Author: autographedcat Page 68 of 211

Today’s challenge invites us to share a song from our preteen years.   While one could take this as “anytime before you were a teen”, I’m going to go with the narrower sense of the word meaning “immediately before you were a teen, so roughly between the ages of 10 and 12, which in my case, gives me a range of roughly 1980 – 1983.

In addition, I’m going to pick a song that I was actually fond of at the time, rather than one I discovered later.   Because we didn’t have cable TV in 1981, the only time I ever saw the newfangled music videos everyone was talking about was on an NBC late night program called “Friday Night Videos”, and the songs that featured in its heavy rotation were special to me.  This song, in particular, I remember being especially fond of, every time it would come up.   Something about that wonderfully slinky saxophone and Rindy Ross’s sultry vocals sparked something in my preadolescent imagination, and besides, Quarterflash is an *awesome* band name.  Here’s their 1981 hit single, “Harden My Heart”.

First up, apologies for not posting yesterday – we had a major windstorm in Seattle, and my Internet was down all evening. Rather than post twice today, I’m just going to pick up where I left off.

Today’s challenge invites us to post a song we never get tired of. This, again, is an embarrassment of riches category, because I tend not to get tired of things I like, and that includes a tremendous amount of music. But in terms of falling in love with a piece of music so completley that it crowds out everything else, well…there’s been very little in my life as overwhelmingly obsessive as when I bought the cast recording of “Hamilton”. In this day and age of having entire catalogs of songs at your disposal, I tend to listen to an album once, and then it goes into the shuffle; it’s rare for me to listen to a particular album all the way through over and over again.

I listened to “Hamilton” on repeat for nearly six months.

While it’s tempting to just post the entire album, that’s not a *song*, so I’m going to pick a song from the show, and rather than pick one of the obvious tracks like “Alexander Hamilton” or “My Shot”, I’m going to focus on one that I don’t see bandied about as often, but I think is worth singling out. Here’s Renée Elise Goldsberry and the cast of Hamilton with “Satisfied”.

Day 10 of the song challenge invites us to share a song that makes us sad. Just as with happy songs, there’s a nearly infinite list. Like any great art, music is all about evoking an emotional response, and sad songs are a genre all their own. My pick for today is one that completely wrecked me when i first heard it, and even today, it hits me like a truck. One of his last recordings, Glen Campbell wrote “I’m Not Going To Miss You” for his wife, as he begin his ultimately fatal struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Day 9 of the song challenge invites us to share a song that makes us happy.  This is another prompt where there are literally hundreds of songs I could choose from – I used to have a playlist in iTunes entirely comprised of pick-me-up songs, that I could turn to when I needed that energy.

For today, though, one of the most reliable songs from that list.  here’s The Vince Guaraldi Trio, with “Linus and Lucy”

On the eight day of the 30 Day Song Challenge, we’re sent 8 miles high and invited to post a song about drugs or alcohol. I considered several options, but decided to go with this old favourite, a song I loved deeply long before I understood what it was about. Here’s Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”

Today’s challenge invites me to share a song that’s good to drive to. I went thorough a lot of thoughts on this. A song about driving? Hrm. A song that reminds me of being on a journey? A son about setting out on a journey. A road trip that profoundly changed me? Lots of possible choices. I settled on this one. Here’s Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”

Day Six of our challenge asks me to post a song that makes me want to dance. A lot of songs make me want to dance.  I enjoy dancing, for all that I’m not very good at it. 🙂  But the first song to pop into my head is this joyful number from the B-52’s 1989 album “Cosmic Thing”, so that’s my pick for today.

Day 5 of our challenge invites us to share a song that should be played loud.  There are obviously thousands of songs, but I’m going to reach back to one of the first songs that really made me want to crank the stereo to eleven.  I was 13 years old when I got my copy of The Police’s “Synchronicity” album, and it grabbed my imagination and never let go.  It’s still one of my favourite albums.  And here’s the delightfully dark and surreal “Synchronicity II”.

Today’s entry in the 30 Day Song Challenge invites us to share a song that reminds us of someone we’d rather forget. this one proved a bit of a conundrum for me, because while a great many songs remind of specific people, especially old lovers, I don’t want to *forget* any of them. Even the relationships that ended sadly, or badly, I don’t want to throw out the good parts.

So this isn’t really about any one person, but I was a weird, awkward kid, and I was picked on a lot the way weird, awkward kids are. And while I’ve made peace with some of those tormentors, others I’m just as happy to let slip into the haze of forgetfulness. all of this to say, Here’s my favourite performance of Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen”, featuring accompaniment by the great Tommy Emmanuel, recorded live at the Philadelphia Folk Festival a few years ago. Becuase it’s an awesome track, and even bad memories should have a great soundtrack.