Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#290) "Drivin' My Life Away" by Eddie Rabbit - The height of Eddie Rabbit's career occupied just a finite stretch of my childhood, but it was an important time, full of new information leading to new experiences, or new thoughts about news experiences anyway, most of which have remained vivid memories. I was nine, ten, eleven, JUST starting to become aware of the adult world, which for any typical young boy means becoming tempted, like the boys in Pinocchio who turn into donkeys, by all manner of sin - smoking, chewing, drinking beer. I'm not saying all these things happened at that age (God forbid), but it was when I remember becoming aware of it all, and it naturally coincided with the discovery of girls, the sometimes psychologically, sometimes almost physically, painful obsession with the tight jeans or short shorts the next-door-neighbor kids' older sister wore, and recognizing the new critically important need to stay tuned in to what all the kids were talking about as we hung out in the alley between our houses until long after the street light had flickered on. I'd never listened much before, but suddenly, at any given moment, it was a good bet that somebody was talking about sex.

For me, it was the first wave of the death of innocence. I came to the heady realization not just that there are choices to make in life, but that sometimes I might actually want to make the wrong choice. A very heady time in general, which, for better or worse, I associate with the music of Eddie Rabbit.

How could I not, really? The first time I ever saw a girl dance the way much older women like to dance was at my hometown's youth center, on a sunny Saturday afternoon in winter. There was a little radio that was always on in the main room where they stored the sports equipment, and a group of girls were gathered around it, talking and laughing. I wasn't among them, I was somewhere else...I can't remember what I was doing, exactly, but it was from across the room that one particular girl's rhythmic movement caught my eye.

She wasn't twerking or anything like that, was not doing anything overtly sexual...she was only twelve (and mind you, so was I...). But nevertheless, she was, in my eyes, a "bad girl", and a pretty thing to boot, and the little bob of her head and quick flick of her hips, that is, her physical response to the rhythm of the song playing ("keeping perfect rhythm with the song on the radio..."), to speak nothing of the bright smile on her face as she moved (which also seemed to be keeping rhythm), sent a charge through me, the likes of which I've never felt since, at least not in the same way.

The song, of course, was "Drivin' My Life Away". Not the greatest song, not the best Eddie Rabbit song even, but there could not have been a more perfect accompaniment to my first real pang of physical attraction. I wouldn't trade that memory for anything.

"Pop it down, jack me up, shoot me out, flying down the highway / looking for the morning..."

#291) "I Love a Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbit - Same deal as above, with slightly different details. Eddie Rabbit's music was just kind of there, present, for a lot of my first steps into pre-teenage-dom, along with Hall and Oates, Alabama, and Juice Newton. And come on, all these years later, this song still speaks the truth: who doesn't love a rainy night?

"I love to feel the rain on my face, taste the rain on my lips, in the moonlight shadows..."

Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#288) "Mi Mi Mi" by Serebro - A few months back, I admitted publicly (er, so to speak) to really liking the song "Mama Luba", suggested, even, that there was more to Serebro - at least in certain musical instances - than mere off-the-hook sex appeal. At the time, I wondered if I'd discover another song by the Russian girl group that I could listen to and a) not be bored by (which is the worst offense of all), and b) totally not care whether they were attractive or not. A song that could truly stand on its own, without being dependent on the group's ridiculously over-the-top sexual image.

I found it, ironically enough, in "Mi Mi Mi", a song that on the surface seems little more than a pop throwaway extolling the grotesque trappings of the artistically barren, image-obsessed, materialistic age we live in.

But whoa, Nelly...easy girl...unless you're one of those individuals completely bogged down by taking your music (and yourself) too seriously, there's really nothing not to like about this song. Fatally infectious, confident, sassy, bratty...almost a little sinister (as in, this just may be the music playing in Hell's waiting room)...I like its funky, freak show vibe. It's considered Europop (ish), but there are subtle musical shades of the girls' Russian heritage found embedded in its rhythm, moments when it sounds less like a pop song of any kind, more like the bed music to Tetris. And really, what could be wrong with that? Definitely nothing here to get bored by. The song is, in a word, bewitching.

It's largely the construction of the song itself, but also partly the women of Serebro. I like the fact that the singers - Elena Temnikova and Olga Seryabkina (who also has a writing credit) - seem to have a tenuous grasp of English at best, or none at all. Maybe I'm wrong, but they sound like I might sound singing a song in Russian, merely saying the memorized words without being able to convince people that I fully understand them, and in some strange way, for some strange reason, it totally works. And no, we're not talking strong vocals here, but that's okay. For what the song is, and what the song isn't, neither woman needs to be bellowing in three dimensional color like Adele. Their combined nasal attack works just fine.

And yes, they are astonishingly attractive women in my opinion. Not just "hot", which makes appearances throughout the world every day, but truly fucking stunning, all three of them (with Anastasia Karpova) totally rocking their cossacks with carefully crafted moves that for better or worse have become what the group's known for.

But it wouldn't matter if they weren't attractive, and that's the point here, that's why this song will come along on 1/48/50. Serebro could consist of three old Russian woman, their wizened faces peering out from underneath kerchiefs as they huddle in the sun, waiting for their cream to curdle, and all else being equal, musically speaking, "Mi Mi Mi" would still be a fantastic jam. Very super pupper drupper. ;-)

"I am so cool with my awesome big tits on the ground..."

#289) "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" by The Walker Brothers - I was not surprised at all to discover the creators of the movie "Seeking a Friend For the End of the World" used this song to help illustrate their end times tableau. It has been getting me thinking heavy, long thoughts ever since I first heard it dribbling out of the AM radio in my parents' bookstore when I was a little kid. Similar to "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying", it's actually the perfect road song because it always sounds like it's broadcasting from somewhere very far away, someplace you might want to get to, or get back to...or perhaps stay away from.

"The tears are always clouding your eyes, when you're without love, baby..."

Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#286) "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Frankie... is remembered primarily for "Relax", but this was the song that caught my attention on MTV (or was it Friday Night Videos?) back in the day, which is fitting, because though I love the song, with its heady (in some ways prescient) message and unforgettable bass riff, it's the video that I really took notice of. The two together do the unsettling tail-end-of-the-Cold-War tension I felt as a child of the 1980s justice, and the video - from the moaning CAD siren at the beginning, to the clever pairing of the action to the music, to the brilliantly depicted escalation of tension that culminates with the world's leaders realizing they've lost control of the situation at the very last moment - is still blackly entertaining. Funny and frightening, which is not easy to do.

It has to be the original album version though (the version in the video?), not one of the seemingly innumerable re-mixes that thump their way through clubs to this day.




"Are we living in a land, where sex and horror are the new Gods...?"

#287) "I'm Eighteen" by Alice Cooper - It only scored #482 on Rolling Stone's 2011 "500 Greatest Songs of all Time", and that's both hard to believe, and hard to take. For my money, "I'm Eighteen"  is one of the best rock and roll songs ever recorded. Just rock and roll, that's the key. Not "metal", not "welcome to my nightmare", no need for outrageous stagecraft or black eye liner, but a kind of musical declaration that I think, by way of lyrics, musicality and vocals, more than adequately describes being/turning eighteen. If someone had asked Cooper in 1971 to WRITE a song about the subject, he might never have come up with this. Some things just got to happen on their own.

"Lines form on my face and hands / Lines form from the ups and downs..."

Fun Facts for the New Year

Happy New Year! Recently an afternoon spent Googling around brought me to Buzzfeed.com's "36 Interesting Facts That Will Make You Want to Travel". Some of these are more interesting/relevant than others, but all proved worth a read as I find my stride in the New Year and start thinking about really getting 1/48/50 to happen.  Enjoy, and best wishes in 2018!

1. Travel can help improve your problem-solving skills. 

2. One out of eight jobs in the U.S. depends on travel and tourism.

3. Studies show that money spent on travel makes you happier than money spent on material goods. 

4. Taking a vacation can lower your risk of heart disease.

5. Benefits of travels are almost immediate. After a day or two, 89% of people experience significant drops in stress.

6. Travel has been shown to help aid those suffering from depression.

7. Travel promotes overall brain health.

8. Couples who travel together report increase feelings of intimacy.

9. The U.S. is the only developed country in the world without a single legally required paid vacation day or holiday.

10: Austrians are said to have the most vacation time of any country. Austria guarantees its workers a legal minimum of 22 paid vacation days and 13 paid holidays each year.

11. Travel can make you more creative.

12. Travel can also make you smarter.

13. France is the most visited country in the world.

14. The most visited city, according to 2013 data: Bangkok.

15. Honolulu is the only U.S. city that has a royal palace.

16. Canada has the most lakes of any country in the world.

17. France has the most time zones of any country in the world. 

18. Mongolia is the least densely populated place in the world. There are just four people per square mile.  

19. Russia produces the most oxygen of any country in the world.

20. Niger has the youngest population of any country.

21. India is consider the most diverse population in the world.

22. Monaco is smaller than NYC's Central Park.

23. Papa New Guinea has the largest number of languages spoken.

24. Canada has the most educated population in the world, with 50% of its population being educated at the post-secondary level.

25. 99% of Libya is desert.

26. The U.S. has the highest number of citizens behind bars.

27. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport is the world's busiest.

28.There are 61,000 people in the air over the U.S. on any given day.

29. That's probably because 1/3 of the world's airports are located in the U.S.

30. The San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile has the world's largest swimming pool. It holds 66 million gallons.

31. Las Vegas has the most hotel rooms of any city in the world.

32. The shortest airline flight available for purchase lasts two minutes and runs from the Scottish island of Westray to Papa Westray.

33. The longest flight in the world is from Sydney, Australia to Dallas, Texas. It lasts about 16 hours and covers approximately 8,500 miles.

34. All the money tossed into Rome's Trevi Fountain is collected each night and donated to multiple charities.

35. The largest hotel in the world is Russia's Izmailovo. It could accommodate 7,500 guests.

36. The world's most expensive hotel is the Royal Penthouse Suite at the Hotel Wilson in Geneva. $83,200 per night.