Broken, Beat & Scarred

Long time no blog. Sorry about that. I've been busy the past few weekends - working on a Habitat for Humanity build, attending our youngest daughter's final Color Guard competition, preparing for and participating in the annual fantasy baseball draft.

Featured music in this post: "Breathe" by U2, "Broken, Beat & Scarred" by Metallica, "Bullets" by Creed, and "Buried Alive" by Alter Bridge.

Breathe - An excellent song from U2's new CD, "No Line on the Horizon". When I started this project, I said I wasn't going to add any new music to my iPod. But this is U2. Aside from that, "Breathe" is the first song alphabetically and it was added just in time to slip into this post. Besides, I made the rules, so I can use whatever loophole I want. (Isn't that how things work? It sure seems that way, seeing as how the easiest way to get named to a cabinet post is to screw your taxes up and owe the government tens of thousands of dollars. Dangit - I told myself I would avoid politics.)

Broken, Beat & Scarred - "What don't kill you, make you more strong", "Breaking your teeth on a hard life a-coming (show your scars)/Cutting your feet on the hard earth running (show your scars)/Breaking your life, broken, beat & scarred/We die hard". This is my favorite tune from Metallica's latest CD, "Death Magnetic". I think it's Metallica's best CD, along with the black album. The CD deals with addiction, abuse, and death. That hardly seems like the breeding ground for a song that is relentlessly positive and encouraging - and, yet, that's exactly what "Broken, Beat & Scarred" is. No matter what gets thrown at you, you come out stronger and ready to face more. When I listen to this song (which is very often), especially on this Easter Sunday, I can't help but picture Jesus, whipped mercilessly, having drug His cross up to Calvary, crucified, side pierced, leg bones shattered, and still saving me.

Bullets and Buried Alive - It's appropriate to find these 2 songs back-to-back. Bullets was on Creed's last CD, "Weathered". It's a great example of what went wrong with Creed. Before the release of Weathered, lead singer Scott Stapp told every media outlet he could get to listen that this was Creed's Sgt. Pepper - the CD that would cement their place in rock history. Creed's label and the rest of the band (those who remained, as Stapp had chased off bassist Brian Johnson earlier) allowed the group to dive headlong into Stapp's egomania and associated paranoia. Weathered frequently eschews Creed's former uplifting lyrics and transcendant sound to rail about perceived criticism and a drifting, noisy mess. (Not all of it, mind you, there's still some good stuff there.) So, after Creed had been smashed to bits by Stapp, the remaining members, Mark Tremonti (a tremendous guitarist) and drummer Scott "Flip" Phillips, reunited with Johnson and added singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy to form Alter Bridge. Alter Bridge is what Creed stopped being: a rock band. They make good rock music - some of it built around a message (like Blackbird, discussed in the last AlphaPod post) - but really just music. No paranoia, no indulgence of the front-man. Apparently, the band was asked by label executives to drop Kennedy and re-form Creed. Gladly, they stood their ground, backed Kennedy, and said no. I hope they continue to do so and keep putting out solid music.

• Breath of Water - Cave In
• Breathe - U2
• Breathe In - Paloalto
• Breed - Nirvana
• Bridge Over Troubled Water - Johnny Cash
• Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel

This is the first set of multiple versions of a single song on my iPod. I prefer Cash's rugged and rough version.

• Brighter Than a Thousand Suns - Iron Maiden
• Bring'em Back Alive - Audioslave
• Bring It On Back - Jet
• Bring the People Together - Live
• Bringing It On Home - Triumph
• Broken - Jack Johnson
• Broken Road - 12 Stones
• Broken Toy - Keane
• Broken, Beat & Scarred - Metallica
• The Bronze Medal - Idlewild
• Brothers Unaware - Live
• Bryte Side - Pernice Brothers
• Bubble Toes - Jack Johnson : Now THIS is Jack Johnson.
  
• Buddy Holly - Weezer
• Bugs - Pearl Jam : Total crap.
  
• Built For the Future - The Fixx
• Bullet the Blue Sky - U2
• Bulletproof Weeks - Matt Nathanson : "What happened to bulletproof weeks in your arms?/What happened to sweet radio songs?/What happened to thinking that the world was flat?/What happened to that?" - Heartbreaking song of lost love. It will make an appearance later on a list of the saddest songs.
  
• Bullets - Creed
• Buried Alive - Alter Bridge
• Burn Away - Foo Fighters
• Burn Out Bright - Switchfoot
• Burnin' Up - Goo Goo Dolls
• The Burning Down - King's X
• Burning Love - Elvis Presley
• Burrito - Seether
• But Not For Me - Harry Connick, Jr.
• But, Honestly - Foo Fighters
• Buttercup - Sorta
• By-Tor & the Snow Dog - Rush
• By My Side - INXS
• By My Side - 3 Doors Down
• By Your Side - Default
• Bye Bye Love - The Cars

Summary:
Wrapped up the Bs.
Listened to 40 songs, skipped 2 (live versions of "Breed" and "Bullet the Blue Sky")
4 start with "Bring", 4 with "Broken", 5 with "Burn",

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Now playing: Elvis Presley - Burning Love
via FoxyTunes

Brave New World

Featured songs in this post - "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" by Concrete Blonde, "Boat On the River" by Styx, "Brave New World" by Iron Maiden, "Bravest Face" by Rush, and "Breakfast At Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something.

Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) - "Oh, you were a vampire and I may never see the light". Concrete Blonde does (do?) a great job of setting a creepy mood in this song. It almost has to be based on "Interview With the Vampire" by Anne Rice - it's about a woman and a vampire and it's set in New Orleans. A quick search online reveals a surprising number of songs with "vampire" in their titles. I only have 2, this one and "Vampires" by Fastball (one of my all-time favorite songs), which isn't about vampires.

Boat On the River - "And all roads lead to tranquility base/Where the frown on my face disappears". This is certainly not your typical rock song. Styx uses a mandolin and accordion to create a European or even Hebrew sound. That brings me to a list:

My favorite rock songs that use a mandolin:
5. "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin
4. "Maggie Mae" by Rod Stewart
3. "Monty Got a Raw Deal" by R.E.M.
2. "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.
1. "Boat On the River" by Styx

Brave New World - Actually, this isn't one of my favorite Maiden songs, but the CD is really good. However, it's a good lead-in for another list (because people love lists):

Most literate rock bands:
5. U2
4. Rush
3. Metallica - "For Whom the Bell Tolls"; "One" is based on Dalton Trumbo's novel "Johnny Got His Gun".
2. The Police - "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov", "Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis".
1. Iron Maiden - Based an entire CD, "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", on an Orson Scott Card trilogy. Other songs include "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "Flight of Icarus", "To Tame a Land" (based on Frank Herbert's "Dune"), "Phantom of the Opera", and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Bravest Face - I'm going to quote the lyrics, because I like them so much. It's a really good song. In a way both depressing and uplifting - the world ain't perfect, so go make the best of it you can.

"In the softest voice there's an acid tongue
In the oldest eyes there's a soul so young
In the shakiest will there's a cord of steel
On the smoothest ride there's a squeaky wheel
In the sweetest child there's a vicious streak
In the strongest man there's a child so weak
In the whole wide world there's no magic place
So you might as well rise, put on your bravest face"

Breakfast At Tiffany's - "I said 'What about Breakfast At Tiffany's?'/She said 'I think I remember the film/And as I recall I think we both kinda liked it'/And I said 'Well, that's the one thing we got" - Deep Blue Something was a Dallas-area band that looked like they were on the brink of national stardom. I'm not sure if this song was a hit outside of this area, but it was huge here - garnering more local airplay in its year of release than any other song, not any other local song, any song period. Unfortunately, legal hassles delayed and finally cancelled the band's second CD release, and after years of trying they finally gave up. That's too bad, because this is a truly great song, and they had a ton of potential.

• Black Again - Stone Temple Pilots
• Black Math - The White Stripes (I have no idea what he's talking about, but it rocks)
• Black Wave - The Shins
• Blackbird - Alter Bridge : "Let the wind carry you home/Blackbird fly away/May you never be broken again" - About a guy on their road crew who died after battling cancer.
  
• Bleed - Collective Soul
• Bleeding Me - Metallica
• Blew - Nirvana
• Blinded by the Stars - Pernice Brothers : "Give a name to this terrifying change"
  
• Blinding Light Show/Moonchild - Triumph : "And the blind shall lead the sighted/As we lose the candle glow/And no one knows tomorrow/In the blinding light show"
• Blood - Jibe
• Blood & Roses - The Smithereens : "I need your love but it comes out wrong/I tried to live but I don't belong/I close my eyes and I see blood and roses"
  
• Blood Brothers - Iron Maiden
• Blood On the Ground - Incubus : "I bite my tongue every time you come around/Cause blood in my mouth beats blood on the ground"
• Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) - Concrete Blonde
• Blue-Sky Research/What's Left - Taproot
• Blue Collar Man - Styx
• Blue Jean - Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
• Blue Period - The Smithereens
• Blue Side - Rooney
  
• Blue Spanish Sky - Chris Isaak : "I only wish I could make you cry, like I do"
  
• Blues Before & After - The Smithereens
• Boat On a River - Styx
• Bodies - Drowning Pool : "Let the bodies hit the floor"
  
• Body - Bush
• The Body Electric - Rush : As a computer geek, I love these lyrics - "1001001 SOS/1001001 In distress"
  
• Body Language - Queen
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

Back to back songs by Queen

• Bold As Love - John Mayer
• Bomb - Switchfoot
• Bombs Away - The Police
• Bones - Paloalto
• Boomerang - Fastball
• The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
• A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash
• Boy On a String - Jars of Clay
• Brain of J. - Pearl Jam : "The whole world will be different soon/The whole world will be relieved"
  
• A Brand New Me - Dusty Springfield
• Brand New Start - Alter Bridge
• Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Looking Glass
  
• Bravado - Rush : "We will pay the price/But we will not count the cost"
  
• Brave New World - Iron Maiden
• Bravest Face - Rush
• Breadmaker - Brother Cane : "Breadmaker, who sent you?/Can't take your presence anymore/Breadmaker, who made you?/Won't be your savior anymore"
  
• Break Me Down - Alter Bridge
• Breakdown - Jack Johnson
• Breakdown - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Breakfast At Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
  
• Breaking My Fall - Jeremy Camp
  
• Breakout - Foo Fighters
• The Breakup Song - The Greg Kihn Band

Summary:
Listened to 50 songs. Skipped 1 (Live version of "Bravado")
2 ampersands, 2 slashes, 1 period
4 Black, 7 Blue
2 Bleed, 5 Blood
7 Break

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Now playing: Iron Maiden - Brave New World
via FoxyTunes

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

All For You

• Alive and Kicking - Simple Minds : "Stay until your love is alive and kicking"
• All Along the Watchtower - U2 : "All I got is a red guitar, three chords, and the truth." Third blog post; time to rankle some people. Bob Dylan has written a lot of good songs. I like many of them...when somebody else sings them. I can't listen to his voice. It totally ruins all the great songwriting. So, you won't hear him singing any of his songs on my iPod. Now, Bono, there's a singer.
• All Apologies - Nirvana : "I wish I was like you/Easily amused". This one is from the "MTV Unplugged in New York" CD. I like the studio version from "In Utero" better. Which brings me to a list.

Some of my favorite releases that I used to have, but don't now:
Nirvana - In Utero
AC/DC - Back In Black (how I don't have this is truly an enigma)
Squeeze - Singles (Tempted is one of the best songs I don't have on my iPod)
Judas Priest - British Steel

Pearl Jam - 10
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Tails (I was thinking about this one earlier this week. We had bad weather and the kids' school was cancelled. One of the best songs on this CD is "Snow Day". Other really good songs: "Sandalwood", "Do You Sleep?", and the ubiquitous hit "Stay".)

• All Around - INXS
• All At Once - The Fray : "All at once the crowd begins to say/Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same." I didn't want to, but we took one of the girls to see The Fray. They were quite good, actually. Eisley opened for them, which was a big plus.
• All At Once - Jack Johnson
• All Because of You - U2 : "I'm not broke but you can see the cracks/You can make me perfect again"
• All Cried Out - Dusty Springfield : Sultry, soulful, 60s songstress. Hard to believe she was a white girl from England.
• All Fall Down - OneRepublic
• All For You - Sister Hazel : "It's hard to say what it is I see in you/Wonder if I'll always be with you/Words can't say and I can't do enough to prove it's all for you"

I try to be a good Dad, but I really blew it this time. Our town has a festival every spring, with various booths and multiple stages. They get a bunch of bands, normally a couple rungs down the ladder or well past their prime (Kool & The Gang, Rick Springfield, Loverboy, Cheap Trick). When Sister Hazel hit it big with "All For You", they got booked for the festival. Our whole family loved the song. So, we went to the festival in the afternoon and planned to stay through their set, which didn't start until 9:30. The girls were young and we'd had a full day in the Texas sun - up in the 90s in late May. When we finally got over to the venue and got settled, Raychel and Lauren were worn out and fell asleep. When Sister Hazel started playing "All For You", my wife said they wanted to hear the song and we should wake them up. I said no, let them sleep. So, we watched the rest of the show, then woke the girls to go home. They were hacked off when they asked if they played "All For You". To this day (over 10 years later), if the song comes on the radio, I don't hear the end of it. "Gee, Dad, I can't believe you didn't wake me up to hear this." At least they got some sleep.

• All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name - Wintley Phipps
• All I See Is You - Dusty Springfield
• All I Want - Toad the Wet Sprocket
• All I Want Is You - U2 : Hmm. A woman who wants diamond rings and strings of pearls. A man who only wants her. I'm blessed to be married to Linda. She doesn't want all that stuff. Or at least that's what she's always said.
  
• All Mixed Up - 311 : "You have to trust your instinct and let go of regret". Gotta love that island groove mixed with a little rap and a smokin' guitar.
• All My Life - Foo Fighters : Provided one of my favorite concert moments ever. There was a huge sheet hanging down with the Foo Fighters logo and tour info. The lights went down. Then they backlit the sheet and you could only see the silhouette of Dave Grohl standing behind it, guitar in hand. He started hitting the three repeating power chords that start this song - stifled at first, as he sings the first verse. Then - BOOM - in perfect synch, the stagelights come up, the sheet rises, and the rest of the band is there. Awesome.
• All Nightmare Long - Metallica : "Luck runs out". Great CD - more about it later.
• All of You - Vertical Horizon
• All Over Again - Triumph : My good friend Scott Kernahan introduced me to Triumph. They were my favorite band in high school. This CD, Surveillance, their last, was far inferior to their prior work. This song is probably the worst they ever did. (Well then, why is it on my iPod? I'm anal retentive, I guess. I like having the whole CD available.)
  
• All Over Me - Drowning Pool
• All Over You - Live : "All over me/All over you" - Like the titles of the last 2 songs. Weird.
• All She Wants Is - Duran Duran
• All Shook Up - Elvis Presley : The King. Far and away my favorite singer until I was about 12.
• All the King's Horses - Triumph : "All the king's horses and all the king's men/Can they ever put the world back together again, before we reach the end?" This is from the CD I just bad-mouthed a second ago. So there's some decent stuff on it.
• All the Right Friends - R.E.M.

Summary:

Listened to 25 songs. Skipped none.

I have 35 songs that start with the word "All" - the first 24 on this post.

Absolute Reality

• About a Girl - Nirvana
• Absolute Reality - The Alarm : "You may have love/You may have hate/You may be the president of the United States"

While watching the inauguration of President Obama earlier this week, I was struck by a sense of deja vu. It seems like we've been here before - like in 1981, when President Reagan took office. Obviously, there are huge differences between the two. Mr. Obama's young, as presidents go; Mr. Reagan was the oldest man to take the oath. Mr. Obama is a liberal Democrat; Mr. Reagan was THE conservative Republican. And, of course, there's race.

But think about the similarities in the circumstances in which they each took office. There's the economy. Our current situation is well-documented. In 1981 we were fighting an all-time high "misery index" - double digit unemployment and inflation. There were lines at gas stations, even though consumers were only allowed to gas up on alternating days. Today, we are fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and are trying to rid the world of terrorists. In 1981, 52 Americans were being held hostage by Iranian terrorists/revolutionaries. Mr. Obama's inauguration was watched by a huge audience estimated at 37.8 million, the most since...Mr. Reagan's in 1981.

The most striking similarity, though, is the almost palpable sense of foreboding of the American people. Let's hope that Mr. Obama can have the same influence as Mr. Reagan did, and return our sense of national pride and confidence.

• Accelerate - R.E.M. : "Where is the rip cord, the trap door the key/Where is the cartoon escape hatch for me?"

Another observation on Mr. Obama's inauguration: he could accomplish many things and be one of the finest presidents in our history, and yet be viewed as a failure. The expectations for him are that high. His book "The Audacity of Hope" and the basis of his campaign (as he deftly avoided any specifics) of hope and change, may wind up in his echoing R.E.M.'s lyrics - "Hope has never been so grating." Many people seem to believe that Mr. Obama's election has or will solve all the world's problems. Case in point: Two of our credit union's borrowers, when faced with repossession this past week, told our staff that we couldn't take their vehicles now that Mr. Obama is president. There's some audacity, not to mention false hope.

Enough politics.

• Aces High - Iron Maiden : "Live to fly/Fly to live/Do or die"

Speaking of a sense of foreboding. This is a song about The Battle of Britain - describing British pilots scrambling to their fighters to engage the planes of the Nazi Luftwaffe. (Hey, that's not politics, it's history.)

• Ache For You - Ben Lee
• Acrobat - U2 : "Don't let the bastards grind you down"
  
• Across the Universe - The Beatles
• Act Naturally - The Beatles

My first encounter with consecutive songs by the same artist. It's hard to imagine two more different. "Across the Universe" is a transcendant John Lennon piece. "Act Naturally" was one of The Beatles' more successful attempts to feature Ringo on vocals. In this case, he does an admirable job on a song written by Buck Owens of Hee-Haw fame.

• Actually It's Darkness - Idlewild : "Why can't you be more cyncial?"
  
• Adding to the Noise - Switchfoot : "If we're adding to the noise/Turn off this song" - It takes some guts to tell that to the listener.
  
• Adrenaline - 12 Stones
• Adrift - Jack Johnson

I'm a big fan of Jack Johnson's. However, the title of this song aptly describes my thoughts on his latest CD. He tosses off his sandals and his cool Hawaiian vibe in favor of protest songs. I don't think this song should be listened to while operating heavy machinery. What a snoozer.

• Afterimage - Rush : "I remember/I feel your presence/I feel the way you would" - A pervasive sense of loss, but a determination to keep going.
  
• Again - Kutless : "I don't deserve this love You give to me"
  
• Again Tonight - John Mellencamp
• Age of Innocence - Iron Maiden
• Agoraphobia - Incubus : "I want to stay inside for good"
  
• Ah! Leah! - Donnie Iris
• Ain't Enough - Army of Anyone : "More than love is needed this time/Love ain't enough" - I couldn't disagree more, but it's a good song.
  
• Ain't Even Done With the Night - John Mellencamp
• Ain't It the Life - Foo Fighters
• Ain't My Bitch - Metallica
• Ain't That Unusual - Goo Goo Dolls
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg - The Temptations
• Aint It Something - Lyle Lovett : Ain't it something, Lyle Lovett was married to Julia Roberts? How did that happen?
  
• The Air Near My Fingers - The White Stripes
• Air Raid - Triumph : The first "instrumental" in my alphabetic journey.
  
• Airportman - R.E.M.
• Airstream - Fastball : "Free/I don't wanna be stuck in the city/With the cars and people downtown/Waiting in a line/Wishing I was far away/Where no one knows my name or my address/It's a place I've never been/When it gets too familiar, I'll be gone" - Sounds like the retirement I'm dreaming of.
  
• Alexander the Great - Iron Maiden
• Alien Shore - Rush : "For you and me race is not a competition/For you and me race is not a definition" - I really like how this song expresses not just a willingness, but a desire to find and embrace the differences between all of us.
  
• Alive Again - Chicago : A tower of sappy lyrics, built on the foundation of driving disco drums and those signature Chicago horns. I don't mean to imply that I dislike the song. In fact, I really like it.

Summary:
Listened to 32 songs. Skipped 2 (live acoustic versions of "Ain't It the Life" and "Airstream").
7 "Ain'ts". 1 instrumental. Too much thinking about politics.

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Now playing: The Alarm - Absolute Reality
via FoxyTunes

Beginnings

I'm starting a little personal journey. I'm going to listen to all the songs on my iPod in alphabetical order. This blog will measure my progress. With any luck, my blogging abilities will also progress along the way. I don't have a solid plan for this, I'm just making it up as I go. Which is the nature of a blog, I suppose.

The Rules:

1. Listen to the songs in alphabetical order.
2. Skip any classical. It's good stuff, but doesn't fit my picture of this project.
3. Skip duplicates of songs. I have multiple versions (live, acoustic) of several songs.
4. Listen to songs I don't even like. (Why are they are on my iPod?)

Why am I doing this?
To work on my writing skills. To keep up (OK, catch up) with technology. To entertain myself.

Topics-
Primarily, I'll list the songs I've listened to since the last blog. I'll point out lyrics I like or find interesting. I might discuss the song, the artist, the album. I'll probably come up with some "top 5" lists. I hope to go off on some tangents - expect some fits of nostalgia.

Listening-
I have a first generation iPod Touch, 16 gig. I listen when I take the dog for a walk, using a pair of Skull Candy ear buds. I have a long commute to work and use an iTrip.

What music I listen to-
Um, it would ruin it if I told you that now, wouldn't it? You'll have to follow along to find out. I'm sure the suspense is killing you.

How often I'll blog-
I have no idea.

How long will it take me?
I don't know. There are 2,936 songs on my iPod. I don't plan on adding any as I do this. (I have already blown through all the iTunes certificates I got for Christmas.)

Challenges-
My own inability to follow through on ideas like this. I might get bored, or decide I'm terrible at this. I might run out of things to say. It's very possible I'll be the only reader. I listen to other stuff, sports radio (3 stations in Dallas) and podcasts. My favorite podcasts:

• Dan Carlin's Common Sense
• Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
• A Way With Words (also a Public Radio Show, but not available over the air everywhere)
• The History of Rome
  

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Now playing: Chicago - Beginnings
via FoxyTunes