77: Sitting Around the House
77. "Good" by Better Than Ezra {#30; 7/95} [iTunes? Yes] {Video: Good. (The song may be "Good," but the video is terrible. It's one of those videos that makes me want to grab the director, slap him across the face, and tell him it's actually okay to leave the camera in one spot for more than two seconds at a time. I watch this video and I get motion sickness.)}
Sometimes a song evokes a specific memory. And, sometimes it evokes something more than just a memory. Sometimes it evokes a feeling.
I'm not sure when this happened (other than it was some time after 1995 when this song came out.) I was going through a period where I was constantly sick. I had a cold, I lost my voice, and I just couldn't get to where I was feeling better. This had been going on for several weeks. I was, literally and figuratively, sick and tired of being sick and tired.
And then one day, on my way to work, I heard this song. And as the song went on, I just felt somehow better. Better than I had in several weeks. I'm sure the song wasn't the cause of my suddenly feeling better, but in my mind I linked listening to "Good" with finally being able to feel "good" for the first time in weeks. I always liked this song, but ever since then I've really liked this song.
Aside from "Good" making me feel good, I also really like the multiple use of the phrase "sitting around the house." It reminds me of the old joke, "Your mama's so fat that when she sits around the house, she really sits around the house!"
When I Googled images for the phrase "sitting around the house," this, a photo from the Washington Post, was the second image that came up. (I'm pretty good at sitting around the house, too.)
Sometimes a song evokes a specific memory. And, sometimes it evokes something more than just a memory. Sometimes it evokes a feeling.
I'm not sure when this happened (other than it was some time after 1995 when this song came out.) I was going through a period where I was constantly sick. I had a cold, I lost my voice, and I just couldn't get to where I was feeling better. This had been going on for several weeks. I was, literally and figuratively, sick and tired of being sick and tired.
And then one day, on my way to work, I heard this song. And as the song went on, I just felt somehow better. Better than I had in several weeks. I'm sure the song wasn't the cause of my suddenly feeling better, but in my mind I linked listening to "Good" with finally being able to feel "good" for the first time in weeks. I always liked this song, but ever since then I've really liked this song.
Aside from "Good" making me feel good, I also really like the multiple use of the phrase "sitting around the house." It reminds me of the old joke, "Your mama's so fat that when she sits around the house, she really sits around the house!"
 |
| Sitting around the house. |
COMING UP NEXT: Dream Weaver (But NOT Dennis Weaver)
78: There's Something About You, Girl, That Makes Me Sweat
78. "Need You Tonight/Mediate" by INXS {#1; 10/87} [iTunes? Yes] {Video: Need You Tonight/Mediate.}
"There's something about you, girl, that makes me sweat." I don't know if truer lyrics have ever been sung. (And I'm not talking about any one girl. Pretty much all girls elicit this reaction.)
This song is from the very end of what I call my "Wheelhouse" period, which began in 1978 or 1979 when I was twelve or thirteen years old, and ended towards the end of 1987 when I had just returned from my two years as a Mormon missionary and was in my sophomore year of college at BYU. I'm not sure why the "wheelhouse" ended then. After my sophomore year I left BYU for Idaho State University. Maybe it's because when I left Provo for Pocatello I felt like an "adult" for the first time. My parents were divorced, and I was working to support myself for the first time. Yes, I was still going to college, but I didn't really feel like a student anymore. And the music of the late 70s/early 80s was changing.
To be honest, I really don't know why. But this is one of the last songs of my "youth." It most definitely reminds me of that second year at BYU, which wasn't a particularly good time for me. I felt lost in the crowd that second year at BYU. The semester this song came out, my smallest class had at least 150 students, with several much bigger than that. It didn't seem to matter to anyone if I showed up or not. And, although I liked and got along with my roommates, I felt I just didn't fit in with most of the cliques there.
Anywho, back to the song. It's pretty darn good, isn't it? And, there's more to the song than just the song. On the album, and often times on the radio, "Need You Tonight" melded right into the next song, "Mediate." That's why they're here together on this list. Without "Mediate," "Need You Tonight" would be in the HondoJoe Top 200, but nowhere near this high. It needs "Mediate" to fill things out.
And, "Mediate" (especially the video) reminds me of Tim Kazurinsky. In the video for "Mediate," the band member of INXS are seen holding up big cards with some of the lyrics from the song, which is pretty much just words that end in the suffix "-ate." (My favorite line from "Mediate?" Unquestionably it is: "At 98 we all rotate.")
Well, back in the dark days of Saturday Night Live, during the early 1980s years without Lorne Michaels, one of the featured players was Tim Kazurinsky. And he did a very funny bit where he played a doctor who would hold up cards which featured made-up ailments which all ended in the same suffix. (If you ask me, those Lorne-less years (also known as the Eddie Murphy years) are a bit under-rated. There actually was some funny stuff there.)
(Here's a link to one of Kazurinsky's routines: Phobias.)
Oh, and we can add INXS to the long list of Australian bands on the HondoJoe Top 200. (I blame Paul Hogan.)
"There's something about you, girl, that makes me sweat." I don't know if truer lyrics have ever been sung. (And I'm not talking about any one girl. Pretty much all girls elicit this reaction.)
This song is from the very end of what I call my "Wheelhouse" period, which began in 1978 or 1979 when I was twelve or thirteen years old, and ended towards the end of 1987 when I had just returned from my two years as a Mormon missionary and was in my sophomore year of college at BYU. I'm not sure why the "wheelhouse" ended then. After my sophomore year I left BYU for Idaho State University. Maybe it's because when I left Provo for Pocatello I felt like an "adult" for the first time. My parents were divorced, and I was working to support myself for the first time. Yes, I was still going to college, but I didn't really feel like a student anymore. And the music of the late 70s/early 80s was changing.
To be honest, I really don't know why. But this is one of the last songs of my "youth." It most definitely reminds me of that second year at BYU, which wasn't a particularly good time for me. I felt lost in the crowd that second year at BYU. The semester this song came out, my smallest class had at least 150 students, with several much bigger than that. It didn't seem to matter to anyone if I showed up or not. And, although I liked and got along with my roommates, I felt I just didn't fit in with most of the cliques there.
Anywho, back to the song. It's pretty darn good, isn't it? And, there's more to the song than just the song. On the album, and often times on the radio, "Need You Tonight" melded right into the next song, "Mediate." That's why they're here together on this list. Without "Mediate," "Need You Tonight" would be in the HondoJoe Top 200, but nowhere near this high. It needs "Mediate" to fill things out.
And, "Mediate" (especially the video) reminds me of Tim Kazurinsky. In the video for "Mediate," the band member of INXS are seen holding up big cards with some of the lyrics from the song, which is pretty much just words that end in the suffix "-ate." (My favorite line from "Mediate?" Unquestionably it is: "At 98 we all rotate.")
Well, back in the dark days of Saturday Night Live, during the early 1980s years without Lorne Michaels, one of the featured players was Tim Kazurinsky. And he did a very funny bit where he played a doctor who would hold up cards which featured made-up ailments which all ended in the same suffix. (If you ask me, those Lorne-less years (also known as the Eddie Murphy years) are a bit under-rated. There actually was some funny stuff there.)
 |
| Tim Kazurinsky's Dr. Jack Badofsky: I laughed every time. |
(Here's a link to one of Kazurinsky's routines: Phobias.)
Oh, and we can add INXS to the long list of Australian bands on the HondoJoe Top 200. (I blame Paul Hogan.)
COMING UP NEXT: Good, Better, Best
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
79: Pick Up Your Feet
79. "Driver's Seat" by Sniff 'N' the Tears {#15; 7/79} [iTunes? Yes] {Video: Driver's Seat.}
This is definitely an early "wheelhouse" song. 1979! I was thirteen years old, just starting 8th grade. My sister had left the house, and my brother was entering his senior year of high school. Their influences on my musical tastes and listening habits were on the wane. I was finally in the driver's seat.
"Jenny was sweet. She always smiled for the people she'd meet."
"Feeling alright. A little jiving on a Saturday night." (I always thought the lyrics were "a little driving on a Saturday night," but all the song lyric sites I just looked at said it was "jiving." I think I still prefer "driving.")(I'm a stubborn man, and 35 years of singing it one way isn't about to change overnight.)
I've gotta say, I'm not a big fan of that "'N'" in the middle of Sniff 'N' Tears. I think I'd like it better without the quotation marks. Of if they had standard double quotation marks.
I've never heard any other songs by Sniff 'N' the Tears. I wonder if they were any good?
COMING UP NEXT: Gonna make you sweat! (With special guest Tim Kazurinsky.)
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
80: People Just Liked It Better That Way
80. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants [iTunes? Yes.] {Video: Istanbul; or here: Not Constantinople (Tiny Toons).}
"Quirky Brilliance!"
That was the two word review that appeared next to the listing of the They Might Be Giants album "Flood" in the Columbia House Record and Tape Club. "Quirky Brilliance!" It's not often two words can so succinctly sum up something as complicated as the entire musical catalog of a band, but there you have it.
"Istanbul" was the first song I ever heard by They Might Be Giants. I heard it, and I liked it. I'm a big fan of quirky. (And, as far as brilliance goes, well, duh!) So, when I was looking for a filler album to complete my 13 tapes for one of the several times I joined Columbia House, I thought I'd take a chance on They Might Be Giants.
Obviously, it was a good choice. Many, many albums and several concerts later, They Might Be Giants have cemented themselves into the HondoJoe Cognitive Triad as one of my three favorite musical acts of all time.
And it all started in Istanbul. (But not Constantinople.)
COMING UP NEXT: Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to?
"Quirky Brilliance!"
That was the two word review that appeared next to the listing of the They Might Be Giants album "Flood" in the Columbia House Record and Tape Club. "Quirky Brilliance!" It's not often two words can so succinctly sum up something as complicated as the entire musical catalog of a band, but there you have it.
"Istanbul" was the first song I ever heard by They Might Be Giants. I heard it, and I liked it. I'm a big fan of quirky. (And, as far as brilliance goes, well, duh!) So, when I was looking for a filler album to complete my 13 tapes for one of the several times I joined Columbia House, I thought I'd take a chance on They Might Be Giants.
 |
| One guitar plus one accordion equals quirky brilliance. |
Obviously, it was a good choice. Many, many albums and several concerts later, They Might Be Giants have cemented themselves into the HondoJoe Cognitive Triad as one of my three favorite musical acts of all time.
And it all started in Istanbul. (But not Constantinople.)
COMING UP NEXT: Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to?
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