Sunday, April 9, 2017

30 Day Music Challenge: Days 1-5

A week or two ago, on Twitter I noticed fellow blogger Tony from Off Hiatus posted a 30 Day Baseball Card Challenge.  I was intrigued as it could give me a reason to post, but he mentioned it was inspired by the 30 Day Music Challenge.  My first question was, is this a twitter thing or a blog thing, which the reply was either, and I decided I will take on the Card Challenge soon, but I totally missed out on the Music Challenge.  I love music so this made me sad.  I found the list and I figured I would still go through with it, and I will post them on here, five days at a time, and will even include videos and reasons I picked them.  So let's begin this fun journey!

DAY ONE: A song you like with a color in the title 

 My Chemical Romance- Welcome To The Black Parade

Its hard to believe this song is 10 years old, but also hard to believe this wasn't a song released during my youth.  I once knew someone who was a huge MCR fan, but I never got into them much.  However he really hyped this song up, and when I first heard it I was hooked. The first minute and a half could be a song in itself, but as overall it delivers on so many levels.  Sure there are many other options with a color in the title, and at first I thought about using Warrant's I Saw Red, or even dc Talk's Red Letters, but this song that I have to stop what I'm doing every time I hear it to listen to it.   Not even sing along, just listen.  Well, okay, I sing along to the beginning.

DAY TWO: A Song you like with a number in the title

Cake- Friend Is A Four Letter Word

My first time hearing Cake was probably hearing The Distance.  However over time I heard more of their stuff and I was rarely disappointed.  I remember the first time a local Kansas City station played their song Frank Sinatra and I loved it.  I don't remember when I first heard Friend Is A Four Letter Word, but it has stuck with me ever since.  Its not really the lyrical content I like, its the delivery and the beat that I like.  When thinking of songs with a number in it, I thought for a while, but I thought this was the perfect song to include.  My choices not only are songs I like and enjoy hearing time and time again, but I hope some are ones people may not have heard before.  This is a gentle rock song with horns so I think even country music fans can enjoy it.


DAY THREE: A song the reminds you of summertime

LFO- Summer Girls

People that know me know this is my song.  It's been my song since first hearing it.  I could probably do a whole blog on it, but I won't.  It all started when I was in high school.  Even back then I had insomnia or something like it and had trouble sleeping at night.  I remember waking up around 4:15 AM every morning and having my radio set to a local pop/top 40 station.  I usually tried to sing myself to sleep.  Anyways, for about a week straight I would wake up around this time, and each day this song would just be starting.  It was like it was meant to be.  A short time later I found the CD single for a buck (maybe 2 bucks) at Walmart and bought it.  It had Summer Girls on it as well as an instrumental version of the song, plus a remake of the song Can't Have You.  I listened to it nonstop.  I even wrote lyrics to a song using the instrumental called Summertime Session.  I wish I had a copy of the lyrics, maybe I do somewhere. I remember for some reason my music class and history class did some sort of crossover class and we had to write a poem or song about something historical (I can't remember what), but my group used the instrumental of Summer Girls.  Its very possible there was a picture of us in the yearbook of us performing.  As for the song itself, the beat was catchy, but the lyrics were nonsense.  It was a bunch of pop culture references crammed into a song but it just connected with me.  It could be because I don't think the band every took themselves seriously, and it was almost like they were a parody boy band.  Sure they had serious song, and other songs that were fun, but this was the perfect song to introduce us to Rich, Devin, and... um, the other guy.  I get great joy when the local station plays this on their flashback lunch because its the station I first heard it on.  Sadly Rich passed away a few years back, but I still enjoy listening to LFO's songs at least a few times a year.  I also look for the Girl On TV music video on Youtube since Jennifer Love Hewitt is in it.

Song Four: A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about

Our Lady Peace- Whatever

On the surface, this one was tough.  I have a lot of songs I associate with people, even ones that bring back certain memories I'd rather not relive, but none that make me want to totally forget about the person.  I had to think really hard on this one, but then I thought of this song.  It wasn't from a personal memory, but it was in a roundabout way.  I am a huge wrestling fan.  I've been a fan pretty much since birth.  I love listening to wrestlers theme songs.  One of the best themes ever is the Midnight Express theme.  I was also at one time a big fan of Our Lady Peace.  Then OLP and wrestling were connected.  I was okay with it but a few years later something happened that eventually caused the band to basically retire one of their most famous and popular songs.  All because of wrestling.

This song was the theme song for Chris Benoit.  I'm sure you've heard of him and if not, let me recap.  The man was an extraordinary technical wrestler.  One of the best of all time, however, I wasn't his biggest fan.  Something about him I didn't like.  He put on great matches, there's no denying, but I always liked Dean Malenko better.  Anyway, Chris was loved by many in wrestling and by many of the fans.  However one night during a PPV he wasn't there.  It was a bit odd especially since he had a match and it was for a title.  The next day came and the story became more mysterious.  As the day progressed into night horrible rumors started to spread.  About an hour or so before WWE's Monday Night Raw those rumors were starting to get confirmed.  Chris Benoit was dead and so was his family which included his son, and his wife, who at one time was also in wrestling known to many as Woman.  As Raw came on the air, Vince McMahon stood in an empty arena in disbelief and announced Chris had died.  They dedicated the entire 3 hour show to him (at the time it was normally a 2 hour show, but a special had been planned which gave them an extra hour).  As the show went on and these tributes came in, more terrible news started to come out.  It appeared that Chris himself had killed his family and then committed suicide.  To this day many contend its a conspiracy, but the legacy of Benoit was tarnished.  Do I think he did it?  Yes, I do.  A couple years later Our Lady Peace did an interview explaining despite how popular the song was, the association with Benoit proved too strong and they retired the song.  Its still a tough topic to discuss with many people and WWE tried to tiptoe around it as much as they can, but this song is haunted by a person who for lack of a better word snapped.  Its a shame on so many levels and even when I watch clips with Chris in them (especially a close up of his face) I get chills.

DAY FIVE:  A song that needs to be played LOUD
 
Poison- Nothin' But A Good Time

I dare you not to crank it up when this comes on.  I'm not the biggest fan of Poison, I even remember making fun of my sister for listening to hair metal band in the late 80s, but this song must be enjoyed at high volume!   I don't need to listen to music at a super high volume, in fact I might name 10 songs at most that I crank up, but this is one of them.  I can't say when I started doing it, but I think a lot of it had to do with a combination of Guitar Hero and the movie Grind.  To top it off my sister had Poison's Greatest Hits and this was on there.  From that album I've come to like them a little more, but this is the song I listen to first and last.  Its especially soothing when your having a bad day, or when you are having a great day.


So that's a wrap on the first five days.  Maybe these will help you get through the week.  This one was a little rock heavy and the next batch tends to be more rap heavy.  I didn't design it that way, but I have a diverse range of music I like.  I can listen to Heavy Metal one minute and classic country the next.  I usually stay clear of classical and Jazz and such, but you never know.  Anyways, thanks for reading and once I finish these 30 days, I will start the card challenge.  Maybe when that's over I'll find something else to do, like a movie challenge or something.  It could be real fun.  Have a great night, and if you have some choices, be sure to tweet me or leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah Black Parade! Excellent album, and their (sort-of) title track is outstanding. MCR is my second favorite band of the 00's, after Fall Out Boy.

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  2. I love Fall Out Boy, they are one of the few bands I would probably go out of my way to see in concert.

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