Just a warning... I have a very liberal amount of italics, statements in bold, lots of ellipses and sometimes all three in one sentence. Its a grammatical nightmare. Oh, and this has video on it, so if you reading on the Facebook, shift over to The Mothership and read it on mine own site. Thanks.
The atmosphere in Hollywood is electric, is crazy, is pumped and geared for the Idols!
The atmosphere in The Cabana? Relaxed. Well-fed. Simple. Quiet, except for The Lovely Steph Leann's subtle movements on the couch under her blankie, and the typing of this post. Oh, and the show itself. Its Thursday evening, The Lovely Steph Leann is back from a Pensacola trip, and for the first time in a long, long while, we are going to watch the show together, comments and all.
The Top Five await... The Soulful Jacob Lusk... Deep Voiced Scotty... Haley Cuteness... America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina... The Straight Adam Lambert... and Randy the Dawg wonders, "Who is in it to win it?" Because some of the Idols are here not to win. Right.
THIS IS AMERICAN IDOL
And tonight's mentor! Sheryl Crow, one of my top five favorite artists of all, all time. I love, love love Sheryl Crow and am pumped she's on the show tonight... yes, yes, she had the toilet paper remark, but I still love me some Sheryl. She helped define my college career.
TOP TEN FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONGS...
#10... "The First Cut is the Deepest" from "The Very Best of"
#9... "Strong Enough (live)" with The Dixie Chicks, from "Live from Central Park
Each of the Idols gets two songs, the first being a modern song, and the second being one from "Back in the day" as Seacrusty puts it.
First! Modern Songs!
The Straight Adam Lambert is up first, singing.. "30 Seconds to... something". To Mars? To Morrow? In it to win it? Who knows.
Uncle Steven says, "You kicked that song's a**." J-Lo loved it. Randy the Dawg thought it showed where Blinky James can go as an artist. The Straight Adam Lambert is in it to win it. Dawg.
Now, The Soulful Jacob Lusk is ready to sing Idol winner Jordin Sparks song "No Air", a song that I can pretty much tell you that I not only know nothing about, I don't know that I've ever heard the entire thing. Or part of it. I do know that Chris Brown sang with Jordin on this--Rhianna says you can't beat that. Ha!
This performance leads to the following exchange:
Me: This... this sounds horrible. Her: What... what is he doing? His dancing is... what? (pause). They did this song on Glee. I liked it on Glee.
J-Lo liked it. Randy the Dawg didn't like The Soulful Jacob Lusk's direction, and didn't like him trying to sing a duet song solo. Uncle Steven Tyler loves his voice.
TOP TEN FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONGS #8... "Can't Cry Anymore" from "Tuesday Night Music Club"
#7... "Picture" with Kid Rock, from "The Very Best of"
America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina is taking on Carrie Underwood's tune, "Flat on the Floor", from the album "Carnival Ride". We open the performance with a fiddle, and I like it already. Then she starts to sing, and I love it. Rock on.
The awesome Dr. Callie Torres of Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.
The Lovely Steph Leann is giddy because she spots Dr. Callie Torres in the audience. Seeing that FOX is an Idol show, I'm not sure that Seacrusty is going to introduce Dr. Torres to us.
Randy the Dawg declares America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina to be "in it to win it." Steven Tyler says, "For 15, the sky is the limit!" (The Lovely Steph Leann mutters, "She's 16, Steven, she's 16.") J-Lo loved it.
Now, its time for Deep Voiced Scotty "the Body", and he'll be doing his country roots justice with Montgomery Gentry's "Gone".
I declared this... were I of 17 or 18 years old, in this competition and singing with Sheryl Crow... I'm asking her out. No stinkin' joke. She'd say no, but I would walk out of there knowing I hit on Sheryl Crow, and that's good enough for me.
Once again, Deep Voiced Scotty is doing the country thang, and doing it very, very well. Creepy Uncle Steven Tyler loved it. J-Lo loved it. Randy the Dawg felt as if he were at a Scotty the Body concert. And.. guess what, Deep Voiced Scotty's "in it to win it!!!"
We are back from break, and I wonder aloud if Haley Cuteness' boobs have their own number. The Lovely Steph Leann grunts and says, "Yeah, they aren't that big."
Haley is doing a Gaga song, an unreleased track that she was able to get permission from Lady G herself to sing. Its "You and I", and Sheryl Crow loves it.
Haley Cuteness starts on the steps, seated, and singing in her sultry voice. She looks great, though I figure it wouldn't take much to convince me that she got her sparkly pants out of Pauly Mac's closet.
What can I say? I love Haley Reinhart now.
The Lovely Steph Leann says, "You and I? Its not really grammatically correct. Lady Gaga needs to fix that. I laugh heartily.
J-Lo didn't care for it. What? What?! You dug Blinky James but didn't like Haley Cuteness? Her issue is the same as Randy the Dawg's issue, which is, Haley shouldn't have done a song that no one knows about. Uncle Steven says, "you are one perfect song away from being the American Idol... you need to find that song..."
TOP TEN FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONGS #6... "A Change Would Do You Good" from "Sheryl Crow"
#5... "Anything but Down" from "The Globe Sessions"
Back in the Day Song Time!
The Straight Adam Lambert is tearing up while listening to "Without You" by Nilsson, to the point where he leaves the rehearsal studio sniffling. Sheryl Crow and Jimmy Iovine both look at each other in bewilderment. The original is a fantastic song, both by Nilsson and Pre-Skank Mariah Carey... how does Blinky James do?
With tears streaming down his face, you can judge this two ways... first, you can say that it was very heartfelt and honest, which led to his voice being shaky. Or, second, you can say it just wasn't that great. I kinda fall in between... it was an emotional song, and I liked it. Didn't love it, but liked it.
Randy the Dawg agrees with me, and says that "this competition is yours to lose." Uncle Steven said it was pitchy in a Blinky James sort of way, but still beautiful. J-Lo loved it.
Seacrusty says, "Up next, The Soulful Jacob Lusk with a Nazareth hit!" Wait... what?
The Lovely Steph Leann asks who Nazareth is, and I reply, "They do that song 'Love Hurts'... you know... love huuuurrrttss! Love... something..." cause I couldn't remember the next line. She says, "Uh, oh yeah... that one... sure."
Okay, so he starts out pretty good, strong, soft, but not too much... yet, he finished with a screech and a wail and too much. The Lovely Steph Leann agrees.
Uncle Steven Tyler loved it. J-Lo loved it. Randy the Dawg says, "that might have been the highest note ever sung on this stage!" What are they listening to?
MY 4th FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONG
"SOAK UP THE SUN" FROM "C'MON C'MON"
We notice Sir Anthony Hopkins in the audience, and Seacrusty does too as he introduces him, along with Kelly Preston.. and Dr. Torres sits a few seats away, and gets no love. Because she gets a check from ABC.
America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina is doing "Unchained Melody", which prompts The Lovely Steph Leann to say, "Really? The Righteous Brothers have other songs that are just, if not more, fabulous!!"
The original kind of bores me, and her version kinda does too. J-Lo loved it. Randy the Dawg loved it. Steven Tyler loved it.
Deep Voiced Scotty's second song is "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson (though I think he said Elvis... maybe Elvis did this song, but Willie is the only one I know of...) I grew up on old school country, so this song was a staple around my house.
Anyway, it sounded like Scotty, which meant it sounds country good. Country strong. J-Lo loved it. Randy the Dawg loved it. Steven Tyler loved it.
Seacrusty says, "Up next, Haley Cuteness takes on The Animals!"
Me: I hope she doesn't do "House of the Rising Sun" Her: Well, sure... did The Animals do anything else? Haley Cuteness: I am doing The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun"
Sheryl Crow suggests Haley start out acapella. I would say if Sheryl told me I should start out with a banana peel on my head and a booger on my left eyelid, I'd do it, at least when it comes to singing, so naturally Haley Cuteness starts the song sans instruments.
I'm not a fan of this song in its original form, but Haley has seemingly made this song sexy... which she seems to do with anything she sings. Go Haley.
The Lovely Steph Leann observes that Dr. Callie Torres loved, judging by her woot woot'ness. Randy the Dawg calls this the song of the night. Steven Tyler loved it. J-Lo loved it.
MY 3rd FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONG
"EVERYDAY IS A WINDING ROAD" FROM "SHERYL CROW"
So here is how I rank the songs tonight, for my own personal preference... (1) America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina's "Flat on the Floor"... (2) Haley Cuteness' "You and I"... (3) The Straight Adam Lambert's "Without You"... (4) Deep Voiced Scotty's "Always on My Mind"... (5) Haley Cuteness' "House of the Rising Sun"... (6) The Straight Adam Lambert's "30 Seconds to Mars"... (7) Deep Voiced Scotty's "Gone"... (8) America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina's "Unchained Melody"... (9) The Soulful Jacob Lusk's "Love Hurts"... (10) The Soulful Jacob Lusk's "No Air"
And for me, The Soulful Jacob Lusk needs to go home.
AND NOW
THIS IS
THE AMERICAN IDOL
RESULTS
I fast forward to the next show and stop when the judges enter the stage... and The Lovely Steph Leann begins to shriek. What?! What?? I ask, and she is horrified. Horrified by Jennifer Lopez's short skirt. "Make her sit down so I don't have to see that! But I wonder how much of her butt will be on that chair, because there's no way that skirt is going to cover her butt when she sits down... make her sit down!"
Seacrusty comes out and discusses Steven Tyler's new book, his autobiography, "Do You Hear The Noise In My Head."
Seacrusty: Tonight! J-Lo will be doing her latest smash single! Me: That means you'll get to see that skirt again. The Lovely Steph Leann: Uuugghhh....
Group Song... fast forward
Commercial break.. fast forward
Ford Music Video... fast forward
Video with the Idols in Hell's Kitchen. We actually watch this, even though its shameless self-promotion. Its amusing. They all cook omelets for Chef Ramsey's approval... and southern girl America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina gets the only good comment from Ramsey--that's good ol southern cooking at its finest.
And now, here's the new song from their new album... its Lady Antebellum's "Just a Kiss"... and I dare not touch the remote, lest I get divorced like, tomorrow.
Up now, in another example of making a 10 minute show into an hour... a funny video about the Idol's decisions in fashion and picking songs.
MY 2nd FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONG
"STEVE MCQUEEN" FROM "C'MON C'MON"
Now, let's get to the results! Dim the lights! The Straight Adam Lambert stands up, and after a review of last night, is sent to the other side of the stage to "start a group". My prediction is the whole, two Idols on one side, two Idols on the other, and the remaining Idol will have to decide which group to join... they love to do it, and haven't done it so far this season.
After Jimmy Iovine says, "Based on last night, I think America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina will be in the bottom three", America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina is led to stand on the near side of the stage, and The Lovely Steph Leann says, "Aww! She's about to cry! Look! Don't cry!!"
Commercial Break. Fast Forward
Another Hell's Kitchen/Idol video. We watch.
J-Lo's performance of her new single. Fast Forward
Commercial Break. Fast Forward.
More results! Dim the lights! The Soulful Jacob Lusk stands up. After Jimmy Iovine doesn't give him much hope, he is asked to stand next to America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina, who is probably thinking "Crap!" And now, Haley Cuteness is up for review. She is sent over to join The Straight Adam Lambert.
Finally, Deep Voiced Scotty stands. Seacrusty says, "You have never been in the Bottom Two... and tonight? No different... you are safe." But, Seacrusty tells Deep Voiced Scotty to go stand with who he thinks is in The Bottom Two, and Deep Voiced Scotty says, "Don't do that, man, don't do that to me." Seacrusty pulls him to The Straight Adam Lambert and Haley Cuteness, and says, "you are all three safe!"
Based on Seacrusty saying, "And you might be surprised at the results" earlier in the show, I say, "I am afraid America's Darlin' Lauren Alaina is going home." The Lovely Steph Leann says, "NO! She can't go home!!!"
After 60 billion votes, the person going home tonight is... The Soulful Jacob Lusk.
I breath a huge sigh of relief... I was actually nervous and my stomach was kinda twisty at the thought he would stay and America's Darlin Lauren Alaina would go home. Whew.
MY FAVORITE SHERYL CROW SONG EVER?
From the album "The Globe Sessions", its "My Favorite Mistake".
I'll admit, I'm quite the nerd. Some people would call it OCD, but I would say SOCD, which is Selective Obsessive Compulsive Disorder... I don't obsess about much, but I'm very picky about what I obsess about... its almost like, I know whats important to me, how important it is to have things done the way I want the done... but only about certain things that sometimes no one else cares about.
Case in point... iTunes.
iTunes has this thing called a "play count", which is both a blessed and cursed thing. In my mind, once I play a song, I want it counted. Once I listen to a song, I want it noted... it truly doesn't mean a hill of beans to anyone in the entire world that I've listened to "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon 34 times, or that I've fired up the original "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley 8 times.
But its important to me. I dunno why, and I really am not sure I care to psycho-analyze, but that's just one of those quirky, nerdy things about me. We'll come back to this, but first I have to give a bit more exposition, then tie it all together at the end like a good little storyteller.
Yesterday, I finally purchased a portable hard drive. We've owned a regular external hard drive for about three years, and backs up most of what is on my, and The Lovely Steph Leann's, computers. For me its music, audiobooks and pictures, for her its mostly pictures and Creative Memories back-up files... but the problem is, its so clunky and bulky. In the Casa de Pesos apartment, it wasn't a big deal, because our place was so small, we just kept our PC and the back up drive and such altogether, and even when we got laptops, they mostly just stayed in the guest bedroom. I could write and blog and do whatever, and with a television in the room, I could still watch whatever, or play a movie or anything of the like.
When we got The Cabana, though, it was harder, because we kept the back-up drive upstairs, and the laptops stayed downstairs mostly, so I didn't back up much stuff, just every now and then. With my growing love (and ear) for audiobooks, I finally had to move them off of my laptop because I had gotten to the point where I had less than 10gb of space (off of 300gb). It took almost 2 hours, but I moved almost 80gb of audiobooks onto the harddrive, plus a few movies and some other space-taking items.
Now, for anyone who owns an iPod, you'll notice that if you try and sync your iPod, and you've moved some files, a little "!" will appear by those files. And when those files are on an entirely different drive altogether, its even worse, because you get a hundred or two of those "!" when they are audiobooks. So, I now have a set up on our dining room table, this external hard drive to my left, cords and USB cables running everywhere and anywhere, and like, four things plugged into the nearby outlet. Thus, the need for a portable hard drive.
So I'm currently moving, from the external to the portable, over 100 audiobooks, encompassing 32,000+ files (the Harry Potter series alone contains at least 1,500 tracks), which makes up about 140gb of space. I have another 60gb of pictures to move over. And at some point, in the future, I'll move over all my music from my laptop to the portable hard drive.
And now, we get back to play counts. See, when I move over the music, I have to reload all songs back into iTunes. And when I do, all play counts go back to zero. Everyone. So me listening to Nilsson's "I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City" 29 times? Its like it didn't happen.
However, don't think I haven't considering recreating all the playcounts. Easy, really... click on a song, click "repeat" twice (which makes the song repeat) and then click on the end over and over. It will advance from beginning to end, then start over. Yes, this is a really stupid, useless thing to do. Yes, there are far better uses of my time. Yes, I've thought about it. We'll see.
Play counts are a funny thing... it kinda tells you and the world what you truly like. My official Top Five list of songs are: (1) "Possession" by Sarah McLachlan... (2) "I'd Die Without You" by PM Dawn... (3) "Piano in the Dark" by Brenda Russell (ft. Joe Esposito)... (4) "Not the Only One" by Bonnie Raitt... (5) "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears. Coming in a close 6th is "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
Other songs that have wandered their way in and out of my Top Ten including "Let Her Cry" by Hootie and the Blowfish... "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton... "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney and Wings... "Hazy Shade of Winter" by The Bangles and "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John....
But you know what? Out of those 11 songs I just listed, none are in my Top Ten of the Play Count List, and only one is in the Top Twenty, at 19th. So, I thought it might be fun to list my Top Fifty Songs on the Play Count List, the songs that have been played the most. Bear in mind, too, that I listen to a ton of podcasting and audiobooks, so music isn't my top priority most of the time, but sometimes, you just wanna hear Timberlake, or Flo Rida or Billy Joel or Bill Withers...
So, here we go... Song, artist, and (play count)
There is a huge six way tie at 50, featuring... 50-tie. Running From an Angel by Hootie & the Blowfish (34) 50-tie. Clarity by John Mayer (34) 50-tie. 3AM by Matchbox 20 (34) 50-tie. Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon (34) 50-tie. Welcome to Delaware by Watermark (34) 50-tie. White & Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovic (Video) (34)
All the way down to #40 is another tie or two, featuring the only song that appears twice in our countdown, in both audio and video versions. Also, The Dixie Chicks make their first of three appearances. 48-tie. Cowboy Take Me Away by The Dixie Chicks (35) 48-tie. Sunday Afternoon by Joel Blount (35) 40-tie. ...And Our Feelings by Babyface (Video) (36)
40-tie. Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel (36) 40-tie. Close of Autumn by Caedmon's Call (36) 40-tie. The Trolley Song by Judy Garland (36) 40-tie. Taylor, the Latte Boy by Kristin Chenoweth (36) 40-tie. B.O.B. by OutKast (36) 40-tie. Light My Candle by Mimi and Roger from The Cast of Rent (36) 40-tie. You Mean the World To Me by Toni Braxton (36)
The next set of ten, down to a four way tie at #31... 39. I'll Be Okay by Amanda Marshall (37) 36-tie. Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers (38) 36-tie. In the Light by dcTalk (38) 36-tie. Possession by Sarah McLachlan (38) 35. Snow (Hey Oh) by The Red Hot Chili Peppers (39) 31-tie. Full Moon by Brandy (40) 31-tie. Callin' Baton Rouge by Garth Brooks (40) 31-tie. The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson (40) 31-tie. The Remedy (I won't worry) by Jason Mraz (40)
The next ten are all older songs, anywhere from five to fifteen to thirty... 26-tie. Let's Stay Together by Al Green (41) 26-tie. Still Not a Player by Big Punisher with Fat Joe (41) 26-tie. The Story by Brandi Carlile (41) 26-tie. My My My by Johnny Gill (41) 26-tie. Chains by Tina Arena (41) 24-tie. You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift (41) 24-tie. Say It Right by Nelly Furtado (Video) (41) 23. Season of Love by The Cast of Rent (43) 21-tie. Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawio'ole (45) 21-tie. The Light In Your Eyes by Blessid Union of Souls (45)
And our teens part of the countdown gives us another helping of The Chicks, an obscure but incredible song by Jill Paquette and of course, Cool J. 19-tie. My Favorite Mistake by Sheryl Crow (46) 19-tie. I'd Die Without You by PM Dawn (46) 17-tie. Tortured Tangled Hearts by The Dixie Chicks (47) 17-tie. Drops of Jupiter by Train (47) 15-tie. Sin Wagon by The Dixie Chicks (48) 15-tie. Lift My Eyes by Jill Paquette (48) 13-tie. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley (49) 13-tie. I May Hate Myself in the Morning by Lee Ann Womack (49) 11-tie. Loungin' (who do you love) by LL Cool J (50) 11-tie. If I Ever Lose My Faith in You by Sting (50)
Before we get to the Top Ten, I wanted to give you a list of ten songs that, were I to do this same column in a year two, you'd probably see some of them appear in this very list, maybe because they are new and I listen to them frequently now or because they were just outside the top fifty and have gotten some recent love from my playlist... they include "Hey Soul Sister" by Train... "Travelin Soldier" by The Dixie Chicks... "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by Elton John... "Relator" by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson... "You Give Good Love" by Whitney Houston... "Better in Time" by Leona Lewis... "Right Round" by Flo Rida... "I Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum... "Everything Zen" by Bush... and, of course... "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus
Now, here's the Top Ten... a little eclectic, but a little predictable all the same... 10. Collide by Howie Day (53)... I cannot even name another Howie Day song. But I love this one. I told The Lovely Steph Leann if I played guitar and could sing, this would be part of my set.
9. ...And Our Feelings by Babyface (54)... This is a perfect song to sing while driving. My vocals get nowhere near the level of Babyface, but that doesn't mean I don't try.
7-tie. How to Save a Life by The Fray (55)... This and their other big song, perhaps one of the biggest, most awesome one-two song punches ever.
7-tie. You and I Both by Jason Mraz (55)... Its a great video, its a great song, and its also fun to sing. And the lyrics are easier to learn than "The Remedy".
6. My Boo by Usher (ft Alicia Keys) (56)... I was a little surprised when I did this list how far up this list that "My Boo" ended up. But I'm perfectly okay with it.
5. Wildwood Flower by Reese Witherspoon (57)... I bought the "Walk the Line" soundtrack, and I'll be honest, I listened to this song non-stop. When I first got my iPod, I remember this song being the first one to 20 plays ever.
4. Fergalicious by Fergie (Video) (58)... Fine. I'll admit it. I like this song, and this video is fun. I would venture to guess that 40 of the plays were done within a year of it being released.
3. Love Song by Sara Bareilles (59)... If I could use the Billboard Charts term "with a bullet" on my own little list, than I would use it here with this song. I wouldn't be shocked to see this become number one in the near future, because I am completely addicted to this song.
2. Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake (61)... What can I say? Timberlake is cool. The song is cool.
1. Over My Head (Cable Car) by The Fray (63)... Again, I'm not entirely sure how this song got so high, number one in fact, but I make no apologies. It is a song that I could listen to non-stop (and have) and not get tired of (I haven't).
So what about you? Does your list of favorite songs and your actual play counts tell two different stories?
Anyone who knows me knows I love me a countdown. Be it my favorite Tom Cruise films to my yearly 100 Coolest Things of the Year, I can dig on a ranking of a particular topic. So, today while relaxing after work and flipping channels, I came upon Vh1's Top 100 Songs of the 90s. I had seen this show before, and after watching it I realized it aired in 2007, but never all the way through, and I could barely remember much of anything on the list.
So I settled in to watch it. And I had thoughts on everything. So what I decided to do was list them as they appeared in the show
Gerardo, in all his ridiculous glory
100. "Rico Suave" by Gerardo (I'm laughing out loud, quite hard) This song is so ridiculous, I'm not sure anyone took it seriously when it came out, much less now. Except for maybe Gerardo.
99. "The Rain (supa dupa fly)" by Missi "Misdemeanor" Elliott Not a fan. Never been a fan of Missi.
98. "Unbelievable" by EMF There was the rumor that EMF stood for "Energetic Mother F-bombers", though I don't know if that was ever substantiated. What I do know, is this song rocked out my dadgum junior year of high school. This was the epitome of the early 90s pop, and how meaningless it was, yet how much fun it was.
The things you say, your purple prose gives you away? What does that even mean?
97. "Gett Off" by Prince and the New Power Generation Prince is one of the most sexually suggestive, non-obvious dirty artists out there. Even his performance at the Super Bowl a few years ago was one innuendo filled twenty minutes, and this is no different. I liked some 90s Prince, but this wasn't one of the songs I cared for.
96. "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" by Nelson In my life, I've always had a personal "Top Ten" or "Top Five" favorite song list, mostly mental. Some of the songs that have topped this mental top song list include "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany, "I Like It" by Dino, "Fortress Around Your Heart" by Sting and this song, by Nelson.
Even now, I hear it and I remember being 15 again. And I know the words, somehow... and many of you do too.
I was so excited because I won a contest on a radio station by telling the funniest joke of the night. Joke is not Emmy Turnbow Safe, so I won't repeat it. Anyway, they asked me which cassette I wanted, I told them Nelson's latest. They sent me Roxette's "Joyride". Sigh. Had to go out and buy Nelson. I still have both.
95. "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan Like, in 1995, you couldn't go to any party without hearing this song. It was all over the place, because you had this dude singing about partying, having a good time, with all the gang bangers forgetting about the drive-bys... the irony of this song is that despite Jordan singing about the hood, I'd always heard he grew up in a wealthy home and probably knew little about the Man holding the Black Man down.
Some of my favorite lines include... "So I reach for my fo'ty and I turn it up, designated driver take the key to my truck..." and "Every since I was a lower case g, but now I'm a big G, girls see I got the money, hunned dolla bills y'all..."
94. "The Way" by Fastball Eh.
93. "Stay (I Missed You)" by Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories One of my 100 favorite songs of all time, and if I had to write a top ten list of songs that I love to sing outloud, this would easily be on that list. Its funny, though, that its a song that I cannot jump in the middle of... I have to start at the very beginning and work my way through it.
So if someone says, "How does that part where she goes 'some of us hover while we're waiting for the other' go" and I can't just say the next line... I have to softly say to myself, "you say i only hear what i want to you say I talk so all the time so so I thought what I felt was simple and I thought that I don't belong and now that I am leaving now I know that I did something wrong..." and work my way to it. And I have fun doing it.
92. "911 is a Joke" by Public Enemy This song popped up right around the beginning of the decade, and I can't honestly say I've heard the thing all the way through. I just remember it being all controversial because it made fun of 9-1-1, which I guess at the time was a relatively new feature to most of the country. Whatever.
91. "Building a Mystery" by Sarah McLachlan I do love me some Sarah, but this song? For me, its "Possession", my favorite song ever of all time.
90. "You Get What You Give" by The New Radicals This song makes me kinda angry. Why? Because its total crap. The guy can't sing, its got an annoying tune, the lyrics are stupid and I hate it. Next.
89. "Never Said" by Liz Phair Never been a huge Liz Phair fan, and really, neither has The Lovely Steph Leann, but she loves her some "Why Can't I" from movies like "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" or whatever.
88. "Barely Breathing" by Duncan Sheik This song taught me a lesson. I was so into "Barely Breathing" when it came out, I would turn it up and sing every single time it came on. In 1999, I was ready to anoint this song king of my mental list, the top of my own chart in my head, even though it was fairly new at the time. That's how much I loved it.
Then I heard it over and over. And over. And over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And over again. And by the 7,822nd time I had heard it in the span of two hours, I was growing a little weary of it.
And suddenly, I couldn't hear any more of it. I turned away when it came on. Not only had this song had the biggest drop from the top of my mental charts to the bottom, I felt stupid considering it for my favorites song list. It had worn out its welcome, and I was done with it.
That taught me... give it a while, be it a movie or a song, to see how it holds up. Some movies and songs are awesome to begin with, yet over time, wear on you a bit and aren't as great as they were. Some start out slow and catch on, becoming awesome over time. I call it the Duncan Sheik Rule... give it a minimum of 2 years.
87. "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus
Its like, even his mullet has a mullet
I have probably mentioned this before, but when I was in high school, I didn't get out much. Parties weren't my thing, mostly because I wasn't invited to many until at least my junior year, maybe senior year. So, when I was at home on the weekends, particularly Saturday night, I was in my room either watching movies or listening to KMX (Max 106.7) when they played Open House Party with John Garabedian.
Open House Party was (is?) this program that would showcase new artists and new songs by current artists, sometimes weeks before they would hit the airwaves on regular rotation. So, as an Open House Party listener, I was the first one in my small school to be aware of this new band called Nirvana, this new chick named Mariah Carey, and this country rockabilly ditty that went something like "Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think it understands..."
I remember singing this song to myself while waiting outside first period, and classmate Michael Knowles asked me what I was singing. I told him "this song called 'Achy Breaky Heart' by this guy named Billy Cyrus." He told me the song sounded stupid. I told him I thought it might be big. We were both right.
86. "Linger" by The Cranberries Oh my gosh, how much so I love this song. No kidding... from the opening music (which, by the way, is about 53 seconds long, meaning when I worked at WKMX or WTBF, I had enough time to talk about where John Houston would be this Saturday, like at Bondy's Ford Jeep Eagle, or had enough time to plug the community garage sale in Brundidge) to the light voice of Delorous O'Rierdon, to the music and tune, its perfectly set for a melancholy kind of day.
Probably on my Top 100 Songs of All Time. And I'm missssssing you... you know I'm such a fool for you... you got me wrapped around your finger... do you have to... do you have to... do you have to let it linger...
85. "Insane in the Brain" by Cypress Hill Why you messin' with me, essa... can't you see I'm loco... loco... loco...
This song is ridiculously cool by a bunch of random white dudes and black guys in flannel that smoke lots and lots of pot, like the 90s version of the Grateful Dead. Cops, come and try to steal my crops, them pigs wanna blow my house down... its a hoot.
I have this song on Cassingle, and I swear its a forgotten oldie by all those under 21.
84. "Informer" by Snow Who knows what the crap this guy is saying? Back in senior year of 93, this was a big song, and we all tried singing it... except all we could get out was "licky boom boom down", and none of us knew what that meant.
Of course, being 17 year old boys, me and my buddies came up with lots of things it could have stood for. I do remember my freshman year in college, I would sing, "Come with a nice young lady, intelligent she plays Atari, then she do the dance lambada..." (that wasn't the lyrics, but it sounded good.) My roomdawg at the time said, "Dude, if she is intelligent, she is NOT playing Atari."
83. "Cannonball" by The Breeders When this song popped up, I was thinking I'd never heard of it. But... hearing it, I have heard it. Sort of. Heading to iTunes to get it now.
82. "My Mind Playin' Tricks On Me" by The Geto Boys Now this song... I've never heard of. Seriously. Apparently, there's a midget black dude that was one of the lead singers--and now he's given his life to Christ. No joke. His rapping sucks, but hey, if it reaches one person...
81. "I Don't Wanna Wait" by Paula Cole I like this song. Her first tune was "Where Have all the Cowboys Gone", which was okay, but this song was fabulous. I know it was on Dawson's Creek, but I can honestly say I've never seen an episode of that show. I just like the song cause I like the song.
When I worked at Cox Radio, I worked along side of the best people in the whole world, Michelle Carr. Michelle happened to hate this song, mostly because she kept getting caught up on the grammatical atrocity that was the lyric, "Open up your morning light, say a little prayer for I..." and she would hear it and say, "Its prayer for me! Not I! For me!" I would purposely play it in my car when we rode together. Just for her.
80 . "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred Where to even begin with this song? It was like the 90s version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, putting forth an anthem that almost had no other option than but to be a gay anthem, or one that is used in every modeling show in the free known world... or both. I have this cassingle upstairs.
79. "B****" by Meredith Brooks The only thing I didn't like about this song, other than the fact I didn't really care all that much for the song, was the fact that when I was announcing on WKMX and WBPT, I had to say, "Here's one from Meredith Brooks" or "...that was 'Hook', the latest from Blues Traveler... up next, Meredith Brooks new one." I couldn't rightfully say the title of the song.
80. "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz So, I consider myself a casual Lenny fan. He's good, he can rock it and all that, and yeah, this song is a great driving song. But overall, not my favorite guy in music... however, he also did "Fly Away" and a good remake of "American Woman"... so maybe I like him more than I can admit.
77. "It Was a Good Day" by Ice Cube I like the fact this song starts with "Just waking up in the morning, gotta thank God..." then he proceeds to talk about living in the hood, and how he's getting with this chick, drinking a fo'ty, and all that. The song is actually quite brilliant, discussing how for one day in the South Central Hood, no one got shot, no one got killed, everything was peaceful.
And I love the line "didn't even have to use my A-K... it was a good day..." (ooh wah ooh).. I say that line now to blank stares from most people.
76. "Run-Around" by Blues Traveler
Popper apparently had a heart attack about ten years ago, and had surgery to take off about 200 pounds. And he recently got busted for pot. Run around.
EVERYONE liked this song. EVERYONE. Don't tell me you didn't, because you are lying through your teeth. I mean, John Popper, weighing in at like, 400 pounds, belting that harmonica, this song was freakin' everywhere. Popper wore this over the shoulder belt of harmonicas, loaded with like, 12 of them or something.
The video was also awesome, doing a play off of The Wizard of Oz taking place at a Blues Traveler concert. I'd go see them in concert if I could. And I wanted to learn the lyrics to this song so badly, but could never get it down... I like coffee and I like tea... but to able to enter a final plea and... something something...
My theory is that Sister Hazel is the 2000s decade of Blues Traveler. Had like, one, two good songs, and everyone in college wanted them.
Why yes, I have this album. Why do you ask?
75. "Jump" by Kris Kross From where I sit, this cassette is placed about 50 feet from me. Up the steps, in a box. These kids wore their clothes backwards, they were two little kids giving rhymes you ain't never heard, something something something word...
And I will admit, I know every single word to this song. Went bowling with a student group some years ago, and they played this song. And I sang it. And the 13 year old kids were staring at me while I told them I was "the miggity miggity miggity miggity mack daddy, I'm the miggity miggity miggity miggity mack"...
74. "Believe" by Cher You cannot understand how much I hate this song. Like, I despise this song. Watching the recap of the song and its success makes me want to kill myself.
73. "Sex and Candy" by Marcy Playground One of the most overrated songs, ever. Disco Lemonade? Really?
72. "One Week" by The Barenaked Ladies Holy crap, this song was everywhere. And everyone wanted to figure out the lyrics... something about chicka-de-china, the chinese chicken, had a brainfreeze and your brain starts sticking and something about the X-Files and the Smoking Man and some other stuff and I loved it, and had a ball playing this song on WTBF.
When I was living at Willow Terrace, with my best mate Wookiee, we had another roommate who was dating this chick... we liked her and all, she was cool, but one day he decides he's going to move out. To help compensate for the rent, he's told the chick she could live there. So I get to live, and share a bathroom with, a chick. Wookiee had his own restroom facilities.
Anyway, I was in my room, on my little loveseat watching cable when I heard her call for me. I got up, went to her room and she said, "I've got the coolest song ever. I just discovered it... take a listen to this..." and she played for me "One Week". It was a bonding moment. Haven't seen her in like, 12 years.
No one I know knows the lyrics of this song.
71. "Tennessee" by Arrested Development From 1992, I dug their whole vibe. They were the early 90s version of the Black Eyed Peas, singing about awareness, social issues and the plight of those who are less fortunate (see "Mr Wendal"). This song was awesome, and like "Jump", I know every single word of the song.
Take me to another place, take me another land, help me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan...
70. "Virtual Insanity" by Jamiroquai This is a great example of how tastes change, because when this song came out, I hated it... but years later, this song is fantastic. I love hearing it, I love singing it in the car, and I loved watching this video where he dances around the room while the room spins around him. Great stuff.
69. "Freak on a Leash" by Korn The interesting thing about Korn is one of their guys, Brian I think his name was, gave his life to Christ some years ago. And in interviews, he's very vocal about his love of God, and he's still very real, using language and such while doing it. He admits his addictions to sex and drugs, but that God saved him from all of that. Hear hear.
68. "Gettin' Jiggy With It" by Will Smith Remember when Will Smith was a rapper? Fresh Prince first, then eventually this? How corny, yet how cool is this song? He doesn't swear in his songs because he is afraid his grandmother would be offended. Of course, I have no idea what "Jiggy" is, though as a then 20something old guy, I could guess. He's living that lyfe some consida a miff.
You trying to flex on me, don't be silly? Big willy style's all in it, gettin' jiggy with it...
67. "Groove Is in the Heart" by Dee-Lite Ugh. Hated this song then, hate this song now. I can handle it a little better now than I could when it came out, but that's like saying, "Oh, then I had a migraine that lasted for a year, but now its only a severe hangnail so its all better"... that hangnail still sucks. And so does this song.
66. "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain Let's look at this song with perspective... first, its a great song. Edwin has a great voice, its well written, its a well performed song, it sounds good. However, when it came out, this song was played like, every fifteen minutes. On rock stations. On pop stations. On soft rock stations. I mean, you could not get away from this song, and it was ev-a-ree-where... seriously.
So for a few years, like, 1998 to about 2007, I couldn't handle this song. Now that its a little more
65. "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground
This song is so far from Emmy Turnbow Safe, its not even funny. But this song is one of the most ridiculous, most fun hip-hop songs I've heard. It doesn't take itself seriously, and Digital Underground, led by this dude who wore a stupid looking fake nose and fake glasses, and sang lines like "I shoot an arrow like cupid, I use a word that don't mean nothing like looptid". And at the end, he gives props to Samoans. Love it. I'm now going to repent.
64. "Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America Does anyone actually know what this song even means? You can tell how old someone is, because you can say, "Move into the country..." and if that person comes back with "...gonna eat alot of peaches", you'll know they are older than like, 20.
63. "Mo Money/Mo Problems" by Notorious BIG, featuring Puff Daddy and Mase How jam is this song? No joke, I love every bit of this song... and heck, the message is there... the more money you gotz, the mo' problemz you gotz.
62. "I Alone" by Live Rock on. Rock on. "Throwing Copper" is one of those albums that just... well, rocks your face off. I am so afraid to study the lyrics closely to "I Alone" because I'm afraid I'll be convicted for liking it. Not sure if its sacrilege or not, but man, this song is fun to sing in the car, and man did I rock out to this music.
This is a great, great song to run to. When you decide to do that. Probably one of my 100 favorite songs of all time.
61. "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow This is one of my favorite albums, "The Tuesday Night Music Club", her debut album. I mean, this song was so great, and really just fit my freshman year in college. First, you have to know I love, love, love Sheryl Crow... well, 1990s Sheryl Crow, not recent political activist Sheryl Crow.
I hear this song, and I'm instantly sitting in Stewart Hall, next to Kat Gates, across from Allison Wiggins, and with Lisa Murphy, Kathy Hollingsworth, Gibson, Wookiee and The Wench. Oh, and Erin Magonigal, who is singing along when it comes on the overhead music.
1990s Sheryl Crow is awesome, and it all began with this one.
60. "Poison" by Bel Biv DeVoe Ha! Ha! I love it!
I love this song, especially from the opening notes. This song is so great... these guys were tight with Boyz II Men, and this was the group who told all of us young guys that women... are poison. It was a warning. It was advice. Never trust a big butt and a smile.
I know she's a loser... how do you know? Me and the crew used to do her... that is a warning to stay away.
59. "Buddy Holly" by Weezer Without this video, this song never sees the light of popularity... however, this video has them in the 50s, singing at Arnold's Diner during an episode of Happy Days, and this video is one of the best of all time.
58. "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins Oh my gosh is this song hot. Let's talk about a make out song from the 1990s, but being as unpopular as I was, it was probably God's grace that it never worked for me. But this song is so great. She came out later with "As I Lay Me Down" which to me was a terrible song, and totally overplayed... but "I Wish I Was Your Lover" will live forever in my iPod and on cassette single upstairs.
57. "Can I Get A..." by Jay-Z It it possible that Jay-Z is like, the most overrated rap guy of all time? He's pretty good... but... really? However, he ended up as one of the coolest things of 2009 with his Alicia Keys duet "Empire State of Mind"...
Can I get a what-what?"
56. "Mama Says Knock You Out" by LL Cool J From 1990, this song rocks. LL Cool J was all up in your face, he had these ripped abs that all the chicks loved, and all the guys were singing "Mama said knock you out!" when doing anything of a competitive nature.
I have somewhat of a man crush on Cool J... he rocks. When I saw on iTunes his greatest hits was for $7.99, and I bought it immediately.
55. "Criminal" by Fiona Apple She's got a great voice, and I was never into this song until I saw the video, when this 18 year old chick was slinking around in her underthings. Seriously, seeing this at 20 years old, that's awesome. However, looking back, she was kinda slutty, so it takes away from it. The song itself is just... well, eh.
I did see a Christian drama to music for this song. I never did it with my team.
54. "One of Us" by Joan Osborne Poor Joan Osborne. She suggested "what if God was one of us", and asked the question how we would respond to Him. I never took it as a "what if God were just mortal, just like us", I took it as a "What if God brought Himself to our world, using someone as a vessel--how would we respond to the least of these?" Maybe I misinterpreted it. Either way, the song is just okay for me... I liked it well enough, but it was never a favorite.
53. "OPP" by Naughty by Nature This brings back so much high school for me... but this song is hilarious. Perhaps back then, we were all just trying to figure out what O-P-P stood for, though now that I'm older, I'm pretty sure I know. And as I sang along with the lyrics on tv, The Lovely Steph Leann who just came in, looked at me wide eyed. Not an Emmy Turnbow Safe song.
52. "Fly" by Sugar Ray Mark McGrath is one of those guys who has quite a blessed life... a successful rock group, a television career, and now he's a family man. And all chicks I knew loved them some Mark McGrath. And the song "Fly" is simply a rad song... its a fun song, with nothing deep and its a hoot. The Lovely Steph Leann is singing along as they play the song on tv.
51. "California Love" by 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre. When Tupac hooked up with Dr. Dre, it was awesome. I mean, every beat of this song rocks, and video--the edited version, thank you--is a monumental piece of film. Love him or hate him, I really thing that Tupac deserves the accolades he gets because he was a very, very talented guy. I dig this song.
50. "Man in a Box" by Alice in Chains Really? Ugh. This was a song that was devoured by my friends Greg Avant and Daniel Stephenson and those guys who were into Anthrax and Metallica. Not for me.
49. "Who Will Save Your Soul" by Jewel Can't help it, I liked Jewel. This song was kinda catchy, it was different, it was kinda fun and bluesy and her voice was a little unusual, so I dug it. Personally, I like "You Were Meant for Me" better, but only because its fun to sing.
Of course, I'm not entirely convinced that Jewel and Renee Zellweger aren't the same person.
48. "3 AM" by Matchbox 20 I have a memory of this song, and her name was Melanie Jackson. But overall, this song is fantastic, one of my 100 favorite songs of all time. Fun to sing, Rob Thomas has a fantastic voice, the band rocked out.
One of my biggest faux pas... their first song "Push" and Tonic's "If You Could Only See" hit about the same time... and I was like, Tonic is going to make it, Matchbox 20 is a one hit wonder. And then "3 AM" came out, followed by "Real World" then a few more... and Tonic? Yep. They kinda went away.
The Lovely Steph Leann and I were meeting people for dinner tonight, so at about 4:45, we had to leave. I hit the DVR button to record the rest of the shows, and we left... so #s 47 to #1 will be on a follow-up post.
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Finally... a week and a half of promising, I'll deliver the new music on Clouds in My Coffee. Its always hard not just doing the same songs over and over, cause frankly, I know what I like. I'm a repetitive person, to a point--like, I'll eat the same cereal over and over for two or three months, then after that, I don't want cereal for six months.
Music is like that with me. I have my famous "Hannah Pruitt" playlist (the story of that name is listed in a previous post) which gets changed out every month... artists should consider it an honor to get on this list, as these are songs--new and old--that I will listen to over and over for weeks on end. Then, I'll punt them out of the list. All of the following songs are from this current edition of Hannah Pruitt.
"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon... this stays on the website. It just does. Get over it.
"You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift... my current favorite song of the year, and should rank quite highly in the Coolest Things of 2009. I think what makes this song for me, though, is the video. Unfortunately, for some unknown copyright reason, its hard to find. But me, being as awesome as I am, have it here...
I think they'd give special permission to have it appear here on Clouds in My Coffee. Right? Right.
"Good Intentions" by Toad the Wet Sprocket... You know where I found this song? On the FRIENDS Soundtrack CD, one of the first five CDs I've ever purchased. I remember its also from 1995... because back then, I was going out with Julie Haynes, and I made her a couple of mix tapes with my favorite songs of that year, and this was my 2nd favorite song of 1995. The first? "Dreamlover" by Mariah Carey. Or was it "Fantasy"? Either one.
"Love Song" by Sara Bareilles... She gets the award for the last name thats hardest to remember how to spell. I've written a post that I haven't put up here yet (until just a few minutes ago, I think I forgot I had it) and its basically how to dissect a Romantic Comedy. I think I need to add one more step... when you make the trailer, you need to put this song over it. Why not? 104 other Rom Coms do it. By the way, I think I've heard this song so much, I've tried to get tired of it... and I can't. Love it.
"Just Started Lovin' You" by James Otto... This should have been on the Coolest Things of 2008, but I didn't know the name of it, nor who sang it, so I had no point of reference other than "that cool country song where the guy sings like this and..." I plan on putting it on the end of this year's list, with an honorable mention, a la "Bourne Ultimatum".
"Steel Bars" by Michael Bolton... Sigh. That's fine. Laugh. Make fun of me. I don't care. I dig this song. Heck, I dig Michael Bolton, puffy Kenny G hair and all. This song is cool. Okay, maybe "cool" is not the right word, but seriously, from 1988 to 1996, he had one heck of an 8 year run.
"Running From an Angel" by Hootie & the Blowfish... my favorite song from one of my all time favorite CDs, "Cracked Rear View". I was riding with Hootie with Hot Sista' Cheney (another name with a story, lest you think Chris Hansen and I are BFF) recently, and I took a gander at her iPod. I think a person's iPod can tell you as much about them as just about anything else (unless you've got 10,000 songs on it, like mine, in which you would probably deduce I'm either OCD or bipolar... or maybe ADOS... you know, Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!) and I saw that she only had two or three Hootie songs on it. She's a bit younger than I, so naturally, why would she have more than "Let Her Cry" and "Hold My Hand"?
That's the problem with today's younglings... all they care about is Eminem and Lady GaGa and anything with a beat that talks about the po-po and smackin' up my beeyotch and so on and so forth. I would love a radio station that played some good 90s stuff. Sheryl Crow, Boyz II Men, pre-skank Mariah, pre-crack Whitney, even early pre-crazy Britney Spears would be fine. Am I the only one? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
Anyway, in our conversation, we discussed how she needed to learn more Hootie, and for that matter, early, good Sheryl Crow. Before she went all "use one piece of toilet paper" crazy enviromental.
So sayeth Sheryl: "I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares [sic] of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. When presenting this idea to my younger brother, who's judgement [sic] I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further. I believe his quote was, "how bout just washing the one square out."
Later she said she was kidding. I'm not sure I fully believe that she was kidding.
Found these two magazine covers online... Sister Cheney, meet Hootie. Hootie, Paige.
Anyway, I ended up making Hot Sista' Cheney a couple of CDs, one being Hootie's entire "Cracked Rear View" album and a few songs from "Fairweather Johnson" and "Musical Chairs, and other with Sheryl Crow, most of her great stuff from the first several excellent albums, with emphasis on "The Globe Sessions", one of my favorite CDs.
Where was I?
"My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson... This song makes a 2nd month appearance on the list. I don't dig all of her stuff, some of it is really silly and monotonous... but what I do enjoy, I really enjoy. Her song "Behind These Hazel Eyes" made the Top 100 (#25) in 2005, where she herself ended up the 6th Coolest Thing of that year. And this song? Bound for the Top 20, perhaps even a Top 10 appearance, if not for the emergance of "You Belong With Me", as listed above. Kelly and Taylor, slug it out. I knew a girl named Kelly Taylor once. She was pretty.
"Hard Luck Woman" by Garth Brooks... This was featured on the KISS tribute album entitled "KISS My A$$", which though the use of "$" doesn't disguise the words true intentions, its still a comical and clever title anyway. Garth doesn't sound like Garth here, but he does sound awesome. I actually, and this might be sacrelige to some, like this better than the original.
"Dream Lover" by Mariah Carey... I've often lamented my sorrow at how Mariah has turned into a string wearing punchline. She used to be so great, when every song didn't have a subtitle of "(featuring T-Pain)" or "(featuring Common)" or "(feat. insert stupid common word or acronym based rapper gangsta name that will forgotten in a year other than bloggers using it as a joke here)". But I digress. I was tempted to post a few pictures of Mariah, one from 1994 and one from last year, but any picture of Mariah in the last few years is bound to not be Emmy Turnbow safe.
"Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men... This song never gets old. However, I'm sure there aren't many below, say, 28 years old who will understand the line "A-B-C, BBD, the East Coast Family..." in this song.
"I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City", by Harry Nilsson... Finally, this song is available on playlist.com, where is where I pull my playlist from. I tried to link to it before, and wasn't able to so do, but viola! Here it is. One of the classic 70's Songwriter's Tunes, its also featured in one of my top 15 movies in The Dave100.
"Basic Instructions" by Burlap to Cashmere... This is the album version, I believe, and still a great song. The better one, though, is the live version from "Live at the Bitter End", a five song EP released shortly after their first (and only?) album... it might not have been their only album, but it was really the only one with any relevance. The live version is a brilliant driving song, wedged in between "La Grange" and "Everything Zen" on my driving playlist. By the way, it took stupid me forever to figure out the "Basic instructions before leaving Earth" reference.
"Fingerprints of God" by Steven Curtis Chapman... Its underrated. But awesome. Simply fantastic. One of those "Let me sit back, listen and remember and praise how awesome God is." Well, those were the words I used to describe "Speechless", which was originally on here... however, even though it stays "Speechless", it plays "Fingerprints of God". Which is great too, so we'll go with it.
And thats our new list. You like it? Tell me what you think.
Time for some new music on The Clouds, and this time around, I've decided to pull out the Troy State Freshman Spring playlist... these are all songs that were released, out and popular between December and June of 1994... my winter & spring quarters as a frosh at Troy State University...
"Cantaloop" by Us3... Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, we have something special down here at Bird Land this evening, a recording from Blue Note Records. I dare you not to get into this beat.
"Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty... I don't think, even as an 18 year old, I recognized this song being about mary-ju-wanna at the time. This brings back memories of Erin Magonigal sitting with myself, Lisa Murphy, Allison Wiggins, Stephanie Massey, Wookiee, The Wench and Kate Gates, singing along during dinner at SAGA. The video, featuring a then-young-and-hot Kim Basinger? Awesome.
"Because the Night" by 10,000 Maniacs... There's a bridge at the end of the song that I, to this day, still have no clue what exactly she's saying. I actually made up an entire verse that had something to do with "I have no... idea... what to sing so I will go... and make... it up". I sang this to Lisa Murphy while driving to Subway around 1am one night. She loved it. Lisa Murphy rocked.
"...And Our Feelings" by Babyface... Ever had those songs that are like, forever old, and to this day, when they come on, you're still all about it? Babyface was awesome back in the day... this is one that I happily sing along to, loudly, while in the car... "AAAAnd our feeeelings! Just aren't feelings anymore... they're just words without emotions from people we don't know... No! No! No No No nonononono!!!!"
It also helps that the song title has at its beginning an ellipsis. You know my love of ellipses... much better than the use of ( ) in song titles (more on that below).
"You Mean the World to Me" by Toni Braxton... This song is part of the Toni Trifecta, also featuring "Another Sad Love Song" and "Breathe Again". Its rare for any artist to have three straight incredibly incredible songs, but she did it. I love me some Toni... she's who my car is name after.
"Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows... My main problem with Adam Duritz is how in the world he could be some homely looking and still get with all these hot celebrities? In his prime, he dated not only a in-her-prime Jennifer Aniston, but also a in-her-prime Courtney Cox, a still in-her-prime Monica Potter and even a relatively-cute-then Winona Ryder. This would be like dopey me dating The Official Clouds in My Coffee Official High School Crush Julie Wise and Sandy Wright, but then going on to date The Official Clouds in My Coffee Troy State Crush Tiffany Abbott, followed by Laura DeGarmo before finally ending up with The Lovely Steph Leann. Wait... come to think of it, I had a pretty good run myself. Scratch all that.
"Come to My Window" by Melissa Ethridge... For The Lovely Steph Leann's money, she'd take "I'm The Only One" over this song anytime. Not me. I love the slow kick off, followed by the great vocals and guitar. I mean, yeah, she's singing in the choir of the Lesbetarian Church, but still... just cause Elton John is Brokeback doesn't mean that "Your Song" is any less diminished. So be it with Melissa.
"All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow... I feel sad that Sheryl Crow has slowly become a laughing stock liberal. She used to be so awesome! As a matter of fact, I'm actively working on a list of "d$'s Favorite Artists, Ever", and Sheryl has to be Top Five. "The Globe Sessions"? One of my favorite CDs, ever.
"Stay" by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories... There are those songs that you know by heart, and can sing anytime, anywhere. Then there are those songs that you know by heart, but you can't start in the middle... you have to start at the beginning. If someone said to you, "Hey, what's that part in the song about living forever? How does it go, I would have to start at the beginning, singing really softly and quickly to myself, "yousayidonlyhearwhatiwantto... (mumble through the verse)... soiturntheradiooniturntheradioupandthiswomanwassingingmysong... (mumble some more)... someofushoverwhilewerewaitingfortheotherwhowasdying... (a big more mumbling)... and I thought I'd live forever, and now I'm not so sure!! That's it!"
"Shine" by Collective Soul... I think Collective Soul could have been bigger, had they not come on the heels of Pearl Jam and Nirvana. They were rock without being metal, and were still pretty cool. As it is, they were awesome for the next, I dunno, like 7 years or something... "Gel", "December", "The World I Know" and one of my favorite running/driving songs, "Heavy". This song started it all though. There was a rumor that dcTalk's "So Long My Friend", a song about someone who gave up their walk with Christ to be famous, was about Collective Soul.
"Loser" by Beck... Let's face it, I don't know what this song is about. No, you don't either. Don't try.
"Regulate" by Warren G feat. Nate Dogg. Had to listen to this song throughly to make sure the only questionable material in the song was just mentions of tricks and ho's. We're good.
Maybe this was the first, maybe it wasn't, but this song was at the beginning of the "Featuring" trend. Remember how Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson sang "Say Say Say"? It was "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney AND Michael Jackson. The "And" represented the fact that both parties did equal amounts of work. But here? Its not Warren G and Nate Dogg... oh nay nay. Its Warren G "FEATURING" Nate Dogg... and its not even "featuring", its "feat.". Can you imagine "Islands in the Stream" by Dolly Parton feat. Kenny Rogers? Or "Endless Love" by Diana Ross feat. Lionel Richie? I'm more bitter about this than I am with the use of ( ) in songs.
I hate when a song uses parantheses in the title. Bryan Adams, are you listening? Either name your song "Everything I Do", or "I Do It For You", or even "Everything I Do I Do It For You", but don't throw ( ) in there. "Everything I Do (I do it for you)". Why? "Over My Head (cable car)" is stupid. Either call it "Over My Head", or "The Cable Car", or even throw a / in there... "Over My Head/Cable Car" would work, though still silly, just not as silly. There are no reasons to have subtitles in your songs. Unless your Meat Loaf, and in that instance, your songs are 24 minutes long, so you probably deserve a subtitle. Just my thoughts.
Anyway, everyone now... "REEEGGUUULLLAAATTOOOORRSSS!!!!!! Mount up."
"The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Prince... One of The Purpled One's lesser known tunes, I like it. I own the cassette single. It's fun. It's silky. It's Prince before he lost all of his talent.
"The Sign" by Ace of Base... Personally, I preferred "Don't Turn Around", but this one is the most popular.
"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by The Crash Test Dummies... In the archives of ridiculous songs, this has to be right up there. I daresay that when this song comes on the playlist, this will be the first time some of you have either ever heard this song, or have heard it in about, maybe 14 or 15 years.
There's my new playlist, courtesy of "In My Coffee (the clouds)", starring d$ feat. The Lovely Steph Leann.
The following is an overindulgent walk down the Memory Lanes of Samson, Alabama, my hometown and where I'm from. What started out being a three page post ended up being an 11 page post that I've been forced to break up into 4 parts for better readability. Part of it was that you could read and learn more about your author, and perhaps identify things in your own life, in your own upbringing that were similiar, or were perhaps far off. Part of it was to just remember the day as it was... just about perfect. In weather. In time. In smiles. Overall. Not perfect. But close. Anyway, here's part one...
Part I... "...Since You Were Knee High to a Puddle Duck..."
"You have this obsession with the past, don’t you?” I was asked recently. Pondering this thought, I replied, “No. I just want to remember where I came from, I want to remember the parts of my life and the people in my life who made me who I am… plus, I want these memories fresh so that I can draw what I need from them as I write my book.”
It’s always a funny thing when I go home. Sometimes I expect to see everybody, and see no one. Other times I think I won’t see a soul that I knew from back in the day… and I see more than one or two familiar faces. Such was my trip last Monday.
I had a couple of days off from The Happiest Place in the Mall, and since I worked at The Most Caffeinated Place on 280, I thought I could make a day trip of it to my hometown of Samson. I hadn’t been back since Thanksgiving (direct all comments about what a bad son I am to me, with the subject heading “too busy”), and especially since the events on March 10th.
For those of you not familiar with the lay of the Alabama land, or unsure of where I was headed, I took I-65, after a quick stop at Whataburger for breakfast, down to Montgomery. Typically, you would get on I-85 headed to Atlanta for about 7 miles, get off on Taylor Road, cut across to Highway 231 and head to Troy. I actually got off of I-85 this time on Perry Hill Road, went over to Vaughn Road and up to Eastern Boulevard. The only difference really is this is an extra 10 minutes or so, and I went through a little of Montgomery, rather than avoiding most of it on the roads described above. From Eastern, I turned onto 231, and it gave me a glimpse of the Montgomery Mall. I used to work there in 95 and 96 at The Disney Store, but over the years I think the cost of complimentary Kevlar to customers was too expensive, so they shut the whole mall down. I heard it was pretty dangerous there for a time.
Troy is 45 minutes down the road from Montgomery, and I would turn right onto Highway 87. This time, though, I took a shortcut in Troy over to downtown, stopped by WTBF to say to my old program director, Doc Kirby, but he wasn’t there. I stopped by the house on Three Notch Street where Wookiee and I lived from June of 94 to May of 95, lamented melancholy about the fact the Crowe’s Chicken was now some cheap Chinese takeout.
This old house was actually broken into two or three apartments, owned by Mr. & Mrs. Ferguson. Wookiee and I lived in the back part, one huge bedroom, heated by gas heaters that you had to light (meaning high, high gas bills) and ten foot ceilings. And there was a trampoline in the back. I split my favorite pair of Duck Heads when Lisa Murphy, Kathy Hollingsworth and I were jumping on it, in 1994.
Stopped over at The BCM, stepped in, talked to our old campus minister Brad Bensinger, and then took a walk around the campus. I actually kept my eyes peeled for a few people that I knew at Troy, but alas, to no avail.
What’s amusing to me is how I’ve carried on about how much it has changed, and when you go into the Adams Center, this is totally apparent. The food court has gone from The Grill/Trojan Room to an open court area with an A&W Root Beer stand, a Chick Fila, a smoothie place and more. I just wanted to grab some freshman, shake them and say, “Do you realize what you have here? This is a gold mine, I tell ya!” See, when The Lovely Steph Leann and I paid off all debt last year, much of it was credit cards. If I had access to an A&W and a Chick Fila on campus, I can’t imagine how bad it would have been.
How does the food court look like this? There was a wall running right down the middle back in the day, separating two rooms!
Beyond that, the landscaping now added (with a fountain!) to the class building quad and a few touch ups to the athletic areas, really… not that much has changed. There is still the porch swing where Heather Howell and I sat and… you know, I can’t remember if I asked her out the first time there, or she broke up with me there. Good times? Bad? I don’t know. Anyway, the big hill is still the same.
Walk through the Barnes & Noble (!) and you get to the student offices, and the big open couch study area—it’s the same. Alumni Hall is pretty much the same, just with newer tile. I went in, and it smelled the same. Even went into the restroom to visit my favorite stall from back then—and it looks the same. Yeah, I know, they’ve redone it, but there is only so much you can do to a place like Alumni, short of leveling the place and rebuilding, a la Clements or Dill Hall. Clements is now what Cowart was back in 1997, and Dill is gone completely, replaced by Hawkins Hall. I stopped a sorority girl and asked her what Hawkins was, and she told me it was education. She then turned her nose up and walked off. Must have been a KD. (Oy!)
Did my tour, snapped some photos of old and new, then got back in the car, drove around to both Thomas Circle (the Wookiee/Dave dig for 95-96) and Willow Terrace (the Wookiee/Dave/Brunson crib for 96-98) then got back on 87 for the remainder of the trip. About 8 miles out of Troy, you come to a fork in the highway… well, you can go straight or veer a slight right, and the slight right will take you through the towns of Jack, Alabama (home of the Zion Chapel High School rebels, our band rivals for like, a year or two—and I really don’t know why), then through Elba, Alabama (where it flooded in 93—water was up to the clock tower, so if you ever go through there, you’ll see it) and then to Samson.
I, however, stayed on the straight and two-laned, headed to Enterprise, Alabama, if for no other purpose than I just wanted to. Took the highway (after all this time, I still can’t tell you the roads through Enterprise). Stopped at the Cannon Food Mart for gas—again, a nostalgic venture… I would wait tables at The Wright Place in Samson, then leave around 10pm, drive to Enterprise and get on the air at midnight until 9am. Elisabeth Bradshaw told me she used to sit up and listen to me. Made me blush. But I would always stop at the Cannon Food Mart, if not for gas then at least for snacks.
Took the country roads towards Samson, and came upon Five Points. Now, in Birmingham, Five Points is a thriving little community of clubs, bars, dives and such… Five Points in south Alabama is a junction where five county roads come together. One, the one I was coming from, leads to Enterprise. Take an immediate right and you’ll go off somewhere to a dead end. Take the other right and you’ll go through Sellersville and get to Samson. Take a left, you’re in Coffee Springs in three minutes. And go straight, which I did, and you’ll run slap into Highway 52. I got to Highway 52, took a left, and went towards Geneva. I stopped and saw my friend Jennifer for a few minutes, did some talking, left and was on the road to Samson.
As I drove, I began to think that I needed some good music for a drive through town… had to be something that I was listening to when I was in high school… Sheryl Crow? No. She didn’t pop up until college. Hootie? Same thing. Plumb? Geez, that was early 2000s… wait… what about… Janet Jackson. “Rhythm Nation 1814”. I put that CD right on in, and began to jam to “Miss You Much” and “Rhythm Nation” and as I hit Samson’s city limits, I heard the music of “Love Will Never Do (without you)”. It was awesome.
Samson, Alabama. This is the same picture that you saw in March, only this time I'm taking it, and this time there aren't cops and state troopers and police tape everywhere. This is just a typical Monday.
Drove into town, saw that there is now a Mexican restaurant in Samson, Alabama, and I laughed really, really loudly. Moved slowly, just soaking it all in. Didn’t know how the town had changed, wasn’t sure what would be different. The peanut mill still looks the same. Another feed store is going out business. Looks like another few store fronts are now empty. The old Piggly Wiggly that had become another grocery shop that at some point spent time as a tobacco shop is now nothing but an empty shell. Bill’s Dollar Store is nothing now. Choice Video has a new façade. And wouldn’t you know it, Merchant’s clothing is still there.
Choice Video... they are finally getting rid of VHS movies. They don't even rent them, they are just selling off their inventory of them. You know how places have a certain smell? Not a good smell, not a bad smell, just a certain scent? Choice has had that smell for 20 years.
I pulled up in front of Sandy’s Beauty Shop on Main Street, stopped and hopped out, hoping that Sandy would be inside. The Sandy I speak of is Sandy Wright, middle daughter of Forrest and Charlotte Wright, owners of The Wright Place restaurant that I waited tables at for something like 7 years. The oldest, Jennifer, was who I visited earlier in the day. The youngest, Cristie, was who I was supposed to marry, at least according to half the customers who came into the restaurant. Sandy? Well, let’s put it this way…
What The Angel is to Troy, Sandy Wright is to Samson. Just a vision, especially when you are in 9th or 10th grade and she’s graduating high school. But, alas, no one was there. I looked in, the store was empty, and so I just looked around the town. Glanced over at The Big/Little Store, which looks like nothing every happened. The bank looked busy as well, and traffic was actually a little busy through town—for Samson, anyway. Walked across the street, took some photos, and was walking toward the western side of town (mind you, downtown consists of two blocks long) when a car drove past me, slammed on brakes, backed up and swerved into a parking spot directly in front of me. I waved, not knowing who I was waving to, and it was in fact, Sandy Wright.
The old Wright Place restaurant I used to wait tables in. I was awesome. I could do the whole four-plates-on-one-arm thing, with three glasses of sweet tea in the other hand.
Her last name is no longer “Wright”, and she has a beautiful daughter now, but her accent and friendly demeanor hasn’t changed at all. We chatted for a minute, I told her I had been to see her sister, and Sandy asked me if I was planning on going to see Forrest & Charlotte. I told her I hadn’t actually seen my own mom yet, but I would try to make it out that way. Sandy left, on her way to Dothan for her daughter’s doctor appointment. I walked around a little more, then decided to slip into Choice Video for a minute.
Ms. Holland was behind the counter, and looked at me strange when I walked in. “Can I help you?” she asked, and I told her I was just looking around. Choice Video opened up across the street back in the 80s, and I remember getting my first ever video membership there, and my first video was “Coming to America”. Funny movie. I toured the store a few minutes, and again, she asked me, a little more suspiciously, “Can I help you find something?” I smiled and replied, “I used to rent here when I was a kid, a way long time ago.”
She tilted her head, paused and said, “What is your name?” I told her, “I’m d$.” Another pause as this sunk in, her face brightened and said, “Oh my gosh, d$... wow…” Now that the comprehension was complete, she said, “Well, you used to rent from me when you were knee high to a puddle duck!” Only in Samson, Alabama, really. We started chatting about the old days, the town, and of course, the tragedy of a month earlier. “It was a terrible day, d$. It was a terrible, terrible day,” Ms. Holland sighed. I asked her to give my best wishes to Wesley and Brandy, friends of mine from the old days, and left the shop.
Finally, it was time to head to my parents house, the house I grew up in. So I did.
What a gorgeous day. You know how sometimes you want to roll the window down, feel the air coming in as you drive, but either its a bit too chilly, or its just too hot, even traveling at 40, 50+ miles per hour, so you end up rolling the window back up, and you have to pipe down the radio, because you had it blaring--blaring out because your windows were down, right?
Today was the kind of day that you could roll down the window and drive, the air felt treeeeemendously awesome and the CD playing could blast away. My CD of choice? "Cracked Rear View" by Hootie & the Blowfish. Normally, I use my iPod, but with the car dock, sometimes its all staticky, and I wanted to feel the air rushing around my head, even in my ears, so I had to dispense with the earbuds...
Hence, an actual CD in my car stereo. And you can't go wrong with "Cracked Rear View", by far and away their best CD of the band's career.
The latest stop on my Reunion Lunch Tour had me meeting for lunch with Barrow, a friend from the old days at Troy that I hadn't seen in at least 10 years. Very good to see Barrow, though next time I have a reunion lunch--or any kind for that matter--its gotta be somewhere different than Chick-fila. Had it like, three times in the last four days. Too much.
Had to stop for gas, as Toni Rocki Honda was gasping for fuel, then stopped off at Valleydale Church (an sbc fellowship) to run up to the theater and pick up a suitcase I left backstage. I was using the suitcase as a prop on Sunday morning's KidStuf performance, another one that we thought would be an unmitigated disaster, but came off extremely well... actually, I worry more about those KidStuf Sundays when everything seems perfect.
The Funniest Man of 2008, Rhett Barnett, and I joked on Sunday that when its perfect, it almost feels as if we're too arrogant, and God puts us back in our place. When we royally screw it up over and over, its as if God steps in and says, "Oh my Me, you guys just need to back up and let me handle this. Geez. Want something done, gotta do it Myself".
Stopped off at the Hoover Public Library to tour the audio books, which they've expanded (still didn't find much of anything good at the time) and the CDs (which they are currently removing for a few weeks to sift through, get rid of old ones and put new ones in the selection). I did pick up a copy of Natalie Grant's new CD, as well as one from Third Day, so we'll see what it looks like.
By the time I had pulled out of the parking lot, the Hootie CD had run its course, so I had change out the music... I was disappointed to learn that I had not put in "The Globe Sessions" by Sheryl Crow in my CD wallet, so I settled for "Sheryl Crow" by Sheryl Crow, which made for another good driving CD.
Took a trip to Starbucks on 119, my current store to pick up my tips, saw my friend MZ and also Lil Sister Ashley, so I conversed with both of them. Got my tip money from last week, and then finally headed to my final destination before coming back to The Cabana... Veteran's Park, where I planned on having a good ol' fashioned quiet time. Though they aren't nearly as frequent as they should be, they are getting more frequent now as time goes by. My prayer of "Help me need a quiet time" has been coming truthful, as I actually want to have one. Strange, I know.
The scene from where I sat at Veteran's Park. Life rocks. Except for the pollen that is now embedded in my Word Sheath, all things are great.
Also came up Paulie Walnuts and his wife, Sammi C, as they were picnicking with Baby Cate on this wonderful Spring day.
I flipped through Luke 23, as directed by my Sunday Scho.... er, Life Connection book that we've going through, but found myself on Psalm 40:
I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God. -- vs. 1-3, so sayeth The Message
Love it. David knew he was writing for readability, so he broke up Psalm 40 into sections, much like most of the Psalms are, and so it might be nice to take a few verses at a time over a couple of days.
Also, while listening to the iPod on a playlist called "Open Me Up" name for a song by Watermark, one of my favorite bands, a gem came up that, had I an iPod and play count capability in 1997, I would imagine that this song would have had a couple of dozen plays... "Man of God" by Audio Adrenaline, off of the forgotten but much loved "Bloom" album. While its true that I think the band peaked with "Underdog", the aforementioned "Bloom" was great.
Here's my take on Audio Adrenaline... the first CD was just silly. Its kinda like dcTalk's first CD, or their second, "Nu Thang", with the immortal classic "I Luv Rap Music". Shoot me. The second, "Don't Censor Me" was good... it wasn't great, but it was good. It features the oft recited and hand motioned "Big House", which can be annoying if you hear it more than twice in, I dunno, a year. Next was "Bloom", which like I said, was solid but not perfect. I think "Bloom" was the album the studio wanted them to make, and then they did "Some Kind of Zombie", which was excellent (you ever want to get a party going, pop in the title track, or "Blitz", their collaboration with The O.C. Supertones)... but it was like, they wanted to make something more rockin' than the previous stuff, so they overcompensated on the rock effect with "Zombie"... don't get me wrong, its a great CD, but they went from one extreme to the other.
"Underdog" got it right. The fine balance between rock, pop and just a little grunge with some Holy Spirit mixed in all of it was just perfect. Loved that CD, probably listened to it a dozen times or more in the first month it was out. The next several, like "Lift", "Worldwide" and "Until My Heart Caves In" all kind of sounded alike to me, though I'm probably going to give them all another try at some point.
Anyway, my point is I heard "Man of God" again for the first time in maybe five years... and its a great song...
Sometimes I'm a liar, sometimes I'm a fake, sometimes I'm a hypocrite that everybody hates. Sometimes I'm a poet, sometimes I'm a preacher, sometimes I watch life go by sitting on the bleachers But I've never been left alone in any problems that I've known Even though I'M TO BLAME (blog authors emphasis) There were times when things were dark and I've been known to miss the mark But Someone fixed my aim
Sometimes I'm a Man of God Sometimes I'm alright Sometimes I lay down and close my eyes and pray to God...
Sometimes I don't feel good, its hard to start the day, its hard to climb the obsticles that sometimes come my way If I make it, I'm a good man. Am I a bad man if I fail? I know I'm never good enough, so I left GRACE PREVAIL (blog authors emphasis, again) I've never been left alone in any problem that I've known Even though I'm to blame There were times when things were dark and I've been known to miss the mark But Someone fixed my aim
Sometimes I'm a Man of God Sometimes I'm alright Sometimes I lay down and close my eyes and pray to God... I'm ready for the night
Right now I'm alright, right now I'm alright, sometimes I'm alright I'm alright, I'm alright, thank God, thank God
Cause sometimes I'm a Man of God Sometimes I'm alright And sometimes I lay down and close my eyes and pray to God...
The song plays over a screenshot of "Hit Parade", one of their greatest hits compilations.
Alright... its almost 5pm. I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my day off, the day that He tossed at us to take delight in. Cause that's how He rolls. Idol results tonight.
