Songs and what they mean to me

"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky"
This is the first song I ever remember hearing as a child. I'm told I used to fall asleep in the backseat of my parents' car whenever it came on the radio. Therefore, all of my musical tastes begin with this song.

Since I first encountered it in childhood, this video is the perfect representation of it for me...

"Johnny B. Goode" by The Starlighters
I credit the scene where Marty McFly plays this on stage in the '50s with my love for guitar (though I prefer Chuck Berry's version). For more please see my I was a preteen metalhead list.

Not the scene, but an appropriate enough video:

"When the Music's Over"
In my opinion, the best song ever written & recorded. I love the dynamics of the song, the way Jim both sings and speaks his poetry over the music, and the way I get lost in it for the duration. This and "The End" encouraged me to enjoy songs that last longer than 10 minutes, provided those songs actually go somewhere of course (10 minutes of techno/electronica repetition is at least 10 minutes too many).

"Fade to Black"
Throughout junior high & high school, I used to carry the lyrics to this song around in my wallet. For a while Metallica was my favorite band, and I felt that this song best captured the depression I wallowed in from 1990 through 1995 (well, aside from the fact that it's about suicide...I was NEVER suicidal).

"Blister in the Sun"
The summer after high school ended, a group of about 10 of my friends and I went out one night. The plan was supposed to be that we'd go to a graveyard, but somehow the plan changed and we wound up in a public park. I remember we made a bonfire (there was a designated area) and ran around it like we were in Lord of the Flies or something, and then a few of them carried "torches" as we walked back to our cars singing loudly. As we neared the place we'd parked, flashlight beams hit us...turns out we'd violated park curfew (though none of us noticed ANY signs designating such a thing).

So after the police had questioned each of us, we were lined up facing a fence, with our backs to the cops. As we waited for them to do whatever it was they were doing (writing out our tickets & scanning for warrants, no doubt) someone started singing "Blister in the Sun", and the rest of us joined in. We made it all the way through the song, and were about to start up another when one of the officers told us "No singing." So now whenever I hear this song I think about that night.

"Ode to My Car"
While nowhere near as bad as the car depicted in this song, my first car quickly turned out to be a P.O.S. My parents gave me my grandfather's Oldsmobile Delta 88 after I turned 16, and after I'd had it a couple months it started overheating on a regular basis. It especially liked to overheat on my way home from downtown Dallas the moment I exited the freeway, usually after 2am. That meant enduring drunken morons yelling at me as I sat waiting for the car to cool off, but also I got in some excellent bonding time with whichever of my friends happened to be stuck with me.

"Possum Kingdom"
This song hit radio as a single a year after the album's release. Because I loved Rubberneck so much & I realized this would earn them constant airplay, I gave up listening to the radio so I wouldn't get burned out on their music & end up hating this song. So whenever I hear it it reminds me of my decision to stop going out of my way to listen to the radio & the improvement the decision made on my musical taste.

"sanctified"

In 1995, my friends & I bought tickets to see NIN open for David Bowie. At the last minute one of our friends couldn't go, so we had an extra ticket. I called this grrl I had a crush on & asked her if she could go. She had to cancel plans, which was of course easy considering this was David Bowie & NIN playing together. Anyway, the 4th song of NIN's set was "sanctified", and as it started she turned around and kissed me. We made out for most of the rest of the concert, but that first moment our lips met was my first real kiss. What better soundtrack for such a moment than "sanctified"?

"Creature"
This song means a few things to me. In January '96 I saw Tripping Daisy for the first time & this was the first song of their set. I'd never heard it before (at the time it was unreleased), and it blew my mind. That show remains my all-time favorite Tripping Daisy performance, and since I know "Creature" was the first song it has a special place in my heart for that reason. It's also my all-time favorite Tripping Daisy song and second favorite song ever behind "When the Music's Over".

A few years later, I became close friends with the Tripping Daisy guys and talked them into playing "Creature" live again, which they hadn't done since 1996. I saw them play it twice before their lead guitarist died & forced them to call it quits, and both times I crowd-surfed during it.

"Gumbo"
Caulk was one of my favorite Dallas-area bands during the 90s, due to their crazy live shows & grunge/punk sound (they cited as influences Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney & The Jesus Lizard). Before their 3rd release Imaginary Enemy came out, they were playing shows constantly and I started bugging their singer/guitarist about playing "Gumbo" at the request of one of my best friends. The singer/guitarist, Aden, told me they'd start playing it again once the new album was out. The first time I'd asked I didn't even know the song, but I soon picked up this EP and fell in love with it.

At one of their CD release shows (they did 3 in 3 separate yet nearby cities), as they started to play "Gumbo" they invited anyone in the crowd that knew the lyrics to come up & sing it with them. I was among those that got on stage. After that show, they started pulling me up on stage to perform "Gumbo" with them every time they played, and it became a regular thing until they broke up in late 1998. That's never happened to me with any other band.

The song can be heard on Caulk's MySpace page

"I Heart Star"
When I found out Caulk was breaking up, I wanted to do something to honor them for letting me get on stage with them. The artwork on the CD for Love American Style was a pictograph representation of the song "I Heart Star", and I'd always dug the way it looked. Plus the song is one of my favorites of theirs, about losing sight of what's important ("I had stars in my eyes" as the refrain goes). So I took the CD to a tattoo artist & had him turn it into my second tattoo. As far as I know I'm the only person with a Caulk-related tattoo, and when I showed it to the band at their last show they were very excited and honored.

While there's no easy way to hear this song by itself, the full album can be heard here ("I Heart Star" starts at 54:17).

"Detroit Rock City" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
One of my best friends & I went on many roadtrips to see concerts over the years, and he always insisted we had to listen to this song the moment we got on the road. So whenever I hear this song I think about our roadtrips together.

"Bring the Noise"
Also in 1998, Anthrax came through Dallas & played in a small club. Earlier that year I had seen Public Enemy perform at Smokin' Grooves (I also met Flavor Flav at Denny's afterwards), so I wore my brand new Public Enemy t-shirt to see Anthrax knowing that they'd performed this song together.

During their set Scott Ian noticed my t-shirt (and I was the only one there wearing one, by the way) and gave me a big smile and thumbs-up, then made sure the rest of the band noticed too. When they played "Bring the Noise", John Bush motioned for me to move up front and we rapped it together. Awesome. Afterward I got to meet Scott Ian (no idea why he was the only one hanging out outside) & I made sure to mention meeting Flav. Somewhere in my concert ticket collection I have both of their autographs.

"Give Me Something Real"
Baboon was a band from Denton, TX, formed while the members attended courses at the University of North Texas. This song was written about the singer's experience at UNT, which is where I graduated from.


Lyrics...

Well I've read every book they wrote
They shoved them down my throat
But now I'm ready
Hey this university
It gives me what I need
And are you ready?

To go
To take
Over this whole

Lies and trash is what they serve
It's totally absurd
But now I'm ready
Hey this power that you crave
It just gets in the way
And are you ready?

To go
To take
Over this whole
Ready
To go
To take
Over this whole world
Give me something real
Thanks but no

Well I've read every book they wrote
They shoved them down my throat
And now I'm ready
Hey this university
It gives me what I need
And are you ready?

To go
To take
Over this whole
Ready
To go
To take
Over this whole world
Give me something real
Thanks but no....thanks

"Bring Me the Head of Jack Skinner"
The opening line to the recorded version of this song is "you're gonna die!", a line I slightly modified & used to scream before bands would play. The lights would go out & I'd yell "we're gonna die!"...then I'd start pogoing or rush into the moshpit or whatever. Good times.

"Say It Ain't So"
Between '96 and 2001 I tried unsuccessfully to start my own band. At one point one of my close friends was going to play guitar for me, and to warm up we used to do a couple covers, one of which was "Say It Ain't So".

"Damned If I Do"/"Lost at 22"
"Damned If I Do" was another song we'd cover to warm up. "Lost at 22" was my personal theme song in 1999, and this album therefore served as my personal soundtrack for being 22 years old.

"Schism"
At the time this album came out I was spending a lot of time in online chatrooms. From this song came the username I used the most: findingbeautyinthedissonance.

"Catholic Girls"
From 2001-2003 I dated a grrl who when asked her religion would say she's a Pagan Catholic. She got me into Frank Zappa, so this song always makes me think of her.

"5 Years"
Between 2003 and 2009, I had a difficult time finding someone to be in a relationship with. I dated plenty of grrls, but for various reasons things rarely progressed beyond a few dates and the girlfriends I did have didn't last longer than a couple months. Throughout that time this song frequently played in my head if not on my mp3 player (see also: "Butterfly" by Weezer, "Somebody to Love" by Queen, and "Pretty Girls (The Mover)" by Against Me!).

"Violence"
Sometimes whenever I'm watching a movie, lines from this song run through my head: "So many possibilities for this to all end badly/it's almost...guaranteed". Which means I associate this song with unhappy endings, bad situations, and unfortunate circumstances.

"Enjoy the Silence"
In 2009 I finally met the woman I'd been looking for. She found me online and we exchanged e-mails for about a month before talking on the phone for another month. Memorial Day weekend I drove from Dallas to Austin to meet her & wound up spending the entire weekend with her. Now we live together in Austin & have a daughter.

That first weekend, this song played in my head constantly...

(I prefer Failure's cover to the original)

"Girl U Want"
My girlfriancee is from Ohio, which is/was also home to Devo. So the fact they're both from the same place plus the lyrics equals me thinking of her whenever I hear it. Of course, the fact that I've set it as her ringtone helps too.

"I'd Have to Be Crazy"
One of the best love songs ever written. When we get married it will be the first song we dance to, whether it's at the reception (if we have one) or on our own alone somewhere (if we don't).

"The Crystal Ship"
Whenever I'm trying to get my daughter to take a nap, I hold her close & sing her to sleep. This is the song I always start with (one song is never enough)...her first lullaby.