Can't Stand Losing You

Featured songs in this post: "Can't Stand Losing You" by The Police and "Caroline" by Concrete Blonde. I apologize in advance for the length.

Can't Stand Losing You - "I guess you'd call it suicide, but I'm too full to swallow my pride". It became shockingly routine, a normal state of affairs. I'd arrive for my first class and the chatter would start, passing unfailingly from one small group to the next. God knows there were plenty of those groups - part of the problem, perhaps. You'd think, "Please, not again." Some days the news trucks would beat us there, with their satellites, holding a cameraman/reporter team or two. On those days, you knew for sure. You were left only to ask, "Who?"

Over a period of just a few months in 1983, 9 teens in Plano, Texas killed themselves. Nine teens. Eight times we had to hear about kids our age, sometimes kids we knew, and suicide. Eight times because two of them, a couple, had died together "Romeo & Juliet" or "Don't Fear the Reaper" style, by running a car in the garage of a house under construction. I knew her - Bridget Jacobs. We had a tight-knit group of German students at Plano Senior High - 6 of us in German III, including Bridget. Given the small number of students, we shared our teacher (a wonderful teacher, Frau Stewart) and classroom with the German II students. Even then, there were less than 20 kids in the room, an unusual situation when you've got over 1200 kids in your graduating class.

One of those kids was Bill Ramsey. His death early in 1983 started our season of dread. He was the flag-man in a drag race. His best friend, Bruce Carrio, one of the racers, lost control of his vehicle, struck Bill and killed him. Distraught with the guilt, Bruce killed himself 4 days later. You can rationalize that. Put yourself in Bruce's shoes and maybe you could see how that would be the result.

Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. The news stories that followed, and it made national news, all seemed to focus on the spoiled rich kids. Plano was, and is, an affluent Dallas suburb. There were plenty of rich kids there - spoiled and otherwise. That wasn't the case with Bridget, Bill, or Bruce. They were just high school kids. Like me. Like most everyone I knew. I guess for an outsider that was an obvious point to make, or at least a way to make sense of it. We certainly couldn't make sense of it.

The attention seemed to cause the trend to gain momentum. Suicide is a terrible way to attract attention. Maybe it's the only way some of those kids could get it. I don't know. 25 years later, I still don't understand. I know those all-too-familiar feelings of dread left some indelible marks on many of us - 25 years hasn't dulled that. It was a horrible thing to live through - but at least I can say I lived through it. Ten (counting Bill) didn't.

Caroline - My wife, Linda, and I love this song. We were going to name our youngest daughter Caroline. It would have given us a mathematical progression in our family's first names - 4 letters, 5, 6, 7, and 8. I suppose that would have been cool. Like those families where everyone's name starts with the same letter. Unless, of course, you think that's silly. When Lauren was born on Christmas day, we decided having Carol in her name would be too cutesy. The other day, Lauren told Linda she would have liked for us to name her Caroline. Oh well. We probably over-thought it. I've certainly been accused of that before.

• A Cabin in the Woods - Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
• Cajun Song - Gin Blossoms
• California Girls - The Beach Boys
• Call On Me - Chicago
• Calling - Taproot
• Camera - R.E.M.
• The Camera Eye - Rush : From what I gather, many Rush fans consider this to be the weakest of their extended-length songs. I've always really liked it. It's a bit mellower than the others.
  
• Can't Believe - Staind
• Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles
• Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M. : I think this song sounds less like an R.E.M. song than any other they've done. If that makes any sense.
  
• Can't Grow Tired of Your Love - Dave Barnes
• Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley : A wonderful love song. It was in the movie "Blue Hawaii". As a kid, I loved all the Elvis movies. I haven't watched one in years. I suspect they don't stand the test of time too well.
  
• Can't Stand Losing You - The Police
• Can't Stop - Maroon 5
• Can Do - Journey
• Can I Play With Madness - Iron Maiden
• Can I Steal a Little Love - Frank Sinatra
• Canary In a Coalmine - The Police
• Car Crash - Matt Nathanson
  
• Caroline - Concrete Blonde
  
• Carry On the Flame - Triumph
• Carry That Weight - The Beatles
• Cars - Gary Numan : Remember this on Saturday Night Live? So freaky & cool.
  
• Carve Away the Stone - Rush
• Casual Affair - Tonic "It's a casual affair, when everybody loves you" : About the fleeting and shallow nature of celebrity.
  
• Catapult - Counting Crows
• Catapult - R.E.M.
• Catch My Disease (That's the Way I Like It) - Ben Lee : Sounds sleazy, but I don't think it's intended that way.
  
• Catch My Fall - Billy Idol
• Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers
• Caught Somewhere In Time - Iron Maiden
• Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel
• Cedars of Lebanon - U2
• Celtic Aggression - Tonic : "So we came across the water/From the shores of the isle of green/Speaking separate tongues in the death of culture" - They include some Gaelic (I think) lyrics "Bhi machree, ohin trasna na farraige", which translates as "A long time ago, my heart came from across the sea".
  
• Century - Live "This puke stinks like beer and everybody's here/Come on, come on, come on/Let's lay waste to this century". Kinda gross. I guess it was Live's tribute to the 1900s.
  
• Cerilene - Sister Hazel
• The Chain - Fleetwood Mac : One of my all-time favorite songs. I can listen to it over and over.
  
• Chance (Dub) - R.E.M.
• Change - Staind
• Chariot - Gavin DeGraw
• Charlie, The Methadone Man - Fastball
• Charlotte the Harlot - Iron Maiden : The tale of a London prostitute, continued in a couple more songs on later releases.
  
• Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol : This song was ubiquitous, causing some backlash against it and the band a bit. I think that's unwarranted. This CD, "Eyes Open" is one of my favorite of the past few years. Sure, this song is kind of a schmaltzy ballad, but don't let that keep you from checking out the CD.
  
• Chattanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
  

Summary:
Kicked off the C's.
Listened to 44 songs, skipped 1 (live version of R.E.M.'s "Catapult")
7 Can't, but 3 Can
6 with people's names in the title, all but one are female names (kind of what you'd expect)
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Now playing: The Police - Can't Stand Losing You
via FoxyTunes

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