Thursday, May 15, 2008

Weekend Listomania (Special New Sensations Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental flunky Hop-Sing and I are off to Georgetown, Texas, where we'll be taking part in a Writers Retreat hosted by the incomparable Allen Butler, author of such literary triumphs as How to Care For Your Eye Glasses. Could be a hot one, especially if a certain Swiss runway model shows up with her beard. (That's an actual beard, not an escort, by the way).

But in any case, as a result, posting by moi will necessarily be somewhat fitful for a few days.

But until then, as always, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:

BEST POST-ELVIS POP/ROCK SONG OR RECORD WHOSE TITLE REFERENCES ONE (OR MORE) OF THE FIVE SENSES!!!

Totally arbitrary rule: No song with the actual word "senses" in the title need apply. So you know which XTC track, for example, needs to get the fuck outta here.

Pained confession: You'll note that a certain Who song from Tommy didn't make the cut. Look, I love the Who, and I think on balance Tommy holds up pretty well, but the fact of the matter is I'm just sick to fucking death of the song in question and really don't care if I ever hear it again as I begin the long slow decline on the way to becoming worm fodder. Sorry.

Okay, that said, here's my totally top of my head Top Ten.

10. What I Can't Hear, Touch, Taste, Smell or See Can't Hurt Me (Death By Stereo)



For obvious reasons, not the least of which is I wanted something written in this century. There's no video of it, but the above is the band's charmingly monikered "Don't Piss On My Neck," which is perhaps stylistically related.

9. A Taste of Honey (The Beatles)



This song, and the Fab's more or less simultaneous cover of "Till There Was You," were what motivated first generation rock crit Richard Meltzer to refer to Paul as "the weakest link, at all stages of their career." Of course, Meltzer is a bit of an asshole....

9. Smell the Glove (Spınal Tap)



Not actually a song, but what the hell. Is there a better fake album title in all of pop music? I think no!!!!

8. I Can Hear Music (The Beach Boys)



A Ronettes cover, IIRC. In any case, produced and sung by the late great Carl Wilson, and all the proof you need that Brian wasn't the only big talent in the group.

7. I Can Hear the Grass Grow (The Move)



Early Roy Wood, and what an amazing band -- with the four singers up front, they were almost a Brit Moby Grape. Note bass player Ace Kefford on the far left, AKA The Singing Skull.

6. Cum On Feel the Noize (Slade)



See, also: Quiet Riot, Oasis, numerous commercials. Okay, I realize that "feel" isn't actually one of the five senses, but tough noogies.

5. A tie --

I Hear You Knocking (Dave Edmunds)



Dave channels Smiley Lewis. It will perhaps not come as a shock to anyone that John Lennon adored this record.

and

Can't You Hear Me Knocking (The Rolling Stones)



Mick Taylor channels Carlos Santana. A fabulous solo anyway.

4. See the Sky About to Rain (The Byrds)



Gene Clark sings Neil Young, which turns out to be a pretty good idea. One of the two or three really brilliant cuts from the otherwise disappointing 1973 Byrds reunion album.

3. I Touch Myself (The Divinyls)



In Woody Allen's immortal phrase, the great thing about masturbation is that you don't have to look your best. Although I've always though Christina Amphlett was pretty darn cute in the video....

2. That Smell (Lynyrd Skynyrd)



Given the plane crash, an amazingly prescient song. What -- you've never made the same joke?

And the number one coolest, it's not even a contest so let's just get to it already, song with one of the senses in the title is -----

1. I Can See For Miles (The Who)



If memory serves, the first known appearance of the term "power pop" was in a British music paper (Melody Maker, probably) review of this, circa late '66. Four decades later, it's still the song that pretty much defines the genre, come to think of it...

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

Shameless blogwhore: My parallel movie Listomania is up over at Box Office. If you could see your way to commenting over there, it might convince management that I actually know what the hell I'm doing.

16 comments:

TJWood said...

I try to get in five choices for each Weekend Listomania, so this week's category works out quite well.

My choices for this week, in no particular order quality-wise, are:

1) "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana

2) "Taste It", INXS

3) "I Just Want To Touch You", Utopia (from their Beatles pastiche album, Deface The Music)

4) "I See You", the Byrds (also covered by Yes on one of their early albums), and, finally,

5)"I Heard It Through The Grapevine", Marvin Gaye (and numerous others)

TuneLovinJacket said...

You Can See Me - Supergrass
I've Heard That Wind Blow Before - Tommy Keene
You Smell Like Fish - Nervous Eaters
The Taste Of Red - Butch Walker
Keep In Touch - the Romantics

MBowen said...

Television - See No Evil

Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Belle & Sebastian - Seeing Other People

Velvet Underground - I Heard Her Call My Name

Dar Williams - What Do You Hear In These Sounds

The Move - I Can Hear The Grass Grow

Jules & The Polar Bears - The Smell of Home

The Cars - Touch and Go

The Mendoza Line - I Lost My Taste

steve simels said...


tunelovinjacket said...

The Taste Of Red - Butch Walker


Don't know that one -- he's the guy from the Marvelous 3, right? They were great....I'll have to check him out.

Anonymous said...

Beatles -"I've Just Seen a Face" and "You Won't See Me"

Doors - "Touch Me"

Supremes - "I Hear a Symphony"

Anonymous said...

Talking Heads - Sugar on my Tongue

mmmmmmmm

TMink said...

No titles, my brain stayed in bed this morning. But thanks for the Beach Boys video. Carl had such a wonderful voice, lots of soul. And there is Mike Love doing what he does best, taking up space, looking like an idiot, and forgetting the words.

Trey

NYMary said...

Does XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" count, or is that overkill?

Ali said...

nymary:

Totally arbitrary rule: No song with the actual word "senses" in the title need apply. So you know which XTC track, for example, needs to get the fuck outta here.

quoth Steve above. :)

I couldn't think of a single one, but have done the forehead slap with all of the songs above.

Noam Sane said...


See My Friends


Who among us has not enjoyed some early Kinks from time to time?

steve simels said...

Noam Sane said...

See My Friends

Who among us has not enjoyed some early Kinks from time to time?

An actual candidate for my favorite song of all time.

No lie....

Wendy said...

Beatles, once again: "Tell Me What You See"

Does past tense count? Sure! "I Saw Her Standing There"

And The Supremes, once again: "Come See About Me"

Okay, so I'm stuck in the 60's. So sue me.

But wait! there's more:

The Stones' "She Saw Me Coming" from A Bigger Bang, a very underrated album.

And then there's "While You See A Chance" from Steve Winwood's Arc of a Diver.

Anonymous said...

Feel - Big Star
I Saw the Light - Rundgren

Unknown said...

Baskervilles- "Have You Seen Them"
Au Revoir Simone "Don't See The Sorrow"
Eisenhower "Can I Look at You Girl?"
Tullycraft "Bored to Hear Your Heart Still Breaks"
Cats on Fire "The Smell of an Artist"
Dirtbombs "I Hear the Sirens"

Anonymous said...

Chi-Lites- (Tell me) Have you seen her

Juliana Hatfield- I see you

The White Stripes- I think I smell a rat

Anonymous said...

Guided By Voices - My Kinda Soldier

Big Star - September Gurls

Strokes - Last Night

Beatles - Everybody's Got Something to Hide..

Otis Redding - Happy Song

Cheap Trick - Dream Police