Seven Angry People...

I’ve been tagged… again! Irb got me! So, now I’m supposed to pick seven songs I am into for whatever reason, tell you why I am into them, and then tag seven others to shame them to do the same. It is at this point where it becomes obvious that Irb is not a regular reader of my blog, otherwise he would have realized before tagging me that I don’t have seven readers.

But here goes, in no particular order of preference or priority.

1. Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ -- Journey
This is, perhaps, my all-time favorite song. I discovered it long after everyone else did, as I didn’t really notice Journey until 1981, when Steve Perry had carried them from a ‘70s fusion-rock anomaly to an ‘80s pop sensation, and the radio was playing them with sickening (to others) frequency. Alone, in the car, this song gets cranked and, on a good day, I can hit Perry’s range.

2. Adagio for Strings -- Samuel Barber
I never suspected a piece of music could move me to tears until this one found me. You may remember it as the classical piece playing in Oliver Stone’s Platoon, where some guy is being shot up in slow-motion, with no sound but the music. Maybe that’s why the music moves me the way it does. Did I cry during that scene? Or was I crying because I realized I had actually paid money to see the movie? The most haunting version of this piece that I’ve heard is an arrangement for a choir. Goosebumps now, just thinking about it!

3. Every song on the album Standing on the Edge, by Cheap Trick
This 1986 album was a staple for me during my two-year Air Force duty assignment in (West) Germany. If it ever left the cassette player in my car, I’d be surprised. I can’t pick a favorite song from the album because each song, when I hear it, gives me goosebumps, and I can barely resist the urge to start belting out along with it, which is what I did in the car all over the Hunsrück region of the country in 1986 and ’87!

4. Take On Me -- A-Ha
If it hadn’t been for the video, I probably never would have been into this song. You may recall this video as the one where a lonely girl in a coffee shop is flipping through the pages of a comic book of some sort. An attractively drawn image of a young man – the band’s lead singer – catches her eye, and he comes to life, his animated hand reaching up from the page and pulling her into his world of adventure and intrigue. A fan of creatively thoughtful music videos, of good animation, and of hauntingly beautiful women, I was instantly smitten by this one. So now, when I hear the song, my mind is filled with images from the video.

5. Call and Answer -- Barenaked Ladies
This is, in my opinion, atypical of the Barenaked Ladies repertoire of songs. I like the band and their music, in general, but this one just comes across differently than everything else…until the last verse, in which it seems the boys just couldn’t resist being themselves! It’s a great melody and mood. I have to drop whatever I’m doing to turn this one up whenever I hear it come on.

6. Enjoy the Silence -- Depeche Mode
I never was one to follow a trend, so when the ‘80s “New Wave” washed ashore, I clung to the life raft of classic rock and rode it out. But then I met Mrs. Farrago, an unabashed ‘80s music aficionado. When I moved in, her CD collection dwarfed mine 6-to-1, and at 100 CD’s I thought I was doing pretty good! I eased in to her collection, sampling every CD over the course of a few years (she exposed me to Barenaked Ladies, too). Of the thousands of songs in her collection, few have stood out to me like Enjoy the Silence. Again, it has a haunting melody and lyrics I find truly clever, if not interesting, and is rare in the bunch in that I’ll try to sing along with it.

7. The Star-Spangled Banner -- Francis Scott Key, et.al.
The oft-maligned choice for our national anthem is criticized for its wide vocal range that the average citizen can’t cover and for its anachronistic poetic structure. But rather than wax eloquent about the beauty and bounty of our nation, as so many nations’ anthems do; or strut with musically arrogant pride about our power and might above all others, as so many other nations’ anthems do, ours highlights a mere moment in our history that typifies our collective resolve: we always come through in the clutch. Key, sent as part of a party to a flotilla of British ships off of Baltimore harbor during the war of 1812 to secure the safe return of American prisoners of war, was then detained on the ship as plans were laid to bombard Fort McHenry. The bombardment lasted through the night and was so fierce that Key could only imagine total destruction of the fort. But, through the night the light from “the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof” that the American flag seen flying over the fort in “the twilight’s last gleaming” the evening before, was still there. When I think of the song in terms of the story it tells, I’m filled with the pride Francis Scott Key must have felt that morning when he saw that flag flying “by the dawn’s early light.” And yes, I cry.

And, since we’re on the subject of music, and at risk of sounding like a real harpy, I recommend that you take an opportunity today to cop a listen over at Flashback Alternatives. It’s ‘80s alternative (mostly), it’s free and it’s all by listener request. And do what you can to save internet radio.

And now I must tag those I read regularly whom Irb did not already tag, some of whom I fear I have not yet earned the right to tag (Trina, you’re not one of them!). My apologies ahead of time.

Claire
The Random Squeegee
Trina (If Stephen Hawking can type with nothing but cheek twitches, you can manage with one hand!)
Toast
wordnerd
kenju
Braleigh