Meme-tastic: 24 Questions On Music
Ripped this one from EDSBS, and it’s a lot of fun. I really want to see some responses on this from the readers.
1. A favorite political track.
Split this one down the middle between “Mr. Wendal” by Arrested Development and “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” by XTC. One’s an infectious homage to a homeless guy in Atlanta that can be played/sung with two drumsticks, a mattress and a Ziploc bag full of socks (not that I ever did this with youth group friends on a mission trip in Tennessee in 8th grade), the other a JFK allegory that I don’t completely buy but still enjoy (I can’t deal with the alternate Jesus allegory theory at all). Side props to R.E.M.’s “Exhuming McCarthy” as well.
2. One of those tracks that will make you dance on the dancefloor no matter what.
At the risk of being way too trendy, I have to get up to Matisyahu’s “King Without A Crown.”
3. The song you’d use to tell someone you love them.
I’m gonna reserve my answer to this one for H’s and my first dance.
- A song you know would sell lots of VWs (or ipods, or whatever) if they paid for it. (One that hasn’t already been used).
Blackhawk, “Big Guitar”, or a slightly hopped-up version of James Taylor’s “Mexico.”
- A song that forced you to sit down and analyze its lyrics.
Metallica, “Master of Puppets”: the song is written from the perspective of heroin talking to an addict, and drives home the hopelessness of that life through the utter contempt dripping from every word. The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra adds some genuinely chilling strings on the S&M CD to complete the mood. More recently, Franz Ferdinand’s “The Fallen”: it’s another Jesus allegory that I don’t fully agree with, but it merited thought nonetheless.
6. A song you like that a 2 year old would like too.
If only because they wouldn’t know what it meant, the UVa Academical Village People’s cover of “It Wasn’t Me.”
7. A song that makes you drive too fast.
Franz Ferdinand, “Do You Want To.” And thanks to ESPN’s John Buccigross, this song also makes me flash back to Alexander Ovechkin’s first shift as a Washington Capital in the 2005-06 season opener, where he checked a Columbus Blue Jacket so hard behind his own net that he dislodged the glass (set to the accented “MAKE SOME-(body love me)” beats in the intro).
8. A song that makes you feel like kicking someone’s a^#.
“Big Shot”, Billy Joel: either that, or it makes me feel like I just got my own kicked. Either way, it’s angry, spiteful and generally great like that.
- A song that both you and your grandparents (would probably) like.
I think I’m cheating here, but the Duke Chapel Choir’s “Song of Triumph” (an original by organist David Arcus) is one of my favorites of modern choral music.
- (There is no #10. Shouldn’t this be #6?)
11. The song youd send to someone you hated.
Prodigy, “Smack My B^%$# Up”. It might not have the same effect on them, but the vocals aren’t exactly encouraging, and the backing is genuinely disconcerting to my ears.
12. A sad instrumental song that would be in the soundtrack to a movie about your life.
I’d like to strip the vocals from R.E.M.’s “Sweetness Follows,” and leave us with the murky, grinding fifths underneath. The song feels as if it should be in a minor key; I think it’s actually written in major, but the open fifths where the tonic chord usually falls leave that feeling somewhat ambiguous. Will that work? (Of course it will, it’s my blog.)
13. The peppy song that would start the opening credits in the soundtrack to a movie about your life.
Jars of Clay, “Disappear.” The opening 2-beat drum fill of this song makes it my single favorite CD/album Track 1 of all time.
14. An a cappella song.
For me, this is either too easy or too hard. If it had to be just one, let’s go with some VT Juxtaposition: the CARA-winning “Hey Jealousy”, which includes the bridge from “Love Song for No One”.
15. A good song from a genre of music that no one could guess that you liked.
Well, how about some old-school? Skeelow, “I Wish I Was A Balla.” It’s a tough question because there’s not a lot of music that I don’t like, with the exception of modern rap. People that have gotten to know me in the past 2-3 years probably wouldn’t guess I liked country at one point, so maybe Garth’s “Standing Outside The Fire” qualifies as well.
16. A song you think should have been playing when you were born.
Switchfoot, “Chem 6A”.
17. A favorite artist duo collaboration.
Fairly hard mainstream, so I’ll cheat again: JMU’s Madison Project (all-male) and Note-oriety (all-female) combined to cover Damn Yankees’s “High Enough” in a colossal manner entirely consistent with its ’80s arena rock origin.
18. A favorite song that you completely disagree with (politically, morally, commonsenically, religiously etc.)
I’ve mentioned a few of these already, actually, but I’ll highlight “It Wasn’t Me” again, as well as Matisyahu’s “King Without A Crown”: it’s about his waiting for the Messiah to come, and if you ask me, that happened a couple thousand years ago.
19. The song that you love despite the fact your IQ level drops several points every time you listen to it.
Not sure if I’d say “love”, but I find myself curiously unable to stop the iPod when it shuffles across “The Safety Dance”.
20. Your smooth song, for relaxing.
Most of Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever” album, as he’s pharmacologically unable to get worked up about much of anything. The notable exception (career-wise) is the eponymous opener on “The Last DJ”, with its lead-in guitar riff that puts it a solid #2 on my all-time Track 1 list (behind the aforementioned Jars “Disappear”).
21. A song that you like but would play loud to annoy the neighbors.
In my freshman year at Tech (1997-98), I discovered that just about anything in my country collection (which was active at the time) would drive away neighbors with differently obnoxious taste in loud stereo fare. On second thought, this question doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? If it’s one I don’t like but would play loud, probably Prodigy again.
22. A favorite song that’s about a sport or sports.
Stompin’ Tom Connors, “The Hockey Song” for sing-along; Warren Zevon’s ballad “Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)” for listening. That’s easy. Next?
23. A favorite track from an outfit considered a “super-group.”
Maybe “Carry On My Wayward Son,” by Kansas, if you’re restricting super-groups to ’70s/’80s arena-rockers (otherwise, you could slip virtually anything popular in here).
24. The song that makes you want to drink more beer.
Total copout, but give me some George Thorogood (and the Delaware Destroyers) here: both “I Drink Alone” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.”
24 March 2006 / 3 Comments / Tags: life