Closer to the Heart

Featured songs in this post include "Closer to the Heart" by Rush, "Cochise" by Audioslave, and "Colour My World" by Chicago.

Closer to the Heart - In spite of its brevity, no Rush song better exhibits the poetry of drummer Neil Peart. ("The Larger Bowl" from Snakes and Arrows is a close second.) I love how he splices together the 2 vocations in each verse:
The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
Forge their creativity
Closer to the heart

Philosophers and ploughmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart

Cochise - "Go on and save yourself/Take it out on me": Tom Morello, lead guitarist of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave (during the former band's extended hiatus), can really play guitar. He was featured in a "making of" video for the Guitar Hero videogame series. I should really like his playing. I don't. He has a really annoying signature - he plays a bunch of noise (sometimes cool-sounding noise, but noise nonetheless) at the beginning and/or end of nearly every song and in most of his solos. He does this for both Rage and Audioslave. Combine that with the yell-rap style of Rage lead "singer" Zack de la Rocha, and I find that band unlistenable. In contrast, Chris Cornell, lead singer for Audioslave and, before that, Soundgarden, has an unmistakable and remarkable voice. In my opinion, he made Audioslave. BTW - I don't know what this song has to do with Cochise.

Colour My World - Favorite slow dance songs:
5. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
4. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
3. Colour My World - Chicago
2. Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney & Wings
1. Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton

• Check It Out - John Mellencamp
• Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running) - Foo Fighters : Making fun of emo bands.
  
• Chem 6A - Switchfoot
• Chemical Party - Gavin DeGraw
• Chemistry - Rush : "Oh but how do we make contact with one another? Electricity? Biology? Seems to me it's chemistry." I was taking high school chemistry when this came out. I sure liked the song better than the class.
  
• Cherry Bomb - John Mellencamp
• Chicago - Frank Sinatra : My wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in Chicago. We absolutely loved it. We stayed in a bed & breakfast on Michigan Avenue, less than 5 minutes from downtown. I agree with Sinatra - it's my kind of town. At least in the summer.
  
• Children In Bloom - Counting Crows
• Children of the Damned - Iron Maiden : Apparently a concert favorite. I can't stand it & usually skip it. One of things I've made a concerted effort to do with this blog is to make sure I listen to every song completely. It's helped me develop an appreciation for some songs that I didn't have before. Not this one, though.
  
• Chocolate - Snow Patrol : Mmm, chocolate. Me like chocolate. I don't think the song has anything to do with chocolate ("this is the final straw" forming the chorus) - but I'm not certain, since I'm usually eating M&M's by the end and can't hear over the crunching.
  
• Chorus and the Ring - R.E.M.
• Christmas Morning - Lyle Lovett
• Church - Lyle Lovett

Back-to-back songs by the long, tall Texan.

• Church On Tuesday - Stone Temple Pilots
• Cinderella Man - Rush
• Circles - Incubus
• Circles - Switchfoot
• Circus Envy - R.E.M.
• Citizen Soldier - 3 Doors Down
• City Love - John Mayer
• City of Blinding Light - U2
• The Clairvoyant - Iron Maiden
• Clarity - John Mayer
• Cling - Days of the New
• Clocks - Coldplay : One of the best songs of this decade.
  
• Close I've Come - Ben Lee
• Closer - Sorta : "We should be closer than we are." Locally successful band in the Dallas area. This song was written by bassist Danny Balis, who is also producer of the extremely popular and long-running radio show, The Hardline, on Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket. It's my favorite Sorta song.
  
• Closer to the Heart - Rush
• Closing Time - Lyle Lovett
• Cochise - Audioslave
• Cocoon - Jack Johnson
• Cold Cold Heart - Norah Jones
• Cold Day in the Sun - Foo Fighters : The only Foo Fighters song (on a full-length release) Dave Grohl doesn't sing - drummer Taylor Hawkins comes out from behind his kit to sing it and does a great job.
  
• Cold Fire - Rush
• Cold Hard Bitch - Jet

4 consecutive songs that start with "Cold". This is my favorite pattern like this so far. Every one of them is excellent, but they're very different.

• Collection of Goods - Collective Soul
• The Color of Right - Rush
• Colour My World - Chicago
• Coma - Stone Temple Pilots
• Combinations - Eisley : Excellent CD.
  

Summary:
Listened to 40 songs, skipped 3 (live versions of "Cinderella Man", "Closer to the Heart", "Cold Day in the Sun")
3 Chem, 2 Children, 2 Church, 2 Circles (plus a Ring), 2 City (1 Citizen), 4 Cold

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Now playing: Rush - Closer to the Heart
via FoxyTunes