For most people their experience with Huey Lewis and the News’ hit track “Hip to be Square” was due to it being used in American Psycho. It was already a great song before that film came out and continues to remain so, but now it’s taken on an even dark comedic tone.
I used to listen to this song non-stop when it first came out. Now, whenever I listen to it I start seeing Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman dancing to the song while dressed in a plastic raincoat. But before that it was always a catchy song and, dare I say it, a very hip one.
I actually prefer the band’s “Power of Love” track, but this song has to be next in line when it came to my favorite track from the band.
I’ve wondered what my younger self would think about this song now being associated with American Psycho. The answer I always get is that my younger self would think it was cool and hip (ok, ok stopping it there).
I had no choice in the matter. The moment Lisa Marie posted her review of Back to the Future as part of her “Back to School” review series I had no choice but to post the latest “Song of the Day” in honor of her latest review.
The latest featured song is none other than the best-selling single from the Back to the Future soundtrack (one I owned and treasured growing up to the point I wore out that vinyl) by the S.F.-based rock band Huey Lewis and the News. The song is “The Power of Love” and I must admit that I pretty much know this song by heart and can belt it out pretty well. Give me enough alcohol and I’m more than likely request it as the next karaoke song and I’ll grab that mic stand and channel my inner Huey Lewis.
This song may not be metal, but it definitely was a sound of the 80’s and I’d be hard pressed to find anyone who lived during the 1980’s and not have heard this song.
The Power of Love
The power of love is a curious thing make a one man weep, make another man sing Change a hawk to a little white dove more than a feeling, that’s the power of love
Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream Stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream make a bad one good make a wrong one right power of love that keeps you home at night
Chorus 1 : You don’t need money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes but it might just save your life That’s the power of love That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad Next time you feel it it might make you mad But you’ll be glad baby when you’ve found that’s the power makes the world go’round
Chorus 2 : And it don’t take money, don’t take fame don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden it can be cruel sometimes but it might just save your life
They say that all in love is fair yeah, but you don’t care But you know what to do when it gets hold of you and with a little help from above you feel the power of love you feel the power of love Can you feel it ? Hmmm
Chorus 3 : It don’t take money and it don’t take fame don’t need no credit card to ride this train Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel you won’t feel nothin’ till you feel you feel the power, just FEEL the power of love That’s the power, that’s the power of love You feel the power of love you feel the power of love feel the power of love
So, I saw Transformers: Age of Extinction this weekend. I know, I know. I’ve become part of the problem and not the solution. For that I am sorry.
My road to redemption begins today with this post of the greatest superhero theme song ever made. It’s Optimus Prime’s theme song from the best Transformers film. Live-action it is not, but the animated film which came out during the mid-80’s.
Stan Bush pretty much made his career on this hit single which remains a nostalgic favorite of the 80’s crowd. This is a song which kids of my generation sung over and over right up to now and we don’t see ourselves stopping anytime soon.
Without further ado, here’s “The Touch”.
The Touch
You’ve got the touch, you’ve got the power. Yeah.
After all is said and done, you never walk, you never run, you’re a winner. You got the moves, you know the streets, break the rules, take the heat, you’re nobody’s fool. You’re at your best when the going gets rough, You’ve been put to the test but it’s never enough.
You got the the touch, you got the power. When all hell’s breaking loose, you’ll be right in the eye of the storm. You got the heart, you got the motion. You know that when things get too tough, you got the touch.
You never bend, you never break, you seem to know just what it takes. You’re a fighter It’s in the blood, it’s in the will, it’s in the mighty hands of steel. When you’re standin your ground. And you never get hit when you’re back’s to the wall gonna fight till the end and you’re taking it all.
You got the touch, you got the power, when all hell’s breaking loose, you’ll be right in the eye of the storm. You got the heart, you got the motion. You know that when things get too tough, you got the touch.
You’re fighting fire with fire. You know you got the touch.
You’re at your best when the going gets rough, you’ve been put to the test but it’s never enough. You got the touch, you got the power. Yeah.
Ever since the premiere of the first official trailer for Marvel Studio’s Guardians of the Galaxy this song has embedded it’s catchy claws into my brain. I’ve even caught myself humming the song at work.
“Hooked on a Feeling” is a song I’ve heard and enjoyed in the past but never as more than a passing fancy. Maybe it’s how well the song fit in with James Gunn’s trailer for his space opera film. It’s so out of place that one cannot but fall in love with it.
So, while I let this musical virus work its way through my system I thought I’d share it with everyone else as “Song of the Day”.
Hooked on a Feeling
Ouga Chaka ouga! ….
I can’t stop this feeling Deep inside of me. Girl, you just don’t realize What you do to me. When you hold me In your arms so tight, You let me know, Everythings alright, ahahah
I’m hooked on a feeling, I’m high on believing, That your in love with me.
Lips as sweet as candy. Their taste stays on my mind. Girl, you keep me thirsty for another cup of wine.
I got it bad for you girl, But I don’t need a cure, I’ll just stay addicted, If I can endure All the good love, when we’re all alone Keep it up girl, yeah you turn me on.
I’mmm, I’mmm Hooked on a feeling. I’m high on believing that your in love with me. All the good love, when we’re all alone Keep it up girl, yeah you turn me on.
Ahaha I’m hooked on a feeling, I’m high on believing, That your in love with me.
I’m hooked on a feeling, I’m high on believing, That your in love with me.
I say I’m hooked on a feeling, And I’m high on believing, That your in love with me. I’m hooked on a feeling.
Decade of last.fm scrobbling countdown:
24. Radiohead (1,176 plays)
Top track (35 plays): Knives Out, from Amnesiac (2001)
It should come as no surprise that Radiohead made it onto my decade top 50 chart somewhere. The dominant album on that list might be a little less common: Amnesiac (2001) took the title with a modest margin over Hail to the Thief (2003) and OK Computer (1997). This is no accident–no single weekend of Winamp stuck on repeat. Since pretty much the week it was released, Amnesiac has been my favorite Radiohead album.
It would be a bit silly to argue that Amnesiac is their best. Just as Radiohead are too unique to really be compared to any other band, pretty much every album they’ve released since The Bends (1995) has resided in a world of its own. OK Computer certainly offers the broadest appeal, and Kid A (2000) seems to get the most praise from the more eclectic, aesthetically minded fans, but it’s the consistent vibe of Amnesiac that grabs me most. From start to finish, it glides on a sea of glass beneath an inebriated night sky. While the individual tracks are stellar at every turn, the sum of its parts come nowhere near the whole, and I can rarely bring myself to listen to them out of their intended order. There’s some calming chill that sets across the whole 45 minutes, and a spirit of motion that I did not experience again until “Bloom” (The King of Limbs, 2011).
That being said, of courseOK Computer and Hail to the Thief are unrivaled masterpieces, of courseIn Rainbows (2007) and The King of Limbs are worlds above the average for a band late in their career, and of courseThe Bends redefined the limits of rock in its day. The only album in their discography that you might justifiably find some fault with is Pablo Honey (1993), and that’s only when you measure it by the standard Radiohead set and maintained for the two decades to follow. In the most general sense, weighing all factors evenly, they might rightly be regarded as the greatest band to ever exist. That’s not lofty praise; it’s an opinion that a good many experienced music critics are prepared to agree with. But to the question of how Radiohead became my 24th most listened to band of the past 10 years, and not say, my 50th, I point without hesitation to Amnesiac.
Decade of last.fm scrobbling countdown:
25. Cracker (1,162 plays)
Top track (52 plays): Big Dipper, from The Golden Age (1996)
Featured track: One Fine Day live, originally from Forever (2002)
Most people my age have heard Cracker, but they might not remember the name. You know, Cracker, that two-hit wonder from the early 90s that wrote “Low” and “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)”. Like most of you, I never bothered actually picking up a Cracker album while they were popular. They only stumbled into my discography through an impulse buy when I saw their first Best Of compilation, Garage D’Or (2000), near a checkout register in Best Buy. I thought, “Oh, greatest hits? I thought they only had two,” and I picked it up to see what I was missing. For a while afterwards I was convinced that they must have had a dozen radio singles that I was just a little too young to remember, but the truth of it sank in over time: One of the greatest rock bands of my generation had slipped through the cracks.
Well, my obsession with Cracker ran for a year or two before I eventually forgot about them, and they might have been lost to me forever if I hadn’t happened to find myself in San Antonio, Texas, with a car for the first time in two years and nothing better to do with it. I did a last.fm search on upcoming gigs in Austin, saw Cracker were playing that evening, and took off. Any band would have sufficed, but these guys blew me away. Their performance defied anything you might expect out of aging rock stars. With an intimate connection to the music and the audience, it was as if they had just recorded the material yesterday; They were overlooked American legends in their prime playing in a venue small enough to make eye contact. To top it off, they even offered a tip of the hat to a semi-local country legend. (They covered Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother”.) I’ve gone out of my way to catch Cracker live every time they’ve played near me since, and I’m never disappointed.
I will never know why Cracker were not as successful as Pearl Jam or Tom Petty or any of the other rock legends I grew up with, because I honestly think they’re on par. David Lowery’s lyrical whit and sardonic vocals pair up perfectly with Johnny Hickman’s tasteful blues rock guitar to create one of the most readily identifiable and creative duos in the business.
Whether one loves, likes, hates or is indifferent when it comes to AMC’s The Walking Dead tv series I haven’t heard much complaint from most about the producers on the show’s taste in music. This show has done a great job in picking an eclectic selection of tunes that fit the mood of the show as a whole or a particular episode. This past weekend’s new episode hasn’t broken that streak of quality choices and it’s the producers’ choice for this past episode that makes our latest “Song of the Day”.
“Hold On” by Tom Waits would’ve made this list even if The Walking Dead didn’t use it to end their latest episode. I mean it’s Tom Waits. He’s the only reason why. Again, he’s Tom Waits, enough said. So, “Hold On” is the latest song in this long-running feature and it didn’t just fit in with The Walking Dead episode, but it’s also by Tom Waits.
Once again, it’s Tom Waits.
“Hold On”
They hung a sign up in out town “if you live it up, you won’t live it down” So, she left Monte Rio, son Just like a bullet leaves a gun With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips She went and took that California trip Well, the moon was gold, her Hair like wind She said don’t look back just Come on Jim
Oh you got to Hold on, Hold on You got to hold on Take my hand, I’m standing right here You gotta hold on
Well, he gave her a dimestore watch And a ring made from a spoon Everyone is looking for someone to blame But you share my bed, you share my name Well, go ahead and call the cops You don’t meet nice girls in coffee shops She said baby, I still love you Sometimes there’s nothin left to do
Oh you got to Hold on, hold on You got to hold on Take my hand, I’m standing right here, you got to Just hold on.
Well, God bless your crooked little heart St. Louis got the best of me I miss your broken-china voice How I wish you were still here with me
Well, you build it up, you wreck it down You burn your mansion to the ground When there’s nothing left to keep you here, when You’re falling behind in this Big blue world
Oh you go to Hold on, hold on You got to hold on Take my hand, I’m standing right here You got to hold on
Down by the Riverside motel, It’s 10 below and falling By a 99 cent store she closed her eyes And started swaying But it’s so hard to dance that way When it’s cold and there’s no music Well your old hometown is so far away But, inside your head there’s a record That’s playing, a song called
Hold on, hold on You really got to hold on Take my hand, I’m standing right here And just hold on.
Time for a new guilty pleasure and this time around we hit the music scene with a song that everyone seems to make fun of but whcih they also secretly love to sing-a-long to.
“Every Rose Has Its Thorns” by the hair metal group Poison has to be the cheesiest of all power ballad that came out during the 80’s hair metal era. The group were so intent on making it stand out from the rest of their hair metal brethren’s own power ballads that they decided to go all acoustic guitar to start things to give it that extra deep thoughts-theme. I will admit that I listened to this song like it was going out of style when it first came out.
What can I say? I was a sophomore in high school and the hormones were kicking in hard.
For someone whose own love of metal ranges from thrash, speed, power, Viking to black it’s such a rose amongst the bramble that this hair metal power ballad will still get me to sing along to this day. Though I usually try to make sure I’m alone….XD
Every Rose Has Its Thorns
We both lie silently still in the dead of the night Although we both lie close together We feel miles apart inside
Was it something I said or something I did Did my words not come out right Though I tried not to hurt you Though I tried But I guess that’s why they say
Chorus: Every rose has its thorn Just like every night has its dawn Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song Every rose has its thorn
Yeah it does
I listen to her favorite song playing on the radio Hear the DJ say loves a game of easy come and easy go But I wonder does he know Has he ever felt like this And I know that you’d be here right now If I could have let you know somehow I guess
Chorus
Though it’s been a while now I can still feel so much pain Like the knife that cuts you the wound heals but the scar, that scar remains
Solo
I know I could have saved our love that night If I’d known what to say Instead of makin’ love We both made our separate ways
But now I hear you found somebody new and that I never meant that much to you To hear that tears me up inside And to see you cuts me like a knife I guess
Time for a quick “Song of the Day”. This time the song chosen is courtesy of Kari Kimmel and her country-inspired song “Black”.
The song could be recently heard as part of the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Season 3 trailer for AMC’s The Walking Dead. It begins playing a little past the halfway mark in the trailer as David Morrissey’s character of the governor introduces both Michonne and Andrea to the safe haven that is Woodbury. As fans of the comic book will attest to this town of Woodbury becomes a major player in the original comic book source and should remain as important in the upcoming season.
I’ve never heard of Kari Kimmel until I heard this song played as part of the trailer, but that’s the great thing about music. One never knows when one will discover something great to listen to and the country-blues sound of Kimmel’s song is right up my alley when it comes to what I enjoy listening to.
Black
when everything has turned to black
you don’t know where to go
you need something to justify your soul
silences are broken
confidence is gone
when everything you’re holdin onto falls
(yeah)
every body’s selling truths
on every corner now
they wait until fear has knocked you down
all the rules are changin now
you’re livin in sin
everything around you’s cavin in
and all you hold onto’s slipping
like water through your hands…
BREAK
CHORUS
And you sing- lalala, lalala, lalala
far off in the distance
somewhere you can’t see
allegences have formed your destiny
opposition all around
feedin off your soul
trying hard to swallow up your hope
and demons all around you waiting
for you to sell your soul
In honor of Lisa Day the latest “Song of the Day” definitely fits the Lisa-theme chosen for today.
“Lisa Says” was originally released in 1969 by the rock band Velvet Underground. The song got another release in 1972 as part of Lou Reed’s (who was part of Velvet Underground) solo debut album in 1972. The song definitely has a slow, bluesy sound which is barely above the level that would make it a ballad. Instead it ends up sounding like a Valentine card to all Lisa’s everywhere.
Without further ado…“Lisa Says”.
Lisa Says
Lisa says, on a night like this it’d be so nice, if you gave me a great big kiss And Lisa says, honey, for just one little smile I’ll sing and play for you for the longest while
Lisa says Lisa says Lisa says, oh, no Lisa says
Lisa says, honey, you must think – – I’m some kind of California fool the way you treat me just like some kind of tool Lisa says, hey baby, if you stick your tongue in my ear then the scene around here will become very clear
Lisa says, oh no Lisa says, hey, don’t you be a little baby Lisa says, oh, no Lisa says
Hey, if you’re looking for a good time Charlie well, that’s not really what I am You know, some good time Charlie always out, having his fun
But if you’re looking for some good, good lovin’ then sit yourself right over here You know that those good, those good times they just seem to pass me by, just like pie in the sky
And Lisa says, on a night like this it’d be so nice if you gave me a great big kiss And Lisa says, hey baby, for just one little smile I’ll sing and play for you for the longest while let me hear you now
Lisa says, oh, no, no Lisa says, hey, don’t you be a little baby Lisa says, oh, no Lisa says
Why am I so shy Why am I so shy, Gee, you know those good good times, they just seem to pass me by Why am I so shy
First time I saw you I was talking to myself I said, hey, you got such pretty, pretty eyes (that pretty eyes)
Now that you’re next to me I just get so upset And Lisa, will you tell me, why am I so shy
Why am I so shy Why am I so shy, well, you know that those good, good times, they just seem to pass me by Why am I so shy
And Lisa says, on a night like this it’d be so nice if you gave me a great big kiss And Lisa says, honey, for just one little smile I’ll sing and play for you for the longest while
Lisa says, oh, no, now Lisa says, hey don’t you be a little baby Lisa says, oh, no Lisa says
Through the Shattered Lens 