Cards on the Table Time

My snooze button was jammed. That's my only explanation for being gone so long.  That was without a doubt my longest absence from this page (almost four months!) and for that I apologize.  A friend of mine even asked me if I had changed my URL, because he hadn't seen a new post from me since April. I don't really have a real excuse, just life happening, momentum lost. An object at rest tends to remain so.  Some of it was being a dad, some was being paid as a writer elsewhere and other factors kept me away. That said, I'm thinking about one of three options for this blog going forward: downgrading to the free version with fewer bells and whistles, keeping it the same or retiring the blog entirely.

I do have a fun (IMHO) topic today to bring you back, so to speak: (so-called) Guilty Pleasure Songs.  It's kind of a misnomer really, why should one feel guilty for liking something that was created to bring joy to people?  It's simple, most of us want to appear cool and there's no shortage of music that many consider uncool.  So, we'll call them "Uncool Songs I Really Like".  I am a professional tastemaker, I do have a reputation to uphold, so please keep that in mind; if I'm willing to admit these songs bring me joy, don't hold back when it comes to yours.

1) The Boys of Summer - Don Henley - As Mojo Nixon once sang, 'Don Henley has no Elvis in him' and that's not a good thing.  Don Henley represented a lot of the excesses of the 70's and 80's as not only a member of the Eagles but also being one of those celebrities who embraced liberal causes and spoke ad nauseum about them.  Don't get me wrong, I have liberal causes I embrace but the way Henley went about it just reeked of opportunism.  He also had that ponytail in the 90's, the kind of ponytail the art teachers in high school wore to tell the world they weren't like everybody else, like Harrison Ford's earring.  That said, "The Boys of Summer" is the jam, about as perfect a song as they get.  Sonically it's a little dated in spots (the drum machine, the 80's production) but with a Mike Campbell (Tom Petty's guitarist) pedigree it's a very effective song that hasn't been dulled by 25+ years of constant airplay.  Those guitar squeals that evoke seagulls can still give you chills on the right autumn day.  I'll never turn this one off when it come on the radio.  Further disclosure: I saw Henley at Alpine Valley in 1991 and he was awesome.  Really.

2) Windy - The Association - Now when you were a child first discovering your parents' records, this one is completely excusable, one of those just under three minute pop gems that kids are supposed to like.  But when you've gone through puberty and have discovered punk rock, you should've outgrown this one, right?  Nope.  Hell, I'm 40 and it still makes me giddy.

3) Anything by Duran Duran - It's not a stretch to say that Duran Duran were the Jonas Bros. or New Kids of the Block of the 1980's: fluff designed to appeal the tween girl crowd, fodder for posters and magazines more than longevity.  But damn if they didn't write some great some great friggin' songs, scads of  'em in fact.  They hold up too.  You can hear the Bowie and Roxy Music influence all over the place without being pale imitators. DVR the Classic Albums documentary on "Rio" on VH1, a fascinating sixty minutes.  Personal faves: "Hold Back the Rain", "Rio" , "Planet Earth" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" (of course).

4) Year of the Cat - Al Stewart - This one's from that 1970's AM radio twee singer-songwriter school that also includes Cat Stevens and maybe even Leo Sayer. Like the aforementioned Association, I should've outgrown this one once I discovered girls but no, it still holds a spot near and dear to my heart.  I was driving through Northern Wisconsin at about 3AM once smoking cigarettes and listening to a distant AM station to keep me awake on the six-hour drive and this came on.  The tinniness of the AM radio and the 70's production (by Alan Parsons) made it the perfect late night song for my journey.

5) Dancing With the Lion - Andreas Vollenweider - New Age harpist oughta be a red flag.  A giant red flag with sirens and bells.  Especially when you're a nineteen-year-old college student, yet somehow this song dug its claws into me.  While mowing the lawn last fall, I encountered an iPod shuffle that included this song, ''Treason' by Naked Raygun and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath, probably the only time those three songs were ever heard in sequence.

Please sound off with your own 'Uncool Songs You Like" (aka Guilty Pleasures).  I'm just getting warm.  And if you wish, let me which option you'd prefer with this blog: retire it, downgrade or keep it the same.

Comments

[Mattbarr1516]

i LOVE windy!
add "sailing" by cristopher cross, "eye in the sky" by alan parsons project, "feels so good" by chuck mangione and so many more..

[Andy]

I'm with you on Duran Duran, but boy you lost me on "Boys of Summer" or "Year of the Cat". Both of those provoke an involuntary reflex that causes my hand to shoot towards the radio and change the station within a fraction of a second. My guilty pleasures trend more along the Journey / Styx / REO Speedwagon variety -- the bigger the hair and the more concept-ridden the album, the better.

As for the blog, well, it sounds like your heart's not in it any more. I'm tempted to say "sometimes it's right to say good night".

[Jeff]

Surely with that topic, you have to include "I Confess" by the (English) Beat.

For me it's the Carpenters, Nanci Griffith, and a lot of cheesy synth pop.

Heh - and Journey is pretty good too!

[Jen]

I have always loved "Boys of Summer" and was devastated when some band covered it. It makes me crazy that they changed the words too!

Good to see you back. : )

[Kevin Kuz]

Ken, GREAT topic. I totally agree with you that we shouldn't feel guilty about liking something that for whatever reason we just rock out to (or worse, dance to!), but there are some I am ashamed of. So here is my three-tiered answer.

1) I am not really ashamed of liking this offering, but I think it would surprise a lot of people. I absolutely LOVE Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl. The whole album. I love a lot of Mariah and Whitney songs, honestly, but nothing is quite like this album. Not ashamed, but maybe I should be.

2)I really love Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I feel guilty about liking this because I hate everything about Skynyrd--the band members, their Stars and Bars pride, their hatred for Neil Young, and mainly, their music. However, this song just kicks ass.

3) If anyone found out about my true guilty pleasure, no one would ever talk music with me seriously again, so I guess this is a true guilty pleasure. Semi Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind is usually one of the songs that I hate, but I totally dig hearing it. Not that I would ever play it on purpose, of course. I guess you just need to toss a few "doo-doo-doo's" into a song to get me hooked.

I was lucky enough to interview Ted Leo about 7 years ago or so, and I asked him what his guilty pleasures were. He defiantly responded that he feels no guilt about admitting that he likes the bands he offered (Adam Ant and Rush, and also Third Eye Blind if they weren't so overproduced.) This was great for me, because I "came out" and openly started admitting to liking Journey way before the White Sox made it cool in 2005. You know, when they won the World Series. Sorry, had to get that in there! Great topic once again.

[Pete]

Glad to see you back, Ken. "Quality over quantity" is my vote.

iTunes really makes it easy to indulge in these guilty pleasures. 99 cents, instead of $15.99 for a CD (or joining BMG just to get a few crappy CDs for free that I'd, ahem "never buy"). Now, Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" is on my iPod, and I don't skip it when it hits the shuffle. Also, "Dancing Machine" by the Jackson Five. "Holiday" by Madonna (mostly because I can drop Adam Sandler's version in my own head). These are all guilty pleasures for me because I can't dance, and never could.

[ken]

Good to know mine aren't as bad by comparison. My list was just the beginning. I might do movies or TV next.

[I'm too ashamed]

son of a son of a sailor - Jimmy Buffett

[martin]

STEELY DAN-DO IT AGAIN
In the mornin you go gunnin'
For the man who stole your water
And you fire till he is done in
But they catch you at the border
And the mourners are all singin'
As they drag you by your feet
But the hangman isn't hangin'
And they put you on the street

[Perry/Chicago]

"Beat It" by Michael Jackson.
I just can't get to the volume knob fast enough to turn it to 11 when Eddie Van Halen rips into his infamous "one take" solo.

On the subject of the blog, I guess my actions say it all for me, in that your blog, lives "open" in the ten or so tabs that are constantly live in my browser, and the continual tap on the refresh button since April tells me, if you write it, I'll keep coming back for more . . .

p

[Jay]

The Association are cool and Duran Duran had their moments, nothing to be ashamed of there. Don Henley should make you feel guilty though. My guiltiest pleasure is so bad that I can't bring myself to write it, but here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43hCGNzCXZQ

[Joel]

I'm with Kevin, above: I love "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind. Doesn't the fact that's it's about smoking meth counteract its bubble-gum factor?

[Andy]

Jay -- the video you linked to was removed due to TOS violations. Can you at least hint? (Can it really be that bad?)

[mr. tower]

The Ting Tings
Def Leppard (Hysteria and Adrenalize only)
Hall & Oates
Bell Biv Devoe
Rick Astley
Travis

Probably my guiltiest.