TOP TEN SONGS: WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 1
We're studying pop music going back 50 years here, starting with this week's top ten chart from the Billboard Hot 100 and working our way backward through the charts from this week in 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980, and 1970, analyzing each separately.
My special guest this week is my tight bro Luke O'Neil. I have given Luke a lot of encouragement about his writing over the years and it is partially because of that encouragement that he has blossomed into a nationally renowned political writer, or maybe solely because of it, who can say. He has written for Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and many others. Subscribe to his incredibly excellent, breathless newsletter "Welcome to Hell World" here and prepare to be blasted in the eyeballs with a big load of devastation and despair. He also runs Emo Night at the Sinclair in Harvard Square, and sings sad songs in his band No Hope/No Harm.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 2020
1. THE BOX by Roddy Rich
2. LIFE IS GOOD by Future featuring Drake
3. GODZILLA by Eminem and Juice WRLD
4. CIRCLES by Post Malone
5. MEMORIES by Maroon 5
6. 10,000 HOURS by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber
7. DANCE MONKEY by Tones And I
8. ROXANNE by Arizona Zervas
9. SOMEONE YOU LOVED by Lewis Capaldi
10. LOSE YOU TO LOVE ME by Selena Gomez
JAKE: I think the train may have left the station on me liking new hip-hop, at least as it's presented at the top of the charts. It's usually trap, and I don't usually like trap, so I don't like THE BOX or LIFE IS GOOD. I'm sure there's tons of underground shit that I'd be really into but I don't know how to get to it, I would love suggestions if you have any. :: GODZILLA: Eminem's flow is undeniable, as are his lyrics, but I find him annoying because he obviously wants to annoy me, and as a result I don't really want to listen to him because I don't find him very listenable. I don't know anything about the recently deceased Juice WRLD but he sounds good on this track. :: The rest of the list is just the same songs from last week swapping positions. I can see why they're all hits but I don't like any of them except LOSE YOU TO LOVE ME, which is so angelic and brilliant.
LUKE: I am in no way one of your typical “music nowadays is crap kids need to listen to real music” guys, quite the opposite in fact, but looking at this list from 2020 did not exactly get me excited to get started on this whole thing. My first impression was that it was weird that there were so many artists on it that I’ve heard of but doing songs I couldn’t begin to tell you what they sound like if my life depended on it. I decided to listen to this Post Malone song mostly because I realized I couldn’t tell you what a Post Malone song actually sounds like. Turns out I’ve actually heard CIRCLES somehow through cultural osmosis and my verdict is it’s …. fine! It’s a fine song. The melody is fine to me ok? It’s fine. OK I’m going to do one of my favorite things here and go find the best YouTube comment on some of these songs I’m listening to. There’s a chapter in my book called YouTube comments are the last sincere space online which you can read here that explains why I love them so much. “It’s true that the comments section on YouTube videos are nasty because people are nasty and the internet is a performance enhancing drug for our nastiness but there is another thing that is true about the comments section on YouTube videos and it is that they’re also one of the most nakedly human and vulnerable spaces we have left and when you come across sincerity online it’s shocking…” I wrote. ----- YouTube on CIRCLES: “I am obsessed with this song - for some weird reason it takes me back to my Teen Years in the 80's - when life was fun, carefree and fantastic !! It just has that 80's Vibe - maybe I'm Crazy !!” :: I was intrigued by GODZILLA not because I feel the need to hear an Eminem song in 2020 but because Juice WRLD is on it and you never know how a posthumous song is going to turn out, could either be a Frankenstein monster nightmare or a touching tribute. I don’t know man this song is fine too. I think I’m too hungover from the Super Bowl to engage with this one. Listening to Eminem can be like when they’re doing construction outside your window every morning for a month. :: Oh I’ve definitely heard this Lewis Capaldi song SOMEONE YOU LOVED but I don’t know where. Probably in a trailer for a movie where a brave handsome troop is coming home to his wife Jessica Chastain after a long hard year murdering Muslims.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 2010
1. TIK TOK by Ke$ha
2. BAD ROMANCE by Lady Gaga
3. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND by Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
4. BEDROCK by Young Money featuring Lloyd
5. REPLAY by Iyaz
6. SEXY BITCH/CHICK by David Guetta featuring Akon
7. HEY SOUL SISTER by Train
8. HARD by Rihanna featuring Jeezy
9. FIREFLIES by Owl City
10. HOW LOW by Ludacris
JAKE: HEY SOUL SISTER is that Train song with the ukulele and the guy goes "hey-ay, hey-yay-yay-ay" that's been in approximately 700 ads for tampons and fabric softener (maybe not literally although I wouldn't be surprised). The lyrics are absolute nonsense. :: Ludacris' HOW LOW is obnoxiously hilarious, a really fun track. :: FIREFLIES is really hanging in there for such a weird song.
LUKE: Oh man I fucking loved the album that came after this in 2012 by Ke$ha and I think she’s great but listening to TIK TOK now it sounds like a novelty pastiche joke song about what the 2010s was like. I just read a thing about how shitty P Diddy was to the artists he worked with stealing their publishing and shit and of course Ke$ha went through another type of music industry hell with Dr. Luke and all that so mostly this song is bumming me out thinking about how cruel we all are to each other. :: The top three songs here are really pretty iconic. Gaga is great too. This is a great example of how she can take just a really weird affect on a verse and blow it up into a glorious chorus. It seems weird to me that it was only ten years ago that we were all sort of starting to know who Lady Gaga is. She’s one who seems like she’s always been in our lives. :: I didn’t remember by name what this Lyaz song REPLAY was but now that I’m hearing it it’s reminding me of hating it at the time and also hating it right now. Ah shit wait I’m listening more… hold on… goddamnit it got me. This melody is great. :: A weird thing about FIREFLIES is sometimes kids come up and request it at Emo Night and I’m like… wot? Nobody has ever had any idea what emo is and they still don’t but that’s not it. YouTube on FIREFLIES: “I remember being 5 and listening to this song I used to cry and hug my mother tightly I still cry whenever I listen to it due to good memories with her.”
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 2000
1. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU by Michael Bolton
2. OPPOSITES ATTRACT by Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair
3. DOWNTOWN TRAIN by Rod Stewart
4. TWO TO MAKE IT RIGHT by Seduction
5. JANIE'S GOT A GUN by Aerosmith
6. I REMEMBER YOU by Skid Row
7. FREE FALLIN’ by Tom Petty
8. PUMP UP THE JAM by Technotronic Featuring Felly
9. JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME by Lou Gramm
10. EVERYTHING by Jody Watley
JAKE: My ears have been conditioned from a very young age to reject Michael Bolton so it's hard for me to be objective about him even though I can easily see why he was so successful. :: If you look at the arc of Rod Stewart's career it's almost like he was willfully trying to go downhill. One of the best blues-rock singers of all time, arguably THE best, he started slinging schlock in the mid-70s and found himself rich beyond his wildest dreams and never turned back. There are some gems along the way but nothing with the primal heft of his early work with Jeff Beck and the Faces and his earlier solo stuff. :: The same is true, although arguably to a lesser extent, of Aerosmith. For their first 5 albums, maybe 6, Aerosmith is one of my favorite hard rock bands of all time. Cut to fifteen years later and JANIE'S GOT A GUN, the most irritating thing they ever recorded, is one of their highest charting singles. :: The brilliance of the lyric of FREE FALLIN' can't be overstated, especially in the chorus where he goes "I'm FREE" and you go "oh cool he's free now" and then he goes "FREE FALLIN'!" and you go "oh BAD he's not free now!" It's about not being able to live up to the myth of American upstanding-ness. It's about knowing you're a bad person and beating yourself up about it. You're a man, you're wired to self-destruct, you're hopeless. It also never leaves its relatively simple 1/4/1/5 chord progression but somehow continues to build throughout the song, and the fact that it stays on the that progression the whole time really works here since he's basically talking about being stuck. Producer Jeff Lynne of ELO fame and Petty seem like sort of a weird combination, but it's a match made in heaven. Although perhaps not as heavenly as the match with Rick Ruben a few years later, when they recorded "Wildflowers", Petty's masterwork.
LUKE: Unironically love this Bolton song HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU. My dude could belt it out man. I think I remember listening to this after a high school breakup years later and believing every word of it. How could you not when the pipes are that hot. :: Rod Stewart is another guy who had become sort of a joke by the time I was paying attention, but he breaks it off here man. That chorus. Soaring shit. Dudes in 1990 loved to be so brokenhearted their voice got all gravelly. YouTube on DOWNTOWN TRAIN: “Still love this! Having taken a downtown train home from work for six years, I wonder if I ever caught anyone's eye???” :: Aside from Empire State of Mind up there FREE FALLIN' by Petty is the first song on here that I think belongs in the pop music canon if such a thing continues to exist and the world doesn’t end in like thirty years. I remember coming home to watch this video and being so stoked. I also remember thinking Petty was old as hell but I guess he was forty when this came out and I’m older than that now so fuck.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 1970
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My special guest this week is my tight bro Luke O'Neil. I have given Luke a lot of encouragement about his writing over the years and it is partially because of that encouragement that he has blossomed into a nationally renowned political writer, or maybe solely because of it, who can say. He has written for Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and many others. Subscribe to his incredibly excellent, breathless newsletter "Welcome to Hell World" here and prepare to be blasted in the eyeballs with a big load of devastation and despair. He also runs Emo Night at the Sinclair in Harvard Square, and sings sad songs in his band No Hope/No Harm.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 2020
1. THE BOX by Roddy Rich
2. LIFE IS GOOD by Future featuring Drake
3. GODZILLA by Eminem and Juice WRLD
4. CIRCLES by Post Malone
5. MEMORIES by Maroon 5
6. 10,000 HOURS by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber
7. DANCE MONKEY by Tones And I
8. ROXANNE by Arizona Zervas
9. SOMEONE YOU LOVED by Lewis Capaldi
10. LOSE YOU TO LOVE ME by Selena Gomez
JAKE: I think the train may have left the station on me liking new hip-hop, at least as it's presented at the top of the charts. It's usually trap, and I don't usually like trap, so I don't like THE BOX or LIFE IS GOOD. I'm sure there's tons of underground shit that I'd be really into but I don't know how to get to it, I would love suggestions if you have any. :: GODZILLA: Eminem's flow is undeniable, as are his lyrics, but I find him annoying because he obviously wants to annoy me, and as a result I don't really want to listen to him because I don't find him very listenable. I don't know anything about the recently deceased Juice WRLD but he sounds good on this track. :: The rest of the list is just the same songs from last week swapping positions. I can see why they're all hits but I don't like any of them except LOSE YOU TO LOVE ME, which is so angelic and brilliant.
LUKE: I am in no way one of your typical “music nowadays is crap kids need to listen to real music” guys, quite the opposite in fact, but looking at this list from 2020 did not exactly get me excited to get started on this whole thing. My first impression was that it was weird that there were so many artists on it that I’ve heard of but doing songs I couldn’t begin to tell you what they sound like if my life depended on it. I decided to listen to this Post Malone song mostly because I realized I couldn’t tell you what a Post Malone song actually sounds like. Turns out I’ve actually heard CIRCLES somehow through cultural osmosis and my verdict is it’s …. fine! It’s a fine song. The melody is fine to me ok? It’s fine. OK I’m going to do one of my favorite things here and go find the best YouTube comment on some of these songs I’m listening to. There’s a chapter in my book called YouTube comments are the last sincere space online which you can read here that explains why I love them so much. “It’s true that the comments section on YouTube videos are nasty because people are nasty and the internet is a performance enhancing drug for our nastiness but there is another thing that is true about the comments section on YouTube videos and it is that they’re also one of the most nakedly human and vulnerable spaces we have left and when you come across sincerity online it’s shocking…” I wrote. ----- YouTube on CIRCLES: “I am obsessed with this song - for some weird reason it takes me back to my Teen Years in the 80's - when life was fun, carefree and fantastic !! It just has that 80's Vibe - maybe I'm Crazy !!” :: I was intrigued by GODZILLA not because I feel the need to hear an Eminem song in 2020 but because Juice WRLD is on it and you never know how a posthumous song is going to turn out, could either be a Frankenstein monster nightmare or a touching tribute. I don’t know man this song is fine too. I think I’m too hungover from the Super Bowl to engage with this one. Listening to Eminem can be like when they’re doing construction outside your window every morning for a month. :: Oh I’ve definitely heard this Lewis Capaldi song SOMEONE YOU LOVED but I don’t know where. Probably in a trailer for a movie where a brave handsome troop is coming home to his wife Jessica Chastain after a long hard year murdering Muslims.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 2010
1. TIK TOK by Ke$ha
2. BAD ROMANCE by Lady Gaga
3. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND by Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
4. BEDROCK by Young Money featuring Lloyd
5. REPLAY by Iyaz
6. SEXY BITCH/CHICK by David Guetta featuring Akon
7. HEY SOUL SISTER by Train
8. HARD by Rihanna featuring Jeezy
9. FIREFLIES by Owl City
10. HOW LOW by Ludacris
JAKE: HEY SOUL SISTER is that Train song with the ukulele and the guy goes "hey-ay, hey-yay-yay-ay" that's been in approximately 700 ads for tampons and fabric softener (maybe not literally although I wouldn't be surprised). The lyrics are absolute nonsense. :: Ludacris' HOW LOW is obnoxiously hilarious, a really fun track. :: FIREFLIES is really hanging in there for such a weird song.
LUKE: Oh man I fucking loved the album that came after this in 2012 by Ke$ha and I think she’s great but listening to TIK TOK now it sounds like a novelty pastiche joke song about what the 2010s was like. I just read a thing about how shitty P Diddy was to the artists he worked with stealing their publishing and shit and of course Ke$ha went through another type of music industry hell with Dr. Luke and all that so mostly this song is bumming me out thinking about how cruel we all are to each other. :: The top three songs here are really pretty iconic. Gaga is great too. This is a great example of how she can take just a really weird affect on a verse and blow it up into a glorious chorus. It seems weird to me that it was only ten years ago that we were all sort of starting to know who Lady Gaga is. She’s one who seems like she’s always been in our lives. :: I didn’t remember by name what this Lyaz song REPLAY was but now that I’m hearing it it’s reminding me of hating it at the time and also hating it right now. Ah shit wait I’m listening more… hold on… goddamnit it got me. This melody is great. :: A weird thing about FIREFLIES is sometimes kids come up and request it at Emo Night and I’m like… wot? Nobody has ever had any idea what emo is and they still don’t but that’s not it. YouTube on FIREFLIES: “I remember being 5 and listening to this song I used to cry and hug my mother tightly I still cry whenever I listen to it due to good memories with her.”
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 2000
1. I KNEW I LOVE YOU by Savage Garden
2. WHAT A GIRL WANTS by Christina Aguilera
3. SMOOTH by Santana featuring Rob Thomas
4. BACK AT ONE by Brian McKnight
5. BRING IT ALL TO ME by Blaque
6. BLUE (DA BA DEE) by Eiffel 65
7. HOT BOYZ by Missy Elliot
8. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS by Celine Dion
9. I NEED TO KNOW by Marc Anthony
10. MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE by Whitney Houston
JAKE: If you'd ask me 10 minutes ago if Savage Garden had ever had a number one hit in the U.S. I would have confidently said "Of course not". But America has a long history of bad decision making when it comes to the top ten. And everything else. The song is nonsense. :: My beautiful angel from heaven Celine Dion is back on the charts this week with THAT'S THE WAY IT IS. I guess maybe I don't like when she sings anything other than torch song ballads so it's not my favorite of hers, but whenever she opens her mouth it sounds like exploding clusters of fairies lighting up the sky like blinding white fireworks. :: BLUE (DA BA DEE) has moved up this week. I could probably write an entire post about just this song. As I said last week it has the worst, THE WORST, rap break in pop history, I don't even think there's a close second. Maybe the one in Rush's "Roll The Bones" where the guy goes "Jack, relax/get busy with the facts". I love that BLUE starts with the guy saying "Yo listen up" like he's got something really important to say and then goes onto spout off a bunch of ridiculous nonsense using the word "blue" 73 times. :: I don't really know what the fuck the word SMOOTH has to do with the rest of the lyrics in that song." I love you because you're so... smooth?" That's a weird word choice if you ask me. Also I hated that song from the second I heard it but I have no problem seeing why it was a hit.
LUKE: It’s hard to listen to SMOOTH and separate it from the jokey meme it became online and I guess still is. Man it’s a hot one, lol. Try thinking about that lyric without laughing. This is of course a great musical track. I saw Santana perform it one time in Guadalajara like six years ago and it was predictably great but I was a little disappointed he doesn’t just have Rob Thomas hanging around on hand at all times in an amp case to pop out when he’s needed. Also on that bill was Journey with the replacement guy they had for a while there and I was like ok this is gonna be fine… and then they just murdered us with hit after hit. Then we went to Santana’s tequila distillery and I pretended to harvest some agave. That seems like a very hard job. YouTube on SMOOTH: “The girl in the blue convertible at the start of this is Marisol, Rob's wife of many years. She has had to undergo brain surgery due to Lyme disease. God Bless them both he has stayed by her side thru years of her problems to do this illness. Men like that are hard to find.” :: I have no fucking memory of this BLUE song. What is this? This was never a hit. My god this fucking blows get this off. I don’t really remember this Missy song HOT BOYZ either. It’s not one of her best. What was going on in 2000 man? No memory of this Blaque song BRING IT ALL TO ME, or this Brian McKnight song BACK AT ONE. I guess I wasn’t listening to much popular radio in 2000 due to being young and still having my whole life ahead of me at the time. If this was the ambient cultural background for my youth though maybe it wasn’t as good as I remember it as. :: That horny as hell Marc Anthony song I NEED TO KNOW still goes though.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 1990
2. WHAT A GIRL WANTS by Christina Aguilera
3. SMOOTH by Santana featuring Rob Thomas
4. BACK AT ONE by Brian McKnight
5. BRING IT ALL TO ME by Blaque
6. BLUE (DA BA DEE) by Eiffel 65
7. HOT BOYZ by Missy Elliot
8. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS by Celine Dion
9. I NEED TO KNOW by Marc Anthony
10. MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE by Whitney Houston
JAKE: If you'd ask me 10 minutes ago if Savage Garden had ever had a number one hit in the U.S. I would have confidently said "Of course not". But America has a long history of bad decision making when it comes to the top ten. And everything else. The song is nonsense. :: My beautiful angel from heaven Celine Dion is back on the charts this week with THAT'S THE WAY IT IS. I guess maybe I don't like when she sings anything other than torch song ballads so it's not my favorite of hers, but whenever she opens her mouth it sounds like exploding clusters of fairies lighting up the sky like blinding white fireworks. :: BLUE (DA BA DEE) has moved up this week. I could probably write an entire post about just this song. As I said last week it has the worst, THE WORST, rap break in pop history, I don't even think there's a close second. Maybe the one in Rush's "Roll The Bones" where the guy goes "Jack, relax/get busy with the facts". I love that BLUE starts with the guy saying "Yo listen up" like he's got something really important to say and then goes onto spout off a bunch of ridiculous nonsense using the word "blue" 73 times. :: I don't really know what the fuck the word SMOOTH has to do with the rest of the lyrics in that song." I love you because you're so... smooth?" That's a weird word choice if you ask me. Also I hated that song from the second I heard it but I have no problem seeing why it was a hit.
LUKE: It’s hard to listen to SMOOTH and separate it from the jokey meme it became online and I guess still is. Man it’s a hot one, lol. Try thinking about that lyric without laughing. This is of course a great musical track. I saw Santana perform it one time in Guadalajara like six years ago and it was predictably great but I was a little disappointed he doesn’t just have Rob Thomas hanging around on hand at all times in an amp case to pop out when he’s needed. Also on that bill was Journey with the replacement guy they had for a while there and I was like ok this is gonna be fine… and then they just murdered us with hit after hit. Then we went to Santana’s tequila distillery and I pretended to harvest some agave. That seems like a very hard job. YouTube on SMOOTH: “The girl in the blue convertible at the start of this is Marisol, Rob's wife of many years. She has had to undergo brain surgery due to Lyme disease. God Bless them both he has stayed by her side thru years of her problems to do this illness. Men like that are hard to find.” :: I have no fucking memory of this BLUE song. What is this? This was never a hit. My god this fucking blows get this off. I don’t really remember this Missy song HOT BOYZ either. It’s not one of her best. What was going on in 2000 man? No memory of this Blaque song BRING IT ALL TO ME, or this Brian McKnight song BACK AT ONE. I guess I wasn’t listening to much popular radio in 2000 due to being young and still having my whole life ahead of me at the time. If this was the ambient cultural background for my youth though maybe it wasn’t as good as I remember it as. :: That horny as hell Marc Anthony song I NEED TO KNOW still goes though.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 1990
1. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU by Michael Bolton
2. OPPOSITES ATTRACT by Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair
3. DOWNTOWN TRAIN by Rod Stewart
4. TWO TO MAKE IT RIGHT by Seduction
5. JANIE'S GOT A GUN by Aerosmith
6. I REMEMBER YOU by Skid Row
7. FREE FALLIN’ by Tom Petty
8. PUMP UP THE JAM by Technotronic Featuring Felly
9. JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME by Lou Gramm
10. EVERYTHING by Jody Watley
JAKE: My ears have been conditioned from a very young age to reject Michael Bolton so it's hard for me to be objective about him even though I can easily see why he was so successful. :: If you look at the arc of Rod Stewart's career it's almost like he was willfully trying to go downhill. One of the best blues-rock singers of all time, arguably THE best, he started slinging schlock in the mid-70s and found himself rich beyond his wildest dreams and never turned back. There are some gems along the way but nothing with the primal heft of his early work with Jeff Beck and the Faces and his earlier solo stuff. :: The same is true, although arguably to a lesser extent, of Aerosmith. For their first 5 albums, maybe 6, Aerosmith is one of my favorite hard rock bands of all time. Cut to fifteen years later and JANIE'S GOT A GUN, the most irritating thing they ever recorded, is one of their highest charting singles. :: The brilliance of the lyric of FREE FALLIN' can't be overstated, especially in the chorus where he goes "I'm FREE" and you go "oh cool he's free now" and then he goes "FREE FALLIN'!" and you go "oh BAD he's not free now!" It's about not being able to live up to the myth of American upstanding-ness. It's about knowing you're a bad person and beating yourself up about it. You're a man, you're wired to self-destruct, you're hopeless. It also never leaves its relatively simple 1/4/1/5 chord progression but somehow continues to build throughout the song, and the fact that it stays on the that progression the whole time really works here since he's basically talking about being stuck. Producer Jeff Lynne of ELO fame and Petty seem like sort of a weird combination, but it's a match made in heaven. Although perhaps not as heavenly as the match with Rick Ruben a few years later, when they recorded "Wildflowers", Petty's masterwork.
LUKE: Unironically love this Bolton song HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU. My dude could belt it out man. I think I remember listening to this after a high school breakup years later and believing every word of it. How could you not when the pipes are that hot. :: Rod Stewart is another guy who had become sort of a joke by the time I was paying attention, but he breaks it off here man. That chorus. Soaring shit. Dudes in 1990 loved to be so brokenhearted their voice got all gravelly. YouTube on DOWNTOWN TRAIN: “Still love this! Having taken a downtown train home from work for six years, I wonder if I ever caught anyone's eye???” :: Aside from Empire State of Mind up there FREE FALLIN' by Petty is the first song on here that I think belongs in the pop music canon if such a thing continues to exist and the world doesn’t end in like thirty years. I remember coming home to watch this video and being so stoked. I also remember thinking Petty was old as hell but I guess he was forty when this came out and I’m older than that now so fuck.
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 1980
1. ROCK WITH YOU by Michael Jackson
2. DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME by The Captain and Tennille
3. COWARD OF THE COUNTY by Kenny Rogers
4. CRUISIN by Smokey Robinson
5. CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE by Queen
6. ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) by Rupert Holmes
7. SARA by Fleetwood Mac
8. THE LONG RUN by the Eagles
9. YES I'M READY by Teri DeSario with K.C.
10. DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
JAKE: I love Queen, especially live Queen; there are a lot of good recordings of them playing live around this time in 1980 when they were at their zenith as an arena-packing act. The studio version of CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE is pretty hokey sounding. I think if I had been the critical thinker that I am now when I first heard it I probably would have said "what the fuck are they doing this for?" But the live version, the version they played in Montreal in 1981, fucking scorches. :: YES I'M READY is a slick, really well produced cover sung by two people who can't. :: I'd be really surprised if Kenny Rogers and crew were expecting COWARD OF THE COUNTY to be released as a single, nevermind become a huge crossover hit, even though Kenny was shit hot at the time. For one thing it's the last song on the album, and production wise it doesn't really sound like much thought was given to it, and Kenny's vocal delivery is a little lacking. The lyrics are so great though, it's pretty amazing how such a clear, cohesive story could be molded into something that ended up on the top ten, that's rarely been done. Speaking of Kenny I recently watched this video of him live, you've got to see this just for the moment Dolly Parton enters, it's like God just walked in. :: I recently bought a couple 70's era Smokey albums and I'm surprised how good he continued to be, I always think of the Motown era as his heyday, and it was, but his 70's and early 80's stuff deserves to be heard. The production is a little lacking, especially compared with mid-60's Motown, which is arguably or maybe even objectively the most well recorded and performed music of all time.
LUKE: Putting all these songs into my Spotify and YouTube is really going to fuck up my algorithm here. I have been doing pretty well with a solid AI-recommended diet of bands that sound like Deftones for a while now and it’s all gone to hell. :: I love this MJ song ROCK WITH YOU so much due to I’m a human being with a heart and ears and two feet that need to dance but can’t stop thinking about what a sad fucked up predator that dude turned into. Kind of puts a damper on things! I think collectively people sort of decided his music was so good it’s still ok to listen to it? Been going through that lately with my favorite Morrissey. As far as I know he didn’t systematically rape children, he’s just become garden variety old British racist, but it still spoils it for me. :: Wow COWARD OF THE COUNTY is a devastating diss. I would not like to be known as the coward of the county. Oh wait, there’s gonna be a twist here hold on. Maybe he’s not such a coward after all? Eh I got bored waiting for the turn. Kenny rules but this isn’t holding my attention. Just as I switched to the next song it sounded like he was setting up a gang rape scenario? What the fuck. I’m moving on. :: CRUISIN'? Who cares not doing it for me. :: This Queen song CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE is obviously a classic. The sort of Queen revival they’ve been forcing on us lately has sort of diminished by affection for them in a way if that makes sense. :: I never cared about Fleetwood Mac and I always think I should remedy that but I don’t really want to and it won’t be today. I’m going to listen to Tom Petty instead. At the end when he goes “Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!”? I felt that then and I feel it now. Petty’s angst is restrained but that makes it all the more effective. He’s not a showboat like Bolton or Stewart. He doesn’t need to blow us all away. YouTube on DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT: “Tom Petty is an icon. My son died a month before him and I thought well at least he gets to hang out with Tom Petty. I asked my son to play American Girl for me.”
2. DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME by The Captain and Tennille
3. COWARD OF THE COUNTY by Kenny Rogers
4. CRUISIN by Smokey Robinson
5. CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE by Queen
6. ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) by Rupert Holmes
7. SARA by Fleetwood Mac
8. THE LONG RUN by the Eagles
9. YES I'M READY by Teri DeSario with K.C.
10. DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
JAKE: I love Queen, especially live Queen; there are a lot of good recordings of them playing live around this time in 1980 when they were at their zenith as an arena-packing act. The studio version of CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE is pretty hokey sounding. I think if I had been the critical thinker that I am now when I first heard it I probably would have said "what the fuck are they doing this for?" But the live version, the version they played in Montreal in 1981, fucking scorches. :: YES I'M READY is a slick, really well produced cover sung by two people who can't. :: I'd be really surprised if Kenny Rogers and crew were expecting COWARD OF THE COUNTY to be released as a single, nevermind become a huge crossover hit, even though Kenny was shit hot at the time. For one thing it's the last song on the album, and production wise it doesn't really sound like much thought was given to it, and Kenny's vocal delivery is a little lacking. The lyrics are so great though, it's pretty amazing how such a clear, cohesive story could be molded into something that ended up on the top ten, that's rarely been done. Speaking of Kenny I recently watched this video of him live, you've got to see this just for the moment Dolly Parton enters, it's like God just walked in. :: I recently bought a couple 70's era Smokey albums and I'm surprised how good he continued to be, I always think of the Motown era as his heyday, and it was, but his 70's and early 80's stuff deserves to be heard. The production is a little lacking, especially compared with mid-60's Motown, which is arguably or maybe even objectively the most well recorded and performed music of all time.
LUKE: Putting all these songs into my Spotify and YouTube is really going to fuck up my algorithm here. I have been doing pretty well with a solid AI-recommended diet of bands that sound like Deftones for a while now and it’s all gone to hell. :: I love this MJ song ROCK WITH YOU so much due to I’m a human being with a heart and ears and two feet that need to dance but can’t stop thinking about what a sad fucked up predator that dude turned into. Kind of puts a damper on things! I think collectively people sort of decided his music was so good it’s still ok to listen to it? Been going through that lately with my favorite Morrissey. As far as I know he didn’t systematically rape children, he’s just become garden variety old British racist, but it still spoils it for me. :: Wow COWARD OF THE COUNTY is a devastating diss. I would not like to be known as the coward of the county. Oh wait, there’s gonna be a twist here hold on. Maybe he’s not such a coward after all? Eh I got bored waiting for the turn. Kenny rules but this isn’t holding my attention. Just as I switched to the next song it sounded like he was setting up a gang rape scenario? What the fuck. I’m moving on. :: CRUISIN'? Who cares not doing it for me. :: This Queen song CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE is obviously a classic. The sort of Queen revival they’ve been forcing on us lately has sort of diminished by affection for them in a way if that makes sense. :: I never cared about Fleetwood Mac and I always think I should remedy that but I don’t really want to and it won’t be today. I’m going to listen to Tom Petty instead. At the end when he goes “Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!”? I felt that then and I feel it now. Petty’s angst is restrained but that makes it all the more effective. He’s not a showboat like Bolton or Stewart. He doesn’t need to blow us all away. YouTube on DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT: “Tom Petty is an icon. My son died a month before him and I thought well at least he gets to hang out with Tom Petty. I asked my son to play American Girl for me.”
TOP TEN SONGS FROM THIS WEEK IN 1970
1. I WANT YOU BACK by The Jackson 5
2. VENUS by The Shocking Blue
3. RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD by B.J. THOMAS
4. WHOLE LOTTA LOVE/LIVING LOVING MAID by Led Zeppelin
5. WITHOUT LOVE (There Is Nothing) by Tom Jones
6. DON'T CRY DADDY/RUBBERNECKIN' by Elvis Presley
7. I'LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN by Dionne Warwick
8. THANK YOU (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/EVERYBODY IS A STAR by Sly and the Family Stone
9. SOMEDAY WE'LL BE TOGETHER by Diana Ross and the Supremes
10. LEAVING ON A JET PLANE by Peter Paul and Mary
JAKE: Yet another double A-side this week with THANK YOU and EVERYBODY IS A STAR, both incredible songs by one of the most talented people ever to grace the pop charts and one of the best bands to do so as well. It must be very difficult to walk around in this world and be as brilliant a person as Sly Stone which is probably why he burned out so quickly. "Thank you for the party, but I could never stay".
LUKE: A lot of the 1980 and 1990 songs made me aware of the passage of time in my own life obviously, but seeing RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD pop up on here is sort of bracing, like the enormity of the past just struck me all at once. Feels weird that a song like this could even be in the relatively short historical sample size as Post Malone or whatever but here we are. : This is weird but I had no idea that Zeppelin songs actually charted and were hits. Of course I knew they were massively popular but it never registered to me that they would be on the charts. I was never a Zeppelin Guy. I like them obviously but something about it just never connected with me. :: Wait what the fuck Elvis is on here too? What the hell year was 1970 anyway? What a weird year out of time. “Together we’ll find a brand new mommy?” what the fuck? YouTube on DON'T CRY DADDY: “My father just passed away this morning and this was his and our favorite song ever to listen to together, and just hearing it reminds me of his voice and it overwhelms me with so many emotions. I miss him so much.”
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(this is my personal top ten list from the all the January top tens for every year we're covering here. Much consideration is given to having something from every decade, otherwise it'd probably just be songs from '70 and '80. I've discontinued the exhaustive list of every song to chart in all 6 decades because it seemed long and pointless.)
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Read my review of the films Midsommar, Rocketman and Parasite.
2. VENUS by The Shocking Blue
3. RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD by B.J. THOMAS
4. WHOLE LOTTA LOVE/LIVING LOVING MAID by Led Zeppelin
5. WITHOUT LOVE (There Is Nothing) by Tom Jones
6. DON'T CRY DADDY/RUBBERNECKIN' by Elvis Presley
7. I'LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN by Dionne Warwick
8. THANK YOU (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)/EVERYBODY IS A STAR by Sly and the Family Stone
9. SOMEDAY WE'LL BE TOGETHER by Diana Ross and the Supremes
10. LEAVING ON A JET PLANE by Peter Paul and Mary
JAKE: Yet another double A-side this week with THANK YOU and EVERYBODY IS A STAR, both incredible songs by one of the most talented people ever to grace the pop charts and one of the best bands to do so as well. It must be very difficult to walk around in this world and be as brilliant a person as Sly Stone which is probably why he burned out so quickly. "Thank you for the party, but I could never stay".
LUKE: A lot of the 1980 and 1990 songs made me aware of the passage of time in my own life obviously, but seeing RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD pop up on here is sort of bracing, like the enormity of the past just struck me all at once. Feels weird that a song like this could even be in the relatively short historical sample size as Post Malone or whatever but here we are. : This is weird but I had no idea that Zeppelin songs actually charted and were hits. Of course I knew they were massively popular but it never registered to me that they would be on the charts. I was never a Zeppelin Guy. I like them obviously but something about it just never connected with me. :: Wait what the fuck Elvis is on here too? What the hell year was 1970 anyway? What a weird year out of time. “Together we’ll find a brand new mommy?” what the fuck? YouTube on DON'T CRY DADDY: “My father just passed away this morning and this was his and our favorite song ever to listen to together, and just hearing it reminds me of his voice and it overwhelms me with so many emotions. I miss him so much.”
___________________
(this is my personal top ten list from the all the January top tens for every year we're covering here. Much consideration is given to having something from every decade, otherwise it'd probably just be songs from '70 and '80. I've discontinued the exhaustive list of every song to chart in all 6 decades because it seemed long and pointless.)
___________________
Read my review of the films Midsommar, Rocketman and Parasite.
Follow my band the Dream Eaters so you can write your own blog about how stupid my songs are.
Twitter: @dreameatersband
Facebook: @dreameatersband
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Web: thedreameaters.com
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