April 14, 2005
Favorite Songs.
(Original post date: 04/08/05)
I'm totally stealing this idea from Greg (who stole it from someone else, so I don't feel so bad.)
Here are 20 bands/artists I like, in no particular order. Guess which is my favorite song. Correct answers will be revealed and credited next to the appropriate entry. Winner gets a prize of some sort. Really.
Ready? Go!
1. Violent Femmes -- Good Feeling
2. Talking Heads -- Swamp
3. Steely Dan -- Deacon Blues (Star)
4. Bjork -- Army of Me (Greg)
5. Liz Phair -- Stratford-On-Guy (Greg)
6. REM -- Driver Eight
7. Twilight Singers -- Martin Eden
8. Pavement -- Stop Breathin'
10. Frank Sinatra -- Luck Be a Lady
11. Ani DiFranco -- Both Hands (Brandon)
12. Andrew Bird -- Capital I
13. Toad the Wet Sprocket -- Something to Say
14. Mighty Mighty Bosstones -- Simmer Down
15. Dizzie Gillespie -- Night in Tunisia
16. The Cure -- Same Deep Water as You
17. The Clash -- Lost in the Supermarket (Star)
18. Prince -- When Doves Cry
19. DJ Shadow -- Stem/Long Stem
20. Tom Waits -- The Piano Has Been Drinking or Nighthawks at the Diner
UPDATE: Well, there they are. I guess I have more obscure taste than I thought. Greg and Star, you both will be getting a prize for guessing two songs apiece.
So it probably behooves me to explain some of my choices.
1. Violent Femmes -- Good Feeling. As the odd song out on the Femmes' first album, it holds a dear place in my heart as the sweetly sentimental love song in a sea of teen angst.
2. Talking Heads -- Swamp. I love the creepy, sort of goulish tone of this song, particularly the live version on Stop Making Sense. And I always thought Touch Monkeys would be a good name for a band. (Someone I met in a drawing class in high school claimed he named his little punk group that on my suggestion, but I never heard them play.)
3. Steely Dan -- Deacon Blues. "I slide like a viper / through these suburban streets." Something about the "languid and bittersweet" mood of this song appeals to me. I've never understood why Steely Dan is so loathed.
4. Bjork -- Army of Me. Kick ass, take names.
5. Liz Phair -- Stratford-On-Guy. Great imagery. Exile in Guyville goes on nearly every roadtrip I take, and this song usually gets played around the time we start to reach the outskirts of the city.
6. REM -- Driver Eight. Once upon a time, it would have been World Leader Pretend, but I'm less dramatic these days.
7. Twilight Singers -- Martin Eden. What a great lead-off track, and another with a dark, foreboding tone. I apparently enjoy that.
8. Pavement -- Stop Breathin'. Don't know why, but that's the one.
10. Frank Sinatra -- Luck Be a Lady. Swingin' and bombastic. Gotta love the Chairman. And I love singing along.
11. Ani DiFranco -- Both Hands. Sensitive yet sexy, with a neat quiet-but-fast guitar bit that I love. It was the first Ani song I ever heard, and still my fave.
12. Andrew Bird -- Capital I. This one was probably the hardest. It's the full version of the song I on Weather Systems, and I think it only appears on a live album. There's a lot of complexity to it, and I love the lyrics.
13. Toad the Wet Sprocket -- Something to Say. "He drops hints but he won't tell you what's really on his mind / But I know if I look that it's easy to find." For a long, long time, this song -- all of it, not just the lyric I quoted -- embodied my personality. I've grown a bit and I'm much more emotionally accessible, but it's still pretty accurate.
14. Mighty Mighty Bosstones -- Simmer Down. Just good fun.
15. Dizzie Gillespie -- Night in Tunisia. It was either this or Salt Peanuts. Dizzie's got it goin' on. I once considered making a whole mix CD of different versions of Night in Tunisia. I might still.
16. The Cure -- Same Deep Water as You. I used to listen to music at extremely low volume to help me fall asleep; Disintegration was one of the albums I'd listen to. I mainly like the instrumental portions of this song, with the thunderstorm brewing in the background.
17. The Clash -- Lost in the Supermarket. Wins a race with London Calling.
18. Prince -- When Doves Cry. Just because.
19. DJ Shadow -- Stem/Long Stem. Classical and metal -- who would have thought they'd go so well together?
20. Tom Waits -- The Piano Has Been Drinking and/or Nighthawks at the Diner. There are so many great Waits songs to choose from -- I love all the ones people guessed -- and I couldn't decide between these two. What can I say, I love anthropomorphization. And a good yarn.
Posted by Andrew Huff at April 14, 2005 03:48 PMHmm. I'm not even sure I know that. I'd have to guess Toad the Wet Sprocket or Violent Femmes. Does that make me an awful girlfriend? If it makes you feel better, I don't even know what my favorite song is.
Posted by: Cinnamon at April 8, 2005 06:16 PMguessing:
violent femmes - blister in the sun (i don't actually like the violent femmes, so i can't offer many more guesses)
talking heads - psycho killer (might not be your favorite, but should be)
steely dan - deacon blues (see talking heads)
bjork - hunter
liz phair - er . . . i dunno. i feel like guessing here could get me in some sort of trouble.
REM - end of the world (? - see violent femmes comment)
Twilight Singers - Verti-Marte (minus the "woo, woo, woos," this is almost perfect. if this is not your choice, again, see Talking Heads. there's also a great demo version of Love, but that seems a touch obscure)
Pavement - T exas Never Whispers
Frank Sinatra - (I've Got You) Under My Skin
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fall Down
The Cure - Love Song (The Cure, like The Violent Femmes, were a band that every girl I ever knew was way into and that I hated. The Cure has since made some traction against my personal biases, though the Violent Femmes still have not.)
The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket
Prince - Batdance (or, alternately, the entire Batman O/ST)
DJ Shadow - Organ Donor
Tom Waits - Hang On St. Christopher
Okay, maybe my list is more about me. Except for that Prince comment. NOBODY should like Batdance (which is not to say that my brother and I didn't wear that record out when I was 10).
Star -- excellent choices, and two of them were even correct! Psycho Killer is one of the tops, as is Verti-Marte, but others are my favorites.
Posted by: Andrew at April 9, 2005 10:56 PMre: steely dan and the clash - those were, i thought, pretty idiosyncratic personal picks. fantastic!
have you heard the afghan whigs' cover of lost in the supermarket? pretty good, that.
star
Posted by: star at April 9, 2005 11:03 PMNo I don't, but I'll start looking for it.
Posted by: Andrew at April 10, 2005 04:38 PM1. Ugly
2. Don't Worry About the Government
4. Army of Me
5. stratford-on-guy
6. Voice of Harold, duh!
13. Windmills
14. Hope I Never Lose My Wallet
16. The Love Cats
18. Why U Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
20. Jockey Full of Bourbon
And Greg scores two!
Posted by: Andrew at April 11, 2005 12:15 PMPavement - Frontwards
Andrew Bird - Why?
Toad the Wet Sprocket - All I Want
Dizzie Gillespie - You Can't Lose with the Blues
I feel strangely confident about the second one. The others are wild guesses.
Sorry, Jeff, you struck out.
Right album on Toad, though.
r.e.m. - nightswimming
Pavement - Cut Your Hair
Tom Waits - In the Neighborhood
For R.E.M., you seem like a "Texarkana" kind of guy, Andrew.
Posted by: Paul at April 12, 2005 05:53 AMPavement - gold sounds
talking heads - I want to say "Love... a building on Fire."
Andrew Bird - solo or BOF? Solo: Fake Pallindromes? or Lull? (Mine is "Don't be scared")BOF? My Greenland.
Twighlight singers - I'd say "Teenage Wristband."
Ani - Both Hands?
Femmes - what sucks about the 'Femmes is that I know you've told me this more than once in the past...
I second Pete on "nightswimming"
Posted by: bran at April 12, 2005 02:05 PMNeat meme, but how can you pick a favorite song? It's hard enough just picking twenty favorite artists!
Posted by: Eamon at April 12, 2005 03:05 PMPete: Right album for Pavement, wrong song.
Paul: Nope.
Bran: Bird either/or.
Eamon: These aren't necessarily my top 20 favorite artists, but I do have a favorite song from each.
a few of these guesses are random and/or based on songs i like myself:
2. Talking Heads - once in a lifetime
6. REM - near wild heaven
8. Pavement - range life
13. Toad the Wet Sprocket - walk on the ocean
16. The Cure - lullaby
20. Tom Waits - innocent when you dream
Violent Femmes- Add It Up; Talking Heads- Road to Nowhere; REM- So. Central Rain; Pavement- Silence Kit ; Toad the Wet Sprocket- Hold Her Down; The Cure- Fascination Street; Prince- Delirious
Posted by: rynews at April 13, 2005 08:55 PMWow, so many close guesses. I'm going to reveal the remaining answers so y'all can see just how close some of you were.
Posted by: Andrew at April 14, 2005 09:28 AMWait, I didn't get a chance to guess! Aw, fuwk! What's to become of me now?
Posted by: jima at April 14, 2005 12:01 PMmartin eden was my second guess! really!
but i thought second guesses might be cheating.
Posted by: star at April 14, 2005 01:49 PMI love Both Hands by Ani. Especially the full orchestra in the live verison! Untouchable Face is also up there!
Posted by: Jess at April 15, 2005 10:45 AM"Capital I" is Phin's favorite by Andrew Bird, too.
Mine is actually "Wait" originally from Oh, the Grandeur! The live version on archive.org from the Mad City show (1998) is actually the one I like though.
Not that anyone asked I guessed, but come on.. Andrew Bird... great stuff.
Posted by: Jeff at April 15, 2005 11:18 AMI'm a HUGE (early) REM fan. I love not only World Leader Pretend, but also Driver 8, mainly because it's one of the few of their songs that I can sing pretty much on key all the way through. And Fables is my favorite album of theirs--Southern gothic surrealism.
Posted by: rynews at April 17, 2005 01:58 AM