Those rare musical treasures that require no song-to-song cherry picking, no fast forwarding (for those 35-plus who know what that is...), no selective exclusion from playlists. They are their OWN playlists...each a greatest hits package of brand new material, still fresh even decades on from their release. You know...desert island albums. In the case of 1/48/50, whole urban areas, entire counties, fully one half of any state even, may be traversed on the power of a single inspired album playing all the way through. So good, in fact, they require no two cents thrown in by the likes of me. Just listen. ;-)
"Greatest Hits (And Some That Will Be)" by Willie Nelson A healthy dose of what made Willie a legend...
"God's Problem Child" by Willie Nelson A healthy dose of what makes Willie a legend...
Those rare musical treasures that require no song-to-song cherry picking, no fast forwarding (for those 35-plus who know what that is...), no selective exclusion from playlists. They are their OWN playlists...each a greatest hits package of brand new material, still fresh even decades on from their release. You know...desert island albums. In the case of 1/48/50, whole urban areas, entire counties, fully one half of any state even, may be traversed on the power of a single inspired album playing all the way through. So good, in fact, they require no two cents thrown in by the likes of me. Just listen. ;-)
#251) "Miss You" by The Rolling Stones - I think when artists today sing about "moves like Jagger...", and all that that implies, they're referring to 1978's "Miss You". Quintessential Stones, I'd say, emblematic of the hedonistic Seventies too...and all that that implies.
Really, is there a more durably slick and sexy jam than this?
"I've been walking Central Park, singing after dark, people think I'm crazy..."
#252) "Just a Girl" by No Doubt - Even if this song weren't, for my money, the best example of what made No Doubt great, even if this song's lyrics weren't kind of important for young girls to take a moment to actually listen to, Gwen Stefani is still the hottest female artist to ever step onto a stage, so...yeah, she'll be coming along on 1/48/50.
Er, you know what I mean...;-)
"Take this pink ribbon off my eyes, I'm exposed, and it's no big surprise..."
#245) "The River" by Bruce Springsteen - The title track off one of his best albums, it might be said "The River" was the beginning of Springteen's artistic evolution from boy to man - post Born to Run/pre-Born in the USA. Its quiet, folk-oriented sound reveals in dark, gritty detail (worthy of The Boss) the life, lifestyle and livelihood of much of the real small town America, too often beholden to traditions that do it no good, and dependent on jobs provided by companies that offer no guarantee of sticking around...jobs that surely aren't sexy, or even healthy.
"The River" is not sexy. But it's real. It's truth.
Bruce's entire body of work should really come along on any cross-country road trip, as so much of it reflects this country through the decades, the good, bad, and ugly...
...the wild, the innocent, and the e-street shuffle.
"Then I got Mary pregnant, and man that was all she wrote / And for my 19th birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat..."
#246) "Trashy Women" by Confederate Railroad - What can I say? Yes, the song is kind of a throwaway, for this list and for country music in general, but I think it's funny...and more or less true for most men, whether they admit it. True for me, anyway...just a little.
Of course, it is an unnervingly short half-step from "trashy" (easily idealized in the safe, stable sanctimony of a song) to slatternly and rancorous. So all men are well-advised to review this predilection frequently. ;-)
"They said well pardon us Son, she ain't no kid, that's a cocktail waitress in a Dolly Parton wig / I said, I know it Dad, ain't she cool? That's the kind I dig..."
#243) "Downtown" by Petula Clark - Yes, it is true there are some communities around the country working hard to preserve/reinvigorate their downtown areas, aided by a recent (as in the last ten or fifteen years) trend away from the sterile mall scene - where Orange Julius, a Chinese buffet and Sbarro are the only dining options - in favor of a homier, artsier, more community-oriented shopping/dining experience.
Groovy. But by and large, most downtowns continue to struggle to compete with slickly packaged corporatism. For better or worse, American consumers seem to prefer, and thus gravitate toward, malls and strip malls, those clustered retail areas with "big box" everything, found in the open spaces of a town's outskirts, rather than the narrow streets of city center.
I admit, I'm that way. I like history, appreciate the aesthetic of days gone by, particularly when it comes to architecture, and fully acknowledge the importance of "local" and "community", but I'm sorry, when it's time to spend my hard-earned money on goods, services, or entertainment, I'd prefer not to do so in an old building or space. There's just something about the optics of a 19th century slaughterhouse being renovated into retail space that fails to excite me. It's a nice idea, I guess, and maybe it's good someone is thinking to do it (because at the same time, I don't think everything should simply be torn down either), but give me that sterile shopping mall any day. Same goes with restaurants in old buildings, or worse, in renovated homes. Not down with that at all. When I go out to eat, I want to feel as though I'm eating out, not invited over to someone's house.
I dislike B&B's for the same reason.
When I think of "downtown", whether in a town of 8,000 or city of half a million, I always think of what was, rather than what is, or what will be. And if it's not an area undergoing some kind of well-meaning revitalization, forget it. I never expect to (and rarely do I ever) find anything there but boarded up store fronts, maybe a used furniture store or political party headquarters, a bus station, an architecturally interesting old building perhaps...but nothing ever really going on. Surely no "gentle bossa nova" calling to me, and the "music of the traffic in the city" only making me wish for an escape. And for that matter, mostly unsavory types lingering amidst the glow of the "pretty" neon signs.
That being said, I find Petula Clark's "Downtown" fascinating nevertheless. Not exactly jam-worthy, but worthy of inclusion in any thinking man's road trip mix, as an emissary from a different age, when "downtown" was still the epicenter of every community's constantly shifting proclivities and predilections.
Honestly, seeking out still-vibrant and viable downtowns might be a good side mission - so to speak - of 1/48/50. "The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your worries, forget all your cares..." #244) "We've Gotta Get Out of this Place" by The Animals - The sentiment of this song is what drives all road trips, all escapes out of anywhere. Doesn't really matter if "this place" is a deserted main drag in a small town with a 70-car freight train running through twice a day, or an urban neighborhood with an L train running overhead every fifteen minutes, the impulse to leave in search of something better, the belief that something better lies in wait somewhere else, is powerful stuff, a driving force in life, and represented with compelling urgency by this song's raw 60s sound and singer Eric Burdon's equally raw vocals.
"We've gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do..."
#233) "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister - I always thought Dee Snider was a funny guy and a class act. Whether testifying (handily) before the US Senate regarding the formation of the PMRC in the 80s, or playing "penis ping pong" on the Howard Stern Show (and crying out, "What a time to go flaccid!"), or hosting House of Hair back in the day, just when hair metal was becoming "historical", he's always come across to me as the epitome of intelligence, humor and graciousness, wrapped up in a "metal" package. The fact that last summer he recorded a piano version of "We're Not Gonna Take It" to raise money for - and awareness about - childhood cancer is not the least bit surprising. (For more on that, visit www.crissangelhelp.com)
But while the song is perfectly fitting in that context, and Dee's performance of it perfectly moving, it is, of course, the version from the album Stay Hungry that rocked this eleven-year-old's socks in the summer of '84.
To speak nothing of the video. My little snickering buddies and I would re-enact the opening sequence that showcases Mark Metcalf reprising his role (sort of) from Animal House. I seem to recall putting on an actual stage show one evening, gathering neighbor kids together to vote on who did the best impersonation. (I'm sure we all sucked.)
The funniest part of the video is when Metcalf scurries up the stairs and comes face to face with Dee in full hideous 'twisted' regalia...the look on his face cracked me up then and still does. (Although, truth be told, this jerk-off - not Metcalf, but the character he portrays - is probably too prevalent a father figure in too many American families, that is, too many kids' actual experience, to really be funny.)
One thing I appreciate about this song now that I didn't when I was a kid was Dee Snider's killer voice. Listen closely, it's just a beast of a vocal, and Dee can still tear it up. That's partially what makes the 2016 childhood cancer version moving. "Your life is trite and jaded, boring and confiscated / If that's your best, your best won't do..."
#234) "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister -Same thing as above, really. Mostly funny, but still, you can't stop listening when the song plays. There's something compelling about it. Truly must be Dee Snider's voice... "I've waited for so long so I could hear my favorite song, so let's go..."
#235) "1969" by Keith Stegall - This song was released in the mid-1990s, when I was a deejay at a "hot country" radio station. It didn't make a lot of headway on the charts, nor much of a dent in our station's listenership (not a lot of requests to hear it during Friday night's "Request Express with Dave Kline!" ;-), but twenty years on, I still really enjoy this thoughtful reminiscence, this reflection on troubled times.
In the course of my life, there's been no shortage of looking back on the Sixties, that's for sure. By the time "1969" was released, the decade had already been examined and interpreted six ways from Sunday, and between The Wonder Years and Family Ties, the Monkees revival and Led Zeppelin's command of "classic rock" radio, the (rightful) lionization of Jim, Jimi, and Janis, the Stones, the Beatles and Bob (er, Dylan), not to mention I don't know how many movies about Vietnam, there's definitely been some overkill. But the somber melody and what the lyrics are actually saying, I think, set "1969" apart. Rather than idealizing, glorifying, or even just over-dramatizing them, they are recalled here with a kind of tired resignation that befits how it all played out and ended. How all eras play out and end, really.
Plus, make it 1989 instead of '69, and I can relate pretty well, because some things never change. America is a tough town, when you're eighteen with a child...
"It was the age of innocence, but our innocence was fading / We waited for the best of times, and just kept waiting..."
#230) "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen - Even though the song was written specifically for "Philadelphia", the 1993 movie starring Tom Hanks (at this point it's crazy to think that Tom Hanks was once just that guy from the TV show "Bosom Buddies"), it creates such a raw emotional moment, it almost inadvertently takes on a universal meaning. That isn't to detract from its actual message, or the message of the movie, only to suggest, with much appreciation intended, that it's one of those songs you start listening to, and by the end you're so compelled, you're not quite sure how long you've been sitting there listening.
"I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt, I was unrecognizable to myself..."
#231) "I'm On Fire" by Bruce Springsteen - This song, on the other hand, is about as universal as can be. It's Bruce's quiet moment amidst the pipe-banging bluster of Born in the USA. I guess there's "My Hometown" on that album as well, but everything is above board with "My Hometown". It's obvious what he's singing about, and you either can relate to it, or you can't. "I'm On Fire" also is obvious, but it's one of those rare moments when what becomes obvious is something intensely intimate and personal. That's artistry.
This just might be Bruce's finest song, and although I think it gets mocked by purists (Bruce is the caliber of artist to have "purists" squawking over his work, grading it, assigning it to eras, thinking they are the only ones who get it....), I think the video really does the song justice. It was innovative for its day (and heralded, I remember, as The Boss's first non-concert video). It is also, in a hundred different painstakingly subtle ways, haunting: the fact that you never see the woman's face (only her ring as she drops the car keys into his hands), Bruce driving out to the hills to deliver the car late at night, then the shot from those hills as he walks home, resigned to his place in the world...I don't know, man...this, perhaps more than any other music video I've ever seen, compels me to watch, and at the end I'm not sure how long I've been watching. Musically and visually, it's fucking hypnotic.
As for the song itself, I was there once...and yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it sounded like.
"At times it's like someone took a knife, baby edgy and dull, and cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my soul..."
#219) "Theme from The Bob Newhart Show" - Yes, I know, it's not really road music, but as I've written more than a few times, if 1/48/50 turns out to be at all about taking the past along with me (and I'm sure it will), then some of those little shimmering points of light from my childhood, that appear late at night sometimes when I'm trying to sleep, have to come along as well. Especially the beautiful ones.
I was a young child in the 70s, and my parents watched a lot of TV, and whenever I was in the living room, whether I was climbing onto my mother's lap (only to climb off again 30 seconds later), or camped out on the living room floor, either with toys or no toys at all (just bored out of my gourd), or maybe hidingout from my older brother for some reason, it was this kind of music playing in the background. Theme songs from shows like Bob Newhart, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Good Times, etc., are inextricably linked to those early, formative years in my mind, and had, I think, a favorable impact.
I'm especially fond of the Bob Newhart theme. I didn't watch the show (I was too young to get it), but I sure as hell listened to the theme song. That drew me in the first time I heard it, and as it was a show my parents watched readily, it pretty much came to encapsulate what everything sounded (and looked) like when I was five, six, seven and eight years old: a gray or tan-hued blend of comforted melancholy and earnest "tomorrow is another day" hope.
The music certainly will always remind me of my mother, who passed away last month. 😔 Doubtless I'll want to take her memory along with me on 1/48/50.
NOTE: It has to be this version, from Season 1. In later seasons, the melody was re-tooled into a disco jam, to reflect both the popularity of the show and (I guess) those funky Seventies. Meh. The original cut is where the beauty's at. The horn and piano arrangement at the end is gorgeous (as is Suzanne Pleshette's heady gaze into the camera)...it still casts me into a dreamy, child-like state.
Maybe I shouldn't listen to this while I'm driving. ;-)
#220) "End Theme from WKRP in Cincinnati" - THIS theme song also reminds me of my childhood, but for very different reasons. There's no "comforted melancholy" here, if anything the complete opposite. This might very well be the first song I ever actually "jammed out" to, lol.
And why the hell not? With an impassioned guitar riff, energetic, thumping rhythm, and garbled lyrics that leave the listener no choice but to make up his or her own, "The End Theme to WKRP in Cincinnati" (including the MTM kitten mewling at the end....again, why not?) remains jam-worthy to this day. I never get tired of listening to this.
Unlike Bob Newhart, I loved watching WKRP in Cincinnati when I was a kid, and I still do. For the most part I think the show holds up, with subtle humor delivered by a great ensemble cast. And having worked in radio myself, I can say that they got it right. This is pretty much how radio life is...or WAS, I guess. Don't know anymore.
Man, I miss it sometimes.
Surprisingly, much has been written and/or discussed online about the song's unintelligible lyrics, which reportedly were intended to reflect a common complaint by those "over 30" back in the day: that when it came to rock and roll music, you "can't even understand the lyrics!"
Everyone who remembers the show probably has their own interpretation. This is what I hear:
"Bare toothed bartender, bumps the night ahead
Sara on her horse and whack-a-ballers in our heart
I sent good vibes, and I have better hair
I said I’ll do it to it, and a tuna wrapped in our heart Meow!"
#209) "Cycles" by Frank Sinatra - About as far away as can be imagined from what people think of when they hear the name "Sinatra", "Cycles" is the title track from a 1968 album of cover songs, some of which have appeared on this list by other artists.
Make no mistake, this is not 1940s/50s crooner Frankie, or Frankie ringa-dinga-lingin' with his Rat Pack buddies and complement of cuckoo broads. "Cycles" doesn't have the flair or flash, or the energy, to get that job done. And to its credit, it doesn't seem to care. What the song does instead, in my opinion, is reveal Sinatra the artist, the consummate interpreter of music. All music.
"Cycles" is a soft-spoken (and for this, moving) testament to the life we all must endure sometimes, gentle reassurance in moments of hardship, anguish, frustration and fear that things are going to be all right, that indeed, "after winter, comes the spring..." Sinatra makes you believe that he believes, and that's what being a "consummate interpreter of music" is all about.
Not much more needs to be said, really...nothing that the album cover doesn't say, before a single word is even sung:
"I've been many places, maybe not as far as you / So I think I'll stay a while, and see if some dreams some true..."
#210) "Rag Doll" by Aerosmith - Arguably one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, Aerosmith has a unique claim to having been icons of the 1970s before fading away almost to oblivion, then coming back and achieving icon status in the late 80s and early 90s, producing music throughout both periods that never seems dated. Whether you like it, you have to admit, most of it sounds just as fresh and urgent as the day it was recorded.
They achieved this, in part, by creating a unique sound, something just a little different, with a flair nobody else rockin' big hair and spandex at the time had, a style nobody else would (dare) try on for size. "Rag Doll" is a perfect example of the band's ability to think outside the box, and do nothing less than reinvent the rock and roll business model.
Who the hell else could"Rag Doll" be, but Aerosmith? "Rag doll, livin' in a movie / Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie..."
#211) "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith - Not quite as outside the box as "Rag Doll", 1977's "Back in the Saddle" still tears it up and spits it out, and in that uniquely Aerosmith fashion. It's not merely hard rock, and it's surely not half-baked "hair metal"...it's an oddly potent brew, the sounds you hear rumbling from behind the bulwark of the male psyche, with just a wisp of the frantic overcompensation most men are disposed to, even if they never admit it.
In a word, "Back in the Saddle" is the motherfucker. The bass line bounces off the walls of that bulwark, manages to escape, and starts smashing windows around the neighborhood...and Steven Tyler's voice, man...for my money, nobody even comes close.
Who the hell else could sing "Back in the Saddle", but Steven Tyler? "I'm calling all the shots tonight, I'm like a loaded gun..."
#212) "Pink" by Aerosmith - See #210 and #211....
Who the hell else could "Pink" be, but Aerosmith? 😉
"Pink, it's my new obsession, pink, it's not even a question / Pink on the lips of your lover, 'cause pink is the love you discover..."
#207) "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" by XTC - From an intense album (Skylarking - 1987), comes an intense scorcher of a song, a true collaboration between music and lyrics to create not just a piece of music, but an experience (similar to the best of Prince's work).
This could really be said about the entire album. XTC had already been around for a while by '87, but Skylarking sent them over the top, gave them that sought-after mainstream success. Were their talent not met halfway by Todd Rundgren's competent production, this album might have faded into the cauldron of derivative Beatles-esque neo-psychedelia popping up at the time.
Actually, on second thought, I don't know if that's entirely true. It might be more accurate to say Rundgren's production enhanced - perhaps sewed together, or punctuated - singer Andy Partridge and band mate Colin Moulding's already burgeoning musical vision. They were the songwriters, after all, the genesis.
Either way, Skylarking is fucking fantastic. The aforementioned collaboration of music and lyrics is well-matched to Partridge's vocal delivery, and will find a listener in just about anyone, and keep them, because this music is not feckless, floppy dribble, not "hippies" dancing in circles, and that's what makes it so good. It's emotionally charged, angry, sometimes frightening, even, in its revelations...humorous too, at moments, but never without the cutting edge of snark.
The off-the hook percussion, the romping, jazz-infused melody, the lyrics serving as a kind of universal indictment of human flaws and frailty, all conspire to make "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" the best musical ambassador for the album. In the song's closing moments, the listener is led on a finger-snapping stroll through the dark woods of consciousness, to one revealing, and horrifying, final three seconds.
Wait for it...wait for it...
"The man who sailed around his soul, from East to West, from pole to pole / With ego as his drunken captain, Greed, the mutineer, had trapped all reason in the hold."
#208) "Gentle On My Mind" by Glen Campbell - One of the new American standards that has been covered by countless artists over the years, Glen Campbell's version of "Gentle On My Mind" does the song the most justice, in my opinion. Very "of the time" in which it was written and recorded, it just sounds like afternoon sunshine, although truthfully, it was probably kind of edgy in the late 1960s, for country music at least, addressing divorce and the relief that follows it, and suggesting that marriage may not only be not ideal, but not all that necessary.
It's sad that country music doesn't sound like this anymore. That is, not at all. Today, the genre has become largely a breeding ground for carefully prescribed stereotypes that seem almost unwittingly self-mocking, and leave little room for anything outside the box.
What better "road song" is there, really? What more do or can we expect from a road trip, then for everything to become gentle on the mind, everything to sound like afternoon sunshine?
"I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face, and the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind / But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the back roads, by the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind..."
Dani Mathers is obviously a cruel, horrendous excuse for a human being, but it's the larger point here that makes this so awful: that anyone can take a picture of anyone, at any time, and post it to a world-wide audience, that we can all essentially create our own edition of "Inside Edition" at will....is fucking perverse.
This just might be the most compelling "Reason to Live Nebulously" I've ever posted. :-/
Music, like all things creative, is very subjective. I know the list of "road songs" I've been cobbling together for almost three years now is not the last word. I know everyone would have a vastly different group of songs to place on something so ceremonial as a road trip mix. I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste, fed by an open mind. If something moves me, it moves me. I don't generally get bogged down in image or genre. But there are some songs I simply cannot get on board with. Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes they don't try hard enough. Sometimes they don't make any sense...or make too much sense (which usually leads back to trying too hard...) Sometimes they're just boring..."different ways of yawning", as my brother has said. And boring me is really the only way I can be offended. Sometimes it's a song from a band or an artist I otherwise dig. Sometimes this one left turn into a musically bad neighborhood is an aberration. But sometimes a certain song is so horrible, so insulting to its genre, the artist performing it, and the LISTENER, it makes my skin crawl, even pissing me off a little, if I'm stuck listening to it long enough. Sometimes there's not really anything wrong with the song, it just reminds me of a time in my life I don't wish to remember. Music hath charms, good and bad. Here are a few of the musical lemons that will not be coming along for the ride on 1/48/50. I won't comment beyond the listing. Readers can take them for what they will, not take them at all, decide I don't know what I'm talking about (if they haven't already), or cry out 'Hallelujah!'. ;-) ❌ "Love Stinks" by The J. Geils Band ❌ "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones
Music, like all things creative, is very subjective. I know the list of "road songs" I've been cobbling together for almost three years now is not the last word. I know everyone would have a vastly different group of songs to place on something so ceremonial as a road trip mix. I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste, fed by an open mind. If something moves me, it moves me. I don't generally get bogged down in image or genre. But there are some songs I simply cannot get on board with. Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes they don't try hard enough. Sometimes they don't make any sense...or make too much sense (which usually leads back to trying too hard...) Sometimes they're just boring..."different ways of yawning", as my brother has said. And boring me is really the only way I can be offended. Sometimes it's a song from a band or an artist I otherwise dig. Sometimes this one left turn into a musically bad neighborhood is an aberration. But sometimes a certain song is so horrible, so insulting to its genre, the artist performing it, and the LISTENER, it makes my skin crawl, even pissing me off a little, if I'm stuck listening to it long enough. Sometimes there's not really anything wrong with the song, it just reminds me of a time in my life I don't wish to remember. Music hath charms, good and bad. Here are a few of the musical lemons that will not be coming along for the ride on 1/48/50. I won't comment beyond the listing. Readers can take them for what they will, not take them at all, decide I don't know what I'm talking about (if they haven't already), or cry out 'Hallelujah!'. ;-) ❌"Diamonds in the Sky" by Rihanna ❌"Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis ❌ "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette
Music, like all things creative, is very subjective. I know the list of "road songs" I've been cobbling together for almost three years now is not the last word. I know everyone would have a vastly different group of songs to place on something so ceremonial as a road trip mix. I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste, fed by an open mind. If something moves me, it moves me. I don't generally get bogged down in image or genre. But there are some songs I simply cannot get on board with. Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes they don't try hard enough. Sometimes they don't make any sense...or make too much sense (which usually leads back to trying too hard...) Sometimes they're just boring..."different ways of yawning", as my brother has said. And boring me is really the only way I can be offended. Sometimes it's a song from a band or an artist I otherwise dig. Sometimes this one left turn into a musically bad neighborhood is an aberration. Sometimes a certain song is so horrible, so insulting to its genre, the artist performing it, and the LISTENER, it makes my skin crawl, even pissing me off a little, if I'm stuck listening to it long enough. Sometimes there's not really anything wrong with the song, it just reminds me of a time in my life I don't wish to remember. Music hath charms, good and bad. Here are a few of the musical lemons that will not be coming along for the ride on 1/48/50. I won't comment beyond the listing. Readers can take them for what they will, not take them at all, decide I don't know what I'm talking about (if they haven't already), or cry out 'Hallelujah!'. ;-) ❌ "Dreamweaver" by Gary Wright ❌ "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones ❌ "I Can't Get it Out of My Head" by Electric Light Orchestra
Music, like all things creative, is very subjective. I know the list of "road songs" I've been cobbling together for almost three years now is not the last word. I know everyone would have a vastly different group of songs to place on something so ceremonial as a road trip mix. I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste, fed by an open mind. If something moves me, it moves me. I don't generally get bogged down in image or genre. But there are some songs I simply cannot get on board with. Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes they don't try hard enough. Sometimes they don't make any sense...or make too much sense (which usually leads back to trying too hard...) Sometimes they're just boring..."different ways of yawning", as my brother has said. And boring me is really the only way I can be offended. Sometimes it's a song from a band or an artist I otherwise dig. Sometimes this one left turn into a musically bad neighborhood is an aberration. Sometimes a certain song is so horrible, so insulting to its genre, the artist performing it, and the LISTENER, it makes my skin crawl, even pissing me off a little, if I'm stuck listening to it long enough. Sometimes there's not really anything wrong with the song, it just reminds me of a time in my life I don't wish to remember. Music hath charms, good and bad. Here are a few of the musical lemons that will not be coming along for the ride on 1/48/50. I won't comment beyond the listing. Readers can take them for what they will, not take them at all, decide I don't know what I'm talking about (if they haven't already), or cry out 'Hallelujah!'. ;-) ❌ "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman Turner Overdrive ❌ "Urgent" by Foreigner ❌ "Who Are You" by The Who
Music, like all things creative, is a very subjective thing. I know that this list of "road songs" I've been cobbling together for almost three years now is not the last word. I know everyone would have a vastly different group of songs to place on something so ceremonial as a road trip mix. I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste, fed by an open mind. If something moves me, it moves me. I don't generally get bogged down in image or genre. But there are some songs I simply cannot get on board with. Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes they don't try hard enough. Sometimes they don't make any sense...or make too much sense (which usually leads back to trying too hard...) Sometimes they're just boring..."different ways of yawning", as my brother has said. And boring me is really the only way I can be offended. Sometimes it's a song from a band or an artist I otherwise dig. Sometimes this one left turn into a musically bad neighborhood is an aberration. Sometimes a certain song is so horrible, so insulting to its genre, the artist performing it, and the LISTENER, it makes my skin crawl, even pissing me off a little, if I'm stuck listening to it long enough. Sometimes there's not really anything wrong with the song, it just reminds me of a time in my life I don't wish to remember. Music hath charms, good and bad. Here are a few of the musical lemons that will not be coming along for the ride on 1/48/50. I won't comment beyond the listing. Readers can take them for what they will, not take them at all, decide I don't know what I'm talking about (if they haven't already), or cry out 'Hallelujah!'. ;-) ❌ "Dirty White Boy" by Foreigner ❌ "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" by Rick Derringer ❌ "The Joker" by The Steven Miller Band
Music, like all things creative, is a very subjective thing. I know that this list of "road songs" I've been cobbling together for almost three years now is not the last word. I know everyone would have a vastly different group of songs to place on something so ceremonial as a road trip mix. I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste, fed by an open mind. If something moves me, it moves me. I don't generally get bogged down in image or genre. But there are some songs I simply cannot get on board with. Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes they don't try hard enough. Sometimes they don't make any sense...or make too much sense (which usually leads back to trying too hard...) Sometimes they're just boring..."different ways of yawning", as my brother has said. And boring me is really the only way I can be offended. Sometimes it's a song from a band or an artist I otherwise dig. Sometimes this one left turn into a musically bad neighborhood is an aberration. Sometimes not. Sometimes it's the start of a descent into the career-killing abyss. Sometimes a certain song is so horrible, so insulting to its genre, the artist performing it, and the LISTENER, it makes my skin crawl, even pissing me off a little, if I'm stuck listening to it long enough. Sometimes it just reminds me of a time in my life I don't wish to remember. Music hath charms, good and bad. Here are a few of the musical lemons that will not be coming along for the ride on 1/48/50. I won't comment beyond the listing. Readers can take them for what they will, not take them at all, decide I don't know what I'm talking about (if they haven't already), or cry out 'Hallelujah!'. ;-) ❌ "Winds of Change" by The Scorpions ❌ "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner ❌ "Jukebox Hero" by Foreigner
