Songs.

i just realized how much i love the black background on this site. that kicks ass, white screens are killer on my eyes. i want my word page to be black w/ white font.

so i just deleted everything on my ipod and decided to start over. it's pretty fun, i try to do it rather regularly (i've got the 2 gig nano which is now of course completely obsolete but it only holds like 400 songs, so i've got to basically delete songs when i want to put new ones on and sometimes just start all over.) and in looking at the 17 gigs of music on this poor, abused computer (somehow i've had the same desktop since i started college, which is like a miracle in and of itself, it's got the same status as some old guy's '71 ford truck at this point, if it was a car, it'd have like 170,000 miles on it.) and trying to whittle it down to the 400 or so songs that i want to have available to me on my daily walks to and from the law school and during work outs, however rare they may happen to be. (that is a separate though equally fascinating topic, how it came to be that i cannot work out without my ipod, last week i came home from school with the intention of changing and going to the Rec, but found that my ipod had been playing in my bookbag all day and thus was out of battery. needless to say, i did not go to the Rec. it's odd. i've only had the thing for like 3 years and it's a severe addiction.) so basically for the last hour or so i've just been scrolling down my list of music and adding whatever suits my fancy. some new shit, some old shit, some corny shit, whatever. which got me thinking... what are my favorite songs of all time? like, if i could listen to a small group of songs exclusively for the rest of forever, what would they be? so i'm going to give you a list. i'll title it "AB's 10 desert island songs", the 10 songs i would listen to if they were the only things i could listen to if i was isolated in complete seclusion. it's going to be a grab bag, so prepare yourself.

"AB's 10 desert island songs", in no particular order of preference, since i prefer random/shuffle (even though random is never actually that random) anyway.

1. "Narcolepsy", Third Eye Blind.
I have a strange love for corny 90's music. the 90's were almost worse than the 80's in a lot of ways, particularly in how serious everyone was taking themselves. like, duran duran was gay, but i'm at least 70% sure they were fucking around. what's limp bizkit's excuse? Anyway, I've probably listened to "Narcolepsy" at least 500 times, and i still fucking love it. if any karaoke place actually had it, i'd jam the shit out of it. I just started listening to it again, and it's like an old friend, i fucking love it. I can totally feel this narcolepsy slide into another nightmare. no shit, and i mean, i do read dead russian authors volumes at a time, and there is a bone in my hand that connects to a drink in a crowded room where the glasses clink. so how' you like to be alone and drowning? i fucking wouldn't. but i'd def. see third eye blind if i could get like 2 or 3 fun people to go with me, and enjoy the shit out of it.

2. "Let's Stay Together", the Reverend Al Green.
My love for this song started when i started loving Pulp Fiction (you know, it's playing in the nightclub when Marcellus is telling Butch about pride: "that's pride fuckin' wit chu... pride never helps. it only hurts") in ohh... 2000 or so. like... Let's Stay Together is just a fucking jam. and i don't know, forgive me for sounding completely lame, but that's what love is to me. "Let's Stay Together", whether times are good or bad, happy or sad. i hope someday i've got someone that i actually, legitimately feel that way about - "being around you is all i see". i'll rock the shit out of this one karaoke too. and there's a sight, a fat hairy white guy jamming to the reverend. "you make me feel so brand new", that's such a fucking great line. damn Al, i want someone to make me feel brand new. i could put this shit on repeat and probably tear up a little bit.

3. "Gimme Shelter", the Rolling Stones.
This is, in my opinion, the greatest song ever written. what a fucking jam. i've never heard anything even in the same genre. i've loved this song since the first time i heard it, and then after it was the theme to the opening montage of "The Departed"? "I don't want to be a product of my environment... I want my environment to be a product of me". holy shit. i get the chills. "rape, murder, it's just a shot away". what does that mean? no one knows. but it's fucking sweet. "love sister, it's just a kiss away", and isn't that the truth. i close my eyes, put this on, and i'm taken somewhere else.

4. "Night Moves", Bob Seger.
Maybe my favorite song of all time. i love every single thing about this song, it's so poignant. this song just gets the nostalgia going. and i'm a sucker for nostalgia. i feel like it represents quintissential Americana. "ain't it funny how the night moves when you just don't seem to have as much to lose? strange how the night moves with autumn closin' in."
i could be in the fucking himalayas and i'd hear "night moves" and it'd take me back to a case of natty, an awkward girl, a friend's basement and a backseat in good old Fostoria Ohio (or the surrounding country roads, but who's keeping track). we were workin. workin and practicin.

5. "#41", The Dave Matthews Band.
There was a point in my life when i was a monster fucking DMB fan , i think i've seen them 14 times, either 13 or 14, and i dunno, Dave and i have had a falling out. but i still love those first 4 albums (Remember Two Things, Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash and Before These Crowded Streets) and i'd hope that i'll love them for the rest of my life. this has been my favorite dave matthews band song since i bought "Crash" from the fucking BMG cd club in like '97 and you just can't turn that off. who knows how many times i've listened to any one of a myriad of versions, live, acoustic, whatever, and a particularly good version will tear me right up (the best version is on Listener Supported Disc 1). be gentle with it. is it long? hell yes. but worth every minute. i don't think i've ever fast forwarded through that 6 minute instrumental at the end of the Listener Supported version, and that's saying something. "I will go in this way and find my own way out I won't tell you to stay but I'm coming to much more me all at once the ghosts come back reeling in you now what if they came down crushing remember when I used to play for all of the loneliness that nobody notices now I'm begging slow I'm coming here only waiting I wanted to stay I wanted to play, I wanted to love you." i'll always have #41.

ok, let's switch directions some.
6. "Notorious Thugs" - The Notorios B.I.G. and Bone Thugs & Harmony.
Is and has been my favorite rap song of all time. Is it hard? absolutely. i just love Biggie's verse. who knows, I played football at Fostoria after all. this is my jam and has been for a long time. Biggie's verse is the greatest moment in rap history. i really believe that. "armed and dangerous, ain't too many can bang with us, straight up weed no angeldust, label us, notorious"
awesome alert. straight up. this song reminds me of sitting either A.) in the filthy fucking locker room at fostoria memorial stadium or B.) in Haman/AG's house playing asshole and acting like drunk assholes ("asshole, fuck you for making me drink last game, drink 34" "Brenner, drink 40, don't be a dick" -- soon to be followed by a near physical altercation over the excessive number of drinks that are being handed out and probably some driving). good times either way. those memories alone would get me through a solid month.

7. "Year of tha Boomerang" - Rage Against the Machine.
If you weren't into Evil Empire in 8th grade/high school and you're between 20-25 years old, you're probably a chick. I've been a huge Rage fan since i got into music in junior high, and really i could have picked any of 6 or 7 Rage songs that would have fit the bill. but "Year of tha Boomerang" just fucking rocks. "Swimming in half truths, makes me wanna spit" "Now it's upon you". on second thought, maybe this song isn't the best idea for a desert island, but i still effing love it. written in response to the writings of Franz Fanton, an Algerian revolutionary, who claimed the "year of the boomerang" would be the day when the former colonies of the west would come to dominate the globe. who knows about all of that, but the song captures that pretty well. plus, i mean, tom morello is the shit. i still resent Mike D of the douchebag Beastie Boys for getting hit by a car while riding his bike like he's fucking 6 and causing the June 2000 show at the Polaris ampetheater and joint tour to be indefinitely postponed and subsequently cancelled when rage broke up in the interim. so sadly, mr. brenner never got to see rage, hopefully this little reunion turns into a new album and national tour. lord knows we need rage now more than ever.

8. "In the Evening" - Led Zeppelin.
In college i was a huge fucking Led Zeppelin fan (i've got the poster when Robert Plant is doing his best Senator Craig impression and looking for some random guy ass, see here: http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=/getposter.asp&APNum=1107482&CID=21B14F75B3AC4DBE99B956767667978D&PPID=1&search=led%20zeppelin&f=c&FindID=13946&P=1&PP=3&sortby=PD&cname=Led+Zeppelin&SearchID=), and this has been my favorite Led Zep song since i purchased the DVD set back in High School and saw how effing badass Jimmy is on this fucking song. i think it's my favorite riff/solo in classic rock history. In the Evening, In Through the Out Door. check it, if you're disappointed, go read someone else's blog.

9. "If I had $1,000,000" - The Barenaked Ladies.
My all time karaoke favorite. only if a certain Mr. Alex Grine is there to hold down the lower part though of course, it is a duet after all. there's not really anything deep or meaningful to this track, it's just a fun, silly, cute little track and it's a lot of fun to sing, honestly. plus, memories of good times.

10. "Jessica" - Graham Colton
The acoustic version of this song kicks ass as well. I suppose the real reason I love this song is that i dated a girl named jessica for oh... a long fucking time. and basically 50% of that time was us either breaking up, being broken up, or me wanting to break up with her. so i mean, a song about getting over a girl named jessica who liked to play games sure as hell worked for me. it doesn't hurt that it's a decent little song either. well, anyway, i love this song. "so you've got all the answers to the questions your heart asks, what you won't say won't hurt you, now it's coming on to fast, you're the one i can't figure out, and i'm the one you can't forget, and do you think love's the reason that i'm still spinning in your head?" that's a great fucking lyric. and it really got me through some tough times. "starting over without you, you're the first thing in my past" -- "jessica, your world's not worth saving, if you don't finish what you start, it's the hardest thing to let you go, but i'm leaving tonight, you're just someone i used to know, goodbye". wow, i'm tearing up a little just listening to it again. yeah, i love this song, i could listen to it forever. it just seems so damn relevent to my life, then, and now.

Honorable Mentions: "Takeover" - Jay-Z, "Babylon II" - David Gray, "Crush" - DMB, "Heart of Gold" - Neil Young, "The First Cut is the Deepest" - Cat Stevens, "I Found a Reason" - Cat Power, "Thunderstruck" - AC/DC, "Panic In Detroit" and "Queen Bitch" - David Bowie, "Now We Are Free" - Gladiator score, "Comfortably Numb" - Pink Floyd, "Bargain" - The Who, "Bullet the Blue Sky" - U2, "Out The Game" - Kanye West, "Mr. November" - The National (seriously).

so that's all i've got. don't hate, participate. wow, i've been doing this for way too fucking long. enjoy.