30 Day Challenge - Pt 2
Longer than the usual post, covering days 4-18 of this challenge. (Part 1 here and original Pluspora post here)
Day 4 A song that reminds you of someone you’d rather forget about
I am not into forgetting about people, Not that I don’t, but it really only happens with people who never make a significant impression. This idea of actively wanting to forget someone? If they stirred up that much emotion and motivation, it would be throwing important lessons in the garbage to forget them.
That said... there was this one girlfriend I had in college. Hmmm.
Day 5 A song to be played LOUD
I have a LOT of these but one rises to the top.
And it's not even by Cream. rimshot
more after the jump
Day 6 A song that makes you want to dance
I can’t explain the strong emotional impact this video has on me. I go back and watch it again every so often just for the catharsis.
Day 7 A song to drive to
What else could it be but this?
My nephew insists the following is a true story: He got pulled over for speeding, and the conversation went,
Officer: I clocked you doing 97
Nephew: Radar Love was on the radio
Officer: Oh. I understand. Please be more careful. Have a nice day.
unsubstantiated but entirely plausible
Day 8 A song about drugs or alcohol
How about both? And about the three generations of a family in that line of business?
I also considered Cocaine by Jackson Browne as well as the other Cocaine by Eric Clapton. This is another of those categories where there are just too many options.
Day 9 A song that makes you happy
This one was surprisingly easy for me.
It took me years to get to loving this again after having loved it in my childhood. There was the not-really-small matter of breaking the association I had developed where it would make me think of a certain airline….
Gershwin premiered this in Cincinnati, of all places, because its orchestra had the only clarinet player he could find who could play a glissando.
Day 10 A song that makes you sad
You might think this a curious choice but it’s:
Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow.
That’s a little dark, isn’t it? The song was originally much darker. First the studio that commissioned it for Meet Me in St. Louis and later none other than Frank Sinatra, requested rounds of revisions to the original lyrics to lighten it up. I cannot hear it now without thinking about the original. Wikipedia: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Day 11 A song you never get tired of
I have literally played this song on a loop.
Day 12 A song that you love from 2011
2011? Srsly? Do you know how old I am? My musical preferences were mostly developed 30-50 years before 2011. But I got lucky on the recent year they chose arbitrarily… because that happens to be the year this came out:
Day 13 One of your favorite 70s songs
Now this is more my speed age. From its first few seconds of, “wait… what am I listening to?” to the irresistible guitar hook that follows, and then right on through to the end, this is a masterpiece:
Day 14 A song that you would love played at your wedding
When I blogged this for Waltz Wednesday, the entry title was simply, “For Jill”
Day 15 A song that is a cover by another artist
This was a tough choice for me - there are SO MANY good covers! But I settled on:
Simon and Garfunkel were too cute and middle-class to really express this song’s themes fully. Speaking of which, Pentatonix also had a go, but their effort suffered from the same issue. See here: Sounds of Silence by Pentatonix
And if you think “a cover by another artist” is redundant, there was that time Neil Diamond covered UB40 covering Neil Diamond on Red, Red Wine. I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest Neil had a little too much red, red wine before turning in that clown act. (No video, go find it if you must)
Day 16 One of your favorite songs from a movie
An easy choice for me:
If you have not seen Pleasantville, what are you waiting for???
BTW if this category meant, a song written specifically for a movie? Bleh. I mostly uniformly hate those. I would probably go with Whatever Happened to Saturday Night from RHPS .
Day 17 A song that features your favorite artist
Favorite artist. Hmm. This conversation fluctuates among a few, according to the day of the week, the hour, the relative humidity, and the phase of the moon. But it always involves Queen, as you have seen and will see again. And it always involves:
Any music nerds out there, tell me: Isn’t this a samba? It sure sounds like one to me. But when I search for “Joni Mitchell samba” all I ever find is Dreamland.
Day 18 A song from the year you were born
This song came out on an album in 1956 but was released as a single in 1957. I was born in 1957. It’s arguable that this is a 1957 song.
If you want to quibble over that, here’s an indisputably 1957 song.
That's it for today. We'll wrap this up on Monday.