Best of You

Featured tunes in this post: "Best of You" by Foo Fighters and "Between the Wheels" by Rush.

Best of You - "Has someone taken your faith/It's real, the pain you feel/Your trust/You must confess/Is someone getting the best of you?"

I've always admired people who can excel at more than one thing. My fantasy dinner party guests would be Leonardo daVinci (inventor, juggler, artist), Isaac Newton (physicist, inventor of calculus), Thomas Jefferson (farmer, politician, university founder), and Alan Turing (mathematician, definer of the modern computer, cryptographer - led the British team who cracked the German Enigma code in WWII).

I guess that explains my man-crush on Dave Grohl. He first became known as the drummer for Nirvana. In that role, he proved to be one of the best hard rock drummers ever, laying the foundation for the band's sound. Further proof of his drumming ability: he played drums for Queens of the Stone Age on their best CD, Songs For the Deaf, and he recently played drums for Paul McCartney on the Grammy's.

After his run with Nirvana, he formed Foo Fighters. On the "band's" excellent debut CD, he wrote every song, sang every track, and played every instrument. That's truly a solo tour de force. He put together the band, after the CD was released, in order to play live. Since that time, Dave has been the front-man of the band, playing guitar and singing lead on all but one song (drummer Taylor Hawkins sings "Cold Day In the Sun"), and Foo Fighters have put out 5 more studio CDs, and a live acoustic CD. They've won a Grammy, and had one of their songs, "Best of You", played by Prince during his Super Bowl halftime performance.

I can't think of any other musician who has done something quite like that - moving from drummer to guitarist/lead singer. Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page both started with the Yardbirds and moved onto bigger bands (Cream and Led Zeppelin), and, of course, Clapton has had a long and distinguished solo career. But neither of them changed instruments mid-career. Sting was the front-man and bassist of The Police. He went on to a very successful solo career, playing a lot of guitar, along with the bass. But that's not as big a change as going from drums to guitar.

Between the Wheels - "We can go from boom to bust/From dreams to a bowl of dust/We can fall from rockets' red glare/Down to 'Brother can you spare...'/Another war, another waste land and another lost generation"

As I remember them, and maybe I just wasn't as aware as I could have been, the 1980's were a darn good decade. The economy was in pretty good shape for the most part. We weren't involved in any wars - you can't really count Grenada as a war. That makes it strange that Rush's "Grace Under Pressure", released in 1984, took such a dim view of the world. Maybe 1984 wasn't as removed from Vietnam as it seems now that it must have been. Or maybe it was the ever-present threat of the Cold War. However, the CD seems more apropos to our current time. In particular, the lyrics quoted above seem ominously descriptive of the current situation in America - facing the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression and fighting wars in two far-flung foreign countries.

• Because - The Beatles
• Because of Me - Seether
• Because of You - Nickelback
• Been a Son - Nirvana
• Before Tomorrow Comes - Alter Bridge
• Begin - Ben Lee
• Begin - Toad the Wet Sprocket
• Begin the Begin - R.E.M. : "Birdie in the hand for life's rich demand/The insurgency began and we missed it."
• Beginnings - Chicago
• Behind My Camel - The Police
• Behind the Wall of Sleep - The Smithereens : "Well she held a bass guitar and she was playing in a band/And she stood just like Bill Wyman/Now I am her biggest fan"
• Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! - The Beatles : What a weird song.
  
• Belief - Gavin DeGraw
• Belief - John Mayer
• Believe - The Bravery
• Believe It or Not - Nickelback
• Belle - Jack Johnson
• Belong - R.E.M.
• Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning) - Vertical Horizon
• Best of You - Foo Fighters
• Better Life - 3 Doors Down
• Better Man - Pearl Jam
• A Better Place - Army of Anyone
• Better Than It Was - Fastball
• Better That We Break - Maroon 5
• Better Together - Jack Johnson
• Better When You're Not There - Vertical Horizon
• Between Sun and Moon - Rush
• Between the Wheels - Rush

Back to back songs by the same artist, and, for the first time, it's not The Beatles.

• Beverly Hills - Weezer : Delicious irony and sarcasm in this tune, with a bunch of rich musicians poking fun at the rich, spoiled people in Beverly Hills.
  
• Beware! Criminal - Incubus
• Beyond the Gray Sky - 311
• Beyond the Sea - Duncan Sheik
• Bi-Polar Bear - Stone Temple Pilots
  
• Bicycle Race - Queen
• Big Dog - Lyle Lovett
• Big Easy - Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
• Big Empty - Stone Temple Pilots : "Time to take her home/Her dizzy head is conscience-laden". Those are some of my favorite lyrics ever.
  
• A Big Hunk O' Love - Elvis Presley
• Big Me - Foo Fighters
• The Big Money - Rush
  
• Big Time - Peter Gabriel
• The Big Wheel - Rush
• Bigger Than My Body - John Mayer
• Bigot Sunshine - Tonic
• Binky the Doormat - R.E.M.
• Bird On a Wire - Johnny Cash
• Birthday - Taproot
• Bits and Pieces - The Dave Clark Five
• Bitter - 12 Stones
• Bitter Tears - INXS
• Bittersweet - Fuel
• Bittersweet Me - R.E.M.
  

Summary:
Listened to 53 songs
Skipped 2 (Live acoustic versions of "Best of You" and "Big Me")
1 instrumental ("Behind My Camel")
3 start with Because, 4 with Begin, 7 Betters, but only 2 Bests, 10 Bigs (if you count Bigot), 4 Bitter

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Now playing: Foo Fighters - Best of You
via FoxyTunes

Beauty of Gray

On to the Bs...

• Baby Don't Cry - INXS
• Baby In Two - Pernice Brothers
• Baby, What a Big Surprise - Chicago
• Back at Your Door - Maroon 5
• Back Door - Fastball
• Back In Baby's Arms - Patsy Cline
• Back In the Village - Iron Maiden
• Back On Line - INXS
• Back On My Feet Again - The Babys
• Back to You - John Mayer
• Bad - U2 : "If I could through myself/Set your spirit free/I'd lead your heart away/See you break, break away"
  
• Bad Blood - Neil Sedaka
• Bad Day - Fuel
• Bad Day - R.E.M.
• A Bad Dream - Keane : "I wake up, it's a bad dream/No one on my side/I was fighting, but I just feel too tired to be fighting/Guess I'm not the fighting kind"
  
• Bad Seeds - Brother Cane
• Badge - Cream
• Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today) - Love and Rockets : There's a nice remake of this in the movie "Marley & Me"
  
• The Ballad of Bjorn Borg - Pernice Brothers
• The Ballad of Ira Hayes - Johnny Cash : Another revered elder statesman of American entertainment, Clint Eastwood, made a good film related to this "Flags of Our Fathers"
  
• The Ballad of John and Yoko - The Beatles
• Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners - Foo Fighters
• Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson : "It's just so easy, when the whole world fits inside of your arms/Don't really need to pay attention to the alarm/Wake up slow"
  
• Bang and Blame - R.E.M.
• Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
• Bastille Day - Rush : "And we're marching to Bastille Day/La guillotine will claim her bloody prize"
  
• Battery - Metallica
• Battle Cry - Triumph : "So many, many miles from home/Oh Lord have mercy on my soul/I think the loneliest man in the world is a soldier"
  
• Be Like That - 3 Doors Down
• Be Mine - R.E.M.
• Be Still, My Soul - Wintley Phipps
• Beachball - R.E.M.
• The Beast In Me - Johnny Cash : This song is a perfect example of the greatness of Cash's "American" recordings. At his advanced age, his voice weak and wavering, yet able to evoke such feeling, the songs are truly powerful. You can just feel that he's resigned to the fact that his days are near an end, that he wants to deliver a message, and that he's ready to be with his wife and his Maker in eternity.
  
• Beat a Drum - R.E.M.
• Beautiful - Creed : "Beautiful is empty/Beautiful is free/Beautiful loves no one/Beautiful stripped me"
  
• Beautiful Day - U2
• Beautiful Disaster - 311 : "I try to be not like that but some people really suck"
  
• Beautiful Girl - INXS
• The Beautiful Letdown - Switchfoot : "I will carry your cross and your song/But I don't belong here/I'm gonna set sight and set sail for the kingdom come"
  
• Beautiful Son - Cave In
• Beauty & Sadness - The Smithereens
• Beauty of Gray - Live : "The perception that divides you from him is a lie/For some reason you never ask why/This is not a black and white world/You can't afford to believe in your side/This is not a black and white world/To be alive, I say the colors must swirl/And I believe that maybe today we will all get to appreciate the beauty of gray"

Three events this week swirled together to demonstrate just how far we still have to go in race relations in this country. To briefly summarize them, for those not keeping up (or in the author's vain thought that someone might read this well after the stories have faded):

First, President Obama signed the Economic Stimulus Plan, a couple of months on the heels of the first "bailout" plan, no doubt in advance of Stimulus 3 and whatever else is to come.

Second, a Connecticut woman was brutally attacked and maimed by a chimpanzee owned by her (I don't want to judge anyone, here) complete lunatic of a neighbor. The neighbor had owned the chimp for several years and treated it as if it were her child - dressing it in diapers, feeding it steak and lobster, and serving it wine. Tragically, the chimp had to be killed to end it's attack.

Third, the New York Post ran an editorial cartoon that tried to combine these 2 events - it depicted 2 police officers standing over a chimp they had just shot and killed, one of them saying "they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." The Post "apologized" after the ensuing outcry. Now, unlike most people I've heard discuss this, I believe The Post and the cartoonist when they say they were simply saying that a chimp could have written the stimulus bill. However, it wouldn't take a moment's thought on their part to realize that many people would think they were disparaging the president (comparing him to a chimp), and that it would piss them off.

When are we ever going to get past this? Idealists thought the Civil Rights movement in the 60s ended it. Optimists thought that the L.A. riots of the 70s were the last breaths of racism. 30+ years later, it's hard to see that any advance has actually been made, in spite of an African-American man being elected president. Some white people continue to act and talk like other ethnic groups are sub-human, or at least sub-white. Some black people are excessively sensitive to continuing slights, both real and imagined. I really wish we could all get to the place the band Live describes in "The Beauty of Gray" - where the world is not black and white but a beautiful amalgamation of the two. We are all children of God and, thus, each other's brothers and sisters.

Summary:
Listened to 40 songs. Skipped 1 (Demo version of "Beat a Drum").
5 songs by R.E.M.
2 songs called "Bad Day" - thankfully neither of them by Daniel Powter
6 starting with "Beautiful", 7 starting with "Back", 6 starting with "Bad"
Second instrumental (Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners)
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Now playing: Live - The Beauty Of Gray
via FoxyTunes

Awakening

• Atlanta - Stone Temple Pilots : "She comforts me when the candles blow out/The cake has grown mold but the memories are sweet "
  
• Atlantic - Keane : "I need a place that's hidden in the deep/Where lonely angels sing you to your sleep/Though all the world is broken"
  

Two songs by bands with lead singers that have fought drug problems. Unfortunately, I probably could've made that point a few times before and will have numerous opportunities going forward. Scott Weiland of STP may not have been in rehab recently, but he's a regular at some center or another. Keane had to cancel a couple legs of it's 2006 world tour due to Tom Chaplin's stint in rehab. With a seemingly endless stream of stories like this, it makes you wonder if drug and alcohol problems are part-and-parcel with being famous or being an artist. Lucky for me, I'm neither.

• Auctioneer (Another Engine) - R.E.M.
• Aurora - Foo Fighters : "I just kinda died for you/You just kinda stared at me"
  
• Australia - The Shins : "I felt like I could just fly/But nothing happened every time I tried"
  
• Authority Song - John Mellencamp : "Dying to me don't sound like all that much fun"
  
• Awakening - Switchfoot : "I want to wake up kicking and screaming/I want to live like I know what I'm leaving/I want to know that my heart's still beating".

The awakening in this song is about breaking free from the modern corporate world - "Last week saw me living for nothing but deadlines." It's a nice thought, leaving that behind. Of course, it's something that's hard to do while trying to feed your family or pay off your college debt. It makes vacation fun to look forward to, anyway.

• Aye Davanita - Pearl Jam : "Awooh/Awooha/Aye Davanita". Yep, those are all the lyrics. Somewhat reminiscent of "Aluminum" by The White Stripes. In stark contrast, though, is the fact that this song can still be identified as music and is actually quite nice to listen to. It's very hypnotic. I think that's what Pearl Jam was going for, placing it between two songs - "Better Man" and "Immortality" - that are thick with meaning and require some concentration to get the point. "Aye Davanita" provides a welcome chance to relax. I did extensive research (OK - I went to Wikipedia, googled it, and checked a couple Pearl Jam fan sites) to try to discover the meaning of the title, or at least the language. I couldn't find anything. It sounds vaguely Eastern, but it's a mystery to me.
  

Summary:
Finished up the letter A with 8 songs. None skipped.

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Now playing: Switchfoot - Awakening
via FoxyTunes

Another Love Song

• Another Horsedreamer's Blues - Counting Crows
• Another Life - Iron Maiden
• Another Love Song - Queens of the Stone Age

Since it's Valentine's Day, I'd better list my favorite love songs, or at least my favorite that are on my iPod:

1. Let It Rain - Eric Clapton
2. Take My Breath Away - Berlin (this was our wedding song & it still gives me goosebumps)
3. Something - The Beatles
4. Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis
5. In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
6. Dig - Incubus
7. Entre Nous - Rush
8. Love Song - 311 (somehow I don't own any music by The Cure, even this)
   
9. Just You 'n Me - Chicago
10. Sweetest Goodbye - Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers

• Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
• Another Rainy Day in New York City - Chicago : "So suddenly serene/The air is fresh and clean/Another rainy day in New York city"
  
• Another Round - Foo Fighters : "Room full of photographs/Box full of letters/Come on and make it last/Nothing else matters right now"
  
• Anthem - Rush : "Well, I know they've always told you selfishness was wrong/
  Yet it was for me, not you, I came to write this song"

Rush lyricist Neil Peart has often shown an affinity for Ayn Rand. These lyrics echo one of Rand's works on Objectivism - "The Virtue of Selfishness".

• Anthem For the Underdog - 12 Stones
• Anthem of Our Discovery - Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
• Any Time at All - The Beatles : "If the sun has faded away, I'll try to make it shine"
  
• Anytime - Journey : "I'm standing here with my arms a mile wide, I'm hoping and praying for you"
  
• The Apologist - R.E.M.
• Apologize - OneRepublic
• Apple Candy - Ben Lee
• April Suits - Taproot
• Aqueous Transmission - Incubus : "I’m in this boat alone/Floating down a river named emotion"
  
• Arco Arena - Cake
• Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet

Excellent, energetic song. It's probably best known for being featured in one of the first iPod commercials.

• Are You In? - Incubus
• Are You Lonesome Tonight - Elvis Presley
• Are You Ready For the Fallout? - Fastball : "Do you spit at the face staring back in the mirror?/Do you have any self respect?"
  
• Are You Ready? - Creed
• Armor and Sword - Rush : "Sometimes the damage is too great or the will is too weak/What should have been our armor becomes a sharp and burning sword"
  

This song doesn't really have a chorus, so to speak, but there is an oft-repeated line: "No one gets to their heaven without a fight." This was certainly true of Jacob in the Old Testament - U2, writes of him "Jacob wrestled the angel, and the angel was overcome." After this wrestling match, the angel gave Jacob the new name of Israel, meaning "he struggles with God". The apostle Paul was originally Saul of Tarsus. He made a living of persecuting Christians, until God struck him blind as he walked to Damascus. Obviously he had a fight before getting to heaven. Many modern Christians fight battles everyday - battles within themselves about being worthy, battles with a secular world pulling them away from God, battles with other faiths.

• Arms of a Stranger - 12 Stones
• Army Ants - Stone Temple Pilots
• Around the Bend - Pearl Jam
• Art In Me - Jars of Clay
• As Long As It Matters - Gin Blossoms
• At Last - Etta James
• At My Most Beautiful - R.E.M. : "I save your messages just to hear your voice...You always say your name, like I wouldn't know it's you".

What I've found is that I have less time to blog than I do to listen. My last post was way too long. I'm trying to shorten them up. I'm not sure how I'll resolve this. I guess the first thing I'll try is to keep listening and just comment on fewer songs. At the current pace, it's going to take me about 2 years to complete this project. That should be more than enough time to say what I want to.

Summary:
Listened to 31 songs. Skipped 2 ("Another Round" live and an alternate version of "Apologize".)
All 5 songs that start with "Are", also start "Are You".

The Analog Kid

• All the Things She Said – Simple Minds : "Little darling close your eyes/There'll be no compromising"
  

• All the Time – Jeremy Camp : "I'll never understand it until i live with you in eternity"
  

• All the Way – Frank Sinatra

• All the Way – Triumph : "Power and glory and fortune and fame/There is a price you must pay"
  

• All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star) – R.E.M. : "Now sweeter/You're so sugar sweet/You may as well have 'kick me'/Fastened on your sleeve"
  

• All Things In Life – Toad the Wet Sprocket

• All Those Yesterdays – Pearl Jam : "Oh, don't you think you've got enough?"
  

• All We Are – Matt Nathanson : "All we are we are/And every day is a start of something beautiful, something real". What a great outlook. Reminiscent of U2's "Beautiful Day". This song's a real pick-me-up.
  

• All We Are – OneRepublic

• All You Have to Do – Jet

It sounds to me like Jet tries really hard to sound like The Beatles, even though they look more like The Ramones.

• All You Need Is Love – The Beatles

Speaking of The Beatles…
Artists Who Sound Like The Beatles (in reverse order of similarity):
Ringo Starr (only on the list because he was a Beatle)
John Lennon
Fastball
The Traveling Wilburys
Paul McCartney (Of all the Beatles, he maintained the same sort of sound, especially with "Band On the Run", "Hands Across the Water", and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey")
Hard Night’s Day (Dallas-based Beatles tribute band. I used to work with a guy who was in the band - a conveniently left-handed bassist with a mod haircut.)
ELO
George Harrison
Jet
Smithereens (Their original work often sounded like an 80s update of The Beatles. Recently, they've taken to remaking full Beatles albums.)

• Allied Forces – Triumph : "Denim armies moving/Consolidate the might/Wargames, maneuvers/Rehearsals in the night/Allied forces". What if all the armies in the world were replaced by rock bands?
  

• Allison Road – Gin Blossoms

• Alone + Easy Target – Foo Fighters

• Alpha Beta Parking Lot – Cake

• Altamont – Fastball

• Aluminum – The White Stripes : “Ahh. Ahh.”

Yep, those are all the lyrics. Who let them put this out? The White Stripes intersperse brilliance with complete crap on their releases. Over time, the ratio of the two has consistently declined: On “White Blood Cells”, it was 75% brilliant and 25% drivel; on “Elephant” it was more like 60%-40% awesome to awful; for “Get Behind Me Satan” it dropped to 20%-80% good to godawful. Not being impressed with the trend, I haven’t bought anything else of theirs. My theory is that Jack gets so worn out with Meg’s lack of drumming ability and her insistence on singing in her best imitation of Yoko Ono that he just gives up and tries to get the whole process over with as quickly as possible. That would also explain his work with Loretta Lynn and the formation of The Raconteurs.

• Always Running Home – Paloalto

• Amateur Lovers – Switchfoot

• Amazing Grace – Wintley Phipps

I used to think it was just my wife, but if you look around at church, many people cry every time they hear this song. God’s love is great and overwhelming.

• Amber – 311 : "Whoa, amber is the color of your energy/Whoa, shades of gold displayed naturally". What a great song! These guys are usually down & dirty, but this song has such an ethereal feeling.
  

• American Dream – Switchfoot : "When success is equated with excess/The ambition for excess wrecks us". Anti-materialism anthem.
  

• American Girl – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

• American Girls – Triumph

• Ammunition – Switchfoot

• Amnesia – Toad the Wet Sprocket : "Here, I need your help/Deliver me from myself/Take me where I'm wanted/Or make me someone else"
  

• Amsterdam – Coldplay

• Amy’s Song – Switchfoot : "Amy's gone and time rolls on/How far? How fast? How long?"

• The Analog Kid – Rush : "The boy lies in the grass with one blade stuck between his teeth...The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs dances on the edge of his dream". Doesn't that do a great job of evoking images of a warm summer day when you were young?
  

A minor theme running through Rush’s catalog is the comparison of the cold, impersonal, and tech elements of the modern world with the personal and human characteristics of the past. Some of that is spot on, some is a bit of good old days syndrome. On this album (Signals) they had “The Analog Kid” to contrast with “Digital Man” and “New World Man”. They had “Subdivisions” and “Countdown” to contrast with “Losing It”. This goes back to “2112”, an Ayn Rand-esque glimpse into what the modern world could devolve into. Other examples of humanity: “Closer to the Heart”, “Natural Science”, “Witch Hunt” (OK that goes against the theme a bit), “Animate”, and “Armor and Sword”. Other songs about the modern world or technology: “Cygnus X-1”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Limelight”, “Vital Signs”, and “The Body Electric”.

• Anchor – Cave In : "Whatever makes you tired your rest is sure to fail/Cause every place you lay yourself's a bed of nails/Whatever you exhale, I breathe it in the air/You offer me a seat in your electric chair". I saw them open for Foo Fighters and they were excellent. They used to be hardcore metal, but softened their sound.
  

• And Can It Be? – Wintley Phipps

• And Fools Shine On – Brother Cane

• And I Love Her – The Beatles : Idealized song of love.

• And Your Bird Can Sing – The Beatles

This is the second time we’ve hit back-to-back songs from the same artist, and the second time that the artist has been The Beatles.

• Aneurysm – Nirvana : "Love you so much it makes me sick...Beat me out of me...She keeps a puppet string to my heart". Quite a contrast to “And I Love Her” this is the exact opposite of an idealized love.

• Angel – Jack Johnson

• Angel of Harlem – U2

• Angels of the Silences – Counting Crows

• Animal – R.E.M.

• Animate – Rush : "Compensate me/Animate me/Complicate me/Elevate me"
  

• Anna Begins – Counting Crows : "And every time she sneezes, I believe it's love/And oh Lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing". Even though it's about having an affair (I think), it's an excellent song. The lyrics are quite profound, actually.
  

• Anna Molly – Incubus : "I picture your face in the back of my eyes/A fire in the attic, a proof of the prize/Anna Molly (or anomaly)"
  

• Another Girl – The Beatles

• Another Hole in the Head – Nickelback : "I need you probably as bad as I need another hole in the head/I need you car keys in your hand, I believe that you would leave me for dead"
  

Summary:
44 songs listened to. 4 skipped ("American Dream" acoustic, "The Analog Kid" live, "Animate" live, "Anna Molly" acoustic).

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Now playing: Rush - The Analog Kid
via FoxyTunes