#51 "Do You Realize?" by The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips are kind of like the Salvador Dali of modern music. They're just completely out there, totally unique, and just doing their own bizarre form of art regardless of what anyone expects from them. They're occasionally brilliant, often too strange to embrace, but always entertaining.

Dali has the best titles for his paintings. There's 1954's "Dali Nude, In Contemplation Before the Five Regular Bodies Metamorphized into Corpuscles, in Which Suddenly Appears the Leda of Leonardo Chromosomatized by the Vision of Gala" or how about "Dali at the Age of Six, When He Thought He Was a Girl, Lifting the Skin of the Water to See a Dog Sleeping in the Shade of the Sea." And there's always my favorite "The Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity." The Lips have song titles like "Psychiatric Exploration of the Fetus with Needles" and "I'm a Fly on a Sunbeam, Following the Funeral Procession of a Stranger." It's a toss-up as to who's more weird... or maybe who's taking more acid!

What I like about The Flaming Lips is that they're always pretty interesting and rarely predictable. Despite their wacky approach to music, they write some really intelligent lyrics. On an album called "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," you also get the beautiful and brilliant "Do You Realize?"

"Do You Realize?" is a great philosophical song, where singer Wayne Coyne pensively contemplates truths about life. He asks us...

"Do you realize that happiness makes you cry?" Smiles generate tears. Who ever gives this idea any thought?

"Do you realize the sun doesn't go down? It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round." I love this one... kind of saying that the world you think you know is actually not that way at all.

He also repeats the poignant, "Do you realize that everyone you know one day will die?" One thing I've not read very often about Wayne Coyne is the power of his voice. I wouldn't say he has a lot of vocal quality... at least not in the conventional sense, but he's able to communicate fragile ideas in a very effective way. When he asks us if we realize that we're going to lose all of the people we love, his voice is soft... almost cracking... as if HE is actually realizing this for the first time... realizing that life is short and that we have to "work hard to make the good things last," because in reality, they actually don't last at all. It's a really deep and beautiful song, not the typical thing you'd hear on the radio but I don't think The Flaming Lips have ever aimed for typical.

"Do You Realize" is from the album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#50 "Disposable Heroes" by Metallica

I'll willing to say that Metallica's "Master of Puppets" is the greatest heavy metal album of all time. It really has everything. It's heavy as hell, but also melodic. The lyrics and themes are intelligent, but there's also some intense aggression blowing out of the speakers. The performances and the production are fantastic. "Master of Puppets" is one phenomenal record.

Though it's almost cliche to say, I think it's true that Metallica's older stuff is way better than the work they've released in the last decade or so. In the years when they adamantly boycotted MTV and any sense of commercialism, they built a huge following with their authenticity. At some point, they seemed to knowingly reach for that brass ring and embraced a more mainstream sound. You could hear Metallica on the radio!?! You could see them performing on the Grammies!?! You heard "Enter Sandman" over the PA at football games!?! You could see them doing a show with a full Michael Kamen-led orchestra behind them?!? You even saw them win an MTV Icon Award!?! This was quite a change from a band whose first release was called "Kill 'Em All." And though Metallica has to be credited with bringing speed metal to the masses, the product they're marketing these days is just nothing like what they used to do.

"Disposable Heroes" has always been one of my favorite songs from "Master of Puppets." It begins with what sounds like their instruments mimicing the sound of a huge military battery. The thudding guitar and bass heavy artillery. The cymbal-crash explosions. It slows down for a second to just guitar and drums and then explodes again into the first verse. It's super-intense. The lyrics explore the idea of the young men-turned-robots who populate our military forces.... how they're "made of clay... now an empty shell. Bred to kill, not to care." We hear of the boy who was, without his realization, "molded day by day" but left to die with his only friend... his gun. It's a pretty scathing look at what happens to the young men who enlist in the armed forces in search of glory, sometimes forced to carry on some bloody family tradition. I can't imagine that this tune blasts out at any Marine barracks, though it seems to accurately capture what's happening there. Maybe it's what they should play at the recruiter's office before the next Johnny-Get-Your-Gun signs his identity away.

"Disposable Heroes" is from the album "Master of Puppets." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#49 "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC

When I was a kid and we were listening to Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, Billy Joel, and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, bands like AC/DC scared me.

The 70's were the time when the whole "those guys worship the devil" notion really became popular. Or maybe it was well-known before that. Robert Johnson had sold his soul at the crossroads in the early 1900's, but it seemed like I was hearing this idea an awful lot in my youth. Led Zeppelin. Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne. They all worshiped the devil!

Though I didn't grow up in the Bible Belt, I had a pretty white-bread childhood. I lived in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. My dad was a successful urban developer. My mom stayed home with the kids. We were on the swim team in the summers, played soccer in the spring and fall, and went to church on Sundays. My parents rarely drank, and I certainly knew nothing of sex or drugs or anything controversial for that matter. So when we had a few wild teenagers blasting bands like AC/DC in the neighborhood, it was kind of shocking.

I can remember going into the records stores of the day. Yes, there used to be places that simply sold music! They're just a dream now, but you used to be able to go in and sift through the big 33' albums all neatly stacked in rows. Some of the cover art was so cool back then, like what you saw when you picked up anything by Rush, Yes, or Asia. But if you weren't careful, you might run into some darker, scarier stuff. Ozzy's "Blizzard of Oz" was simply creepy. "Bark at the Moon" was even worse. Iron Maiden's "Killers"?!? Is that axe dripping blood? Is that some kind of human sacrifice on Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy"? AC/DC has an album called "Highway to Hell"?!? Does the one guy have a hat with devil horns on it? Oh my God! People BUY this stuff? I thought "AC" stood for "Anti-Christ" and that "DC" must've meant "Death of Christ." I was totally creeped out. And the cover for "Dirty Deeds"? Why are those peoples' eyes blacked out? What does THAT mean? I bet if we played this backwards we'd hear the voice of Satan!!!

Of course now that I'm older, I realize that all of this is nonsense. Sure, Tipper Gore and the PMRC continued to preach this gospel well into the 80's, but all it did was sell more records and give a bunch of people quite a laugh. AC/DC was just a great rock band. If they were guilty of anything, it was being Australian!

"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" cracks me up. It's a song about killing people! Bon Scott, the deliciously howling original frontman of the group, sings to all of those folks who hate their bosses, their teachers, their spouses, etc and need to have them knocked off. "You got a lady and you want her gone," he asks. "For a fee," he goes on to advertise such possibilities as "Concrete shoes, Cyanide, TNT, Neckties, Contracts, and TNT." It's great tongue-in-cheek dark humor and Scott's delivery is flawless. He was the ideal man to offer such services, and his vocals sound just dastardly enough to make it all believable.

"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" is from the album of the same name. To hear the song, click on the icon in the widgest jukebox along the side of the blog.

#48 "Dink's Song" by Jeff Buckley

Though there have been scores of musicians who have died sadly young, the greatest of those losses might have been Jeff Buckley. He was an immensely talented artist whose two albums barely scratched the surface of what it seemed he was capable of. His first release, "Grace," is considered by many to be a masterpiece and "Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk," his left-unfinished follow-up, hinted at the many other directions this unique performer could have taken had he lived longer. His music showed Jeff's interests in everything from rock to blues to jazz to metal and even hindu. Listening to Jeff Buckley's music is a rewarding yet frustrating experience. As amazingly good as it often gets, there just isn't going to be any more of it.

Jeff Buckley honed his chops in little clubs around NYC. His favorite was a little Irish cafe in the East Village called Sin-e. It was there that Buckley said he learned how to be a performer, playing mostly cover songs before small crowds. As you can hear from "Dink's Song," the energy of these shows was incredible and before he knew it, record executives were showing up to sign him to a major label. Jeff's two formal releases show off some polished studio production, but the recorded shows from Sin-e really show his versatility as a singer, guitar-player, and interpreter of other peoples' work. The two disc Legacy Edition, released by Sony in 2003, is a feast for the ears.

"Dink's Song" is a traditional ballad first recorded by folk musicologist Alan Lomax in the early 1900's. Dink was a black lady in a negro camp off the shores of the Brazos River in Texas who was well-known for her singing prowess. Lomax coaxed this tune out of her one day, and recorded the lament of a woman whose man is no where to be found. The song was passed down through the years and even recorded by a young Bob Dylan for his debut album. I'd gather that Buckley, who was a big Dylan fan, first heard "Dink's Song" on the famed "Minnesota Hotel Tapes," a bootleg of early Dylan recordings.

Buckley's version of "Dink's Song" clocks in at just over eleven minutes. It starts out slowly and builds to an awesome and intense climax. Jeff's voice and playing keep getting louder and louder. Around the four minute mark you can hear things speeding up. When you're about eight minutes into it, when he sings "When a woman gets in trouble..." it's at an exhilarating pace. The song ends with Buckley screaming "Fare thee well" and wailing over the rhythm of the guitar. It's literally exhausting and you can hardly turn away from the performance. It must have been thrilling to see.

"Dink's Song" is from the album "Live at Sin-e: The Legacy Edition." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

# 47 "Dear Chicago" by Ryan Adams

Being a Ryan Adams fan is usually pretty rewarding. The guy is easily one of the most prolific recording artists around. A few years back, he put out three releases in a span of seven months, and one of those was a double album. He was writing and recording so much that he started putting stuff out on his website via a series of pseudonyms. There was death metal, rap, rock, and honky-tonk from pen-names like DJ Reggie, The Shit, WereWolph, Sad Dracula, and The Ghetto Birds. I'm not saying that it was all high quality stuff, but I wasn't waiting around for five years in between releases like you do with other acts. And whether he's obsessively Twittering, filming and releasing bizarro videos, writing books of poetry, or releasing legitimate cd's, Ryan Adams consistently produces.

A friend of mine says that if Adams released only half of what he was doing, the overall content would be a lot better. "He needs to learn a bit more about self-editing," he told me. He might be right. That double album, 2005's "Cold Roses," would've been a PHENOMENAL single record. But as it was, I still thought it was RA's best release to date. So if you get into Ryan Adams at any time in your life, it can be a series of high and lows. When he hits the mark, though, Adams is an incredible performer.

"Dear Chicago" is one of those near perfect Ryan Adams releases. It's from the album "Demolition," which was essentially a collection compiled from about four or five full-album follow-up attempts to his breakthrough disc "Gold." As usual, Adams wrote and recorded a boatload of songs... enough for five albums, but the record label wasn't sold on any of it and as opposed to release them all decided to put together the best songs from the individual records. What you end up with is a look at the different sides to RA's musical choices. There's some pop-rock on it, some slower ballads, some country-flavored songs, and some straight-up rock and roll. I like it because you get to see the various sides to his work. Others criticize the album for lacking cohesion. Buy the cd. Make the call.

"Dear Chicago" showcases Ryan Adams' phenomenal voice and heartfelt songwriting. It's essentially a break-up letter to a loved one. The lyrics are pretty sad. He sings about being alone, feeling "happy and sad and back again" and that he thinks about his lover all the time but that it's "strange and hard to do." Lines about "nothing breathes here in the cold... nothing moves or even smiles" are followed by "I've been thinking some of suicide." There's a tangible sense of depression and isolation in every lyric delivered powerfully by Adams' vocal performance. And in the end, when he confesses the brutal "I think I've fallen out of love with you," his breathy gasp just kills me. Imagine saying that to someone! It's a powerful crescendo to a great song.

"Dear Chicago" is from the album "Demolition." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#46 "Dark Eyes" by Bob Dylan

I don't know that "Dark Eyes" would qualify as one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs or not. When thinking about which selections I would choose from Dylan's immense catalog, there are so many incarnations of him to consider. But no matter what I thought about, I kept coming back to "Dark Eyes."

The 1980's were cruel to many artists. The musical trends and styles of the early part of that decade were just plain bad. Sometimes I think John Lennon is lucky to have died. We never had to hear what might have been his inevitable descent into synthesizers. A few people made it out alright, but they were the acts who pretty much started and stopped within those years. For a lot of musicians whose careers started in the 60's or 70's, however, the 80's proved to be difficult to navigate.

Look at this picture of Bob Dylan. Yes, that's him alright, clad in a sleeveless shirt, leather pants, and... this is hard to say... fingerless gloves. The hair is frizzed out. You can't even make out the dangling earring he was sporting at the time, but that was there too. If you didn't look too closely, you might've thought this was Kip Winger or one of the guys from Whitesnake. But no, that's Bob Dylan, the voice of his generation, a writer so revered that there's a considerable push to award him the Nobel Prize. And there he is, lost in the wasteland of the 1980's.

In 1985 Dylan released "Empire Burlesque." Most fans and critics agree that it's one of Bob's worst albums... a failed attempt at appealing to the mainstream pop masses at the time. It's over-produced and smothered in back-up singers, electronic drums, and keyboards galore. I actually don't think it's that bad and maintain there are good songs under all of that production. Watch Dylan's quirky film "Masked and Anonymous" to see proof of this when "I'll Remember You" was performed by Dylan and a wholly different group of side-men. But for the most part, Empire Burlesque is a bit of a letdown from the guy who gave us "The Times They Are-A-Changin'," "Blonde on Blonde" and "Blood on the Tracks." Most people probably don't even listen to it all the way through... and THAT's why I picked "Dark Eyes."

After all the synthesizers and drum loops were put away, suddenly Dylan showed up with his trusty acoustic guitar and harmonica and recorded "Dark Eyes" alone for the last track on the album. It's almost astonishing to hear it in context with the rest of the record. It would be like following "Pour Some Sugar On Me" with "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." That's why I like it so much. It's a typical Bob Dylan shot out of left field.

The lyrics to the song are pretty interesting too. Dylan's been called a poet for a reason and the words to "Dark Eyes" definitely show that. It seems to discuss being surrounded by good and happy things, but only seeing negativity. Dylan says he lives in another world, "where the earth is strung with lovers' pearls, but all I see are dark eyes." There are other curious lines where he sings about feeling nothing for those for whom "beauty goes unrecognized." Is this a comment on the over-commercialization and materialization of the 1980's? It seems so. I've always found the ending to the song to be especially powerful too. The last line is "A million faces at my feet, but all I see are dark eyes." Is this the ever-elusive Dylan singing about himself, a god in some people's eyes, and the people that all bow down to him? If so, it's just another reason why I never want to be famous. The life you're left with seems pretty hollow and I'd gather that Bob Dylan can attest to that.

"Dark Eyes" is from the album "Empire Burlesque." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#45 "Dancing Queen" by ABBA

Yes, that's right. ABBA. I went from Led Zeppelin to ABBA. I went from the punk rock cool of The Clash and The Replacements to the disco cheese of "Dancing Queen." Street cred? Goodbye. Proof of heterosexuality? Suspect. Sorry, folks. I've got to be honest. I love ABBA.

Maybe it's because I was a child of the 70's, when disco was king... when we used to watch Solid Gold on tv and maybe even a little Soul Train too. It was the time when the Carpenters' slick sounds ruled the airwaves and Michael Jackson was "Off the Wall," not simply out of his mind. It was when Olivia Newton John went from "Grease" to "Xanadu" and was still pretty damned cool. I can't help it. It's part of my DNA.

"Dancing Queen" is one of those perfect little pop-songs. The production is glossy and radio-friendly. The performances of the female leads, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog, are sublime. The music and melodies, written by the geniuses behind ABBA Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, are brilliant. BRILLIANT! What's not to like? How can you NOT dance when you hear this? It's fantastic.

This mix of 300 songs is usually what I listen to on my Ipod when I go running. If I'm ever lucky enough to come across "Dancing Queen" while hoofin' it around the neighborhood streets, it's hard not to wave my hands and point when "You can dance! You can ji-ive!" comes on. I'm a runnin', lip-singin' fool at that point. And you know what? I'm pretty ok with that.

"Dancing Queen" originally appeared on the album "Arrival" but can also be found on the compilation "ABBA Gold." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#44 "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin will always represent a sort of growing up period for me. They were the first band that I really got into independent of my brother's influence. Through him I liked and listened to a lot of things, but as we got older and I started to be around other people, I started to develop other interests than the ones we had grown up pursuing, and probably started to become more of my own guy.

I still remember the first time I really heard Zeppelin. Sure, everyone knows "Stairway to Heaven" and "Rock n Roll" and all of the other radio staples, but I had never experienced anything beyond those popular songs. One day, on my way to swim practice with a friend, he pulls out this tape and says, "You want to really hear something?" He put in Zep's first album and this song came on that was loud and heavy and fast. It sounded like metal almost, not like classic dinosaur rock. It was the time when Guns-n-Roses and Metallica and hair-bands were beginning to make a name for themselves, and yet this song that was twenty years old was harder than anything those guys were doing. I just remember thinking, "Whoah... that's cool!" The song was "Communication Breakdown" and even when I hear it today I still think of that first time.

Of course Led Zeppelin would be on this list, but where do I start? How can I limit them to just a few selections? It was a tough call, but there was no doubt that I would include "D'yer Mak'er." It's from their middle years and is Zeppelin's take on reggae. When I read their biography Hammer of the Gods for an 11th grade book report, I remember reading about how Jimmy Page teased John Bonham that as good as a drummer as he was, he didn't have the stuff to play reggae beats. This song was borne from that. The title, which I've heard some people say is a phonetic representation of a British accent saying "Jamaica," is, according to the book, actually a slur on "Did ya make her?" which means "Did you bang her?" The whole song, with Robert Plant's moaning and groaning, is one big sex romp. It's a great tune and different from any other in Led Zeppelin's catalogue. Bonham's drums are PHENOMENAL in it. Super-heavy thuds on the bass drum and snare. I've tried playing the opening many times and can almost do it, but I'd need a 400 pound leg to get anywhere close to the power of JB's bass pedal. It's some great stuff.

On a related note, in 1995 a Led Zeppelin tribute album called "Encomium" was released with reinterpretations of their songs by everyone from Hootie and the Blowfish to Blind Melon, Stone Temple Pilots, and Duran Duran. Sheryl Crow did a version of "D'yer Mak'er" that's great. Her "oh oh oh oh Oh Oh"'s are breathy and dirty and sexy as hell. If you're lonely and looking for some good inspirational material, look no further!

"D'yer Mak'er" is from the album "Houses of the Holy." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#43 "Cursed Female" by Porno for Pyros

It almost seems vulgar to follow up a song as beautiful as "Crazy Love" with a band whose name is Porno for Pyros, but hey... it's an alphabetical list. It's out of my hands, people.

Yes, this is another post having to do with Perry Farrell. After the break-up of Jane's Addiction, JA members Farrell and drummer Stephen Perkins formed a new band. While PfP had some good songs on the two albums they released, their work was so similar to Jane's that it left me wondering why they ever broke up!?! PfP kind of came off as a cheap imitation of Jane's, but in the end they still produced some decent work.

"Cursed Female" has a great ominous tone to it. Whenever I hear it, it reminds me of a Saturday night cruising the streets looking for something to do... but usually when your little drive leads to mischief and trouble. It's from those rides when your windows are down and you're leaning on your elbow, head half-cocked to the left as your eyes scan the neighborhoods. The lyrics are more about the sad plight of being a girl. "Cursed to be born beautiful, poor, and female," Farrell sings. "There's none who suffer more." The song goes on to talk about two girls hanging out in alleyways who, after no one shows, "zipped up their clothes and walked back towards home." I guess he's saying that in the poorer parts of the world, girls are forced into selling their bodies and compromising their integrity just to get by. For a guy who wrote about the sacred beauty of women in the leaflet of his last release, Farrell's view here is still respectful, but ultimately quite sad.

"Cursed Female" is from the album "Porno for Pyros." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#42 "Crazy Love" by Van Morrison

I'm willing to say that Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" might be one of the prettiest songs I've ever heard. The lyrics are sweet and touching, and Van's performance is equally tender and beautiful. It's simply a gorgeous song.

"Crazy Love" makes me wish I had a daughter. I'm sure it was probably originally written as a romantic ode to a lover, but whenever I hear it I think of the love a father must feel for his little girl. It reminds me of how I felt about my first son right after he was born. He gave me so much joy. I just couldn't wait to get home every day. I've told people that the birth of my children taught me that there is a real physical organ inside of you that no one ever tells you about. It's called love, and it's as tangible when you're experiencing it as anything you could possibly touch. The love you have for a partner is very powerful, but I don't think my wife would feel slighted if I said that it's nothing compared to the love you feel for your child. It's something everyone should experience one day.

Some of my favorite lines are...

"I can hear her heart beat from a thousand miles,
and the heavens open every time she smiles."

"And when I'm returning from so far away
She gives me some sweet lovin' to brighten up my day.
Yes it makes me righteous... makes me feel whole...
Yes it makes me mellow down into my soul."

If you give in to that love for your kids, you can really feel this way. Their innocence and happiness make everything else fall away. It's so incredible.

So if you're looking for a song to play for your daughter's wedding or to be the soundtrack to some slideshow on her life, look no further. You won't find a better one than this.

OH! And on a related note... I once got a massage in a really fancy hotel outside of Washington, DC. The first President Bush used to hold conferences there. It's pretty high end. Anyhow, when I was in the spa I asked the masseuse if she'd ever worked on anyone famous. Sure enough, she said "Right here on this same table you're on, Van Morrison himself laid for a massage from these very same hands." Pretty cool.

"Crazy Love" is from the album "Moondance." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the page.

#41 "Crazy" by Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline's "Crazy" is one of those cool old songs that usually finds its way onto one movie sountrack or another. The lazy piano... the great brushed drums... it all makes for some good background music playing on a jukebox in some country bar or in some scene in a hot and steamy living room in the deep south.

Here are three things I can relate to this song:

1) Patsy Cline was born in Winchester, Virginia which is about 45 minutes from where I live. She's a local girl!

2) "Crazy" was actually written by a young Willie Nelson!

3) "Sweet Dreams" was the 1985 bio-movie made about Patsy Cline's life. It starred Jessica Lange as the country legend. I used to have a MAJOR crush on Jessica Lange back in the day. Remember her debut in King Kong? HELLO! And how about her risque scenes in "The Postman Always Rings Twice"? I tell ya... she gave me some naughty fantasies for a long time.

"Crazy" can be found on any number of Patsy Cline compilations like "20th Century Masters" or "The Definitive Collection." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the page

#40 "Corduroy" by Pearl Jam

By the time Pearl Jam's "Vitalogy" came out, they were a few years removed from the world-wide explosion that accompanied their first two releases. They were beginning to get mired in their political statements. Their opposition to MTV, the Grammys, and Ticketmaster began to overshadow everything else about them. They were still explosive both on record and in concert, but they seemed to be moving in a different direction. This inward journey, similar to the one that instant fame thrust upon and ultimatley killed Kurt Cobain, also sent Pearl Jam into themselves. They seem to have endured those years in the wilderness with their integrity intact, but I remember that it wasn't too long after "Vitalogy" that Pearl Jam kind of disappeared.

"Corduroy" is lyrically masked in metaphors and other intricate word play. I'm not going to begin to interpret what the lines "I don't want to take what you can give. I would rather starve than eat your bread" actually mean. I've heard that some believe that this song is a response to Kurt Cobain's suicide from a few months earlier... that when Eddie Vedder sings "I don't want to be held in your debt" it's a reference to not wanting to inherit the Grunge Crown that Nirvana was forced to part with after being basically destroyed by it. I don't really know. I just enjoy the emotion that Vedder's angst and howl bring to nearly every performance. The melody is great too. When I first heard the song, I actually thought it was Pearl Jam's most sing-along-able tune to date. Sometimes, you can't really put your finger on why something is great. You just listen to it and enjoy.

"Corduroy" is from the album "Vitalogy." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox on the side of the blog.

#39 "Color Me Impressed" by The Replacements

"Color Me Impressed" is vintage old Replacements. It's from the original line-up, when the unpredictable Bob Stinson was still in the band. It's also from the Mats' indie days, before they scored a major label contract, mellowed-out, then imploded. And though I like just about everything that Paul Westerberg does, "Color Me Impressed" is PW at his edgy best.

As I said in an earlier post, there are two Paul Westerbergs. There's the sad romantic, ever in touch with the broken hearts and failures of his youth, and the venomous smart ass... the guy who's been flashing his middle finger at the world since he was a kid. "Color Me Impressed" is from the latter. It sounds like a scorching FU to the popular kids. Westerberg says "Everybody at your party... they all look depressed" and then comments that they're "dressin' funny" too as he mocks their trendy fashion choices.

I've always thought this would be a great song to perform at a party. Most of the musicians I knew in high school were always kind of on the outside looking in. They were cool in their own way, but certainly not conventionally popular like the pretty boys and girls who rack up all of the phony accolades and superlatives. I can just see those guys playing this song. The football players would be rockin' out, but because they're too shallow to pay attention to the words they'd have no idea they were being mocked. And the kids who are really in the know... the ones who read... the ones whose heydays last beyond the age of 17... they'll be in the corner having a laugh. They know exactly what this tune is about.

"Color Me Impressed" is from the album "Hootenanny." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.