MFC 20: The End
I assume this is what marathon runners at mile 21 feel like. Granted, I have the luxury of taking nearly five weeks to finish the metaphorical marathon, but the point remains. The marathon in question here is writing 100 takes on 100 songs.
I didn't believe I would get here or that anyone would read all 100 entries, but here we are, and I want to thank you for going on this journey with me. Whether you read any of the actual words about any of the songs or just checked what I put on there and then scrolled past, well, thanks for that, too. A click is a click. A view is a view, and I'm just happy you're along for the ride in the content economy.
It was, again, a journey that started with James Blunt.
I hope you find your personal James Blunt and take a quest into the annals of song history to find your version of this challenge. What are your top 20 albums? Favorite songs of the 1980s? Most invasive one-hit wonder (What happened to Gotye? That song is probably top 200.)
Since I have seven songs to cover to get across the finish line, I will cut the intro short and focus on the longer versions of what I've got to say. If you're not in this for the extended version, so be it. Let's say our goodbyes here, and I'll see you when I see you next time I find something to write about and feature on the Samplings or in your inbox.
Cheers,
Sam
Song 94
Primetime
Artist
Janelle Monae ft. Miguel
Released
2013
Lyric
When you're down, and it's hard/And you feel like you've given your all/my love is always right here for you.
One Word
Versatile
|More Than One Word|
When I got around to writing about songs by women last time out, I had every intention of including this song. But one thing led to another, and it got left off. That's fine. I am writing this on the evening of my anniversary, and plan to publish this on her birthday, so consider that a fortunate oversight because it allows me an opportunity to wax poetic about my wife.
I described this song as versatile. The same goes for my wife. First, how it pertains to the music: Appearing on Janelle Monáe's The Electric Lady, this love song features two artists at the heights of their powers. You can give me Miguel crooning all day long. Monae tends to make you want to dance, so for her, this is a bit of a deviation, but it works. In recent years, Monae has really leaned into the sex appeal of her music (take a look at the album art for the album she put out this year), but in this phase, it was more subtle but still perfectly Monae-ian.
Look at the description of this song from the video set-up: PrimeTime is a love story based on the early adventures of Cindi Mayweather (Janelle Monáe) and her first love, Joey Vice (Miguel.) The Emotion Picture gives a glimpse at Cindi's humble beginnings as a "cyber-server" at the Electric Sheep nightclub, a syn bar serving high-class "show droids" to the rich and lonely in a dangerous section of Metropolis known as Slop City. Incidentally, the innovative cybersoul music played at the club directly impacted Cindi, and she began singing and performing her own innovative compositions a short time after quitting this assignment. In addition, Cindi became determined to change the public perception of what an electric lady could be, dream, and aspire to after working in the dismal conditions at the club.
The entire album is about Cindi's quest for love and freedom from this dystopia, which was out there for an R&B album from 2013. I dug it. I like most of Monae's work, even Knives Out 2.
Speaking of dual threats, allow me to praise my wife here for a few sentences. It's hard to express how incredible it is to have someone who has a better grasp of the English language than I do, who stresses every night about what to feed picky eaters and yet delivers a Michelin-star-worthy dish (that often goes uneaten by ungrateful three-year-olds), who is uber committed to family and makes it a point to call her mom often, talk to her brother daily, and facetime with her sister despite a difference of 10-time zones as often as possible. I struggle to talk to my brother often, and he's like five blocks away. When we married six years ago, I never could have imagined our charmed life. We have two delightful boys (who I wanted to call Conrad and Clive but was overruled by a cooler head), a charming house in a great city, and jobs that make us both happy. We are finished with the stresses of the U.S. Immigration process, and there is a lot to look forward to as we continue in our ever-lasting honeymoon phase. Put another way: we're in the primetime of our love—Shoutout to Leen. I'm lucky to have you. Happy birthday.
Song 95
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Artist
Arctic Monkeys
Released
2006
Lyric
Oh, there ain't no love, no Montagues or Capulets/Just banging tunes and D.J. sets and/Dirty dance floors and dreams of naughtiness
One Word
Fun
|More Than One Word|
I was in the car the other day, and Eliot asked me to put something on. I pushed shuffle on a random Spotify-algo-created playlist and let it rip. Rio by Duran Duran came on. This is undoubtedly a song I've heard. I went to high school with a guy who obsessed over 'classic rock.' When we'd play cards (big poker guy), he'd make us play "FIRST WORD," which was a game that involved Yelling the first word of the song when it came on the radio. I bet that Rio by Duran Duran was featured on that radio station. (Moving is the first word of Rio by the way.) Anyway, there I was listening to Rio and it hit me. After 18 years of legitimately having no idea what Alex Turner was saying in the third line of the chorus of this song, I finally got it.
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Sometimes, it just takes Duran Duran on the "Divorced Dad Without the Kids This Weekend Fourth of July Playlist" to make the connection.
He says: Your name isn't Rio, but I don't care for sand.
What I always thought he said: Your name isn't real, but I don't care first and...
You have to admit. My logic was pretty solid. It's a song about meeting a stranger at the club and really liking their vibe. Who gives a shit what her name is?!
Instead, young Alex Turner was out here paying homage to Rio and sand.
When this album debuted in early 2006, it shattered all sorts of records, including the "fastest-selling debut in U.K. History" (not bad, because, if you consider it, there have been some important UK-based bands, ya know?). In preparation for this, I took the entire album for a spin recently, and it holds up. Arctic Monkeys came out about five years after the heyday of the Meet Me in the Bathroom scene, so they haven't fully morphed into Dad-band territory, yet this album is eighteen years old! It doesn't hurt that Alex Turner is 38 years old. Good lord. I'm out here waxing poetic about their debut album, and the fucker has one year on me. He probably headlined Glastonbury last weekend. I am not going to look.
A friend of mine recently installed a CD player in his new automobile. It was a bold move, sure, but in the world of physical media's resurgence, you have to respect it. He told me his challenge was to find the top 18 albums to store in a sunvisor CD case. There's a strong argument that he should include Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
Song 96
Jesus, Etc.
Artist
Wilco
Released
2002
Lyric
Tall buildings shake/Voices escape, singing sad, sad songs
One Word
Redemptive
|More Than One Word|
Is this song about 9/11? According to Jeff Tweedy, no. No, it's not.
But a whole school of literary criticism called Intentional Fallacy suggests the artist's intent DOESN'T MATTER. Anytime after 9/11, someone has lyrics about a tall building shaking and an album cover with two towers on it (even if those two towers are a famous parking garage/ shitty apartments in Chicago), the natural inclination is to assume it's a song about 9/11. So here we are. A sad song about 9/11 (written before 9/11, if Tweedy is to be believed. Maybe he was just part of the inside job.)
With that in mind, let's talk about 9/11.
Everyone has a 9/11 story (assuming you were born probably before, say, 1997. If you were born after 97, ask your parents what their 9/11 story is).
How long would you have to talk to someone before 9/11 comes up naturally? In my case, you have to get me to talk about 96 things, and then number 97 is always 9/11. It's mostly an opportunity for me to talk about band practice.
I am sitting here really hard, trying to decide if I've already told this anecdote. I am trying to map in my head which song would have allowed me to say anything about 9/11, and I am drawing blanks. The only song I know that has any ties to 9/11, other than Jesus, etc., is Welcome to the Black Parade, but that song didn't make my top 100. If you don't know how My Chemical Romance relates to 9/11, you should google it. It's an interesting tale. It's a real sliding doors moment. But since I still need to identify any other songs that would get me to talk about Mr. Bruer's band practice, here we go.
I had second-period study hall as a freshman. I did not know what to do with study hall. This concept of "studying" was always foreign to me. You want me to do work during my free time? I think not. It's like working during your lunch break. Take a load off, ya know? But Mr. Bruer wanted me to work on my scales. I can't blame him. I was terrible at playing scales and reading music. In hindsight, I definitely needed additional practice. But it's the ones who need it the most who want it the least, right? And so there I was, struggling mightily to play the some scale on the marimba when like a manna from heaven, the first plane went into the tower. Word must have spread quickly because it's not like Mr. Bruer was watching Good Morning America AND struggling to teach me how to read eFlat from bSharp. But by the time he got word and we got watching, the second plane went right in there. Again. I was a dumb 14-year-old. Did planes hit towers often? No idea. It didn't seem good. Or at least monumental. But honestly, I didn't have the context to know shit about shit.
When Notorious B.I.G. said, " Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade," for all I knew, he was being facetious and not talking about an earlier terror scheme. But I can imagine many kids hearing that line in Juciy and thinking Biggie, like Tweedy, was part of the Inside Job. Kinda wild to think about.
Anyway, that's my 9/11 story. I heard this song a few years later in my brother's car, and it always bummed me out, but in a good way. It made me feel things that most songs I heard as a teenager didn't. Maybe that's because I always assumed they wrote it about 9/11, so I was fooled into believing it had significant meaning. Either way, this song and Wilco are essentials, and if nothing else, it's an interesting conversation starter to say: did you know Jesus, etc, by Wilco was written because Jeff Tweedy was part of the inside job?
Song 97
Ordinary People
Artist
John Legend
Released
2004
Lyric
I hang up, you call/We rise, and we fall
One Word
Tiegan
|More Than One Word|
I'll give you two guesses for which band from 2004 this song was written.
Listen to this soaring romantic song about the trials and tribulations of love. This song offers sage advice about the realities of dating or being in a relationship, and think to yourself, who in 2004 was I trying to take romantic advice from? Hoobastank? Blink-182? Maroon 5?
How far down the list would it take you to settle on the Black Eyed Peas?
Written originally by Will. I.Am and John Legend, Legend decided to take this one for himself after he realized that maybe the band that sang "Let's Get It Started" (note: not the original title; see S.N.L. Skit for reference) and wanted to call this "Call Her Daddy" didnt have the gravitas to handle it.
I mostly memoryholed Will.I.Am. until recently when I saw an interview he did in France that listed his name as Will. Je. Suis. Then, Eliot watched Madagascar at school one day, and we were in full Will.i.am, territory at the Hasler House.
I've never seen the Madagascar films. There are three of them. Eliot is big on starting a movie and then not finishing it, so there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge of Disney movies, specifically how they end. I had to have a parent explain the ending of Cars to me the other night. I never get any further than him being stuck in that city and trying to find the highway. Anyway, Will.I.Am, as I am led to believe from reading the IMDB page, plays a hippo named Moto Moto?
Now hang on because it will get confusing here for a second. Eliot likes one Madagascar song, I Like to Move It (Move It). The song in the film is sung predominately by the king of the lemurs, Julien (portrayed by Sasha Baron Cohen). On the Spotify listing, because Will.I.Am. is an artist with hits and an added verse that he raps, and Sasha Baron Cohen is not a singer, it displays this song as being by Will.I.Am. Anyway, Eliot got a lemur stuffed animal at the zoo the other day and now is walking around the house demanding we call the lemur Will.I.Am, when in fact Will.I.Am's character is the hippo called MotoMoto. What to do?
John Legend lives a charmed life. He is a gifted musician. He married a supermodel who cooks and has a wacky if not off-putting, internet personality. They have beautiful children, and he played the 'bad guy' in La La Land. As we have already gone over, I do not have the chops to play music, so becoming a John Legend is out of the question. But aspirationally, I like what he's got going, even if some of his music now is corny. It's possible that this song was corny, too, but when I heard it as a junior in high school, it really called to me. I remember walking around with my big-ass Macbook singing this song through the halls of Reedsburg Area High School. Turns out, I, too, was corny. Live, learn, and let Will.I.Am cook.
Song 98
Tighten Up
Artist
Archie Bells and the Drells
Released
1968
Lyric
We dance just as good as we walk
One Word
Funky
|More Than One Word|
Written as a response to the J.F.K. assassination, Archie Bell wanted to prove to people that good things can come from Texas. This is as good of a reason as any I've seen for why a song exists. In addition to trying to frame "good things from Texas," this song was written days after Archie Bell himself got called up to serve in Vietnam. He was in a dark place, so his co-writer taught him a new dance called the Tighten Up.
This brings me to TikTok.
Is most of what happens on TikTok just people dancing? I have been known to cut it up, shake it out, and clear off a dance floor from time to time. Could I make a living just dancing on TikTok? Is that an avenue I can use to make a second source of income? I am up for it if anyone thinks it will work. My first dance will be to learn the Tighten Up and then see if I can take off.
The lyric, "where we dance, just as good as we walk," was ironically bleak when the band initially started ascending the top of the charts as Archie Bell suffered a leg injury while stationed in Germany waiting to be deployed into Vietnam, rendering walking a near impossibility. The song slaps.
Song 99
Reptilia
Artist
The Strokes
Released
2003
Lyric
The room is on fire as she's fixing her hair
One Word
Propulsive
|More Than One Word|
After Roman turned 3 in May, we knew that his time in the crib was coming to a close. It had to be. He's potty-trained, he's big, he's a free-spirit. It was time to let the animal out of the cage. This was a challenging decision to make. It took Eliot what felt like 14 months to transition from crib to bed, with me sleeping in his bed, on his floor, in the hallway, back in his bed, on the couch, and just generally anywhere other than in my bed as I helped him cope.
I was not looking forward to experiencing the same with Roman. Roman is like the energy in this song. Basically, once he gets going, it's hard to calm the young boy down. The first night went fine. The second night, he woke up at 1 am, told me it was time to get up, and we hung out, wide awake and talking until 5 am. He embodies what Julian Casablancas is saying when he says: "Tell us a story, I know you're not boring." It's both a truism and a challenge. I find it harder to not be boring at 3 am than I do at, say, 5:30 pm.
But since that one rough night, we've had primarily successful evenings and are hopeful that we'll get to the promised land of easy sleep sooner rather than later.
The Strokes and Radiohead are undoubtedly my two favorite bands. It was a near-impossible task to settle on which songs from each band I wanted to include on this list. The constant battle I grappled with was my 7th favorite The Strokes song better than my only favorite song from The Walkmen. For the sake of something to write about, I wanted to offer a little variety, so I kept the max of 2-3 songs per band.
The Strokes's first two albums are perfect and contain no skips. Reptilia is my go-to song on Room on Fire, and I wonder why they chose to name the album after a lyric in this song but named it Reptilia. I'm sure it has something to do with the Reptilian brain, which refers to the most ancient part of the brain, responsible for basic survival instincts and behaviors. This song activates that part of my brain. It's infectious, impactful, raw, and authentic. Whether you watch a live performance or the music video or just put on the single, it's hard to imagine anyone listening to this song and not continually turning up the volume until their ears bleed.
Song 100
Green Onions
Artist
Booker T &t, the M.G.s
Released
1962
Lyric
N/A
One Word
Spontaneity
|More Than One Word|
Leen and I are taking the family to Memphis next week. Part of my drive to finally get my act together and release the final installment of songs was to get it all sorted before we left. After all, we will be gone for the better part of two weeks. By the time I return, this project will be OLD NEWS. I've always had this song as the final song since it seemed like a good way to say goodbye and hello to Memphis. There's a documentary on Max about Stax Records that I recommend watching. It was one of the most important and influential record labels in developing soul music during the 1960s and 1970s, featuring artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Carla Thomas.
According to members of the backup band, this song happened because of boredom. Waiting around for an artist to show up, the band started riffing. Booker T laid down the iconic organ line, and the rest of the band followed along, eventually creating what we know now as the song the guys from the Sandlot heard as they got into a fight with the rival baseball team (You play ball like a girl!).
When we visit Memphis, I can take a little Stax tour and pay homage to this legendary bop, but I will play it by ear. I've never been to Tennessee, and while everyone I know tells me we should instead go to Nashville, you have to understand this ship has already sailed (even if the Kia has yet to start its drive). We're going to go. I have recorded myself reading countless stories that the boys can listen to. We will jam out to the Lion King soundtrack, selected hits from Sabrina Carpenter, and try to enjoy the ride.
I hope that you have enjoyed this ride.
I have some ideas about things I can continue writing about periodically, but nothing as fleshed out as my favorite 100 songs. Thanks for coming along on this journey, reading as much as you did, and commenting early and often. Stay in touch, keep me posted, and enjoy the rest of your summer.
