First Song Friday (11-09-07)

Oh, kids. If this morning's pick is any indication, today could be off the charts in fantastic.

Today's pick, courtesy of the 1980s Music Choice channel on my digital cable provided by Suddenlink, a company for which I am like a battered wife.

The first song I heard today is, "We Built This City" by Starship. A song, by most accounts (including this one where Blender magazine named it pretty much the worst song ever), that represented all that was wrong with pop music, even though the song railed against it.

For your singalong pleasure:

We Built This City

Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

Say you don't know me or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

Someone always playing corporation games
Who cares they're always changing corporation names
We just want to dance here, someone stole the stage
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

It's just another Sunday, in a tired old street
Police have got the choke hold, oh then we just lost the beat

Who counts the money underneath the bar
Who rides the wrecking ball in two rock guitars
Don't tell us you need us, cos were the ship of fools
Looking for America, coming through your schools

(I'm looking out over that Golden Gate Bridge
Out on another gorgeous sunny Saturday, not seein' that bumper to bumper traffic)

Don't you remember ('member)('member)

(what's your favorite radio station, in your favorite radio city
The city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps)

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

(we built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city)

I makes me wish my open fingered gloves were here already!!

First Song Friday (11-02-07)

Today's gem comes from Charleston's Mix 100.9 again, because who can't live with an Kennie Bass InfoBlast in the mornings?

It's "Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne.

Yeah. I am.

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In '65 I was 17 and running up one-o-one
I dont know where I'm running now, I'm just running on

Running on -- running on empty
Running on -- running blind
Running on -- running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive
In '69 I was 21 and I called the road my own
I dont know when that road turned onto the road I'm on

Running on -- running on empty
Running on -- running blind
Running on -- running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Everyone I know, everywhere I go
People need some reason to believe
I dont know about anyone but me
If it takes all night, that'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I dont know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too

Running on -- running on empty
Running on -- running blind
Running on -- running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Honey you really tempt me
You know the way you look so kind
I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind
You know I don't even know what I'm hoping to find
Running into the sun but I'm running behind


I can live with that. I find it far more pleasing that last week's Bon Jovi. *shudder*

Reader survey: She's Always a Woman

Up here at the office, we've become huge Billy Joel fans. We've all been listening to a lot of the Piano Man lately.

Sweet Ann was talking about one of the most beautiful love songs of all time -- "She's Always a Woman."

I think Sweet Ann's losing her Marble King marbles.

That is NOT a beautiful love song. Clearly, this guy is in love with a torturous woman. This song is about how she's a master of inflicting pain on this man who loves her, and no matter what anybody thinks about her, she's a woman, and she's his woman.

So, readers ... it's up to a vote.

Is "She's Always a Woman" a beautiful love ode, or is it a tragic, sad song about the woman you love that's eating your soul?

First Song Friday (10-26-07)

Another week where "best" is a theme ... this one comes to us courtesy of Styx, and Mix 100.9 Charleston.

(... sigh. Styx.)

The Best Of Times

Tonight's the night we'll make history
Honey
you and I.
'Cos I'll take any risk
To tie back the hands of time
And stay with you here tonight.

I know you feel these are the worst of times
I do believe it's true.
When people lock their doors and hide inside
Rumor has it
it's the end of Paradise.
But I know if the world just passed us by

Baby
I know
I wouldn't have to cry. No
no.

The best of times are when I'm alone with you
Some rain
some shine
We'll make this a world for two.
Our memories of yesterday
Will last a lifetime.
We'll take the best
forget the rest
And someday we'll find
These are the best of times.
These are the best of times.

The headlines read:
These are the worst of times

I do believe it's true.
I feel so helpless like a boat against the tide

I wish the summer wind could bring back Paradise
But I know
If the world turned upside down

Baby
I know
You'd always be around. My
my.

The best of times are when I'm alone with you
When I'm alone with you
Everything's alright.
When I'm alone with you
You brighten up the night.


Well, it's not "Come Sail Away" ... and the song that followed it up was "My Life" by Billy Joel, which is far better.

Am I the only one who thinks this song kind of sounds like "Night Man" from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"? :)

The first step is admitting you have a problem

I can't believe I love the Brad Paisley song "Online."

If you haven't heard this song, you need to get your ass to YouTube and watch the video, which stars Jason Alexander, the George's Mom from Seinfeld and WILLIAM SHATNER.

And if for nothing else, for the hook:

"I'm so much cooler online."

Aren't we all? I know I'm MUCH cooler online than I am in real life. My own real life is pretty uneventful. Online I've got this, the show, MySpace ... all that crap. But just ordinary Jacque in sweatpants on the couch? Not all that cool. I'd hang out with me, but I'd probably want me to go home after a day or two.

First Song Friday (10-19-07)

Ah, the inspiration for my first "weekly" feature other than a poll.

I've often said that I really do believe the first song you hear when you wake up (if you're a morning radio person) is fate's way of telling you what's on tap that day.

Swear as I'm sitting here on this couch (yeah, I'm not gonna make it to work by 8:30 ...) the song I heard the morning I moved out of my house was "She's Gone" by Hall and Oates. I laughed. And then I cried.

If I tend to hear a shitty song that makes me change the station, I get that feeling it's going to reflect in the hours to come. I'm not often wrong when it comes to that prediction.

Thunderstorms woke me up around 6:30. I love sleeping in thunderstorms so I turned the alarm off (it was set for 6:40) and promptly reset it for 7:30 and went back to sleep for an hour.

Today's first song, courtesy of Charleston's Z-Rock 94.5:

"Best of You" by Foo Fighters

Perfect.

Here are the lyrics for the inaugural First Song Friday (from LyricsFreak.com):

I've got another confession to make
I'm your fool...
Everyone's got their chains to break
Holding you...

Were you born to resist, or be abused
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.
Are you gone and on to someone new

I needed somewhere to hang my head
Without your noose..
You gave me something that I didn't have
But had no use...

I was too weak to give in, too strong to lose
My heart is under arrest again
But I break loose
My head is giving me life or death
But I can't choose
I swear I'll never give in
and I refuse.

Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.

Has someone taken your faith -- it's real
The pain you feel
Your trust -- you must confess
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.

Has someone taken you faith -- it's real
The pain you feel
The life the love you die to heal
The hope that stops the broken hearts
Your trust, you must confess

Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.

I've got another confession my friend
I'm no fool
I'm getting tired of startin' again
somewhere new
Wouldn't wanna resist, or be abused...
I swear I'll never give in
and I refuse...

Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.

Has someone taken you faith -- it's real
The pain you feel
Your trust, you must confess
Is someone getting
the best, the best, the best, the best of you.

It makes me oddly curious what's in store ...