The blog of Luther M. Siler, teacher, author and local curmudgeon
Happy New Year!
Today’s theme: A song to drive to. TRUE FACT! I used to occasionally take long drives out in the boonies at unsafe speeds listening to music very loud late at night when I was in college. Southern Indiana is wonderful for that sort of thing. And this album was always on the playlist:
What are you roadtripping to?
The theme for Day 6 is “A song that makes you want to dance.”
I do not, generally speaking, want to dance, so this one’s kinda tricky, but you get instructions in the first couple of lines about what to do so we’re all good:
What are you breaking your neck to?
I’m going to cheat on today’s theme, which is “A song that reminds you of someone you’d rather forget.” I don’t really think like this, and if there was a song that reminded me of someone I wanted to forget, I wouldn’t be posting it to show y’all and remind myself anyway. So we’re gonna amend “you’d rather forget” to “about an ex,” because we all know that’s what most people are going to choose here anyway. Although if anybody has a song that reminds them of a boss they hated or something I’d love to know what it is. At any rate:
Your choice would be … ?
Today’s theme: A song that reminds you of summertime. Had to think about this one a bit, actually. (And I am not choosing Will Smith’s Summertime, dammit!)
And your favorite summertime song is… ?
Today’s theme: A song you like with a number in the title. This is my second choice, as the one that came to mind immediately is more appropriate later in the month.
What’s your favorite song with a number in the title?
So I just came across this on the interwebs somewhere, and I’mma do it:
Day 1 is a song with a color in the title? That one’s easy:
I love the Dead’s version, too, but this is the first version of the song I ever heard so it’s the one y’all get. I will probably crank out the next 30 of these tomorrow and just set them to auto-post over the next month, but it’ll be a fun little task while I’m working on it.
What’s your favorite song with a color in the title? Post in comments!
Fi
rst things first: from the “there should be a German word for this” category, I would like to know the German word for the moment when you discover a giant hole in the crotch of your pants at the beginning of an 11-hour work shift and realize that the moment before you discovered that hole was as good as the day was going to get. There’s a German word for everything, so there’s got to be one.
Brief review of the new bed: I love the fuck out of it. I would have preferred, however, that we not have a neighborhood-wide power outage the first day we own our new adjustable bed, although I suppose the setting we had it at when the power went out represented some sort of compromise between the universe and ourselves, since it was technically supposed to be a sleeping position and not, say, the “make your bed into a reclining chair” position. I have since discovered that there is a place on the bed where batteries can be inserted to avoid precisely that scenario but at the time it was a problem. But I’m sleeping better– way better, in fact– and that’s what counts.
I’m a Prince fan, right? I have been for a long time– in fact, Purple Rain was one of the first two pieces of music I ever paid for, on cassette, who knows how long ago. I was trying to hunt down video that didn’t suck of Lenny Kravitz’ tribute to Prince at the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, and finally found some that did suck, and for some reason decided to Google the lyrics to When Doves Cry.
Guys, I’ve been singing the wrong words to When Doves Cry for basically my entire fucking life.
I mean, in my defense, I probably decided I knew the words before I was ten, and maybe I’m just like my mother/ she’s never sad inside and maybe you’re just like my mother/ she’s never satisfied aren’t that far apart, but that wasn’t the only bit I was getting wrong, right? And it’s like… damn, I’ve heard this song probably once a week for my entire fucking life and I’ve managed to screw it up every single time. What the hell else have I been doing wrong for my entire life and never realized it until now?
Feel free to share examples of similar idiocy in the comments if you like.
I told you yesterday to listen to a song. Scroll down and do that right now. Or just click; that gets me more hits.
Kurt would have turned 50 this week, by the way. This post isn’t about Nirvana’s music but it’s not unrelated, as you’ll soon figure out.
Anyway: a few months ago I wrote a post about Rae Sremmurd where I talked about my utter inability to actually pay attention (or, honestly, understand) any of the lyrics to their songs. I continue to listen to Sremmlife 2 more or less weekly and other than Black Beatles I can’t actually name any of the songs or quote any of the lyrics. This is in stark opposition to the way I used to enjoy music, which was to memorize every syllable of entire albums. I don’t know what the hell Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi are talking about in the majority of the thing, and I had to look up their names just now.
But I love the hell out of Sremmlife 2 anyway.
The other day I downloaded Future’s self-titled new release on the strength of the cover art. I do that sometimes; I like discovering new music and occasionally I just buy something for the sheer hell of it.
(Sidenote: upon finding that link, I discover that dude has a second new album, meaning he has two new releases within two weeks. I buy it instantly.)
(Are we still calling these “albums”? I can’t use CD anymore, but “album” still seems to work. Anyway.)
So here’s the thing: I was listening to Future on the way home from work last night, and if anything to my old-ass ears the lyrics are even harder to decipher than Sremmurd. This seems to be a Southern hiphop thing; Sremmurd is from Tupelo and Future is from Atlanta. I put the YouTube “video” of POA on the post yesterday because that’s the song that was playing when I realized I wasn’t really in the car anymore, and upon checking the track realized I had not the slightest idea what POA might stand for. (“Power of Attorney,” according to the Google.) And this leads me to my question, and the reason I’m writing this post in the first place:
How important are lyrics to you to be able to enjoy a piece of music? Do you ever listen to music in a foreign language where there’s literally no chance of you understanding the words? Is it possible for a “good song” to be about a subject or topic you hate? I once tossed a brand-new CD out the window of my car on the first listen because it turned out to be laced with homophobia, but it was also clear and understandable. And I can’t stand a couple of very popular songs because of what they’re about.
These last couple of albums could be about goddamn anything and I don’t care at the moment because I can’t stop zoning out when I’m listening to them. Which isn’t a bad thing; I can’t complain. I’m just wondering how weird it is.
PS: I got home last night and went to check the mail, and stopped dead in my driveway because I could hear Rae Sremmurd playing and thought my phone had unpaused itself or something. It took a moment to realize that one of the two teenagers next door had their bedroom window open and was listening to Sremmlife 2 at perhaps an unhealthy volume level. So there’s that.