Musical Musings

Songs Burned In Our Brains From Grade School (A Musical Musings/My Boss Paul’s Top Five List Joint)

Posted on by sgottahurt

Ah, the good ol’ days.  That’s what people say when they reflect upon their youth.  

For my boss (and old friend) Paul and I, the good ol’ days in our Catholic grade school happened way before they were our good ol’ days, as evidenced by our textbooks.  Most notably: our music class textbooks. 

I know, I know… at least we had a music class.  Nowadays, all of the arts are disappearing from our schools (for shame!), but that’s not what this post is about.

The fact of the matter was that we had crappy old text books and a music teacher that could barely play the one instrument she claimed to be able to play (the flute).  Sure, it was unfortunate that she replaced the single greatest music teacher ever.  (He played “Name That Tune” on the piano – and they were always theme songs!)  The following list represents the worst of the songs we were taught… four oldies, one newie, and zero goodies.

Top 5 Songs Burned In Our Brains From Grade School

5. Little Boxes – Malvina Reynolds
Paul doesn’t really remember this one, hence it being placed at the bottom spot.  I couldn’t forget it, and Weeds wouldn’t let me… until season 4 at least.

4. Du, du liegst mir im Herzen – German folk song
Paul refused to sing this song hence to him being xenophobic; but then again he refused to sing any of the songs.  For me – it’s my 99 Luftballons.

3. Shortnin’ Bread – James Whitcome Riley
Paul despised (no, loathed!) this song.  I didn’t remember it at first, but then it all came crashing back to me like a repressed memory.

2. God Bless the USA – Lee Greenwood
The only current-ish song on the list was also an exercise in irritation.  We had to sing this at a recital, and as everyone knows – recitals blow.  What’s worse is that we had to hold up signs that read Detroit when we sang that line.  Because we lived in Detroit, oh say can you see.

1. Fender Bender – ? 
This song presented a unique situation for us.  For virtually nowhere on the TripleDoubleU, could we find ant reference to this song.  The only proof that it ever existed arrived via a MySpace Forum.  It the thread, a reference is made to the lyrics:

Fender bender, yeah yeah yeah!

The poster recalled the misspoken lyric:

Finger banger, yeah yeah yeah!

Which ceremoniously lead to the diddy being banned (band?) from music class.  Thanks, Mack Danger, for the memory backup!

I wish we would have thought of "finger banger"...

I wish we would have thought of "finger banger"...

Musical Musings… I Don’t Wanna But I Gotta: A New Literal Video

Posted on by sgottahurt

I was just discussing with my boss Paul that there needs to be a new literal video.  Universe asked… message received… dascottjr delivered.

I loved the previous creations by Dusto McNeato.  Check out his works here and here.  Although I feel the vocals are a bit better in his takes, you have to admit that Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart is ripe for the pickin’, and pick away they do.

Musical Musings… Maybe It’s Regina Spektor (Sing It Like The Maybelline Jingle)

Posted on by sgottahurt

To start off… I know, I know, the last two posts have been kind of lady-centric (which literally meant something way different back in the Old West… say it slowly), so why stop now on this Memorial Day.  In addition to the current state of this blog, my last Musical Musings was about songs sounding the same that may or may not have sounded the same.  Don’t hold that one against my credibility.  Heck, don’t even believe that I have any credibility.  But this time – I think I’m onto something.

Listen to the background music in this Maybelline commercial featuring Adriana Lima (hey guys, at least it’s featuring a Victoria’s Secret model… and a golf ball for some reason):

Now take a listen to Regina Spektor’s On the Radio:

(For the record I was at that Lollapalooza concert performance.  I think you can see me in the crowd at the end. I’m the guy in a striped shirt, clapping. My face was a little blurry that day, so I kind of blend in.)

Now I dare you to go back and listen to the Maybelline commercial and see how they ripped her song off.  (Maybe I should have put them on this page in the opposite order… oh well, deal with it.)

The song is definitely not the original, and amazingly, it’s coincidentally similar.  Kind of like these posters:

OneSheet (Page 1)

sweet_home_alabama

Okay, it’s even closer than these two posters… but still.

Musical Musings… SimilariTegans In The Metric System

Posted on by sgottahurt

I like both of these songs, as minimalist and repetitive as as they are… but is it just me, or are they kind of the same even though they’re different?  It’s probably just me.

I feel the same way about the beginnings of these songs, too:

SIDE NOTE: I like the acid flashback feeling of seeing the old CD cases in the Letterman clip.

Musical Musings… Why Do I Find Myself Defending Flo Rida?

Posted on by sgottahurt

When rapper Flo Rida originally burst on the scene (his song Low was featured in the award-winning-worthy Step Up 2 The Streets), I wasn’t a fan.  I thought the song was essentially shilling a catalog of products: Apple Bottoms jeans, Uggs (boots with fur), Reeboks (with straps), and um, baggy sweatpants…

But somewhere along the line, I got hooked.  The same happened with his follow up (In the Ayer) and Right Round, which borrows quite liberally from the classic 80’s tune, You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive.

Now know this – I usually can’t stand it when most songs lift old songs for new ones.  (Rihanna’s borrowing of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love back-beat to create the entirely different SOS was a major exception.  And I don’t count the Numa Numa song lifted for TI and Rihanna’s Live Your Life.)  And Right Round barely passed that opinion, but imagine my surprise when I heard Eiffel 65’s Blue in a new song:

Initially, I thought, “Oh geez, not this now!”  But when I figured out it out was Flo Rida, all was forgiven.  Why is that?

Musical Musings… When Memes Take Steroids

Posted on by sgottahurt

Internet memes are a phenomenon in so much that they spread faster than a wildfire, faster than a rumor in high school, and faster than any milk product through my lactose intolerant friend, Jay.

Now when you take something we’ve all seen and taken for granted and add music… Internet Meme 2.0.

YouTube user/musician ParryGripp has done just that.  I’ve featured one of his videos once before (that got taken down because the original video poster is a d-bag).  It was Hamster On a Piano that was eating popcorn.  It was hilarious, I thought, but these are of the same, if not higher, caliber.  Enjoy!

Musical Musings… Mario Paint Masterpieces (For Your Ears!)

Posted on by sgottahurt

(SNES not included)

(SNES not included)

Mario Paint, a staple of the Super Nintendo, was a pretty pointless, but very entertaining gimmick game, like pretty much most of Nintendo’s products through the years.  Gotta love ’em nonetheless!

Anywario, there’s an app floating around on the TripleDoubleU that imitates the old composer portion of Mario Paint, and what would the world be coming to if nerds fans out there didn’t create their own masterpieces!  Well, at least covert other people’s songs into Mario Paint versions.  Some highlights:

Some other good ones:

What is Love? by Haddaway

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Take On Me by A-Ha

More options here.

Musical Musings… Happy Birthday “Voices That Care!”

Posted on by sgottahurt

Remember this?

Well, actually yesterday was the 18th birthday of the song Voices That Care, and it is quite the time capsule.  Made originally to raise money for the Red Cross during Operation Desert Storm, it has now, well, let’s reflect on the highlights:

  • Gotta love the flag opening.  Reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crap.  Unfortunately.
  • Celine Dion was just a baby.  I wonder if her creepy-old-manager/husband-to-be was tapping that yet.  (Also, she has kind of that Amy Grant vibe going.  Much better than the future Vegas chest thumping.)
  • Peter Cetera!  Why isn’t he making music anymore?  Am I the only one that wonders where he went?  (Maybe he’s hanging out with Steve Perry.)
  • See Bobby Brown.  See Bobby Brown sing.  See Bobby Brown not get high and smack a ho.
  • Is that dude in the cowboy hat from Warrant?  Yes.  Yes, he is.
  • Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson’s singing voices mesh perfectly with Luther Vandross.  (Actually, all the sports stars have wonderful pipes.)
  • Who’s singing with Garth Brooks – Amy Grant or Celine Dion?  Was hair really that big back then?
  • BONUS: More Warrant!  Nope.  It’s just Nelson.  Why is everyone wearing cowboy hats, yet Garth Brooks did not (a true rarity)?
  • Michael Bolton was pretty good in Office Space, doncha think?
  • Will Smith even got to rap.  That tickles my soul.  Isn’t it weird he got his start “rapping,” but now it seems weird to see him rap?
  • One good thing about the arrival of CGI – no more neon coloring on B&W footage (hopefully).
  • The Chorus.  You gotta love the Chorus.  I can’t even begin to dive into the Chorus.  All I have to say is this: Michelle Pfeiffer AND Jon Lovitz.  No?  Fred Savage AND Meryl Streep?  Not enough?  Gary Busey AND Chevy Chase?  Yes.  That awesome. 
  • Wait was Mike Tyson’s arm around Debbie Gibson?  (She was my first concert – at the Sea World in Orlando.)

In my research, I stumbled on this must-see Where Are They Now video.  Check it out.

Musical Musings… Swift-ly Handing In My Man Card

Posted on by sgottahurt

My parents both grew up on Motown.  It’s not odd or unlikely, but it explains why they never got into any of the Woodstock (hippie) fare, or harder rock like the Stones, the Who, or the Doors.

So growing up, it was radio-friendly for me… Lionel Richie, Hall & Oates, Air Supply (my dad loved them), and the G.O.A.T. – Billy Joel.  I remember the disdain the ‘rents had for Huey Lewis and the News when the (awesome!) group released, “I Want a New Drug.”  They never censored me from it, but they let me know they “weren’t crazy about it.”

The reason I say all this: I’m a sap for sappy music.  I get lost in your eyes in pop drivel, and I can’t help it.  There’s a radio station here that used to play soft rock at night (complete with love song dedications and a nightly wish… you must click here to hear!) and I remember being a teen, driving home from my first job at a toy store, listening to Alan Almond’s Pillow Talk while it was snowing the biggest flakes you’ve ever seen.  (I may be the biggest flake ever seen, but I digress…)

This quote from John Cusack’s (well, technically Nick Hornby’s) High Fidelity sums up my worldview it a nutshell, possible emphasis on nuts or hell:

What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

So why oh why am I bringing this up now?  Namely, due to this young lass:

Heck Yeah! Taylor Swift!

Heck Yeah! Taylor Swift!

 She has a new little ditty making the rounds on the airwaves, and as I listened to it I realized something.  Well, take a listen if you’re unfamiliar with her work:

What I’m slowly coming to terms with is, ugh… it’s a slow process.  This 19 year old country gal that writes her own songs DREAMS THE SAME DREAMS I DO*.  And that sucks, I guess.

So in other words… GRRRRR ULTIMATE FIGHTING!

*well maybe not the EXACT same dreams

Musical Musings… There Could Be Worse Ear Worms

Posted on by sgottahurt

Ever hear of Carly Rae Jepsen?  Ever hear her song Tug of War?  Well hear ya go! 

May it get stuck in your head as it has mine.