Friday, August 15, 2008

Weekend Listomania (Special Familiarity Breeds Contempt Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental rentboy amanuensis Hop-Sing and I are off to the Republic of Georgia, where we've signed up to fight the forces of tyranny in the newly formed Bill Kristol/Robert Kagan Brigade. It's sort of like the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, except that Kristol and Kagan won't themselves be serving even though, unlike Lincoln, they're actually alive.

In any case, posting by moi will likely be sporadic for a few days.

But in the meantime, here's a fun project to tide us all over:

THE ACTUALLY GOOD POP/ROCK SONG THAT THANKS TO RELENTLESS OVEREXPOSURE YOU NOW TOTALLY DON'T CARE IF YOU NEVER HEAR AGAIN!!!!!

Okay, here's my totally top of my head Top Seven:

7. Smashing Pumpkins -- Disarm



I actually still like this song, which has always struck me as a kind of White Album outtake for our time. However, since I needed yet another Smashing Pumpkins song for the purposes of getting them into every Listomania from now until the end of time, I have decided I never want to hear it again. So much for my street cred...

6. Smash Mouth -- All Star



How many movies has this been in? Shrek 1, 2 and 3? Schindler's List? Brokeback Mountain? Titanic? The Sorrow and the Pity? In the Realm of the Senses? I've lost count....

5. The Who -- Won't Get Fooled Again



I'm sorry, I love the fricking Who, I love this song, and I love the album it's from. I even loved hearing Pete and Roger do it at the recent VH-1 Honors concert. Nonetheless, after hearing it every week for the last 80 years on whatever CSI franchise it's on, I'm officially done with it. Sorry.

(Honorable mention: "Who Are You" and "Baba O'Reilly")

4. Bonnie Raitt -- I Can't Make You Love Me



A beautiful record, full of longing and regret, and gorgeously warbled by Bonnie. Nonetheless, for several years it was impossible to sit at a bar without this coming on the jukebox and hearing either a waitress or a tipsy woman by the peanut bowl singing along. As a result, if I ever hear it again I will definitely take a hostage.

(honorable mention: "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About")

3. Marvin Gaye -- Let's Get It On



Another great song, but at this point it's replaced a packet of condoms and a scratchy Barry White album as the cheesy sexual encounter signifier of all time. Seriously -- once Jack Black has covered it, it's over.

2. Led Zeppelin -- Stairway to Heaven



Overfamiliar? Hell, I'm at the point now where even the parodies drive me crazy. (This one is still pretty funny, however.)

And the numero uno actually good song that you've heard so many fricking times that you just want to kill yourself at the thought of hearing it again, it's not even close so don't bug me already, is obviously --

1. The Beatles -- Hello Goodbye



Again, I happen to love this song -- which I understand is not a lot of people's favorite McCartney/Beatles effort -- but after the six or seven lame covers of it that have been featured, endlessly, in Best Buy ads in the last year or two, I'd rather have my eyes gouged out with a burnt stick than listen to it again.

Awright then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you leave a comment over there, an angel gets its wings.]

27 comments:

dave™© said...

Good Lord - "Hello Goodbye"? Aside from the fact that it's nothing but a tepid refry of "We Can Work Out" without the saving grace of a Lennon middle, there's it turning up on the "1" album despite the fact that everyone knows people bought the single for "I Am the Walrus" on the flip.

As to today's topic, allow me to pick an even seedier song than "Hello Goodbye" - "More Than a Feeling" by Boston! It's really a great fucking record! And Tom Scholz was really a proto-punk in his DIY way...

TJWood said...

This probably looks to be an easy one: just listen to any classic rock oldies station in your area, and at least five such candidate songs will appear. The U2 song from your clue--as well as at least one or two others from the same album it came from--would absolutely be one of my choices, but I'll consider it already taken. My five, in no particular order, would be:

1) Nirvana, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Haven't heard it all that much in the last few years. Haven't needed to.

2) Rolling Stones (tie), "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up", two warhorses they can't seem to retire for even a single show

3) Bruce Springsteen (tie), "Born In The USA" and "Glory Days", from what was never my favorite album of his, but theyh have to be considered good songs.

4) Deep Purple, "Smoke On The Water". Granted, it is the best song ever written about the 1971 fire at the Montreux Casino.

5) Boston, "More Than A Feeling". Yes, it is a good song. Yes, I had already heard it enough for this lifetime and another three before it got even more airplay on classic rock stations after the tragic death of Brad Delp.

...but since it turns out Dave has already beaten me to the punch with the last one, I'll add an extra:

6) Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Sweet Home Alabama". I'm not sure I would consider it a good song, but enough people do. And now it's the subject song of that big Kid Rock summer hit--oh, well.

Anonymous said...

"Clouds" or "Both Sides Now" or whatever it's called ... and I don't care which version. Actually there's a whole spate of folksy-type songs I hope I never hear again.

"Born in the USA" ... sick to death of it.

And "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" ... only if I can imagine a tomorrow without that song.

Ali said...

Everything on the classic rock stations. Everything.

Anonymous said...

With me it's definitely Fun Fun Fun by the Beach Boys.

danny1959 said...

Um, Steve, I think it's Target. And, the supremely ugly and untalented Jonas Brothers do the newest abomination.

On another note: In the Realm of the Senses? Yikes! All men instinctively cross their legs at the mention of THAT movie!

MBowen said...

Without a doubt, "Layla", even though Dave Marsh says that anyone who thinks it was overplayed "doesn't have a heart". I actually went for a period in the early '90s where I didn't hear it for about five years. It really is a good record.

Kid Charlemagne said...

A few off the top of me 'ead:

1. "Stacy's Mom" - Fountains of Wayne

2. "Hey Jealousy" - Gin Blossoms

3. "Just What I Needed" - The Cars

Cleveland Bob said...

Anything by Journey, Styx or Foreigner would rate.

If I had to pick one song though, it would have to be Freebird.

Cleveland Bob said...

Sorry. I missed the "actually good" part of the description.

Nevermind. My songs/bands are all teh suck.

steve simels said...


mike said...
With me it's definitely Fun Fun Fun by the Beach Boys.

8/15/2008 2:09 AM


Them's fightin' words, pal.
:-)

And danny1959 is indeed correct -- Target, not Best Buy, although that's like saying, headache, not upset stomach.

geor3ge said...

Gotta nitpick one point: "All Star" was never a good song. "All that glitters is gold/ Only shooting stars break the mold" wins a Golden Raspberry for mixed metaphors.

David said...

Smashmouth's "Walking on the Sun" on the other hand, was/is a good song, and it too got played to death. By me, as I recall. I frequently threw it on at parties in the late '90s, and all the peoples would get up and groove to this spiritual cousin of "I Wanna Be a Flintstone" by Screaming Blue Messiahs. (Come to think of it, the singers in those two bands could pass for actual cousins.)

Anonymous said...

There was a time in the 90s when I couldn't listen to 5 seconds of any Doors song and I used to LOVE the Doors.

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Like mbowen, Layla would be my pick as a song I really, really liked the first 100 times I heard it. In defense of Hello/Goodbye, there are few pop songs in the world that wouldn’t benefit from having eight bars of Lennon in the middle, but I have to say I do think the clever (silly yes, but still clever) overlapping call/response in the middle -- You say yes, I say no (I say yes but I may mean no) / You say stop and I say go (I can stay until it's time to go) – helps makes this Beatles worthy. Sorry if I just gave you an earworm.

TMink said...

Anything by Madonna! Oh, wait, it has to be a GOOD song. Never mind.

I really agree about the classic rock water torture. Think how many great songs those bands did, and so few get played on those tight play lists.

I can't complain too much though, that is why I got my iPod. So thanks classic rock stations with a 4 song playlist!

Trey (who is tired of the Smashing Punpkins and does not own any of their music!)

Anonymous said...

There was a time in the 90s when I couldn't listen to 5 seconds of any Doors song and I used to LOVE the Doors.

The long version of "Light My Fire" ... AAAAAAAAH! Run away!!!!!

David Rasmussen said...

Man on the Moon by REM.
Candle in the Wind by Elton John (even before the remake)

ms. rosa said...

funny, 'hello i love you' came on the other day and for the first time in my life i didn't change the station. i thought 'hey i bet this was a rippin' little punk tune when played live back in the day'. i could see arthur lee groovin' to it in the audience.

but i'm a sick bastard: i've heard "what i like about you", "my sherona", "some kind of wonderful", "turning japanese", "all day and all of the night", "a million miles away", "brass in pocket" so many times i keep promising myself that i won't not change the station *next time*. but i never do.

sacrilege, i know: i never liked 'born in the usa' (the song) but other than that i will never turn my back on the boss. ;)

Anonymous said...

i thought 'hey i bet this was a rippin' little punk tune when played live back in the day'. i could see arthur lee groovin' to it in the audience.

if you are thinking about this "Hello, I Love You", it was Jim Morrison and The Doors, not Arthur Lee and Love ...

ms. rosa said...

oh sorry that was confusing. arthur lee would be *in the audience listening* since their live sets ruled Hollywood Blvd contemporaneously (right, Steve? or am i crazy?). If there were any justice in this world, Love's songs would be the ones overplayed on classic rock stations, not The Doors'.

Anonymous said...

Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go
- Rock the Casbah

I love the Clash but I never need to hear these two songs ever again. Same goes for Patti's - Because the Night.

ROT(Plumber)

Anonymous said...

It's awfully hot today for blanket statements, but I'd say.... any song that get attached to a major league baseball player and is played every freakin' time he comes up to bat..... makes your list. What's wrong with just listening to Nancy Bea Hefley on the Roland organ in Dodger Stadium? But I digress....

The Kenosha Kid said...

I just want to point out that #1 and #5 on tjwood's list are very nearly redundant.

Also, my all time favorite overplayed song is "Somebody to Love." Isn't there any other song they can use in the movies to say "The time: the wild nineteen sixties...." ?

Anonymous said...

I second Ali's comment.

steve simels said...

If there were any justice in this world, Love's songs would be the ones overplayed on classic rock stations, not The Doors'.


ms. rosa johnson is right!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Come to think of it (or not) I haven't heard,' Innagodadaveda' in like forever. Used to know a girl who played the spoons to the long version. Those were the days. (Mary Hopkins via Paul McCartney)