Curiosity Deficit

keeptheshame @ 2007-09-11T00:42:00

2007-09-10T14:46:38Z

Happy Birthday My Baby

So I made this in order to spread me relate propaganda and to explain the thing that are on your iPod. If you want you can feel free to scroll down the page at your leisure or you can follow the links below to the relevant posts.

Album Reviews

Early Influences

High School Years - Part One Part Two

University Years - Part One Part Two

More Recent Obsessions

Musicals, Musicals, Musicals

Soundtracks and Miscellaneous

Kelly Clarkson Concert

Veronicas Concert

Dixie Chicks Concert

U2 Concert

Kylie Concert

Robbie Williams Concert

Scissor Sisters Concert

Pink Concert

Girls Aloud Primer

Girls Aloud Albums

ps I love you very much.

Original albums post

2007-09-10T14:40:45Z

It’s been a weird time – Big Kev and John Spencer died, the Oprah episode with Felicity Huffman was on (and I could not love Felicity more), my father convinced my mother to come down for his mother’s 90th birthday, and at our annual day of Christmas shopping and movies, my friend’s car broke down and we sat of a roof top car park for hours waiting for the RACQ so I had time to compile my music list.

Also have just been to a pub in Wynnum (Brisbane’s Wynnum rather than the other Wynnums out there) to see the Rogue Traders – they are not on the list but they can have their own gush (I have mentioned before that you should get their album and I stand by this). It was hot and the place was full of fuckwits, as a result I have a new collective noun for fuckwits – a Wynnum of fuckwits – but the Rogue Traders rocked and I am more than a little in love with Natalie

Ok so I have put far more thought into this than I should have – am looking at a large pile of presents that aren’t wrapping themselves and ignoring the fact that I have reports that I have to get done before case conference this week – and a whole lot of gushing follows and probably reveals a whole lot more about me than I ever really planned on sharing.

Before we start, a bit of background, I am by no means a music snob, I just like what I like (and often that is very, very trashy although the list doesn’t accurately reflect that – have rectified that with the potential list candidates at the end though). I am the product of a complete audiophile father (both the music and the sound systems – he spends many hours on ebay trying to buy some antiquated system or another) with an amazing singing voice and a mother who is tone deaf and through my life has taught me many, many wrong lyrics. As for me, I can carry a tune but I’m nothing special (unlike father, sister and strangely enough maternal grandmother who are all very talented but unlike any of them (except my dad) can actually read music) and have a great capacity to mishear music lyrics (some of my mondegreens are truly spectacular – that well known hit “White Tiger Mood” for example (major points to you if you can work out what song lyric/title I completely butchered to come up with that). I have what I consider to be relatively eclectic music tastes – I own everything from Rancid to the Xanadu soundtrack and while I have hundreds of CDs I don’t really listen to whole CDs very often I have some sort of combination of Attention Deficit and Autistic Spectrum disorders when it comes to music and often only listen to one or two songs on a CD. I also spend a lot of time listening to Soundtracks (hence the lengthy Scream 2 discussion at Alice’s LJ) and musicals but I decided not to consider those for the list (so you are all saved a gush over how much I love the Grease Two soundtrack). I also own heaps of greatest hits albums but ruled these out also (so in addition you are spared me ranting about my love of Dr Hook, Peter Allen and Barry Manilow songs)

I thought about doing it by songs (which would probably be more representative of what I actually listen to) but that is just too daunting, so it’s an albums list and they are not necessarily the best albums I have but they are the ones that have had a big impact on me (enough for me to know more that just the singles from them) and I would definitely want them with me on a desert island. This list is by no means exhaustive and as I sit here I am listening to Robbie Williams and it’s a shame that the list doesn’t reference how much I love ‘Come Undone’ (“I’m contemplating, thinking about thinking, it’s over-rated just get another drink in” “so need your love, so fuck you all”) and ‘Sexed Up’ so now that that’s covered, on to the list – in no particular order [and I think I have managed to cover most of the albums mentioned in the post – something that I doubt you will be grateful for but I have done it nonetheless]

Deluxe - Better Than Ezra

I have to admit that it was very hard choice between this and Friction Baby because I love them both so much but I have loved Deluxe longer – big album of my college years and it gets extra points for the memory of standing in the line for the Wild Rapids ride at Dreamworld with my little brother when he was 4, it was a long wait and very hot (as it’s want to be here in January) and there were other kids around and they were singing nursery rhymes etc while my little brother was singing “Well maybe I’ll call or write you a letter, now maybe we’ll see on the forth of July” – aah much younger siblings, so easily moulded – it’s a shame they grow up and develop opinions of their own. I pretty much love every song on this album and it’s hard to pick out my favourites but I do especially love that ‘Teenager’ features the line “Wrap yourself in black, listen to The Cure” and that the chorus is “If it feels good do it, if it tastes fine then drink, there’s a range of possibilities to find, teenager”. If I had to pick a favourite it would be ‘Porcelain’ and I would quote my favourite bits of that song but it would end up being the entire song, although it does alarm me that I adore a song that has “Well I wish I could kill you, savour the sight, get into my car drive into the night, then lie as I scream to the heavens above that I was the last one you ever loved” – but believe me somehow it’s beautiful, still disturbing but definitely beautiful, in this song. I should also mention how much I adore ‘Desperately Wanting’ from Friction Baby (now I am not a particularly down of morose girl (at least not normally) I am sitting here with my hair in lots of little plaits sucking on a chuppa chup, if anything I am 6, but I do tend to like songs about suicide – 'The Freshman' by The Verve Pipe is also a big favourite of mine (but these songs tend to be about those left behind rather than the act so I guess that’s a little more positive, I think it also speaks to the fact that society holds us responsible for the suicide of others (and they obviously hold my profession particularly responsible) and while we do try, you can’t save everyone and it’s nice for that to be recognised – “When they pumped out your guts and filled you full of those pills, you were never quite right, deserving all the chills, they say the worst is over, kick it over and ran, then they ask what wrong when they turned you on again.”

Woodface - Crowded House

My first Crowded House album, although I now have all of them, and definitely my sentimental favourite but I also think it is their best album. So they may be from New Zealand but we happily steal the good stuff and call it our own (well, we are a penal colony) and I consider them to be the best band that we have ever produced (so lots of gushing to follow). Before I get on to Woodface I should mention some of the wonder of their other albums –

The first and self-titled album features some great songs – ‘The World Where You Live’, ‘Now We’re Getting Somewhere’, ‘Something So Strong’ the sad – “She came all the way from America, she had a blind date with destiny and the sound of Te Awamutu had a truly sacred ring, now parents are divorced and her friend’s committing suicide” but still somehow up and danceable ‘Mean to Me’ (many drunken boat cruises with my friends and I screaming out “with a black and white TV to stop us from getting lonely” and the song which dancing to caused some spectacular carpet burns on my knees (there is a line “Down on my knees” in the chorus and my dancing is always literal) - I spent the next few days picking pieces of stocking out of my wounds) and ‘Don’t Dream it’s Over’ which I love for a line that I can completely relate to “In the paper today, tales of war and of waste but you turn right over to the TV page”.

Their sophomore effort Temple of Low Men features the very popular ‘Sister Madly’ but I am not such a huge fan of it (don’t know why), I much prefer ‘When You Come’ and ‘I Feel Possessed’ and of course the huge hit that was ‘Better Be Home Soon’ (which gets covered by everyone and their dog but remains a very beautiful song).

Their final album (other than Recurring Dream – the greatest hits album – although I do like the two new songs on that ‘Instinct’ and ‘Not the Girl You Think You Are’.) Together Alone is also really great and the first time I saw them live was for the Together Alone tour (the second time was on the steps of the Sydney Opera House for their Farewell to the World concert – sniff) – it has great range from the soft and beautiful ‘Fingers of Love’ and ‘Private Universe’ to the eerie ‘Kare Kare’ (“You can say the magic words, I’ve got my senses on and this is the only place that I always run from”) to the rocking ‘Locked Out’ and ‘Black White and Boy’

Woodface itself was a change from their first two albums, less organ and more guitar but it also has the best collection of songs (In my oh so overrated opinion). All four of the hits are different but equally wonderful – ‘Chocolate Cake’ is delightfully tongue in cheek and as someone who loves musicals but thinks that Andrew Lloyd Webber is over-rated I adore that it opens with the line “Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Llyod Webber”, ‘It’s Only Natural’ is a great song of love and longing, ‘Fall at Your Feet’ is one of my favourite songs ever – the difficulty of the relationship and the distance between them is almost palpable, it also has a great bridge - “the finger of blame has turned upon itself and I’m more than willing to offer myself, do you want my presence or need my help, who knows were that might lead? I’d fall”, ‘Weather with You’ was a huge, huge, hit here but probably most associated in my mind with just how much my mother hates this song and my sister and I spending many hours trying to convince her that it was a good song and had more words than “everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you”. I happen to think that all of the non released songs are also tremendous but I guess the stand outs for me are ‘There Goes God’ (“Like to know you but in this town I can’t get arrested”) and ‘Whispers and Moans’ and unless you have stood in a theatre and heard ‘Four Seasons in One Day’ live, you’ve not lived – the throw to the audience sing of “blood dries up, like rain, like rain, fills my cup, like for seasons in one day” was completely brilliant and in my mind it remains haunting to this very day.

Tapestry – Carole King

I adore this; I love everything about it with the notable exception of the title track which is long and strangely out of place with the rest of the album. I often go back and forward with my feelings about love songs (I realise there are actually limited things that songs are about and that mainly they are about love or relationships in one way or another but I like a little variety [that said, since I fell in love with you I understand why people spend so much time writing about love and the lose of it]) but I am very impressed with how she can write/sing about pining (‘You’re So Far Away’), about fearing that they don’t really care for you (‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’), about being so in love that you would follow someone anywhere (‘Where You Lead’ – which is one of my favourite songs ever (I get the feeling that’s a phrase I will be typing often in this post) but when my friends follow their partners in real life I am highly critical – I have the most amazing double bookkeeping going sometimes) and the end of a relationship (‘It’s Too Late’) and they all seem equally valid, as though she is experiencing them now. As a child of the 80s (sure I was born in the 70s but my musical awareness beyond what we sang at kindy or what my mum sang to me really didn’t kick in until the 80s) I had some trouble at first with hearing her versions of songs I was already familiar with – ‘I Feel the Earth Move’ (cause I did love Martika back in the day), ‘Will You Still Love me Tomorrow’ (I still have a soft spot for the Shirelles’ version, I like the sound of it but the emotion is not really on the level with Carole’s performance) and ‘Natural Woman’ (cause Aretha does rock) but I now like Carole’s versions better and in the case of the first two songs, her versions are very, very different to what I had been familiar with. Despite not liking Tapestry for not really fitting with the rest of the album I manage to really like Smackwater Jack (I am such a giant hypocrite) but then how can you not love a song that features “You can’t talk to a man with a shotgun in his hand”???????????

August and Everything After – Counting Crows

A CD that completely polarises my family – my sister and I both love it but my mother actively hates it, to the point were we are not allowed to play it out loud if she is around (it’s weird the things my mother has rules about). My sister actually introduced me to this album – I think she was going through a high school angst period at the time – and I am very grateful to her. It is a great collection of songs and I know I mentioned that I am not a particularly down girl and am now going to go on to discuss how much I like a CD about alienation, grief and loss but I think it’s the accessibility of said alienation, grief and loss that makes this album really work – they are well expressed, sometimes poetically “She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land, just like she’s walking on a wire in the circus”, sometimes simply “we all want something beautiful, I wish I was beautiful” and I find them very believable. Sure there are parts of the CD that I find a bit over the top – ‘Ghost Train’ remains my least favourite song on the disc and for a very long time I couldn’t stand ‘Raining in Baltimore’ – I just wanted to buy him a fucking rain coat so he would shut the hell up but then it featured in an episode of Homicide – Life on the Streets and now I love it (ahhh the shifting sands of my affection). I should also point out the rabid love I have for Counting Crows songs that feature girls’ names in the title – ‘Anna Begins’ (my little sister’s name is Anna and we both love the title of this song but it’s also very beautiful “She’s talking in her sleep, it’s keeping me awake and Anna begins to toss and turn and every word is nonsense but I understand and oh lord, I’m not ready for this sort of thing”) and ‘Goodnight Elizabeth’ and now that we are on to Recovering the Satellites I am going to digress and mention just how much I love ‘Long December (“the smell of hospitals in winter” really works for me) and ‘Another Horsedreamer’s Blues’ (which I know does skate around the suicide thing but I think it’s brilliantly written (although I refuse to spell Marjorie the way they do) “Marjorie’s wingspan’s all features and coke cans and TV dinners and letters she won’t send and every race night is shot through with sunlight, trying to hit the big one, one last time tonight for drunken fathers and stupid mothers and boys who can’t tell one girl from another, so she takes her pills, careful and round, one of these days she’s gonna throw the whole bottle down but she’s trying to be good girl and give ‘em want they want”). But back to August and Everything After I couldn’t leave the discussion of this CD without mentioning how much I love Rain King (“she’s been dying and I’ve been drinking and I am the Rain King”)

Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson

I thought about excluding her but I just couldn’t do it (but due to this there is an absence of poppy pop music on my list so I have to add some albums that I seriously considered including to the bottom of the list). As, I’m sure, it is abundantly clear from my LJ I love Kelly (she has a very large shrine indeed) and I think her second outing is a truly remarkable album – it’s much more cohesive than her first album and feels more like she really gets what she’s singing about (that said I do love Thankful). My favourite songs on this (other than the singles) are ‘Addicted’ and ‘I Hate Myself for Losing You’ [This post well and truly predates My December]

Garbage – Garbage

So it’s kind of angry and angsty but it’s still very fun and once again this was a big college album for me – actually I was pretty down at this time and this probably wasn’t the best album to be listening to at that point, back then I wasn’t really able to see the fun side of it – I would sit in my room at college trying, but failing, to study and cry to lines like “You learn to love the pain you feel”, “you’re hungry cause you starve while holding back the tears” and “I bought into what I was sold and ended up with nothing” – it may have something to do with just how fucked up I got in fourth year but may be I was listening to this so incessantly cause I was such a mess. Doesn’t really matter cause I am much better now and more able to appreciate the anger and the playfulness of the album (and it doesn’t make me cry anymore) – I love that they all but make fun of how angry and down the album is with ‘I’m Only Happy When It Rains’ (“I feel good when things are going wrong, I only listen to sad, sad songs”, “you want to hear about my new obsession, I’m riding high up on a deep depression” and that she is singing “Pour your misery down on me” in such an upbeat and funky, makes you want to dance, way) and I like thrashing away to ‘Not My Idea of a Good Time’ (“you thought I was little girl, you thought I was a little mouse, you thought you’d take me by surprise, now I’m here burning your house”) and ‘Vow’ (“you crucify me but I’m back in your bed like Jesus Christ coming back from the dead” “I came to cut you up, I came to knock you down, I came around to tear your little world apart”).

Stunt - Barenaked Ladies

A CD that my flat mate introduced me to, so big props to him because without him, not only would I not have had the wonder that is Stunt (and all the other Barenaked Ladies albums that I have purchased since) I would not have gone to the their concert and that would have been a great loss (they covered Cher’s ‘Believe’, they did the Near/Far thing from Sesame Street and then broke into ‘My Heart Will Go On’ – it was nothing short of spectacular and oh so much fun and, although this probably won’t translate to the rest of the world, there was the great moment of the crowd going nuts when the line “and get drunk in a pub with some Australians” came up). I love all the hits form this album and come on ‘One Week’ references The X-Files, Sailor Moon, Aquaman, Kurasawa and Snickers – what’s not to love (I know everyone doesn’t feel this way, I’ve read plenty of reviews that trash them for being too caught up in their own clever lyrics but then one of these reviewers clearly was incapable of listening to or at least understanding the too clever lyrics as they referred to ‘Sell, Sell, Sell’ from Maroon as a pointless song about the stock market when clearly it is an awesome song about the entertainment industry – I have no idea what they thought “In roman numerals he’s ivy league with Roman Polanski, he’d win an Oscar every time if he was only given the chance” had to do with stocks and shares but I guess it could be metaphorical but “he started on the Broadway stage, a product of another age, an offer and a pilot drew him West” is fairly clear cut to me – this is when I get all annoyed that people are getting paid to review things and they are clearly idiots and know nothing about the things they are reviewing and wonder why no-one is knocking on my door, offering me a job that I would clearly have aptitude for). I admire them for having a jaunty little number entitled ‘She’s On Time’ about the glee over one’s girlfriend not being knocked up, I think ‘Call and Answer’ is gorgeous (“I’m warning you don’t every do, those crazy messed up things that you do, if you ever do, I promise you, I’ll be the first to crucify you, now it’s time to prove that you’ve come back here to rebuild”) but the song that made me fall in love with them was ‘Alcohol’ – “I love you more, than did the week before I discovered alcohol” – perfect!!!

Listen Without Prejudice – George Michael

Ok, so Faith is a great album and I now adore it but I so didn’t recognise that at the time, in fact I hated George (when I was in grade 8, there was this back pack, where I used to leave my bag, that had “Gotta have faith” written on it and I used to look at it everyday and think “Idiot” – owner of said back pack went on to become one of my best friends and remains so today (in fact it was her car that broke down yesterday [the person is Cath by the way]), so clearly I often have no idea of what I am talking about and I now own Faith and think that the bridge in ‘Kissing a Fool’ is one of the coolest things ever (and I so love singing that bit) and have gone off (as we used to say back then) to ‘I Want Your Sex’ at many a college function) and as a result my love of Listen Without Prejudice came as a big shock to me. ‘Freedom 90’ is one of my favourite types of songs, the here’s a song about my career song (other great examples being ‘Tonight’ by New Kids on the Block and ‘Never Forget’ by Take That) but it is a truly great song with a very cool film clip, ‘Heal the Pain’ is a fabulous song about wanting someone who is with someone else (“Who needs a lover that can’t be a friend, something tells me I’m the one you’ve been looking for, if you ever should see him again, won’t you tell him you’ve found someone who gives you more, someone who will protect you, love and respect you, all those things that he never could bring to you like I do, or rather I would, won’t you show me you’ve heart like you should”) and ‘Mother’s Pride’ often makes me cry – “he’ll hold a gun, till kingdom come” (I love that it is about the futility of war but that to admit that war is futile would mean that people had died in vain so we continue to glorify the act and see their deaths as honourable and in doing so we allow further deaths to occur and I love that in this song they hold the woman accountable for that cause they are the ones losing their husbands and sons and for a girl who thinks KLF’s (featuring Tammy Wynette) line “They’re justified and they’re ancient and they drive an ice-cream van” is an awesome song lyric, these are some pretty bloody profound thoughts)

The Spirit Room – Michelle Branch

I have entire lectures on the evils of drug reps and the dangers of fraternising with them and why my loyalty is completely for sale – I don’t doubt that my loyalty is for sale but I tend not to be won over by pens or food or the promise of trips away, I will however buy CDs solely because a song is featured in an episode of Buffy, which is how I came to own The Spirit Room. That said, I in no way regret my impulse purchase. I have spent many hours jumping around my living room to ‘Everywhere’. And while I don’t usually like for albums to be almost exclusively love songs, there are some exceptions (also I like that she writes her songs and that she can play guitar). Once again it’s hard to talk about this album cause I like all the songs but she does break my heart when she sings “I know she loves you and I can’t interfere, so I’ll just have to sit back and watch my world disappear” in ‘If Only She Knew’ and ‘Something To Sleep To’ is also a favourite but it’s the song that made me buy the album that I think is the real gem of the group – once again if I was to quote all my favourite lines of ‘Goodbye to You’ it would be the whole song (and I seriously considered doing that) but suffice to say that it really gets me – the knowing that it’s over and knowing that it wasn’t right but not being able to let go is so well expressed “and it hurts to want everything and nothing at the same time, I want what’s yours and I want what’s mine, I want you but I’m not giving in this time”

Runaway Horses - Belinda Carlisle

My favourite album by my favourite female artist of all time – I’m sure the people sitting behind me at the Hear and Now concert appreciated all the jumping up and down and singing and screaming that I did when she was on. Love every single song on it and nowadays it always reminds me of my flat mate (not [Jason] but my original flat mate – responsible for such moments as learning the words to Mmmbop and the dance on the Men In Black film clip during our exams blocks (that either of us have a degree is a frightening thing)) doing a lip synched dance number to ‘Leave a Light on For Me’ at my 21st birthday party (I do so love my friends). Yet again really hard to discuss because I love all of it so much but I guess my favourites are ‘La Luna’, ‘Deep, Deep Ocean’ and ‘We Want the Same Thing’ and the absolute, sheer brilliance that is ‘Summer Rain’ (lets take a moment to acknowledge how annoyed I was when someone released a dance version of this, if Belinda had wanted it to be a dance number, it would have been a dance number) cause how can you not love it “Every time I see the lightning, every time I hear the thunder, every time I close the window, when this happens in summer” – sigh.

In something close to alphabetical order of artist but I’m am really tired so there’s bound to be mistakes –

This Road – James Blundell (and boy and how was he hot back then! Also actually a good album), Northern Star – Mel C, International Velvet – Catatonia (‘Road Rage’ and ‘Mulder and Scully’ rock!), Telelove – Suze Demarchi, Falling Into You – Celine Dion (sad but true), Icon – D.A.A.S (so they were a comedy group but this is still a great album – it very nearly made the list and if I don’t stop now I will talk about it for ages [and I can’t include it as only have the tape]), Escape – Enrique (So many great memories attached – especially jumping up and down to ‘Don’t Turn Out the Lights’ at my friend Sara’s wedding and jumping around to ‘One Night Stand’ at my friend Ben’s engagement party), Fallen – Evanescence, Invincible – Five (ah the bad boys of pop!), Rumours – Fleetwood Mac, Polyserena – George (for the beauty of ‘Breath in Now’ if nothing else), Middle of Nowhere – Hanson (better than you think it is), Cracked Rear View – Hootie and the Blowfish, Pieces of You – Jewell (I do so love ‘Meant for Me’ and ‘Foolish Games’), Hot Fuss – The Killers, Reflector - Killing Heidi (yay for ‘Mascara’), Throwing Copper – Live, Songs About Jane – Maroon 5 (great, great album – ‘Harder to Breathe’, ‘This Love’, ‘She Will be Loved’ – all classics), Yourself of Someone Like You – Matchbox 20 (have much to say about this but I’m sick of typing and my shoulders are sore), any and all of my Kate Miller-Heidke EPs, Blue – Joni Mitchell, Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morrisette (cause I really did like it but her new stuff, not so much), Nerf Herder – How to Meet Girls (the references in ‘For You’ could be written for me and ‘Courtney’ is just brilliant), Tragic Kingdom – No Doubt (many fun nights on the dance floor to ‘Just A Girl’ and was singing ‘Don’t Speak’ in the car on the way to the concert tonight), (What’s the Story…..) Morning Glory – Oasis, Very – Pet Shop Boys (“because you dance to disco and you don’t like rock” and then there was the day that ‘Yesterday When I Was Mad’ got stuck in my head in an anatomy exam. It should be noted that Discograhpy is one of my favourite things ever), M!ssunderstood – Pink [this was written pre the release of I’m Not Dead], Diamonds and Pearls – Prince (because you can’t live with [Jason] and not be won over by his rampant Prince love and it had the added bonus of having Ms Calender on the cover!), Out of Time and Monster – R.E.M., Joyride and Look Sharp – Roxette (my sister and I still sing ‘Things Will Never be the Same’ when we are together), S Club and Sunshine – S Club 7 (gotta love the kids), Hormonally Yours – Shakespeare’s Sister (the weirdness of ‘Stay’ and fun of ‘I Don’t Care’ although I do love ‘You’re History’ and it’s not on this album),…..baby one more time, Oops!....I Did It Again and Britney – Britney Spears (back before she was clearly white trash and I need to tell you all that [Jason] thinks that the only time Britney knows what she is singing about is when she sings ‘Born to Make You Happy’), Spice and Spiceworld – Spice Girls (loved them, loved them, loved them), Ten Summoner’s Tales – Sting (‘Seven Days’ – “we won’t be playing scrabble for her hand I fear” ), 100% Fun – Matthew Sweet (‘Sick of Myself’ = Awesome),Tenacious D – Tenacious D (It’s crass but it’s funny and I love ‘Fuck Her Gently’), Auchtung Baby – U2 (the album that ended my U2 hatred with the words “Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head”), Eight Arms to Hold You – Veruca Salt, Escapology – Robbie Williams.

Early Influences

2007-09-10T14:17:36Z

[These would be the things that my parents or extended family listened to or sang around the house when I was growing up and I guess they are just things that I love unconditionally and have never had to be objective about (I don’t plan to scrutinise them too much now either – would not like to have to see if they withstood the examination).

Barry Manilow

My mum likes Barry and to this day vacuums to Copacabana

Copacabana [At The Copa] – I really like that most people will dance to this song having no idea what it’s about (I am not ashamed to confess that I like to feel superior at such times). It intrigues me that such an upbeat song is actually so tragic – the “she sits there so refined and drinks herself half blind, she lost her youth and she lost her Tony, now she’s lost her mind” bit gets me every time.

Mandy – I always liked this song and enjoyed singing it but it now holds an even fonder place in my heart due to the fact that it is part of the Buffyverse as it is a song that Angel loves and that he sings badly at karaoke (it is seriously bad and I yet I still love him – you should keep that in mind).

Billie Holiday

My dad loves Jazz and Blues but despite this I am not the biggest fan – I do like Billie though

God Bless The Child and Summertime – These are both songs that get covered to death and I have to admit that sometimes I do like the covers better but there really is something about Billie and the innate sadness in her voice.

Bobby Gentry - I'll Never Fall in Love Again – My father hasn’t taught me a whole lot in my life but he did teach me to love the work of Burt Barcharach and there will be a whole lot of BBs work to follow. When I spent my uni years hanging out in the comic shop we used to play BB songs from time to time (particularly if I was controlling the CD player) - I am a geek on so many levels

Captain & Tennille - Love Will Keep Us Together – I don’t remember who brought this into my live but I don’t remember it not being there. I love singing the “I will, I will, I will” bit and I love my Captain & Tennille CD.

Dionne Warwick

BB songs sung by Dionne is about as good as it gets if you ask me (or my dad)

Anyone Who Had a Heart – I find this song beautifully tragic (to quote Wicked - the musical) and it builds to such a powerful climax – kudos to both BB and Dionne

Walk on By – This remains one of my favourite songs to this day. I love the concept of “foolish pride” being all that she has left and that he needs to let her kept that intact. I also just really love singing this song – especially the second verse's “the tears and the sadness you gave me when you said goodbye”

Dr. Hook

Both my dad and my step-mother were huge Dr Hook fans and there were many holidays spent listening to them while we drove long distances. Dr Hook songs are probably one group of songs that you can guarantee all my siblings can sing (even if Liam doesn’t understand them)

Everybody's Making It Big But Me – How can you not love a song that features “they’ve got groupies for their bands and all I’ve got is my right hand”?????

More Like The Movies – This was one of my dad’s favourites when I was growing up and one that he sings really, really well. Our mutual love of this song was one of the many things that my internet friend and I bonded over.

Years From Now – This is one that I didn’t really love until I was older but now it is definitely one of my favourites – I love the melody and how the timing of things is slightly different on the second chorus than it is on the first.

On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone – Their fun songs are just so cool – “we sing about beauty and we sing about truth at 10 thousand dollars a show”

The Millionaire – This is Eugene’s favourite Dr Hook song and one we sing together. I do love “I could get myself a nose job, I could diet for a year but I’ll never be Robert Redford cause I’m much too fond of beer” but the gleeful “but there’s one thing in my favour (what?) I’m a millionaire (that’s beautiful)” is just brilliant.

Only Sixteen – I loved this as a kid but as with Sylvia’s mother below I didn’t really appreciate it until I was older. For my 25^th birthday one of my friends (whose parents also subjected her to Dr Hook growing up) and I went to see Dennis perform the songs of Dr Hook (and were up at the front, jumping up and down and singing loudly – I am sure Dennis loved us) and the “but I…I was too young… I was much too young to know” bit was just amazing to hear live and to have the crowd sing it with him.

Sylvia's Mother – I find something so sad about “Sylvia’s mother says don’t you say nothing to make her start crying and stay” – that this might be a possibility and he doesn’t get to talk to her really gets to me.

I Got Stoned And I Missed It – I was really annoyed when “Because I Got High” became a number one hit cause I felt like the concept had been done before and so much better by Dr Hook. I just adore “Now it took seven months of urgin’ just to get that local virgin with the sweat face up to my place to fool around a bit.”

Dusty Springfield

You will be shocked to learn that these are BB songs. I have a bit of a problem with the idea of musicals based on songs but I did love Dusty due to fact that I love her songs so.

The Look of Love – Have always really liked this song – even though there really hadn’t been any looks of love in my past – I like to think that there are now (and I like them very, very much).

Wishin' and Hopin' – I’m not really sure what it is about this song that I like but there is just something about

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me – Far and away my fav Dusty song. I love the emotions and the words and the melody.

Elton John

I know you don’t like Elton but my mother does (I don’t imagine that that’s a selling point for you) and these are Anna and my favourites and we sing them often

Tiny Dancer – my sister loves singing “ballerina you must have seen her dancing in the sand” but I am more a “softly, slowly” girl

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – This is my favourite Elton song I just love the line “I’m not a present for your friends to open”

Frank Sinatra

He may have had a rather unusual private (and somewhat public) life but the man can sing and he completely kills in High Society (one of my most beloved musicals and movies ever)

Somethin' Stupid – I have always loved this and it was a great moment for me when this song appeared in an episode of Chicago Hope. I remain very, very annoyed that Nicole and Robbie released this and let the common people know this song.

Fly Me to the Moon – I love the swing beats of this song and there is something joyous about it.

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Walk Like A Man – This is another song that I got all excited about when it appeared in Chicago Hope (in the great episode entitled Brain Salad Surgery). I just find this a really fun song.

Barry White - You're The First, The Last, My Everything – My dad is a big Barry White fan and Barry does have a great voice and his songs did feature a lot in the early (and good) days of Ally McBeal – between this and Chicago Hope I am thinking that maybe David E Kelly (creator of both) and I had similar parents.

Gene Pitney - Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa – back to BB and back to not questioning why a I like things – cause there are some not so good things in the song with regard to his actions.

George Benson

Again my Dad really loves George – he always goes to see him when he tours and raves about it for months afterwards

Never Give up on a Good Thing – This would be what we dance around to whilst doing the dishes at my dad’s.

On Broadway – I am sure you're surprised about the fact that I like a song about a theatre district.

The Monkies - I'm A Believer – I never actually watched the show but I really like their music (and Davey Jones was great in the episode of Herman’s Head that he did) – I do like the Smashmouth version of this song but The Monkies are better.

Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline – I do love Neil (as do both my parents) and went and saw him in concert last year (in a weird moment of bonding with my step-mother) and there is always something fun about this song coming on when people are drunk and they loudly sing “touching me, touching you”

Peter Allen

My mother simply adores Peter and the only standing ovation that she ever gave was at a Peter Allen concert. I think his music is great

Tenterfield Saddler – This is one of those songs that people seem to know but have no idea what it is about but I love it and find “there’s nowhere for George and his library or a son with a gun to belong…except in this song” very moving – it is one of my most v fav song lyrics ever.

I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love – I love, love, love, love, love, love this song so much and when I am making my selection for what I would sing each idol theme night this is always the song that I would pick for Australian music night and I would be great singing “so if you wake and find me gone just carry on you see I need my fantasy”

She Loves to Hear the Music – my mother thinks that if this was a song about a doctor obsessed with TV, rather than a secretary obsessed with music, that it would describe me – I have to wonder if she would be happier with me sleeping with random men that I can’t make a connection “and so they turn around and go, leave her by the radio, she didn’t love them anyway” than she is about you.

Vera Lynn - I'll Be Seeing You – This is a song my grandmother and mother always sung around the house and I was v excited when I was given a Vera Lynn CD a couple of Christmases ago.]

High School Years

2007-09-10T14:14:47Z

I guess in summary these songs cover a few things in my life – my early interest in music that I discovered of my own accord rather than just listening to my parents records and tapes (and the days when I would stay up all night to watch Rage and lived for the top 50 so I could tape the songs I liked - in my case onto video rather than cassette ;) ), the time I spent in hospital and when I had to come down here to live and, and probably of most influence, school dances (we may not have been able to do many things well at NRHS but we had some killer school dances) and many 100% Hits Tapes (oh how excited I would get when each of these came out and I would buy them regardless of what was on them)

1927 - That's When I Think Of You – I adored 1927, my ‘Ish” cassette was one of my most prized possessions and I had a major crush on Eric. It was hard to pick just one of their songs but sometimes I can be strong. They played at the Here and Now concert a few years ago and were the opening act – the rest of the crowd weren’t really worked up but Cath and I were on fire for “I’m always thinking of you it’s all that all can do”

a-Ha - Take On Me – I just love this song (even though it does upset me that a guy can hit the high notes of it with more ease then me) and it is still one of my fav things to bop around my lounge room to.

Aerosmith - Water Song/Janie's Got A Gun – I so loved this song back in the day, I was never really a big Aerosmith fan but I guess this was a big mainstream hit and I was right there with the rest of main stream. It is not exactly a happy song or a nice song – “she had to take him down easy and put a bullet in his brain” and I kinda like that it managed to be such a hit.

Alice Cooper – Poison – Once again it is not as though I am a big Alice Cooper fan but this was a big hit and I have to admit I was a big fan of the song – “I want to taste you but your lips are venomous poison”

Amy Grant – Baby Baby – Look I am not really all that sure what I saw in her (and it worries me that I was fan of a Christian singer) but at the time I loved my Heart in Motion CD and I can remember us literally jumping up and down with excitement the first time this song was played at a school dance.

Andrew Denton - I Don't Care As Long As We Beat New Zealand – Friday nights for me were all about Live and Sweaty (and having Sticky Moments with Julian Clary) and so when they released this single I had to buy it! Just so you know, the impressive female vocals on this are by Jodie Gillies (for more on her see the post on musicals).

Bad English – When I See You Smile – Ah 80s power ballads, there will be more than a few of them to follow cause I did love me a power ballad!!!!!!!

Banarama – Love in the First Degree – Love, love, love, love, love it. It is my fav Banarama song. They often used to play it at The Beat when we would go clubbing there and my friends and I would do all the actions (I am particularly good at “the hours pass so slowly”)

The Bangles – Hazy Shade Of Winter – I did love The Bangles (although not as much as I loved Banarama) but I think I like this song the best because it is so very different to their other stuff. Also, they get major points for appearing in an episode of Gilmore Girls

The Beatles

Neither of my parents were really into The Beatles so they were something that I had to discover later in life

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - We have discussed this before and my friends really do still sing “so I lit a fire isn’t it good? Nerowegian Wood” often

Eleanor Rigby – My favourite Beatles song – I really was quite a moody teenager and that probably hasn’t changed – still love the sad songs (and if I could find my bloody Scream 2 soundtrack you would have another song about no-one really knowing you – I feel the need to tell you how much I love Your Lucky Day in Hell even if I can’t actually share the song with you).

Big Pig – Breakaway – I hated this song when it first came out. Hated it, hated it, hated it but what can I say – I was so very wrong and now I consider it a classic.

Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes – (I've Had) The Time Of My Life – Hey I went to high school in the late 80s – Dirty Dancing was sadly a huge part of my life and there is nothing that I can do to change that.

Billy Idol – Cradle Of Love – The first Billy Idol song that I was ever aware of (this was a hit right at the start of my Rage watching stage) and consequently still my sentimental favourite

Billy Joel

I so very much adored my Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits tapes and would play the CDs at work when I had control of the player

Allentown – I was an odd teenager and apparently songs about loss of industry and misplaced workforces spoke to me. I love the line “all the promises our teaches gave – if we work hard, if we behave. So the graduations hang on the wall but they never really helped as at all”

Goodnight Saigon – It would also seem that songs about dying in Vietman spoke to me too – which was ok cause my friends also loved this song and would sing it with me. I still really love this song (and love that it is on the Mix Tap in Avenue Q). “Remember Charlie, remember Baker, they left their childhood on every acre”

We Didn't Start The Fire – This isn’t off the greatest hits tape – it was more modern than that and again occurred at the start of my film clip watching period and for a time it was my favourite song of the moment

Black Box – Ride On Time – Not a deep song or one that is going to change the world but certainly one that we used to dance hard to.

Boyz II Men – End Of The Road – Look I have to confess that there was a time that I simply adored my Boyz II Men CD and there has now been a much longer period of me being embarrassed to own it but this was big and I loved it and it was the last song that played at our year 12 formal (which was on the very last night of school)

Brain May – Too Much Love Will Kill You – A power ballad by one of the guys from Queen what else can I say.

Bros - When Will I Be Famous?- Much like my Boyz II Men CD. There was a time that I was very embarrassed to admit that I owned a Bros tape but that time is not now (in fact I upgraded them to CD). I now consider them fantastic – am not sure if it’s nostalgia or dementia but I do love the lads - “You’ve read Karl Marx and you’ve taught yourself to dance, you’re the best my far”

Bryan Adams

Look I know it’s Bryan Adams and I know what people think of him and I did laugh in the South Park movie when they said that the Canadian government had apologised many times for Bryan Adams but I can’t pretend that I wasn’t over the moon when I got my Waking Up the Neighbours CD for my 16^th birthday

Summer Of '69 – A huge song at any school dance and continued to be a huge song at uni dances.

(Everything I Do) I Do It For You – I loved Robin Hood Prince of Thieves so much and I thought her telling him that she wouldn’t die for her King but she would die for him was the most romantic thing in the world when I was 16. When I was in uni I had revised my opinion and felt it would have been much more sensible to die for her King – a conviction I held strongly up until this year and now that I am actually in love I find myself wavering a bit on the matter. Anyways I adored this song at the time and that I danced with my formal date to it (he was second choice crush throughout year 12– first ranked crush didn’t attend the formal - and the day he asked me to the formal was just so exciting for me. I always assumed no-one would ask me, I wasn’t the type of girl that guys ask – pretty much none of my friends had dates)

C+C Music Factory – Gonna Make You Sweat – I don’t think it is quite as good as Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm (which I do a v impressive version of by the way) but it was certainly one of my fav songs to dance to at school. I also have fond memories of being in our room when we were in Toowoomba for the state eisteddfod and my sister and I crying with laughter at our room mate Kristy doing this song whilst most of her forehead was covered in some v fetching blue eye shadow.

Charlene – I've Never Been To Me – This became a huge thing amongst my friends in grade 12 when they covered it on ‘Count Down’ on ‘The Late Show’ and added their own little part to the speaking bit “that’s true, that’s love” and that’s crap. Which up until Priscilla Queen of the Desert was my reference for this song. It has many later memories attached including Sara and I, having had consumed a few wines in the reg room, singing it loudly to Ben as he was trying to make song selections for the Christmas Party that he organized.

Cheap Trick – The Flame – I so loved this song back in the day and am still fond of it. When I lived with Jason we would sing this often.

Cher – The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) – This would be another song that a blue eye-shadow laden Kristy performed in our room at Toowoomba for state eisteddfod and it was hilarious. I did love the song and I loved Wynona’s hair so much in the clip that I got a perm like that – but we won’t dwell on such atrocities.

The Church – Under The Milky Way – An usual moment of bonding between myself and my stepbrother, David. In general we were worlds apart in musical taste and it was a bit of a shock to both of us to discover that we both loved this song.

The Clouds – Anthem – Great example of 100% Hits Tapes. Had never heard this song before I got the tape and I fell in love with it. One of the things that I really loved about my flat mate Marie was that I went into her room one day at college and this was playing and we had a big flappingly excited moment about how much we both loved this song. When she lived here we used to play it often. Although on may tape the line in the final verse is “I want something no-one else will do” and the line on the CD is “I want something no-one else has” and I still think I like the former better.

Concrete Blonde – Joey – Have always loved, loved, loved this song. When my friend was social convener in my third year at college I was most insistent that we would play this song at the ball – am pleased to say that this went very well.

Communards – Don't Leave Me This Way – This actually is a primary school song and my fav song on the v first tape I ever bought myself – Summer 87 (which Jason also owns and we loved that about one another). I now know it is a Thelma Housten song but I didn’t know that when I was 11 and this will always be my preferred version of the song.

Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time – Cyndi was someone I never quite got at the time (although I did love ‘There’s a Whole in my Heart that Goes All the Way to China’ when it was released) but I completely feel in love with this song by virtue of my love of Strictly Ballroom (which I saw 5 times at the moves when I was in grade 12)

Debbie Gibson – Shake Your Love – I do have a Debbie Gibson Greatest Hits CD somewhere but apparently wherever that somewhere is it is not on my iTunes and while I like this song much better than her far bigger hit ‘Electric Youth’ I don’t love it as much as I do her ballad ‘In Your Eyes’ – I can remember everyone singing that at birthday/slumber party that I went to in grade nine when I was busy being excited about being out of the house and therefore I would get out of having to eat.

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart – I didn’t actually like this all that much at the time but it was huge and always played at dances. I have gone on to like it a lot more – maybe I was just always happy that something that I was familiar was playing at clubs, it’s hard to tell but I will certainly dance to it.

Deniece Williams – Let's Hear It For The Boy – This is one of many songs that I didn’t actually learn from the artist but rather through my obsession with Young Talent Time – I think I probably really wanted to be a YTT kid when I was little.

Duran Duran – Come Undone – My favourite Duran Duran song that isn’t a Bond Theme (although I do like that Girls Aloud do Girls on Film). Was never really a Duran Duran fan (I think they must have slightly predated my interest in music) but I do really love this song and they get points for the origin of their name.

Euphoria – One In A Million – Another huge school dance song. At least it was huge while it was a hit. I think Euphoria may have technically been a two hit wonder but they certainly disappeared quickly.

Extreme - More Than Words – One of my favourite songs ever and one that I have actually karaoked to at a work function by virtue of the fact that I ran into my friend Steve at the bar. Jason is a huge Extreme fan and I doubt that there has been a party or dinner party at Jason’s that didn’t end with Steve and I do a drunken rendition of this song.

Girlfriend – Without You – They were an Australian pre-Spicegirls girlband and I never had the CD but Anna did. This song was massive when were doing the year 12 musical and we used to sing this at rehearsals instead of actually practicing.

Guns N' Roses

I bought the November Rain CD single and it was one of the most exciting purchases of my life as not only did I get November Rain, it happened to include my two other fav Guns N’ Roses songs

November Rain – I was so, so, so, so in love with this song. As evidenced by the CD single purchase.

Sweet Child O' Mine – This was actually a hit while I was in hospital so I have slightly weird feelings about this song but it also has many good memories attached. I have sung loudly to this at many a function when drunk, my friends and I went nuts to it at the year 12 formal and the night that I met Rory I had a sprained ankle and wasn’t dancing but he was insistent that we should dance to this song as he loved it.

Patience – I do like their ballads a whole lot (but Sweet Child O’ Mine remains, in my mind, the best thing they ever did)

Gyan – Wait – A song that if I heard it for the first time now I probably wouldn’t think that it was great but it happened right at the start of my discovery of pop music and I loved it then and so it’s part of my life.

Harry Connick, Jr. – It's Alright With Me – I thought Harry was to die for cute (this is before he was scary as all shit in Copycat) and I loved my “It Had to Be You” CD. In fact it is probably my fav Harry CD. I really love this song but I don’t know why cause I don’t know that I actually like the lyrics or the message and was always a bit uncomfortable with liking it but I guess I never got how painful breaking up with someone could be so now I think he can do wants to try and ease the pain.

Heart – All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You – An uber power ballad of my youth if not THE power ballad of my youth. I must have been in about grade 8 or 9 when it came out but my fondest memory of this is singing it whilst walking along the beach with my friends in grade 12.

The Human League – Together In Electric Dreams – I loved the movie and the song but at the time I loved this I had no idea just how strange and cool The Human League were.

INXS

I bonded with one of my closet friends at college (but one that I lost in the aftermath of my overdose) due to the fact that we felt Never Tear Us Apart was INXS's best song, closely followed by New Sensation

New Sensation – This is another song that I learnt from Young Talent Time but I love it and continue to think it is amongst their finest work even if I score v poorly on it on Singstar (I fact that I find outrageous)

Never Tear Us Apart – A little tainted now by the association with Michael’s funeral but still a great song and it is great to belt out the “never, Ever, tear us apart" bit.

The Jacksons – Blame It On The Boogie – ahhh Michael before he became a freak show. One of my favourite songs to dance to and I happen to love the lyrics too.

James Blundell

It is possible that (even though I would never admit it) I did have some propensity to like country music before my internet friend starting doing her best to at least partially convert me but in my defense the love of James stems from seeing him in concert and I only agreed to go because the girls from my mother’s work decided to go whilst at a Tupperware party at our house (Tupperware has long been a part of my life) that I was having a great time at and wanted to play with them more. He told out to be hot as hell live and I was completely obsessed with this album for about 6 months.

This Road- The title track from the album and really quite a bit country but I was so in love with him that I didn’t care.

Hard Times - Way Out West – Way Out West was the big hit from the CD and probably his most successful mainstream hit but I only like it because it is on the same track as Hard Times which I completely adore – “walked off, sold up, matter of time, you laugh about it but you wake in fear”

Janet Jackson – Escapade – I really did love Janet’s Rhythm Nation. The Jackson family did used to produce good things.

Jenny Morris

Shiver was the first CD I ever owned – my dad and step-mother gave it to me when they gave me my first CD player for Christmas at the end of year nine.

Break In The Weather – This isn’t off Shiver but I love it anyway and particularly loved dancing to it in the isle of the bus on a band trip to Brisbane.

She Has To Be Loved - My favourite song off Shiver.

Johnny Logan – Hold Me Now – This is right at the start of my pop music awareness and probably wouldn’t have been included if I could have found Glen Medeiros’ ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ as I see the songs to be in similar vein but the latter song (and trust me I am sad that it is not on my iTunes) is responsible for the moment when Cath was trying to have a civilised grown up dinner party at her house and came out of the kitchen to find that I had every at the table singing the song – a moment that still gets talked about (it was quite impressive really given how early in the night it was and that we’d not had much to drink).

Jon Bon Jovi – Miracle – ‘Blaze of Glory’ may have been the smash hit of the album but I love this song so much more (although I generally love everything off the Young Guns II soundtrack).

Julie Cruise – Falling – It was the theme song to Twin Peaks and it was cool, I rest my case.

Kenny Loggins – Footloose – I don’t think I saw Footloose until I was at least at uni and it was on as at late night movie one Saturday night but I have always enjoyed boogieing to this song.

Kris Kross – Jump – They were weird little dudes who wore backwards clothes and it isn’t exactly great prose but I don’t have a problem with songs telling me to Jump (it is pretty much my standard dance move anyway)]

High School Years - part 2

2007-09-10T14:12:29Z

[Clearly I have a bit too much to say as I had to split this because I went over the word limit

Leo Sayer – You Make Me Feel Like Dancing – Probably now more famous for the rousing renditions Nikki De Bont and I have done of this song in PEC (much to Cecelia’s disgust) but there is a fabulous moment on our schoolies video where we are singing this at an Italian restaurant because we thought my friend’s hair look like Leo’s.

Lisa Edwards – Cry – I loved, loved, loved, loved this song and it still remains a favourite. It is also one of Jason’s fav songs so we used to play it a lot when he lived here. “You cheat, you lie, you make me want to cry”

Maria McKee – Show Me Heaven – It may be from a movie that features the Scientologist but I still like it and it has the added value of being a song that Nadine sang in order to get into Girls Aloud.

Martha Davis – Don't Tell Me The Time – Echo Beach may be considered a classic but I never really saw the appeal but Martha’s solo effort was one of the first songs that I ever loved.

Martika – Love They Will Be Done – Originally I adored ‘I Feel the Earth Move’ but I now find it hard to listen to her version cause I like Carole King’s so much better. I do love this song and it allows me to share some adolescent behaviour – I danced to this jokingly with a guy at a school dance in year 11 and the event resulted in my only ever school moment of passing notes about guys. My friend Karlie had to eat the note when the teacher caught us.

MC Hammer – U Can't Touch This – Ah Hammertime – the big pants, the dancing, the flat top – it all seemed good at the time. I did do a v impressive karaoke performance of this at the birthday party of one of the G Floor nurses a few years ago.

Mel & Kim – Respectable – This is probably actually primary rather than high school – in fact it must be primary school cause I can remember singing this in the car on the way to speedway with my neighbours and I didn’t engage in such behaviour once I entered high school (well the singing continued (obviously) but I no longer spent my Friday evenings being showered in dirt). I was such a SAW girl in my youth – loved them all Mel & Kim, Kylie, Jason, Rick Astley, Banarama.

Melissa

I really did like E Street and I don’t think I was wrong to think Marcus Graham was hot because he completely smoldered when I saw him in Rocky Horror – the man can mince away in heals let me tell you. E Street does always make me think of my friend Michelle (not the one having trouble with Jason) sending me a letter saying that she was stuck in Rockhampton listening to 4RO play the best hits of the 60s and 70s and Toni Pearon’s ‘In My Room’

Sexy (Is The Word) – What can I say, we loved it. It was huge at school dances and there was a great night at college when Maree, Anna, Leith and I where on Maree’s bench singing and dancing to this.

Read My Lips – “if you want to wait til later hands off my detonator” – I can remember Melissa being interviewed years later by Roy and HG and being so embarrassed by that line.

Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal – For some reason I always loved this song and the film clip to it but most people didn’t seem to be aware of it. I really was quite pleased when Alien Ant Farm covered it (and the cover is completely awesome).

Mickey & Sylvia – Love Is Strange – Another hang-over from the Dirty Dancing years. I was not familiar with the song before the film. In addition to the film this song for me will be forever associated with a family friend of ours acting it out at her poolside one day.

Mike and the Mechanics – The Living Years – This is probably something I would like to pretend that I didn’t like but I so adored it and it used to make me cry.

Milli Vanilli – Baby Don't Forget My Number – To be honest I liked “Don’t Blame it on the Rain’ better but this was their better known song. I never really got the controversy around them – they could have apologized for having to lip sync and pretended that they actually sung the songs (with the help of a generous sound mixer) and have continued to have a career, I still don’t see why they had to confess.

Moss, Ian – Tuckers Daughter – Once again this is probably primary school because my memories of this song are all associated with me being at the skating rink.

Mr. Big – To Be With You – I so love this song even if did take me for fucking ever to be sure that the line really is “waiting on a line of green and blue” and even if I still don’t know what that means.

Neil Diamond – Crunchy Granola Suite – Once again linked to The Late Show and related to Tony Martin’s bit about having attended a Neil Diamond concert (one day if you are lucky I will quote it for you) but the skit and the reference to Crunchy Granola Suite became a huge thing for my friends and they were v jealous when I went and saw him sing it live.

New Kids On The Block – Step By Step – I loved NKOTB (and as we discussed the other night, Marky Mark’s older brother was in the group) and I do love this song even if we did spent a lot of time mocking the whole Step One to Step Five bit when it first came out.

Paul Lekakis – Boom Boom (Lets Go Back To My Room) – Again a primary school song – it was huge at the same time as ‘Male Stripper’ was and I remember singing both of them whilst upside-down on the Gravitron at the show when I was in grade 7.

Paula Abdul – Opposites Attract – She may be the weirdest American Idol judge and one whom I am convinced is high all of the time but she was once part of a filmclip that was mind blowing for its time (even if it seems incredibly passé now). Can remember singing this whilst getting changed between numbers for Musical Union (my choir outside of school) review and having so much fun doing the rap bit.

Pet Shop Boys – What Have I Done To Deserve This – Discography was an album that I had a love affair with for quite a while. I used to play it in the video store all the time. It was hard to chose a song because I pretty much love them all (as evidenced by Cate’s housing warming party where everyone had gone home and Cate had gone to bed and Cath and I sang and danced to the entire album – we also took lots of self-portraits on Cate’s camera) but this one has the added bonus of featuring Dusty Springfield.

Poison

I wonder what ever happened to Poison. Open Up and Say Ah was such a huge, huge album. Admittedly I didn’t really like their later stuff – I found ‘Unskinny Bop’ lacking

Nothin' But A Good Time – This must predate me going to high school dances (I should point out that I didn’t do that until year 11 when my sister had been to one – she was in year 8 at the time – and convinced me that I had to go – I have always been developmentally delayed) but I did used to go off to this at parties (these would be parties of family friend’s as I didn’t really go to any proper parties).

Every Rose Has Its Thorn – This was a big hit when I was in hospital but it is still a beautiful song.

The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic – Once again this is something that I learnt from Young Talent Time. I like that a band that sung about stalking and prostitutes could also sing something so simple and sweet. I also like that “Do I have to tell a story of a thousand rainy days since we first met, it’s a big enough umbrella but it’s always me that ends up getting wet” features in the background of one of the songs on Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales

Prince & The New Power Generation – Cream – Far and away one of my fav songs when I was in high school. I kind of missed the whole Prince boat but I did adore this song. Nowadays I have been subjected to a lot more of Prince due to Jason being in love with the man and wanting to have his babies. There is also added excitement about this song because one of my most beloved Buffy characters (I couldn’t eat for two days when she got killed – please stop any laughing of mocking that might currently be occurring) is in the film clip.

Queen – Killer Queen – We were really into Queen sometime around grade 11 and I have to admit that when I think of Queen I always think of Elle McFeast saying one night on Live and Sweaty “and when Queen wrote Fat Bottomed Girls they were writing about me” but this is the song that made Maree and I skip formal dinner one night at college because we were busy trying to find out if we knew all the words and if we had them right.

Ray Parker Jnr – Ghostbusters – Again a primary school song. The Ghostbusters soundtrack was the first real cassette that I owned – Santa gave it to me along with a cassette player.

R.E.M. – Losing My Religion – This I discovered due to an episode of Bev Hills 90210 and had to go and buy the album. Forever associated with my sister trying to get my friends to sing it when we were walking home from school one day by conducting them with a stick and incidentally it was the song that I overdosed to – not actually a planned thing it just happened to be what was playing at the time I had managed to pop all the tablets out of their packets.

Richard Marx – Hazard – I was so in love with this song when it first came out that I played it non-stop on two days straight during my shifts at work (I am sure the customers were about as pleased with me as my neighbours continue to be).

Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up – As mentioned I was a big SAW girl and I did love Rick. I continue to enjoy to bop around to this song when given the chance – you really have to do the arm moments to the chorus – I think it is something that should be a law.

Roachford – Lay Your Love On Me – I don’t know what it is about this song that I like but it has always appealed to me.

Robert Palmer – Addicted To Love – My first exposure to Robert was actually Simply Irresistible but I like this so much better. I also loved his turn with UB40 (in fact that song was my fav song for a while).

The Rockmelons – That Word (L.O.V.E.) – I probably should divorce myself from anything to do with the family given how much I now hate Marcia but I guess that is not her daughter’s fault – and I managed to tolerate the daughter in Dusty and I can’t deny that when I got this album I was really happy.

Roxsette

Roxsette how I loved thee – I have all the albums and Look Sharp was my selection in one of those three CDs for 99 cents things when my family joined a record club (I can’t believe we ever did that)

Things Will Never Be the Same – My sister became fixated on this song when she broke up with her boyfriend and used to play it endlessly. We continue to sing it when we are together (even when we are happy) and it is one of my default songs for when things are going particularly bad in my life.

The Look – I did miss the genius of this song when it first came out and it took until after I liked a few more of their songs and had their album before I even warmed to it at all but I now consider it to be some of their best work.

Sam Brown

Once again I have no idea what happened to Sam Brown and in fact I really don’t know any of her work other than these two little gems

Stop – Was and still is one of my favourite songs and I only wish that I could sing it better than I do. Am v pleased that my girl Chanel Cole covered it so well on Idol and that Jolene completely rocked with it on It Takes Two even if neither of them really held a candle to Sam’s voice

Can I Get A Witness – This is another song that was in the charts when I was in hospital and brings back some difficult memories for me.

Scorpians – Wind of Change – something else that I would be embarrassed to like except that I love the line “let you balalaika sing what my guitar wants you to say” – I don’t think that any where near enough songs mention balalaikas.

Shakespear's Sister

Given that they came from Banarama it is not really a huge shock that I love and adore Shakespear’s Sister or the Hormonally Yours is one of my fav albums and I love the lyrics to most of their songs.

You're History – “You should see me when you’re not around, I’m a genius in this town” and the mentioning of “dead sea scrolls”

I Don't Care – “We hurt the ones we love the most it’s a subtle form of compliment” we spent an afternoon at college debating whether we liked ‘compliment’ or ‘discipline' better – I still fall on the compliment side.

Stay – This is a lot more surreal than their other stuff and had a v v cool film clip about them fighting over a guy in a coma – I love the change to “you’d better hope and pray that you make it safe back to your own world”

Silk – Freak Me – I just love that this is what all ‘5 black men groups’ of the era where singing about but that instead of pussy footing around singing things like ‘I’ll make love to you like you want me to’ they were singing “let me lick you up and down until you say stop”

Simply Red – Stars – I am not really a big Simply Red but I have always loved this song.

Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back – love it, love it, love it – have been known to break out “I like big butts and I can not lie, you other brothers can’t deny when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung” on many an occasion.

Snap! – Rhythm Is A Dancer – another of my fav all time dances song.

Starland Vocal Band – Afternoon Delight – fell in love with this during a skit on The Big Gig and I am v grateful cause it has gone on to be in important plot line or at least a v funny moment in Sports Night, Arrested Development and the Starskey and Hutch movie

Starship – Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now – I adored Mannequin so much but I don’t think it is really something that would live up to repeat watching now. I can remember after I saw the movie that I was standing in my grandmother’s kitchen singing this to her and explaining how it related to the plot – I was a bit of a condescending 12 year old.

Taylor Dayne – I’ll Be Your Shelter – I had hated ‘Tell it to My Heart’ but I simply adored this song and again have fond school dance related memories associated with it.

The Teen Queens – I Love How You Love Me – Another E Street song and while it is terribly terribly trashy I have to confess that I did love it (and to be honest I still do).

Tom Jones – Kiss – It saddens Jason to hear I like Tom Jones’ version of this song so much better than Prince’s but I can't help but feel that way (I also really enjoyed My Step-mother is an Alien – even if it is no Liquid Sky).

Tony Basil – Mickey – I know this is song that really annoys people but it doesn’t grate on me and while I like the Racey original Hey Kitty better (and the song make so much more sense if it sung by a guy about a girl) I will always be found bouncing around to this if it comes on when I am out.

Transvision Vamp – Baby I Don't Care – I was very much a late comer to the Transvision Vamp party. I hated them when they were big, I just didn’t get them at all. I have subsequently revised my opinion and hunted high and low for Transvision Vamp CDs only to have a Greatest Hits CD come out the week after I bought the CDs (fate does so enjoy to vomit on me).

Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby – I know it is not cool but I have always loved this. Jason and Ben/David both love it too and I have had lots of rap offs to this. I adore how it is all about him making out how tuff he is but in the song when there is actually action “all I heard was shell falling” he hightails it out of there and isn’t even gansta enough for the police to bother with him.

Violent Femmes - Add It Up – I love that I know that you have seen them live. I was introduced to them by my dad’s neighbour and while Blister in the Sun seems to be the song that is always played at dances I prefer added it up .

Wendy Matthews - The Day You Went Away - In one of my more impressive displays of patheticness, the day that the boy who had been my big crush for year 11 and 12 went back to Hong Kong I played this on repeat at work all afternoon and cried.

Wet Wet Wet - Sweet Surrender – ‘Love is All Around’ may be their big, big hit and what they are remember edfor but I enjoy Sweet Surrender so much more (I like to think that it is because it is a better song and not just cause Anna and I made up a dance to it when we were little)

Wham! – Wake Me Up Before You Go Go – I like George, haven't always but plan to from now on. When my friend’s little sister turned 21 we were going from their place to the city in a cab and sang and very loud and drunken version of this, a moment that I am sure the cab driver is still getting counseling for.

Wilson Phillips – Hold On – I so, so, so, so loved this song and still do. I receive endless enjoyment for singing it – have had to take a break from my project in order to sing it now.

Yazz - The Only Way Is Up – Yay Yazz and yay for the 80s when bad dancing, peroxided blondes in red jackets made it to number one. Still so very fun to dance to.]

University Years - part one

2007-09-10T14:06:48Z

[We can consider this as reflections on years spent at a repressed girl’s college but there was a fair bit of partying and there were some v fun moments and eventually (towards the end of my third year) there was alcohol.

4 Non Blondes – What's Up – 100% Hits continued to have to an influence on my life but by this point we had moved onto CDs rather than tapes and I only used to buy them if I actually liked the stuff on them. I don’t usually like people with weird voices like this but I have always liked this song.

ABBA

I am sad to have to inform you that I really didn’t discover the world of ABBA until I saw Muriel’s Wedding. If it helps my credibility at all I did have an ABBA T-Shirt when I was three.

The Winner Takes It All – Obviously it is a fabulous song and as I have told you I did a very impressive version of this with one of the other residents at a party when I was working at Greenslopes. It was a themed party – ‘Come As Your Favourite Song Title’ – and I was covered in bruises and burns (I am so much better at gory make-up than I am at the real stuff) and had my arm in a sling and the back of my shirt said ‘It’s ok baby, I forgive you’ and all the guys got that I was ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ but the girls all thought I was ‘Smack Your Bitch Up’ – I am not sure what that means but it is something to think about.

One Of Us – Just so, so sad. Although knowing that you like ABBA means that I am now less sad when I listen to it.

Ace Of Base – The Sign – This was playing when we were together one day and I was explaining that it was by the people that did the All That She Wants is Another Baby song. I loved this song and it was big at college functions and big with my dad’s neighbours and we used to play it loudly while we were playing in their pool

Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know – I am not really an Alanis fan any more but (as Lorelei Gilmore infamously said (oh how I love Gilmore Girls) –‘Look a lot of people had a knee jerk reaction and bought her first album’) I did love Jagged Little Pill – it is still up there with my favourite albums. You Oughta Know is something that I associate with drunken Thursday dollar drink nights at Rosies.

Alisha's Attic – Alisha Rules The World – For some reason I don’t have ‘I Am, I Feel’ which I actually liked better (partly because I had some word confusion – I thought the line was “you’re just another one of my girls you were born to have my baby” but it was “you weren’t born to have my baby” and it caused me to spend a lot of time deliberating which of these things was more insulting) but I do like the “dressed in white gets drunk on red wine” line.

All Saints – Never Ever – This is a song that amused Barb (flat mate between Maree and Jason) and I endlessly – we would just walk up to one another and say “flexing vocabulary” and we also were bemused by the fact that they change from Zee to Zed for the sake of a rhyme – nothing like consistency.

B*Witched – C'est La Vie – I first saw this when my friend brought over a video of episodes of Top of the Pops performances that she had taped (her parents had Foxtel – I know it may be hard to believe but I didn’t have it at the time) and she was so in love with this performance and the love was infectious. I also sang this on a ferry from the Story Bridge Hotel to city after a mid term dinner that Abi and I organised – it was a solo performance but it wasn’t out of keeping – we had all sung American Pie on the walk to the ferry (as you can probably tell we had had a bit to drink – in fact Sara had had so much that she nearly got refused entry to the Port Office – ahh the pre baby days, I remember them well. Definitely no more babies for you).

Barbra Streisand – Children Will Listen – This was something that my aunt had introduced me to and when she died I didn’t cry until after her funeral when I was sitting on the floor of her lounge room listening to this with head phones on.

Belly – It's Not Unusual – I may like Tom Jones’ version of ‘Kiss’ better than Prince’s but in this circumstance I like Belly’s version of ‘It’s Not Unusual’ better than Tom’s. I also really love the Belly song on the Twister Soundtrack.

Ben Folds Five – Underground – I thought they were called Penfold’s Five which I like better because it reminds me of Danger Mouse but sadly they were not onboard with my name plan. I love, love this song and still find it fun to bust out “who’s got the looks, who’s got the brains, who’s got everything?” in my lounge room.

Better Than Ezra – Desperately Wanting – I love Better Than Ezra (which would be why ‘Friction Baby’ is on my top ten albums) and I have to confess that I do seem to like songs about suicide (don’t read anything into that – I am planning on being around for a long, long time – you are so stuck with me) – “then they asked what was wrong when they turned you on again”

Billie – Honey To The Bee – It is v trashy but I love this song. My friend Amy (she was in med with me but also at college with me and she met her boy who she has been with for 10 years at my house warming) and I used to love singing and dancing to this (and we probably should have stopped doing that by the time we were interns but we have a slow learning curve).

Blondie – Heart Of Glass – Much like many cool things I discovered Blondie so much latter than I should have. This is my favourite Blondie song based solely on the fact that I can Singstar (the highest ranking you can get for a song on Singstar) it (I am a shallow, shallow girl).

Blur – Charmless Man – The Blur song that I like that best and that may be entirely due to “educated that expensive way he knows his claret from his Beaujolais"

Bob Downe – Fame – I love Bob Downe and I was so jealous when Bron was able to find the ‘Yeah Yeah’ single and I wasn’t – I never really got why everyone loved Frank Bennet covers so much cause they were nowhere near as fun as Bob’s – I adore that he just stops singing words at some points.

Bobby Darin

Someone whom I think is v cool and as I have told you I am annoyed that Kevin Spacey made a film about him cause I kinda liked that most people my age had never heard of him.

Mack the Knife – a classic song that I really should have known before this (especially since it is mentioned in ‘She Loves to Hear the Music’ – see Early Influences) but at least that oversight is now partially corrected.

Beyond the Sea – The reason I own a Bobby Darin CD at all and all because it featured in The X-Files episode of the same name. I do really love this song in and of itself though.

Bon Jovi

Subject of a drunken discussion by Jason and myself whilst waking home from dinner to a v cool reception from Jane – we had been shopping and locked ourselves out and called Jane to come and let us in but then started drinking and went to dinner and kinda lost track of time – Jane wasn’t at her most understanding that night. Still, the favourite Bon Jovi songs discussion was fun.

Keep The Faith – I just always really liked this one. I know it’s far form their most famous but in my mind it should be.

Bad Medicine – I didn’t like this when it first came out but I am completely won over now – it’s hard not to get into the “that’s what you get for falling in love” bit.

Boy George – The Crying Game – I know your feeling on Culture Club but I do love this song and when it showed up in Ace Ventura Pet Detective I laughed so much I cried – It was one of many moments in my life when I was the only person in the cinema laughing (I have come to accept that often I am the only person who gets the references)

Brandy & Monica – The Boy Is Mine – I believe this is from an 100% Hits CD but a best of year one. Once again if I had to justify why I like it I would be hard pressed to come up with decent reasons but I just really like this song.

Britney Spears

Before she became white trash personified I really did love Britney

...Baby One More Time – her signature song and still one of her best – despite the ‘slutty virgin’ (TM my baby) act she still seemed since a nice, earnest girl – how things change with the benefit of time.

Born To Make You Happy – Jane and I used to play Britney in the car much to Jason’s disgust but he thinks this song is her best work and that it is the attitude that all woman should have.

Bryan Adams featuring Mel C – When You're Gone – I realise that it is another Bryan Adams song but it features my favourite Spice Girl so there is no way it wasn’t going to be included. People often tell me that they can only hear Bryan which I find odd cause I can hear her and not him. It also has the fantastic line “even food don’t taste that good, drink ain’t doing what it should”

Bush – Glycerine – I think this a really beautiful song and way better than anything else Bush has ever done. My friend Bron gave me this CD when I was I hospital after the OD.

Cake – The Distance – we were listening to Cake’s version of ‘I Will Survive’ in the car with Felix the other night but this is my favourite Cake song I think it’s the repeating of “all alone” that does it for me.

CDB – Let's Groove – Such a Rosies song. We so did love to “boogie on down, on down”.

Celine Dion

I know how you fell about her, how most people feel about her really, but I like her – I didn’t always feel that way though

It's All Coming Back To Me Now – This would be the song that changed my mind about her – It was the Meatloafesque flavour of both the song and the clip that did it for me (and she was pretty in this before she got too thin and started to look like a chuppa-chup in a pant suit)

Falling Into You – I so love this song and have always found “So close your eyes and I will kiss you and while you sleep, I will miss you” so beautiful – even when I was bitter and jaded and didn’t really believe in love that used to move me.

Cher – Just Like Jesse James – Many hours spent sitting on the floor of my room in college with Maree singing this. It was also a bonding point for internet friend and myself.

Chris Isaak – Somebody's Crying – I love Chris Isaak’s voice (I also really love his TV show – if you get a chance to see it (they are bound to repeat it on Foxtel at some point) you should investigate) but I think this song best brings together everything that he does well.

Counting Crows

These are all off their second album (their first being on my top albums list)

Goodnight Elisabeth – I find this really beautiful, not quite as good but in a similar vein to ‘Anna Begins’ from their first album.

Another Horsedreamer’s Blues – I discuss this in the album review so we won’t cover it again but I did want to include the song.

A Long December – I just love the “the smell of hospitals in winter” and “and all at once you look across a crowded room and see the way that light attaches to a girl”

The Cranberries – Zombie – I remember spending a v hot Christmas Eve on the back steps of my aunt’s place singing this with Anna. As mentioned I don’t really like weird voices but I do like hers in this.

Crowded House – Mean To Me – again I discuss this in the album reviews and just really wanted to include it.

Custard – Girls Like That – I don’t really get Custard and I have seem them live (at Crowded House Farewell to the World – which I guess was a temporary farewell and one that I can’t believe I was allowed to go to seeing I was not long out of hospital – sometimes my mother can accept that she has to let me go and do my own things).

Darren Hayes – Popular – This is just so fun and I love that the film clip starts with him on the bus telling people that he used to be in Savage Garden and that he’s willing to sleep his way to the top.

Dexy's Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen – A big song at any college functions but most fondly remembered for the day I came home from work and Barb was all excited because she had printed the lyrics out from the net.

Divinyls – I Touch Myself – This was actually a hit when I was a school but not a big part of my life until uni. Some great moments singing and dancing to this in the hall at college – which went down so well with the fundamentalist Christians let me tell you.

Eagle Eye Cherry – Save Tonight – Just a song that I really, really enjoy and am always happy when it appears on the radio when I am in friend’s cars.

East 17 – Deep – I had not liked them at first as they had butchered ‘West End Girls’ but this is great and I can’t believe it doesn’t get censored more “and while I fiddle you can fantasise”

England United (Echo & the Bunnyman/OCS/Space/Spice Girls) – On Top Of The World – I had to search so very, very hard for this (nowadays I would just order if off the net but such luxuries were not available to me at the time) – it is in no way a great song but I really wanted it because it featured the Spice Girls.

Enzso – Message To My Girl – Split Endz kinda of predated me so my point of reference for this songs comes from this album – I think this is beautiful.

Evanescence – Bring Me To Life – This song rocks I like the contrast between her sweet voice and the harshness and anger in the spoken bits.

Everclear – Heartspark Dollar Sign – Not be favourite Everclear song which is ‘Santa Monica’ and was responsible for my theory that songs need more pauses “I am still living with your…………..ghost” but a great song in its own right.

Fuel – Shimmer – I have always loved this song and had a great moment singing this with my consultant from Greenslopes in her car when she drove me home one afternoon (don’t worry she never had army duty – you are the only one to have ever had that – but we did get on well cause she liked Buffy and The West Wing and The Ice Storm).

Geri Halliwell – Look At Me – I was angry with her for leaving the group and we used to call her bottom dweller spice but in retrospect they probably ended when they should (in fact I am not thrilled that they have reformed) and then she went and released this Shirley Bassey like number that does feel like a Bond theme and I couldn’t help but love her.

Gina G – Ooh aah Just A Little Bit – A Eurovision entry but one that I really, really loved and spent many, many nights dancing to at clubs.

Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive – I didn’t know this song until Priscilla Queen of the Desert which I find strange cause every man and his dog seemed to know it. We have discussed how much a loved the version of this at the Christmas party that we were both at but didn’t know that (I often wonder if things would have been different if our lives had have connected before they did) – “and you’ll see me, I’m somebody new, I am not the same little first year registrar who admitted you” but this was also a song covered twice at Valedictory Dinner in my second year both by my floor and by the tutors with the awesome lines “weren’t you the one who left their clothes out on the line? But did I crumble, well no it happens all the time” and “I’ve got all the keys to Grace and I know every single face”

Goo Goo Dolls – Slide – I adore this song as does my sister (as I was pleased to discover at a 21^st of a family friend) and my internet friend. “So put your arms around me, what you feel is what you are and what you are is beautiful”

Green Day

These were big songs at Rosies and I think I actually learnt the words to them due to the fact that we were there every Thursday - great to yell out and dance to.

Basket Case- “I’m just paranoid of am I just stoned”

When I Come Around - “I’m a user and a loser”

Hanson

Look Hanson are just so much better than you think they are

Thinking Of You – “I’m carrying this heavy loud, I don’t know what to do, the only thing I know is that I’m in love with you” – it just amuses me that this is sung in their 12 year old voices.

Mmmbop – Deeper than you think it “You have so many relationships in your life, only one or two will last, you go through all the pain and strife then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast”. Maree and I spent a day very close to our exams working out the words to this and also the dance to ‘Men in Black’ – I have engaged in some quality activities in my time.

Yearbook – Another possible suicide song although it’s not clear “there’s a lying in your silence”

Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta – simply a fantastic song even if he does admit to not owning a TV. I love the words to this song - “finger tips have memories, mine can’t forget the curves of your body” “they cut off my legs now I’m an amputee god damn you” “I want to publish zines and rage against machines”

Hole

Not really a big fan but I do love these two songs so very much

Celebrity Skin – again I love the words to this song – “A walking study in demonology” “Cinderella they aren’t sluts like you” “honey’s psycho, she swallowed poison, she obliterated everything she kissed”

Malibu – this one I like more for the melody and feel than for the lyrics.

Hoodoo Gurus – Waking Up Tired – I used to listen to this and completely identify but sadly I was waking up tired cause I had started turning up to uni ever day at the start of my clinical years (something that so didn’t last once I began hanging out at the comic store) rather than because I had been out partying.

Hootie & The Blowfish

Can remember a uni holidays when we had an apartment at the beach (I really do have good times with my evil mama – actually mum was at work and we were there by ourselves a lot of time) and Anna and her best friend from school and myself listened to this CD endlessly (when we weren’t in the pool)

Hold My Hand – I just like the sound and feel of this song.

Let Her Cry - This song used to really annoy my friend’s brother cause he thought it was excessively detailed in its description of things but I always really liked it and have no problem with “so I sat down and had a beer and felt so sorry for myself”

The Human League – Don't You Want Me – love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love this song and did some v v v v v v v v v enthusiastic jumping up and down to this at the Here and Now concert.

Hunters & Collectors – Throw Your Arms Around Me – I always suspected that this song might have been about stalking and serial killing and it amused me that people used it for their Bridle Waltz but now I adore it because you sent me a text telling me you would “love to like the song says kiss you in four places”

Inner Circle – Sweat (A La La La La Long) – this would have been in the charts during my first week at uni and I know that because Eugene and I had a fight over the remote when I was trying to watch the clip – he was one at the time but I didn’t think that that meant he should automatically get what he wanted. It was also a song we used to dance to at functions.

Jamiroquai – You Give Me Something – I have never had the great love for the funny hatted man that others seem to possess but his songs are fun to dance to and this would be one of my favourites. (I should also confess that I didn’t understand the words to ‘Canned Heat’ and for a while thought he had candy in his feet).

Jewel

Much like with Alanis I really loved the first album but now not so much

Foolish Games – The main thing that I like about this is how well I think sing it (so I had better not sing it for you so I never have shatter that illusion).

You Were Meant For Me – This was my favourite song at the time and I just found it so, so beautiful even if she was crawling around in a weird worm suit in the clip. When Eugene was a bit younger then Astrid he used to call it the pancake song and always want to sing it.

k.d. lang – Constant Craving – Never really been into her although I did see her do a cover of Hallelujah on a Max Sessions that was just amazing but I have always loved this song.

Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights – I was aware of this song before uni but it wasn’t until I was sitting at my desk in my college room one night listening to the radio that I realised that she was singing “Heathcliffe, it’s me I’m Kathy I’ve come home” and I understood why it is call Wuthering Heights – up until then I had had no idea what she was singing. Also, my girl Kate Miller-Heidke does one hell of a cover of this.

Kinky Friedman – Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed – Only included so I can talk about how much I like Kinky – his books are so, so good (well at least the early ones are) and lament the fact that I don’t have a copy of his finest work and what I consider one the best song titles ever – ‘They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore’

The Lemonheads

When my little sister first brought home this single about asking “if I was a bogga would you blow your nose” I thought they were just crap but I was wrong.

The Outdoor Type – a song that I completely understand “I can’t go away with you on a rock climbing weekend what if something’s on TV and it’s never shown again.”

Into Your Arms – This would be the song that changed my opinion about them and one that I really like.

Live

I so, so loved Throwing Copper. For some reason around the time this was big we had a minitramp in our alcove at college and used to spend a lot a time on it whilst listening to this album.

I Alone – This was something I used to sing loudly to whilst jumping up and down.

Lightning Crashes – I love this song and completely freaked Jason out by explaining to him what it was actually about – he continues to refuse to acknowledge this and still thinks it’s a nice song about the weather. We included this on our song list when my friend organised the third year college ball.

University Years - part two

2007-09-10T14:03:45Z

[The rest of the list as it was too big to fit in one post..

Marcy Playground – Sex & Candy – I have always liked this song but I now like the idea of “I smell sex and candy” more than ever. This was something that a girl came dressed as to my friend’s “come as your favourite song title” party.

Mark Morrison – Return Of The Mack – This is yet another song from my Rosies days.

Matchbox Twenty

Yourself of Someone Like You was a huge album for Barb and myself and we went and saw them at Festival Hall and they were fucking amazing (I refused to go and see them when they came back and played at Boondall cause I didn’t think it would live up to the original experience) – it was also the night that my little sister admitted that my glitter eye shadow looked good (which it totally did).

Long Day – “Yeah well I can’t get myself to go away, oh god I shouldn’t feel this way.” The song that they played last when I saw them and while waiting for the encore everyone was chanting Long Day

3 AM – I love the song but I particularly loved hearing one of the Christian’s at uni say that he worked at a family radio station and that they would play this but not Push. Stupid Christians – 3AM is such a sad sad sad song.

Push – I happen to think that telling people that if they whine all the time it is only going to cause them to treat you badly is a positive message telling one to get one’s shit together but apparently the Christians are not in agreement. I also love the Eugene used to sing ‘I want to take you for Granny’ rather than for granted.

Matthew Sweet

Maree’s friend lent her this CD when we were at college and caused a little love affair with it for all of my friends.

Sick Of Myself – I just adore this song so much and we have been known to sing this loudly and often in many places including on the bus on the way to the clubs post the Rocky B and S ball – that was early in the night before we lost one of the crew but after Anna had gotten herself into a fight with a guy who was convinced she had stolen his bow tie and I was standing in between them while she was jumping up and down behind me yelling out that she would fight him.

Not When I Need It – We loved this almost as much as Sick of Myself but it is not anywhere near as fun. It is also a song that used to make me cry an awful lot when I was depressed in fourth year.

Max-A-Million – Sexual Healing – Something else we used to dance to and with all due respect Marvin Gaye, I find this version more fun.

Meat Loaf – Paradise By The Dashboard Light – Ahhh classic Meat Loaf and I am pretty sure that it my flawless singing of this whilst beating our opponents at pool that was the reason I attracted the guy in Collinsville (the one that I caused me to have to go and sleep on the couch – I still can’t believe I did that as I was fucking trashed – he was the son of the publican and had been feeding me tequila for about 4 hours – it is good to know just how strong my repression is)

Melanie C

Yay my favourite Spice Girl.

Goin' Down – excellently loud and trashy and while it may not be iambic pentameter, “I’m singing loud and I don’t care” does get the point accross

Suddenly Monday – in contrast this is light and bubbly and all hugs and puppies but I really like it too.

Meredith Brooks – Bitch – I loved this song so much (I think partly cause she looked a bit like Deborah Farrentino whom I have always loved – I know you don’t get liking actors but it is certainly something I do - but I do really, really hope that she was starving when she accepted the Pink Panther movie that she did cause there is no other reason that would justify it for me) I think it is fairly accurate description of how I feel when I am premenstrual and always remember that when I am like that that “tomorrow I may change and today won’t mean a thing”

Merril Bainbridge – Mouth – For a while this was definitely my song of the moment. I can recall listening to this whilst trying to learn histology slides, an impossible task given I was crippled my Hystlexia (I think I have a relapsing remitting course because I definitely had it in high school – I couldn’t even find a nucleus – and it disappeared in first year uni but then came back) so a song that has “there are pieces here I don’t know where they go" was apt.

Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mine – The only Midnight Oil song that I like and I so love singing “If the Blue Sky Mining company won’t come to my rescue, if the sugar refining company won’t save me, who’s gonna save me?”

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get – Just a song that I felt was really fun at the time (and still is really)

Mondo Rock – Cool World – I know this is an 80s song but I didn’t know it till I bought some 80 mix album when I was at uni and fell in love with it.

Natalie Imbruglia – Torn – I still think this is her best song and I love that the guy who plays Sullivan on Murder in Suburbia (something else I plan to introduce you to one day) is in the clip.

Nerf Herder

These lads do the theme song to Buffy, they also rock hard core

Courtney – I think the song may be better and more interesting than the woman and how can you not love a song that has “I hope I’m not out of place but Courtney Love, sit on my face” in it.

For You – there are so many things that they will do that appeal to me but I guess they really have me at “I’d sing the whole soundtrack to Xanadu”

No Doubt

I think I only have Tragic Kingdom and I know I have none of her solo stuff but I did love the album

Just A Girl – I first heard this when I was at home for holidays and I when I got back to college I was all excited to tell Maree about it – I walked into her room and she was standing on her bench turning up the volume of her stereo and told me she had something I needed to hear and it turned out the be this song.

Don't Speak – Used to make me cry a whole lot when I lost half my friends in the OD aftermath.

Oasis – Wonderwall – I do love this whole album but this would be the song I danced to with a v cute guy at Rosies one night – he was v nice boy who stayed with me and helped me search for Maree when I lost her (I think Maree was off somewhere in a huff cause for the first time ever I had pulled the cute boy and she had been stuck with the not so attractive (but I am sure had a lovely personality) friend).

The Offspring

I hated them when I first heard them and then ‘Come Out and Play’ was mentioned in an X-Files episode and I had to go and reassess the situation (I am so easily led under the right conditions)

Self Esteem – I love this song so much and as “I’m just a sucker with no self esteem” problems go there are probably worse things than “I know I should say no but it’s kind of hard when she’s ready to go”

Want You Bad – I do like their fast stuff too and this is one of their best “I want you in vinyl suit” – hee!

Paper Lace – Billy Don't Be A Hero – yet another song that we were obsessed about after we saw Priscilla, we also had a whole version of it about our friend ruining her life by going to QUT and not UQ.

Patsy Cline – Never No More – In another example of what a merchandiser’s dream I can be, I spent months hunting for this song after it featured in an episode of Space : Above and Beyond. It may be country but I adore this song so much and I happen to think that I sing it well – it would something that I would perform as one of my idol choices.

Paul Kelly – How To Make Gravy – For some reason this is both Anna and my favourite Paul Kelly song. It caused my friend Megan (not the one that you’ve met) to come up with her theory that songs need more recipes) (Bron’s theory was that songs need more clapping and we all had differing theories for TV (mine was that it needed more vampires – this was pre Buffy BTW) but all the theories concluded with ‘and art needs more blow up people’) I love the “turns imagination into fact” moment and that “they say it’s gonna be a 100 degrees, even more maybe, but that won’t stop the roast” – that is so my family at Christmas

Paul McDermott and Fiona Horne – Shut Up/Kiss Me – this occurred right at the end of the good days of Good News Week – when it was still on the ABC and hadn’t gotten all self-important and intolerable as result I love.

Pearl Jam

For some reason I only own one of their albums, that seems quite an oversight.

Alive – I still want to know exactly what was happening to his father and I have to admit that there is a lot of disturbing imagery but it is still a great song.

Jeremy – I have always been especially fond of this one I love the simplicity of the line “Jeremy spoke in class today”

Pet Shop Boys – Can You Forgive Her? - I am proud that I have been able to squeeze such a gay icon onto most lists! I completely adored my Very CD and Cath, Bron and I still do Pet Shop Boys arm moves and sing “because you dance to disco and you don’t like rock”

Racey – Lay Your Love On Me – My friend Fiona was always going on about wanting a Racey CD and I eventually found her one and hence this became a huge thing for us to dance up and down the hallway to.

Radiohead – Creep – I have the more polite version of this song and I happen to think that it is more meaningful with “you’re so very special” than it is with “your so fucking special”. I adore the line “I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul.”

Rancid – Ruby Soho – for some reason I have not put ‘Timebomb’ which I like better on my iTunes (must have had some parallax error going on when I was transferring songs) but seeing as how I often say that my musical tastes are eclectic and that I own everything from Rancid to the Xanadu soundtrack, Rancid really needed to be included in some way.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Soul To Squeeze – on the above mentioned holiday at the beach, when we weren’t listening to Hootie and the Blowfish we were singing this in the pool. It has me from the opening – “I’ve got a back disease but from my brain is where I bleed”

The Rembrandts - Snippet-Medley – this was the B side to my ‘I’ll Be There For You’ single – which I got because I was a fan of Friends before we even got it here (that goes back to me liking actors and being willing to follow them to things) and it is their little add to try and get you to buy their album – which I think is a really cool idea (And it worked as I do have the album)

Ricky Martin – She Bangs – It is not the song that caused me to break my Singstar microphone by leaping around my bedroom but it is still great. “I’ll do the time with a smile on my face, thinking of her in her leather and lace”

Salt-N-Pepa – Shoop – I tend to like most Salt-N-Pepa songs but I like this one the best (and do a pretty good job of it most of the time “Oh I like you in your big jeans, you give my nice dreams, you make me wanna scream, ooh, ohh, ohh, I like what you do, when you do what you do”)

Savage Garden – I Want You – I must admit that I went off them very quickly but I did really love them for a while there – this was another album that I looked up the release date of (in the RBH library now that I come to think of it) and we used to be found singing about chicca-cherry cola at Rosies a fair bit.

Semisonic – Closing Time – I don’t necessarily like when they play this at places when I still have some quality drinking to do but I do like the song itself. I especially like “I know who I want to take me home” (I didn’t used to have anyone in mind though).

Shania Twain – That Don't Impress Me Much – I kinda like Shania, her faster fun stuff more than her ballads and this is very fun and when it first came out Bron and I used to get v excited when the clip came on.

Sheryl Crow – Strong Enough – Sheryl has really gone up in my estimations since she appeared on the Chris Isaak show but even before that I liked this song – there is something sp relatable in the hopelessness and desperation of “lie to me, I promise I’ll believe”

Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet With Butterfly Wings – I like this song a whole lot and I don’t think it’s because it opens with “the world is a vampire” but it probably does have a fair bit to do with it.

Soft Cell – Tainted Love – Gay iconography at it’s best!!!! Strangely enough this was not a big high school song but it was a huge college and Rosies dance song. It is also much, much harder to karaoke to than you think it is going to be (although that said I did manage to Singstar it the first time that I tried)

Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover – I have always adored this song and for the record Sophie was also v cool on the Chris Isaak show. I think it may have been that it spoke to repressed girl who only liked people from a distance.

Space – The Ballad Of Tom Jones – so, so, so, so much fun. I am so besotted with the concept that Tom Jones’ music can quell homicidal urges and it has some fantastic lyrics – I think my favourite is the playful little aside of “That’ll be the arsenic making you sick”

Spacehog – In The Meantime – I really like the way this song sounds (even if I can’t understand some of the words – I still like the way they tend to slur into one another especially in the chorus).

Spice Girls

Big, big Spice Girls fan. Saw Spice World four times at the movies and I still think it is a great film. I also love that when Anna was getting on a plane for a job interview and Eugene was about 6 he told her that she looked beautiful, just like Posh spice.

Too Much – The first Spice Girls song that my sister was willing admit that she liked and that was only because she didn’t realise that she sang it when she told me that she liked it.

Wannabe – I probably like some of there more obscure songs better than this but points still need to be given to the one that started it all.

Status Quo – Rockin' All Over The World – We used to play this in the comic store cause comic store guy loved it and in the end he converted me and I had to go and get my own copy.

Sting – Seven Days – I think this song is so cool and so clever and it is Sting’s finest moment if you ask me (and really people should ask me so much more than they do) – “IQ is no problem here, we won’t be playing scrabble for her hand I fear, I need that beer” – brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stone Temple Pilots – Plush – Much like ‘In the Meantime’, I really like this song despite not really having any idea what it is about cause I can’t understand the words.

Take That – Never Forget – An early boy band not afraid to appear in mesh singlets, I can’t help but admire that. The whole ‘here’s a song about my/our career’ genre is always amusing to me as I discuss in the album review post.

Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life – fantastic, fantastic song. Have memories of dancing to this at Flamingos in Rocky on my 6^th year Surg term – I say this to let you know that there are a few nights during that time that I have no memory of at all – it took a lot for me to go back and work there – “and I speak to you like the chorus to the verse” “and the four right cords can make cry”

Tina Arena – Chains – As mentioned I am a YTT girl so I am hardly not going to love Tina. I even loved ‘I Need Your Body’ that she seems determined to forget that she did. I was so impressed with this of when it came out and with Paulini’s performance of this on idol and Siobhan doing it on HDSAPLM?

Tina Cousins – Pray – Tina is someone who normally leaves me cold but I really like this song for some reason.

TLC – Unpretty – Not the most famous TLC song but definitely my fav “I’ll make you feel unpretty too”

U2 – Stay (Faraway, So Close!) – I love this song so very much. I do note that once again it does mention vampires but it does it in a v cool way – “a vampire or victim, it depends on who’s around” but that’s not even my fav bit - that would be either “dressed up like a car crash” and “you used to stay in to watch the adverts, you could lip sync to the talk shoes”

Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl – Always a favourite of both Anna and I (and my dad is a big Van fan) but I like it even more now that I have my brown eyed girl.

Sugar Ray – Fly – Once again not his most famous song but the one I like the best – it tends to make me to try and do bad hip-hop arm move thingies while I sing “I just wanna fly”.

Veruca Salt

My dad’s neighbours introduced me to them and I love them so much – awesome angry girl music.

Volcano Girls – I like that it basically ‘starts at 11’ with them belting out and that it has the line “way to go way to flip off everyone”

One Last Time – There is just something about this song for me, I love it .”your former love has just been here she’s looking terrible” “stay with me til I’m stronger, one last round” (I like screaming the bridge bit a lot_

The Verve Pipe – The Freshmen – Another suicide song and one that my friend Amy introduced me to. “baby’s breath and a shoe full of rice”

The Wallflowers – One Headlight – This is another song that I have just always loved, I don’t think I bought the CD until about two years ago but I had wanted for a very long time.

The Weather Girls – It's Raining Men – Yay more gay icons. Lots of fun and probably now and forever most associated with the time Jane was trying to drag us out of The Beat and Jason was insistent that we staying because ‘It’s Raining Men’ was on.

The Whitlams – No Aphrodisiac – My favourite Whitlams song (in fact probably the only one I don’t think is overblown and pretentious) “Tired teacher 28 seeks regularly meetings……” (I like that it just get weirder and weirder)

Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You – This was big when I first moved to college and we had to sing of it as part of the ‘Fresher Choir’ – there were some bad things about going to college. For my first term of uni I was horribly home sick and I would sit on my bed and listen to this and cry. I was so quiet and self-isolative that apparently there were meetings with the principal about what to do about me – I learnt that at the end of the year when we where all lying in the corridor during swat vac and my tutor told me what a worry I’d been for her initially (by this point I had become my usual bouncy loud self).

You Am I - Heavy Heart – I so love this song. It would be in my top ten fav pop songs also. I made out to a v cute boy (way out of my league) to this at the You Am I concert – he only became interested in me because Bron was (as you would put it) all over me and then her on again/off again shag showed up and she was kissing him while still hugging me and cute boy asked her if she was with me or with her shag and she shrugged and told him that it depends. So I pulled v cute boy as he thought I was far more interesting and fascinating and sexually adventurous than I was (or am – even if I am getting better). I also sang along this to you one morning in bed at your place. All and all a v good song for me.]

More Recent Obsessions

2007-09-10T13:54:18Z

[Which basically consists of things post uni years

3 Doors Down – Here Without You – I was in love with this song when I was working in Rocky and having my patient sing it very poorly at the desk the other week hasn’t changed the way I feel about it. I still do need to get myself an album with Kryptonite on it though as it is my fav 3 Doors Down song.

American Hi-Fi – Flavor Of The Weak – V fun to jump around and dance to but also sadly a v true song. I have known so many girls in relationships like this “and he’s got pictures on the walls of all the girls he’s loved before and she knows all his favourite songs”

Anastacia – Sick & Tired – I do like her and her v powerful voice and I think I like this song the best because at the Christmas party in Rocky someone told me I was a good singer when I was singing it – I am in touch with my narcissistic side.

Ashlee Simpson

I don’t really want to love Jessica’s little sister but I do love this album and that I can ‘Singstar” (ie the best score) ‘Pieces of Me’

La La – I just enjoy singing this loudly while I bounce around my lounge room (it doesn’t bother me that I don’t really know what La La means but then Shoop is one of my all time fav songs)

Autobiography – I have to admit that I really, really like this – there have been numerous lounge room performances of this. I like the concept of having this song which is ostensibly about her but then saying if you actually want to know her you need to ask her and I love the lines “I’m a simple girl in a complex world” and “I laugh more than I cry, you piss me off – goodbye”

Atomic Kitten – See Ya – Most people that I know (with the exception of Ben/David, Abi and my uncle) hate Atomic Kitten but I love them (less now that I love Girls Aloud so much but I still love them) and this song features in Bring It On so really there is a lot to love!!!

Avril Lavigne

I know she can’t sing and I would never be foolish enough to go and see her live but I still like her albums.

Complicated – This was out when I was country relieving in Emerald and I would get so v excited every time it came on the radio. I remain upset that I don’t score as highly on Singstar with this as I would like to.

Don't Tell Me – This is a song I used to identify with a lot due to my developmental delay cause I really was “did I not tell you that I’m not like that girl the one who gives it all away” and I did believe that I was better off alone anyway but I guess things have changed in that regard.

Ben Lee

Ben Lee shits me to tears and he annoyed me a lot live but I love both these songs

Apple Candy – I love a lot of the lines in this song but I simply adore “and the edge on your affection broke my skin”

Cigarettes Will Kill You – The film clip to this used to freak me out – cause I don’t think the world really wants to see Ben Lee all pasty and thingand scantly clad but the song makes up for the frightening clip and I so love the line “and I want a TV embrace”

Beyonce featuring Jay-Z – Crazy in Love – I am not a huge Beyonce fan (although she rocked in Dreamgirls) but I love this song, so much so that my love of it has not even been effected by having to watch Guy Sebastian butcher it on idol. I often bop along to this while I am walking home.

Blessid Union Of Souls – Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me For Me) – I like this song so much (even if it does have the line “She don’t care about my big screen or my collection of DVDs, things like that don’t matter much to her plus she don’t watch too much TV” – clearly I can’t relate to this girl). I was singing this whilst doing well baby checks on a Saturday morning at Mater when the father of a baby told me he had never seen a doctor look so hungover – classy moment for moi but I comfort myself with the fact that he mustn’t have known many doctors.

Blink-182

I have some of their albums and I don't tend to like the whole album but they release some killer singles

Dammit – Love this so much from the opening guitar riff, to the fast paced, staccato phrasing and the awesome “The timing and structure, did you hear he fucked her?” line. I think this should be a uni song cause I can remember Amy and I jumping up and down to this at grad dinner (at which I was v sick by the way as I have absolutely no immune system but that did not stop me drinking and dancing (it did manage to stop me heading out afterwards though)

All The Small Things – Has one of the v best flimclips ever!!!!!! In case you are not familiar it is a take off of boy band clips and it is brilliantly done – there is this fantastic moment where one of them is in close up with the wind machine going over time and then the camera pulls out and he is on the toilet (best use of a toilet in a clip other than the disco toilet in George Michael’s ‘Outside’)

The Bloodhound Gang –The Bad Touch – This is such a great song and my favourite memory of this was my friend Bron repeatedly playing it at her ‘B’ themed house warming and coming up to me often to go “getting horny now” but that his been eclipsed by getting to quote it to you at the Ekka.

Catatonia

I know that you aware that I like these, well at least Road Rage. They used to play them at the pub we tended to end up at after Mater functions.

Mulder And Scully – I would be hard pressed not to love a song that is called Mulder and Scully but that aside it is a great song – I love the whole desperation of not wanting to want the person and being so determined not to feel things but unable to stop doing things like “I wake myself thinking on him” but my fav line is “and as for some happy ending I’d rather stay single and thin”

Road Rage – I have always loved this song but now my fav thing about it is that I have heard you singing bits of it. I do love the “It’s all over the front page you give me road rage” (especially when you sing it).

Daft Punk – One More Time – I don’t know what it is about this song that I like (especially since it is quite repetitive) but I do know that it was in the charts when I was last doing nights in emergency (before I finally forced myself to commit to a training program) and I was happy if I was in the K Floor common room when it was on (that may have had something to do with the fact that it meant that I wasn’t actually seeing patients). Ben/David was excited to see that I had this song so I guess other people must see something in it.

The Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love – This is such a weird and funky song that I only learnt because it was the final song in the first Singstar game (back when you could actually play by yourself – before they decided that you should only play these things if you have friends – bastards!!! I was doing perfectly well jumping around in my bedroom with such force that I managed to break a mic whilst doing a Ricky Martin song but obviously I was in the minority)

Deana Carter – Did I Shave My Legs for This?- this something that my internet friend sent me in an attempt to convert me to things that she likes. For a song with an undeniable country twang I really do love it and I adore the line “well it’s perfectly clear between the TV and beer, I won’t get so much as a kiss).

Diana DeGarmo

She was a 16 year old contestant on session 3 of American Idol and ending up coming second. Ben/David and I were having bizarre email discussions about idol (I was in Rocky at the time) and they ended up with me marrying one of the judges, adopting Diana and then divorcing the judge but remaining a very proud stage mama.

Boy Like You – I just really like that she got to sing a song that is actually age appropriate for a 16 year old and that while it is angsty, it is 16 year old angst and I love her going “I don’t think so”

Don't Cry Outloud – This was the song that ensured that she got to the final two (and for added points it is a Peter Allan song) and I happen to think she does an amazing job with it.

Dido - White Flag – Abbi bought me this Dido album cause when we were in the car on the way back from lectures I kept singing the only two lines of this song that I knew . I am proud to say that I can Singstar this (and also ‘Thank You’). I really like the line “and when met, which I’m sure we will, all that there will be there still, I’ll let it pass and hold my tongue and you will think that I've moved on”

Dreamgirls Motion Picture Cast – Listen – This was not part of the original musical but done for the movie and it is something that Anisia and I sing often in car and get v loud at the “I am more than what you made of me, I found the voice you think you gave to me”.

Eminem – Cleaning Out My Closet – This was the song that made me like Eminem. He then went on to make 8 Mile and the even better “Lose Yourself” but this song will always be a significant turning point for me.

Enriquie

I adore his first album – apparently I liked him much better with the mole.

Don’t Turn Off The Lights – As mentioned in an earlier post there was jumping up and down to this at Sara’s wedding and at the Christmas party that Ben/David organised. It always cracks me up cause Jason imagines that when he recorded the bits at the end (where he is basically screeching) that the people in the sound booth were sitting there giving thumbs up and saying “you nailed it Enriquie, you nailed it”

One Night Stand – Also as previously mentioned this was a song that we jumped around to at Ben/David’s engagement party. I loved the line “I’m trying hard not to feel rejected, maybe the phone line’s disconnected”

Erasure – A Little Respect – I completely missed Erasure back in the day but in a close space of time I watched an episode of Scrubs and the film DEBS and both featured this song (each brilliantly but very differently.) and I had to go and get the album. Since then I own a Singstar game with it on and I can indeed Singstar it.

Faith Hill – Dearly Beloved – This would be another thing that my internet friend sent me in her quest to convert me and she was reasonably successful on this point as I have ended up buying a Faith Hill CD. How can you not love “good morning dearly beloved I’d like to welcome ya’ll to see the side effects of sex and alcohol”?

Five – Don't Wanna Let You Go – Jason and I had quite the Five thing going for a while. Just so you know they are referred to as ‘the lads’ in Jason and Kirsten world. I am a little embarrassed by how much I love them (and I do love them and they are most definitely my favourite boy band) given that when I lived with Maree one of the many guys that was vying for her attention used to call their first album a Sesame St album because there was so much counting in their songs. This is my fav Five song but sadly it doesn’t feature my fav Five lyric which is “wiggy wiggy I’m getting jiggy” – ah the time and effort that must have gone into Five lyrics.

Five For Fighting – Superman (It's Not Easy) – I have just always liked this song. I have no idea what Five For Fighting have done before or since but they had me at this song.

George – Breathe In Now – This is one of my favourite songs and I realise that is something I have been saying a lot but this one would be in my top ten pop songs of all times. I just think it is beautiful and even though I don’t have Katie’s talent I do love to sing it.

Good Charlotte – The Anthem – I find Good Charlotte fun, after all they are the band that tells as “boys don’t like girls, boys like cars and money”. I don’t know why I like this song better than their others – it maybe because of Lee Harding’s version on season three of idol.

Hilary Duff – Someone's Watching Over Me – That fact that I am letting you know that I have a Hilary CD is a reflection of just how much I love you and it is not something for you to share with the world (and you certainly are to not to tell anyone that I own more than one) I can’t help it, I like her music. This featured in Raise Your Voice which I cried my way through and then went and bought a Hilary CD afterwards.

Incubus – Drive – bought their CD for this song – I like both it and the clip with all the drawings and I really like the sound of the chorus, especially the “whatever tomorrow brings I’ll be there” bit and I love the line “will I chose water over wine?”

Jennifer Love Hewitt

She may annoy me as an actress and possibly as a person but she has managed to release two songs that I love

Can I Go Now – I like to sing the “what’s the point in all this talk, talk, talk? We could talk day and night, still wouldn’t make it right” loudly and often

How Do I Deal – I adore this song and sing it often. It was on my video tape that I took to Bundy for my med term as an intern and it was one of the things that kept me sane. I seem to have forgotten just how unhappy I was in Bundy and only remember the fun times going out and going to Sunday night Indian ‘the beef will kill you’ and the unforgettable event of me vomiting on my Grand Rounds presentation but apparently I was pretty miserable there and called Mum crying a lot (I think I remember it as ok as it followed Kids A&E where I really did cry constantly and in comparison it was good)

Jennifer Page – Crush – I like the sound of this song – the change from the fast paced verses to the slower chorus and I like the line “all I can commit to is maybe”

JoJo – Leave (Get Out) - I seem to have this thing were I like songs sung by teenagers but there was just something about this song and now there is the added excitement of the fact that she went on to be in a movie with my Kristin.

Joni Mitchell – A Case Of You – I am not cool or sophisticated enough to have known about Joni Mitchell until I was an adult (well that is not entirely true, I had heard of her, I just wasn’t really all that familiar with her music) and I can’t even claim all that cool a reason for starting to like her – it was all down to the references to her in Love Actually

Joss Stone – Super Duper Love (Are You Digging On Me) – Joss may be tainted for me by the fact that the Scientologist loves her and by the reports that she hasn’t been able do a decent live performance lately but there is something joyous and fun about this song and I still love it.

Katie Melua – The Closest Thing to Crazy – This is something else that I was really in love with and went out and bought the CD after hearing the song once. Nowadays I like it even more because Abi performed it on How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? – not her best vocal but I don’t care because I love her so.

The Killers

I really like The Killers and watching idol last night has made me realise that I really need to go out and buy their second album [edit – and I did so with you today].

Mr. Brightside – I like that they have such a distinct sound but as far as this song goes I love the sound of “she’s touching his chest now, he takes off her dress now”.

Somebody Told Me – We spent a good two hours at work (in Rocky) one Saturday (I was waiting for a transfer from somewhere or other) trying to work out the words to this and I am still not entirely convinced that I have them right but I am happy to sing loudly anyway especially “never thought I’d let a rumor ruin my moonlight”

Killing Heidi – Mascara – I adored them early on (and I most definitely liked their old stuff better than their new stuff) and Reflector is one of the few albums that I bothered to look at the release date for (so great was my love) – I got it the day before the release date because they were unpacking the boxes of it at HMV as they were closing up and I was inordinately excited about my purchase. This remains my favourite Killing Heidi song

Kim Richey – The Way It Never Was – Something else that my internet friend sent me. She gave me a bunch of Kim Richey songs just prior to my written and told me that listening to her had helped her pass her own exams (maybe that’s why I passed, it certainly wasn’t down to study). This is the one of the bunch that I like the best – I like “you’ve forgotten the things we didn’t say” line.

Kristin Chenoweth – Taylor, The Latte Boy – Yay my girl Kristin, I adore that her great love song is about a boy that works at Starbucks and she is just so cute when she performs this live.

LeAnn Rimes – Life Goes On – As a rule I don’t really like LeAnn (though I do remember being swayed by her association with the Coyote Ugly soundtrack) but for some reason I have always really liked this song.

Len – Steal My Sunshine – lots of memories of grooving away to this at The Beat and also in the Army Disposals store where my friend Chook used to work.

Living Colour – Glamour Boys – Jason loved Living Colour and would play them often, I didn’t really get their appeal but I did love Glamour Boys.

Lo-Tel – Teenager of the Year – For me this song will also be associated with Greenslopes and crazy long hours and constantly being exhausted.

Mandy Moore – Candy – This is a guilty pleasure for both me and Anisia. It is kind of sad that even Mandy herself is embarrassed by this song nowadays but we so love doing the “I know who you are, your love’s as sweet as candy, I’ll be forever yours, love always, Mandy” bit.

and while we are on 'arrest photos' my fav other crime from that shoot... I do love me some Parker Posey (even if she is in a lot of crap films)

Maroon Five

This was my favourite CD when I was working in Rocky

Harder to Breathe – I somehow missed this as a single (clearly not spending enough time finding out what the young people are listening to) but I love it now especially “not fit to fucking tread the ground I’m walking on”

This Love – The first song of theirs that I really noticed and a song I managed to Singstar the first time I tried it which only made me love it all the more.

Mya – Case Of The Ex – This was one of those songs that I just really liked for no good reason (other than maybe the dancing in the dirt with the large lead pipes film clip) but I am pleased about it now because Mya went on to be so cool in Chicago.

Natasha Bedingfield – These Words – I just love, love, love “I’m having trouble saying what I mean with dead poets and drum machines”

New Radicals – You Get What You Give – This was in the charts when I was doing A&E at Mater and I can remember watching it on Rage waiting for night shifts to end. I love this song and think it is a shame that they only made one album. I just have to love a song that mentions Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson in the same breath.

Nickelback – How You Remind Me – Nickelback cope a lot of shit and while I do admit that all their songs pretty much sound the same I still like them. This was huge when I was first on the AMHU (pre you) in my first week as a reliever.

Panic! At The Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies – This song was enough to make me buy their CD. They are a bunch of weird units but I do really like this song (even though it only has about 3 lines repeated over and over).

Portishead – Glory Box – A lot of my friends really like Portishead but I could never really get into them. I fell in love with this song when Chanel Cole performed in the second season Idol semi-finals.

Puddle Of Mudd – She Hates Me – A censored compilation CD version of the song but still fun nonetheless – “I tried too hard and she tore my feelings like I had none”

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue – My all time favourite Chili Peppers song.

Ronny Jordan Feat. Dana Bryant – The Jackal – bought and loved because CJ performed it on an episode of West Wing.

S Club 7 – S Club Party – Aaaah S Club 7. They used to have a TV show that Jason would try and get me to watch, as I was trying to leave for work, as he thought one of the girls was hot. As a joke I brought him a video of their show for his birthday but when we watched it I ended up falling in love with both it and their music (have gone onto to buy the CDs the “the kids”, as we refer to them, have released as solo artists and to watch the TV shows and movies that Hannah has gone on to appear in). I had hated this song before the show but now I love the idea that they introduce themselves halfway through the song. Although if I am honest my fav S Club song to dance to is actually ‘Don’t Stop Moving’

Shakira – Underneath Your Clothes – It doesn’t have the fantastic lyric “lucky that my breasts are small and humble so you don’t confuse them with mountains” that appears in her first single but I love this song and one of the few times I have ever felt any warmth towards Anne S was when we were singing this at Ben/David’s wedding.

Shannon Noll – Wise – he may be a yobbo and may deserve a lot of the shit that people throw at him but I so wanted him to beat Guy Bloody Sebastian and I saw him live in Rocky and it was a great concert. This is my fav song of his (and note it is not ‘What About Me?’ – I know how you feel about that song baby)

Shawn Colvin – Lullaby – first head this song on the bus when it was number one on the American Top 40 count down and I can remember thinking that American’s were strange. It went on to be number one here so what do I know? I also learnt to appreciate it over time – I especially appreciate the “cause even her smile looks like a frown” and “it’s kinda like Nashville with a tan” lines.

Sister Hazel – All For You – We were jumping around to this at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow one night following a work dinner. I spent a lot of time trying to find this song in music stores afterwards – I must say that the fact that Sara told me it was sung by Hootie and the Blowfish did make it a somewhat difficult shopping expedition.

Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars – The fact that this is so strongly associated with Grey’s Anatomy does bother me but when I was in London my sister was in love with this CD and playing it all the time. It says a lot that I can like this song when I consider the memories attached.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Murder On The Dance Floor – Eugene used to love this song, in fact for a while there it seemed to be the only pop song that he knew. It is fun and was something else we used to dance to at The Beat.

Stacie Orrico – Stuck – and now I am back to songs performed by teenagers. Jane (Jason’s wife) and I both loved this song and used to play it in the car all the time much to Jason’s disgust.

Sugababes – Push The Button – This was a hit while I was on the AMHU (that makes me happy to think about – your impact on my emotions is a little worrying sometimes). It was also something that I danced to in Jan of last year at a gay bar in Sydney when I went down to spend the weekend partying with one of the nurses I used to work with in Rocky – he was so much fun to party with and it was when I first tried vanilla vodka and when I managed to impressed people by virtue of the fact that I can dance all night despite not having any psychoactive substances other than alcohol.

Suze DeMarchi – Satellite – She was the lead singer of the Baby Animals (whom I adored when I was at school) but as a soloist I was introduced to her by Jason who bought her CD because her husband is a guitarist that he is a big fan of – that is the kind of tenuous purchase link that I can fully support.

t.A.T.u. – All The Things She Said – Let’s not have comments about my liking a song performed my fake lesbians shall we? I can’t be sure whether I like the song for its own merits or if it is because I read a piece of fan fiction based on it before I ever heard the song but either way I do I like it.

Tenacious D – Fuck Her Gently – The Tenacious D CD is just so much fun!!! I include this song rather than the awesomeness that is Tribute because I can’t include any of Icon from DAAS as I only have it on cassette – this song is v reminiscent of them. I sang this in PEC one night with one of CYMHS EH staff.

Thicke – When I Get You Alone – I have just always really, really, really liked this – I think it is the fusion of classical and pop that works for me but I happen to think that it is done really well.

Uncle Kracker – Follow Me – This song was another one that made me purchase an album and this album was the one that got stuck in my original DVD player II (long story that I will probably bore you with one day) when it got damaged by a lightening surge and stopped working.

Various Artists –

I realise that there are ways for me to work out who sung these (well in the case of She’s So High I do know who sings it, I am just not sure how to spell it) and that in the time I’ve wasted bitching about the database not having the artists I could have easily uncovered that fact. I also realise that if I were sober, I would be appalled at leaving these like this but I am typing this in an alcohol induced haze post the wedding and am far too busy thinking about you in a cleavage showing outfit to care about these trivial matters.

Teenage Dirtbag (Clean Album Version) – Loser wasn’t the greatest movie but this is a great song and I do recall rumours about James Scott singing this a college function. It is also covered brilliantly by my Girls Aloud.

Absolutely (Story Of A Girl) – Another Greenslopes associated song – this was on a mixed CD that one of the nurse’s daughters had made that we used to play on the ward all the time.

She’s So High – A Bundy associated song that I first heard in an episode of Charmed (my pop culture world is rather incestuous) – I had a TV and video player in Bundy but no decent reception so Jason and my mother and uncle had to tape everything for me and send it to me – the fact that got multiple packages a week was a well known fact and something that people were jealous about. I used to play this bit of the episode over and over.]

Musicals

2007-09-10T13:45:35Z

[Musical Theatre Propaganda

Well I guess we both know that I have this small interest in the theatre and while I know you can’t fathom the world at all it is important for me to try and share it with you.

Ok so we have kind of talked about the fact that in a way my aunt was responsible for my love of musicals – well probably not responsible but certainly a major influence. My grandmother has always sung show tunes and Anna and I were always in school choir (well for me there were the bad years of grade 2 - 4 when I was in the speaking choir due to a major error on my part – long story) and were in a choir outside of school so we were certainly exposed to the genre.

My uncle used to buy Kay (my aunt) a musical record every Christmas and in year eight I kind of showed some interest in Les Miserables and when I was hospital in year nine she gave a copy of it on tape to listen to. So when I was alone (which mainly was at night, my grandmother came up all day every day to play cards with me – it was a v different world to the AMHU) I would listen to it on my sister’s red Sony walkman that she got for being a certain number visitor to Disneyland (it would seem that I am still a little bitter that she got that and I didn’t) and escape into a world outside of my hospital room (were I could be the man on the run or the man chasing him or a young revolutionary or a thief or a girl in love with a guy that didn’t know she was alive) – It certainly worked a whole lot better than the relaxation tapes that my psychologist tried to force me to use – and thus began my real love of musicals.

I adore Les Miseralbes – particularly Stars, One Day More, On My Own, A Little Fall of Rain, Drink with Me and Bring Him Home. Once I got out of hospital I continued to listen to this and spent a whole lot of my adolescence sitting on my desk singing these songs (and of cause there was the fact that Michelle and I sat outside our biology class singing musical songs). We went and saw this in Brisbane – my mum saved for ages to take us (I kinda forced my whole family to listen to it and along with Miss Saigon it is the family favourite) and before we were due to go my dad (who had taken us to all the musicals we had ever scene in Brisbane before and I think was a little bit miffed that we were going without him) gave Anna the CD as a present and told her not to listen to it until after the show, clearly having no idea that both of us were word perfect on the musical at this point.

So obviously you know that I love Miss Saigon and I really, really love that I got to take you to it. Miss Saigon is something that I introduced the family to. Our neighbours (well loosely our neighbours, their place didn’t actually abut ours – we had to go through the paddock at the back to get there) managed the theatre in Rocky and had lots of musicals at their place (and they introduced me to many, many things) and I discovered this there and it changed my life.

I also included Avenue Q cause it is really too good not to and Wicked cause it's Wicked.

I can’t begin to tell you how hard I found it to select songs from musicals in order to attempt to display the wonder that is musical theatre – to start with I have the major stumbling block of your inability to access the genre and then there is the unfortunate reality that just because I love a song that doesn’t mean it stands up to scrutiny or makes sense outside of the context of the piece or without an understanding of the characters but I have done my best to prepare some examples of just why musicals rock

The Apple Tree

I am a little shocked to realise that two of the musicals on the list cover events in Genesis and that I have only been familiar with these musicals since I knew Anisia – I would be a lot more concerned if I didn’t know that my links to both these musicals are via Wicked (and it does allow me to think about Stephen Fry telling people that they should read the Bible cause it’s hilarious). The Apple Tree is what my Kristin has most recently been doing on Broadway. It is not a traditional musical but rather three short but unrelated stories (all based on other pieces of literature – the other two are The Lady and the Tiger and Passionella) but all the songs that I have selected come from the first story.

It’s a Fish – I just find this v v fun – I love the idea of not knowing what the baby is and trying to work through it and not being able to understand Eve’s bond with the creature and I adore “I’m worried sick but Eve is not, she burned the muzzle that I made for it to wear”.

Go to Sleep Whatever You Are – On a similar theme to the above but from Eve’s perspective and with much more affection for the creature – “Doesn’t phase me if you grow up to be pony or poodle or sheep”

What Makes me Love Him – This was the first song I heard from the show as Kristin sang it to Jay Leno (well a modified version of it anyway) during an interview. I like the incomprehensibility of love (I probably like that more than ever nowadays) – “it’s not his learning, he’s learned so slowly his whole life long and though he really knows a multitude of things they’re mostly wrong” – and her concern that she might love him for the most minimal reasons – “unless it’s merely that he’s masculine and that he’s mine.”

Jesus Christ Superstar

And another Biblical thing (and Andrew Lloyd Webber no less) and while I have to admit that I did enjoy it when I saw it (although if we are judging Biblical musicals associated with Andrew Lloyd Webber I don’t like it any where near as much as I like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) I don’t actually love it.

Hosanna – We used to sing this in my year eight music class and it has v found memories for me.

I Don’t Know How to Love Him – Probably the most famous song of the musical and I have always loved it and enjoyed singing it, I can remember singing this in the car one night with my dad when I was in about grade 10 (I do like that my dad knows some songs from musicals and that that has nothing to do with me) and feeling connected with him.

Closer to Heaven

A musical about night clubs, drugs and sex written by the Pet Shop Boys – I am not really sure that I need to say any more. Oh I used to listen to this on the train back from Nundah CYMHS (before things changed and I would get a lift to Toombul and have sushi with my amazing boss).

Friendly Fire- Both this and the next song are by the character Billie Trix a washed up star now reduced to performing in gay night clubs and the my fav character. This is probably my favourite – I like that amongst the fun and campness or the character there is a pause to let her reflect and lament (I also sing this a lot – one of the many things that my neighbours must be happy about) on her life and the fleeting nature of fame “my eyes are filled with tears, danger to mascara, applause to my peers” “of love and insanity and pagan profanity before a worshipping crowd” “but whatever dull or clever points they’ve scored I have never, oh no never, been ignored:

It’s Just my Little Tribute to Caligula – Just v v v fun, I mean it opens with – “Caligula was a bastard like most important men and over the years I’ve known quite a few of them I wish I’d poisoned” – although sadly the CD does miss the awesome bit of the live performance where she yells at someone for ‘walking in front of my orgasm’

Out Of My System – Although for the most part I find this character a bit bratty and annoying, I adore this song and I found the fact that she is going to get him ‘out of her system’ and deal with finding him in bed with a guy (“after three months sleeping in my bed, when every night he held me tight and this is what does in my head he runs off with his pride and joy, a young drug dealing East End boy”) by getting off her head and getting into bed with Billie an interesting turn of events.

Rent

Rent is something that I had always been intending get into or at least buy – have probably held it in my hand many a time in music stores but never purchased it but then along came Wicked and my discovery that Idina Menzel was in it and an obsession was born – the following songs are from the movie version as I actually saw this before I had the original cast recording and so kinda like it better – in fact I have posted about the movie before so I will subject you to this …… I should preface by saying that I know bugger all about the world of RENT – well I’m not completely ignorant – I know that it’s a musical and I knew that it was set in New York and had something to do with struggling artists and that people had AIDS (and that the scene in Team America World Police was a reference to this – I am ever so cultured). I had often thought about buying the CD but never got around to it and I don’t know why, it’s not like I had any objection to it or that I wasn’t interested in it, it just never happened. I did buy the movie soundtrack (cause Idina is on it and that rates as an essential purchase nowadays) but I hadn’t listened to it – which I am kind of glad about now cause I got to watch the movie all fresh (not that I can say that I wouldn’t have liked it if I knew the music – I mean I have seen a whole lot of stage productions where I was familiar with the music long before I saw the show and it was never a problem) and I didn’t have to worry about missing songs and changed song order and all that jazz.

I had totally planned on seeing this when it was at the movies – at this stage (Before Wicked) I wanted to go cause of Tracie Thoms (cause Wonderfalls was an underrated gem – not to mention the fact that it featured the awesome Katie Finneran – who is totally shrine worthy) but no-one wanted to go with me (not that that normally stops me) and the reviews weren’t great (but that doesn’t normally stop me either, I honestly have no good reason for how I failed to see it at the movies – maybe it was serendipitous – maybe I wasn’t meant to see it until after the Wicked love).

Oh the only other thing I knew about it was that [my internet friend] had mentioned that she thought Taye was a bastard in it (albeit a hot bastard that she was drooling over) but then decided that she was definitely a Benny – If I am any of them I am a Benny – I am not ashamed to say that I like my money and my material possessions and my, relatively, secure job and am not exactly artistic or creative or a major risk taker so I don’t in anyway belong in the world of Rent (‘bohemian’ New York is a long, long, long, long way from small town Central Queensland)

Oh hang on I did know more about it – thanks to Broadway the American Musical (which naturally I own thanks to Wicked) – I knew the guy that wrote it was sort of this unknown guy who worked in a diner and that he died young (I kind of remember getting all teary and emotional in that part of the documentary) I then went on to talk about the songs (my thoughts were based on my early impressions of them and cover the movie and performances rather than just the songs themselves which is not entirely ideal but it is already written and I am on a dead line here so I am going to use them (it is probably not the best thing for you to read about the songs but I will console myself by pointing out that it is sharing with you things that I wouldn’t share with anyone else that I actually know and I will also spare you Goodbye Love but tell you that when I came home the first night of my last holidays I listened to this on repeat and worked myself up into a histrionic mess so then I had to listen to Take Me or Leave Me a couple of times and sing it loudly so that I could be at least a little bit together when you got here)

La Vie Boheme A & B - definitely my favourite song in the film – there was a lot on the commentary about it getting a PG13 rating and getting this song by the censors but it got an M rating here. It is so hard to know where to start quoting with this song cause there are so many awesome lines and I should probably just quote the whole damn thing. I do love Mark’s ‘spastic’ dancing (I should also point out that it’s impossible to imagine Elphaba dancing like Maureen). I do especially love this moment “Sisters? We’re close. Brothers. Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens, carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pewee Herman.” I also love the mention of Kurosawa. I also think that my neighbours really enjoy hearing me sing “to sodemy it’s between God and me” often.

Tango: Maureen - I want to be objective and say that the reason that I like this song isn’t just because Idina appears in it but it’s hard not to be swayed by the Idina factor. I can go on the record and say that I like the bits before she appears too and that has to count for something. I actually think that song is a great character moment for both Joanne and Mark – I love “this is weird… it’s weird… very weird… fucking weird”. I am incredibly impressed that Tracy and Idina can dance in shoes that I would break my ankles in. Idina looks so incredibly gorgeous in her red dress and it is completely believable that Maureen would have the power to make everyone fall in love with her. I know that on the commentary Chris Columbus (I’m not sure that he and I are on first name basis yet) was upset that he failed to notice that her lipstick was smudged but I happen to love that – it’s like it’s confirmation that Joanne should be worried about Maureen’s fidelity. I sing this often in my lounge room.

Take Me Or Leave Me - Me second fav song (and I think we should all be proud that I am objective enough not to claim it as my favourite). Tracie and Idina sound awesome together and any song that is introduced with the line “there will always be women in rubber flirting with me, give me a break” has to be something special. Once again it is a very un-Elphabalike moment. I love the idea that if you give a damn you’ll accept someone as they are or leave them alone and I adore this concept amped up to “no way can I be what I’m not but hey don’t you want your girl hot”. I love Joanne’s verse as well, especially her big diva moment (and that Maureen is giving little asides in the background).

Children Of Eden

And back to the Wicked related Biblical musicals – this was written by the same guy who wrote Wicked and I saw this with Anisia whilst texting you :-)

In Pursuit Of Excellence – This was just such a great moment in the show – the snake was so well done, v simple but v effective – and I really just love this song and once again my neighbours are subjected to both this and the next song often.

Stranger To The Rain – This was so well performed when I saw it, I cried during this song. I simply adore this song and enjoy singing it often (I love the range of the song and how it builds and I love singing “I will dance before the lightening to music sacred and profane” and then getting to get louder – I would so want to be this character if I was cast in the musical.

A Chorus Line

Amongst the things that I discovered at my neighbour’s house growing up and probably amongst the things I was a little too young to discover but you get that – It is a great musical and an excellent film and Michael Douglas is great as the director sitting there in the dark judging them all. I love all the songs but was controlled and only picked one.

Dance: Ten; Looks: Three – We used to sing this often at So You Think You Can Dance party last year (it is so sad that they moved this to Thursday night and we can’t have the party anymore). Full of interesting life lessons – “Tits and arse won’t change your life unless they’re yours”

Always

My sister brought this for my mother for her birthday one year and while we had heard nothing about it and I probably would never have picked up a musical about a Royal Scandal I am so v pleased that she did

Someone Special – This is one of the songs that I most love singing in all the world (I am all geeky and act it out – I can by so tragic at times but it makes me happy) and when I get it right it is amazing even if I do say so myself.

Always – I am not quite as good at singing this (I certainly can’t hit the end note) but that doesn’t stop me ;) I just love the “release you now and let you go” bit, I get a bit emotional singing this song sometimes.

Avenue Q

As you once told me it is ‘great in camp sort of way’ and in the end I included the whole CD as it is just too good not to but it should be clear that I really want to be Kate Monster (even if it would mean having to turn myself into a muppet to play the part)

What Do You Do With A B.A. In English/It Sucks To Be Me – Love the whole song but naturally like the Kate Monster bit the best “so why don’t I have a boyfriend? Fuck! It sucks to be me”

If You Were Gay – This was so fun in the show but I have always loved it – I love Rod’s defensive reading of his book on musicals to try and deal with the situation “High Button Shoes, Pal Joey” and his high pitched “why should I care, I don’t care”

Mix Tape – Another song that I have lots of fun acting out but I love that the Mix Tape includes Goodnight Saigon!!!! (see ‘high schools years’ for my feelings on this song)

There's A Fine, Fine Line – I really like this song and find it very moving and it is very emotional in the shoe – I like that you can feel that much for a puppet. This is also something that I would listen to whilst walking home when I got back from my holiday and cry a lot. You should know that I still think it’s beautiful and I love singing it but I don’t cry anymore.

Chess

Something else that we used to listen to in year eight music and the first tape of a musical (ah the days of cassettes – I have now upgraded to a CD) that I ever bought myself. A musical that spawned a number one hit in the 80s and one that was written by Benny and Bjorn from ABBA – may well be close to perfect – am only sad to have to report that the only time I have ever seen a production of this was local one in Rocky. One of the reasons that I liked Rory was that he had seen the production.

Bangkok/One Night In Bangkok – I like that most people know this song but have no idea what it is actually about. I love the Arbitrator character and this song may well be his finest moment –“I get my kicks above the waistline sunshine” “I’d let you watch, I would invite you but the queens we use would not excite you”. This is something that my friend Cath and I sing often.

Heaven Help My Heart – I have always found this a beautiful song but have to admit that as I am sitting here typing this the line “one of these days he’ll know more about me than he should, all my dreams will be understood, no surprise, nothing more to learn from the look in my eyes” does worry me and I do wonder if I should be sharing so much with you.

Argument – Have always found this fun and I love getting to yell when I sing it but is was unlikely that I was going to dislike a song that commences with “I would have thought in the average affair that the first hint of trouble would be oh so small, barely perceptible, easy to miss, why is ours on TV?”

I Know Him So Well – One of the best known songs from the show – well at least to those who know a little about such things – in case it’s not clear the first verse is the current lover and the second verse is the wife. I used to sing this with one of my friends at college and have fond memories of being in a park after Valedictory Dinner singing this on swings (this was in the days before I drank).

Embassy Lament – Sara actually mentioned this when we were talking about musicals at lunch. I really like Sara – when I had my first patient commit suicide we were on the phone for hours singing songs from musicals and other such things to one another and I felt a whole lot better by the end. I like the staccato detached nature of the song and how well that transcribes to what they are feeling “nothing very special he’s the forth we’ve had since last November, who do these foreign chappies think they are?”

Chicago

I love, love, love, love this movie!!!!!! I also loved the show when I saw it in London. I saw this with Abby in Gold Class and we both wanted to be Cabaret singers by the end of it (which is quite strange given that the previous week we had seen 8 Mile and both wanted to be gangster rappers). My family listen to this a lot and can often be found doing the dishes whilst singing and dancing to this soundtrack. This is also the movie that caused Bethany and I to have the discussion about musicals as I was appalled to learn that she hated the musical and she said that she could see that I could be the type of person who would like musicals and I don’t think she was complimenting me.

When You're Good To Mama – Mama is such an awesome character and Queen Latifah is so very amazing in this role – the look on her face when she sings “They say that life is tit for tat and that’s the way I live, so I deserve a lot of tat for what I’ve got to give” is perfect. For me this was the moment when I realised that I was so in love with this film (Well to be honest I was in love with the film from Catherine Zeta Jone’s head movements in the spot light in All That Jazz – and just how different their All That Jazz was to our All That Jazz in the school production when I was in year 12).

Cell Block Tango – Just so black and so very cool and with awesome choreography in the film, I especially adore the red ribbons to represent blood. It has so many awesome lines but if forced to pick I would have say the best is “You could say we broke up over creative differences, he saw himself as alive and I saw him dead.”

Dreamgirls

My friend who is causing Jason trauma nowadays gave me a copy of this when we were at school and I have always loved it especially this song….

And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going – but I have got to tell you that Jennifer Hudson’s performance of this in the film was phenomenal and so worthy of the Oscar that she was afforded (so much more worthy than Tom Bloody Hanks ever was) – I am so proud of my little American Idol girl.

Reefer Madness

I simply adore the fact that there are people out there crazy enough to make a musical based on a bizarre propaganda film and what a musical it is – just so you know it is something that I am determined to show you.

The Stuff – Ana is just so amazing in this and has a voice that I never expected from her, I had never really loved her all that much on Saturday Night Live but between this and her turn in Mean Girls, I am so in love with her talent. Yet another song I love singing and I love the absurdity of this song and how well she pulls off the “When Jack gets stoned and rapes me” moment.

Listen to Jesus, Jimmy – I can add my love of this song to the reasons that I am going to burn in hell but I have got to tell you that if Jesus was lounge act singer then maybe I would be able to get on board with the whole religion thing – I mean who doesn’t love a Jesus who knows he’s “the poster boy for Easter” and tells people “I’ve cured a lot of lepers and I’ve risen from the dead”.

Little Mary Sunshine – Such a great way of dealing with the original film’s assertion that one use of THC will turn you into a amoral slut and Kristin (not that Kristin) is just so cute as she goes from prim and proper to dominatrix from hell “I’ll paddle you, I’ll straddle you my little slave” (it makes me look at Veronica Mars or so differently now)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

This is probably the most age inappropriate thing that I managed to watch at my neighbour’s when growing up and it was the first time I ever saw two girls kiss and I have to admit that even back then I was somewhat intrigued by the concept. My dad had left the tape of this at our place and so after I got to see the movie I went home and learnt all the songs. This is something that has been a part of my life during most of it’s stages and with different people and once again it was hard to cull this but I was strong (in fact I can’t believe that I managed to bring myself to exclude Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Me and the fabulousness of “I thought there’s no use getting into heavy petting, it only leads to trouble and seat wetting”).

Dammit Janet – When I was working in Rocky we used to listen to Rocky Horror a lot after the bosses went home and I was there typing my discharge summaries. I was ‘cast’ as Janet by the staff – which upsets me as I really would want to be Magneta but I have to tell you that I do a damn good “It’s nicer than Betty Munroe had, now we’re engaged and I’m so glad”

Sweet Transvestite – This is such a great song but also the song that I caused major, major controversy with by convincing my floor that we should do it as our skit for Valedictory Dinner – one of the most subversive things I have ever done. The weird thing about the whole controversy is that the staff coped with the whole thing reasonably well but the other girls were really angry and offended (I like to think that they were jealous of our mad skillz). At least my behaviour was outdone the following year by my little sister being so drunk that she fell off the stage.

Sunset Boulevard

Now this would be an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that I actually do love – I definitely feel that it is his best work – maybe it’s because of the source material. I do like that I have seen the movie (especially since the movie is such a focus of the Family Guy episode commentaries)

With One Look – I love Norma’s intense and delusional belief in herself – “When I speak it’s with my soul, I can play any role” “watch me when I frown, you can’t write that down.”

This Time Next Year – I find this song fun – I do tend to love the songs where there is so much going on and a lot of the story gets advanced quickly but is still in keeping with the fluff going on around it. I do understand that they aren’t the easiest things for you to relate to though. I like all the reference to directors and the film history. I love “My resolution is to write something that gets shot with approximately the plot I first had in my head” and I love the concept of “Yellow brick road glory”

Sunset Boulevard – When I was working at Greenslopes the deputy med super had been to see the show and complained that every second word was ‘Sunset Boulevard’ but this is really the only song in which that happens – I did point out to her that the musical has great lines like “she checked with her astrologer who sacrificed a chicken” but I don’t think she was buying it. Despite all the Sunset Boulevards I do like this song – “kiss someone’s wife, kiss someone’s arse we do whatever pays the wages” “regular rations, 24 hour, 5 star room service” “I’m treading water, taking her money, watching her sunset – well I’m a writer” “Now I have suits and she has hope, it seems an elegant solution”

Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering – I have always enjoyed this song and the plethora of consultants that Norma employs but listening to it now I hope you like the astrology references :)

Too Much in Love to Care – I had to include at least one Betty song (even if it is a duet) given that Betty would be the character that I would want to play. I do like that the love song is somewhat reserved and bitter sweet and that they do know that they shouldn’t be doing this. “I should hate you, there I was the world in my hand, can one kiss kiss away everything I planned

Songs I Fell in Love with on Compilation Albums

The first of these come from a ALW compilation and when I think about it I would like there to be less ALW on the list but I am going to put it down to the fact that he hires good lyricists and there are good songs but overall I prefer different musicals to his. I notice that the ones I have selected tend to be songs about relationships in trouble – try not to read anything into that

Take That Look Off Your Face – I used to sing this with my aunt. Have always found this a really clever song. I like how it turns on itself and I love the “you would love to be right, I bet you didn’t sleep good last night, couldn’t wait to bring all of that bad news to my door” line because I have known a few people like that.

Don't Cry For Me Argentina – For a long time this was associated with the Goodies in my head “Don’t cry for me Marge and Tina, vote for Timika” but I that aside I actually think it is a really good song. Fav bit “And as for fortune and as for fame, I never invited them in, though it seemed to the world they were all I desire they are illusions, they’re not the solutions they promised to be”

Tell Me On A Sunday – I always found this kind of sadly beautiful but I have learnt that it is not a concept that I can get on board with – if I was told on a Sunday I so wouldn’t be able to get it together to go to work on the Monday. My favourite bit is “don’t leave in silence with no word at all, don’t get drunk and slam the door that's no way to end this, I know how I want you to say goodbye” – both for the words and the swell in the music

Another Suitcase In Another Hall - and back to Evita. Now that I think about I think I really liked this song because I could identify with it “I don’t expect my love affairs to last for long, never fool myself that my dreams would come true” – the fact is a lot more unsettling to me now than it used to be but I still like the song.

The next few songs are from Jodie Gillies – she is Australian and did lots of the theme songs to Andrew Denton shows back when he was first on the ABC – I have always loved her. This is another CD that my uncle gave my Aunt and that we used to sing together – I very nearly included the whole thing. My mother hates this CD (maybe I should have included the whole thing!). When my sister visited me at college the first time we were singing Miss Byrd loudly and people banged on my door to tell me to turn it down and Anna was saddened by the fact that people didn’t get musicals

Last Man in my Life – I like that it starts off with no accompaniment and that when the music does start it is so simple. I like the “used to think nights were for sleeping” line – in fact I like it more than ever now.

Fifty Percent – I have mentioned this song to you before. I have always known that there was something different about my emotional attachments as I completely understood this song and where she was coming from and accepted the “you don’t plan to fall in love but when you fall you fall” theory and found her situation sad but understandable yet when my friends listened to the song they just saw her as pathetic and I never felt that way about her. I do know that “I’ve had enough birthdays to know what I want” and that at this point “I’d rather have 50% of [you] or any percent of [you] than all of anybody else at all”

Send in the Clowns - This is a song that I have known my whole life and that my mother used to sing but I never actually got the song until I was older and listened to this CD. One day I will have to show you Judy Dench performing this song – she may not be the best singer in the world (you might like that actually) but it is such an amazing and heartfelt turn that I always makes me cry.

Miss Byrd – Maybe we shouldn’t dwell on the fact that I have always loved this song and the idea of the secret lives of people. This is a very fun song to sing – “he says I’m super too, he calls me hot, I show those basement apartments a lot” and another one that my neighbours hear often.

Shameless Self-Indulgence

Some of these only loosely fit the category but I love them and want them to be included somewhere

If You Hadn't But You Did – This is at least from a musical (although one that I am not familiar with) and I happen to think it is brilliantly sung by my Kristin. I have to tell you this took me a long time to learn but now Anisia and I do rousing performances of it in the car. I think this is a great song – it is bitter and dark and yet so playful

These next songs are performed by Siobhan Dillon – my pick to win How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? an idol like show to cast Maria on the West End in Sound of Music (which I went and saw twice while I was there) – and are actually her performances from the show. Sadly she didn’t win. My mother cried so much when she was evicted that I felt my own tears had been inadequate.

Truly Scrumptious – This is one of the few songs from a musical that she got to perform on the show and she was so cute with the kids.

Songbird – To my mind far and away the best performance anyone produced the show and her voice is just so amazing in this.

]

Things that aren't Scream 2 :(

2007-09-10T13:33:51Z

[Soundtracks and Others

I had to find a way to include the other random playlists that I made so this is an effort to explain the other things.

I do tend to buy a lot of soundtrack albums (basically because I am a merchandiser’s dream) and while I am not able to include my favourite (because for the life of me I can not find my Scream Two soundtrack – it must be in my house somewhere, I can find the case but not it – and it saddens me greatly that I can’t share ‘The Swing’ with you because I really, really, really love that song) I fell better about being able to include a few others.

Cruel Intentions

I do happen to think that the soundtrack is better than the movie but unlike you I actually like the movie (I was so excited that I went and saw it on opening night – hey it featured Buffy back before she became the most annoying character on the show). I love ‘Every You Every Me’ – as you know from the drive to Movieworld – my other favourites on this album are ‘Secretly’ and ‘Bittersweet Symphony".

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

And given that I mentioned Buffy let’s move on to the soundtrack of the same name. I love this whole album – of course the songs have associations with episodes for me which does influence the way I feel about them but I am pretty sure that I would like some of them regardless – most notably ‘I Quit’, ‘Already Met You” (which I simply adore) and ‘Transylvanian Concubine’ (which I think there is chance that you might actually like)

Songs in the Key of X

In contrast to the Buffy soundtrack these songs did not actually appear in the show (with the exception of ‘Red Right Hand’ which I love, love, love, love, love – I really like singing “you’re one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan designed and directed by his red right hand”). I was renowned at college for loving durges as reflected by my love of ‘My Dark Life’ – “she’ll stand on tiptoe for you in her grey and tattered tutu” “and his strong concealed arms set of bells and arms” “but the fantasy slipped as he tipped her in cigarettes”. I also really love the soundtrack to the movie – in fact over all I like it more but I don’t like any of the songs on it as much as I my two favs from this – but I thought one X-Files soundtrack was probably enough for you. I have just realised that Brian Eno is involved with ‘My Dark Life’ – that make me v happy indeed.

Twister

I really, really love this CD – it probably manages to cover most of my contrasting musical tastes. I really like singing ‘Moments Like This’ and I used to sing ‘Miss This’ (cause she was so going to miss me when I was gone!) to Barb when she was going to be moving out but my fav is ‘Broken’ by Belly

I also included the Xanadu soundtrack for it is fabulous and it contains ELO.

James Bond Themes

When we were little the fact that my step-mother had all the Bond movies on tape was one of the coolest things about her. My friend Bron and her brother and I listened to Bond themes endlessly when he was making a Bond database one weekend. Bron and I also sang Bond themes (with no musical accompaniment) all the way to the beach one day when she was staying with us – sometimes my mother has to put up with some weird things. What can I say – I love me a Bond theme.

Kate Miller-Heidke

I just love her so much. I first saw her in Women in Voice where she performed ‘Nothing Will Be Missed’ and ‘Blah Blah’ and then Ben from AMHU had this house concert organised where I saw her sing ‘Gaydar’. I love her voice and her lyrics and just so you know, if I was allowed to cast the Australian production of Wicked she would be playing Galinda.]

Behind These Hazel Eyes

2007-09-10T13:22:56Z

As mentioned, this has not been the greatest of weeks for me - for those who don't know, I have been sickly poorly (and for the record I have decided that I have consumption, every man and his dog seems to be claiming to have Avian Bird Flu so I feel that I should kick it old school with my hypochondriasis) I remain fairly miserable on the illness front and it's making work hard but I have had to go cause I have had functions in the evenings that I want to attend. [And if I didn’t do that I never would have ended up at the art gallery that night being socially awkward – I would be socially awkward if I ran into unexpectedly at a public event nowadays but it would be for v different reason)

So anyways amongst all this I have had the BEST night tonight and given how crap I had been feeling I think it's possible that these people should be bottled so that others can use them in this way - I saw Kelly Clarkson tonight but before I get to the awesomeness of her (and since it doesn't matter now as I probably have zero cred) I need to talk about the support act (which helped make it such a great concert) - Rogue Traders - fan-fucking-tastic, so, so good - in fact so good that I am thinking that maybe I should start watching Neighbours (which, when I stopped watching, Paul had never left - god I am old) as I am totally in love with Natalie - their album also rocks so if you don't have it, you should. Ok Kelly herself - so much better than any Idol my country has produced (or is likely to produce in the next week or so, cause I so know that Emily is going to win and make me hate Idol [she didn’t and so my Idol love continues]) - so much fun, so much energy, so sweet, so funny and in the future I think I am going to require all the acts I see to be jumping around so enthusiastically that they hit themselves in the face with a microphone (something which only made me love her more cause I would totally do that) and cause their lip to bleed and then just keep right on going (that's the kind of level of commitment to entertaining me that I am looking for, especially if afterwards you are going to tell everyone what a dork you are). At least if I can't talk tomorrow the inflammation of my throat will be due to singing and screaming all night rather than due to my TB so that's nice too.

[This concert predated My December and how I can’t wait for her to tour again so I can hear her perform stuff from the latest album she is apparently going to be in the country soon but not doing a tour :-( I know a lot of people don’t like My December (Mark Holden went so far as to describe ‘Never Again’ as the song that nearly ruined Kelly Clarkson’s career – pretty much confirming to me that he is an idiot and that I would be much better equipped to be an idol judge) but I think she gets better with each album. I had to add a little about My December cause I wanted you to know that I love ‘Maybe’ and while I think that it is a bit of a stalker song I happen to think that “Yeah I’m hard and life with me is never easy to figure, to love, I’m jaded but oh so lovely” could describe me!]

If you knew me at all you'd take my picture and you'd hang it on your wall

2007-08-29T11:27:14Z

[To be honest this was not the next concert I saw - I did see Ben Lee but I couldn't bring myself to post on him attempting to spread joy and love between songs - Shut up and sing people, shut up and sing! - However it seems that I have no problem letting people know about me going to see a pair of adolescents]

So it may have been a venue full of a thousand 12 year olds, their parents and me and my friends [do not be mislead by the clip -

that was filmed the night I was there - I happen to consider it MY film clip - there were way more 12 year olds than suggested by the footage they shot] but it was a great, great concert. I does help that I love their album but these are very young pop-rock girls and there is every chance that they wouldn’t be able to sing well enough for a live concert (well I knew they could actually sing cause I bought their album after seeing them perform some impromptu lines from 4ever at the Arias after it was pointed out to them that they had not be asked to sing but I was worried that they may not be able to manage a whole live set but thankfully my worries were for naught).

Now I am aware that these girls and their songs mean nothing to you guys so I will try and keep this brief – great venue, amazing stage presence, very impressive voices and these girls can sure rock.

I was most pleased when Lisa referred to “Mouth Shut” as their favourite song from the album as it is my fav, as everyone in my immediate vicinity last night is aware – I did some screaming of “Mine too” while I bounced around uncontrollably. Mouth Shut seriously rocks. The version of Heavily Broken was stripped back with Jess playing the guitar and was really beautiful. My favourite moment was when they did “Secret” and threw to the audience at the end of the first chorus and the audience responded appropriately – I thought that it was a pretty brave move for girls who have only recently released their third single to choose an unreleased song (but undeniably a great one) to do that with but clearly they know their target audience.

I sang, I danced, I jumped up and down and I screamed and when I got home [Jason] was asleep on my couch – he had consumed quite a bit on alcohol yesterday – when I left for the concert he was in mighty fine form and I have word from my friends who went to dinner with him last night that it was quite the experience – but he did wake up to watch an episode of the [World Poker Tour] with me and have a reasonable in-depth discussion about the Girls Aloud albums (I should point out that he started said conversation) – he was saying that he wasn’t really a fan of What Would the Neighbours Say? other than the fact that he loves “Deadlines and Diets” (and who wouldn’t). This led me to singing (as best I could given that I could hardly talk given all the screaming I had been doing at the concert) “The Show”, “Love Machine” and “Graffiti My Soul” until he was forced to admit that it was a good album. All and all it was a very, very good night.

Accidents and Accusations

2007-08-29T11:22:02Z

[Please keep in mind that it is v difficult for me to accept that I went to a country music concert and don't go making this public knowledge]

So I went and saw the Dixie Chicks last night – there’s a collection of words that not so long ago I never would have imagined putting together. For those of you who are unaware [my internet friend] has Svengali like powers and is not to be trusted as she is capable of eroding your core beliefs. That said, I have to admit that my alleged dislike of Country Music may not have had a whole lot of substance behind it – I think I may have been programmed to dislike it by my town (stupid beef capital where the kids want to pretend that we are anything but the country town that we are – I think it’s a generational thing cause my uncle loves the girls and is very jealous that I went to see them). I don’t know that I am a complete convert to the world of country but I am certainly willing to make exceptions for the Dixie Chicks (and for Mrs Mr Faith Hill)……………………………..

So having only been fairly recently converted (by the evil ways of the [my internet friend]) to Dixie Chicks fandom I was acutely aware that I needed to do some serious concert study following my exam – I learnt Taking the Long Way but then realised that learning their entire back catalogue before the show wasn’t practical (especially when there was only going to be a select few songs from earlier CDs in the show) and thus I did something that I had never done before and researched the set list for the tour and just learnt that (I kinda feel like I cheated but I have to admit that it worked out well – and that it was very cool to have the song my playlist had conditioned me to believe should follow the song that I just heard be what came next).

It was an awesome night – my friend [Sara] that I made come with me had only ever been to one other concert in her life and her husband had not allowed her to buy merchandise or food so she was very excited to be with me who encouraged her to buy everything that she wanted. She also totally cracked me up by responding to the fact that the crowd were screaming, cheering, stamping, clapping, doing Mexican waves etc etc etc whilst waiting for them to come on by saying, “Man the crowd weren’t this pumped at the Dido concert.” I was also very impressed with the two guys sitting in front of us who looked for all the world like they had been dragged there by their girlfriends under protest but once the Chicks started it turned out they knew all the words and were squeeing appropriately – kudos to you boys, you get big claps.

Natalie is just so amazing (not to say that Martie (who I think is actually my favourite Chick) and Emily aren’t – they are all so very talented, I spent a lot of the night wishing that I was talented at something, anything and thinking that I was a failure as a human being because I can only play one musical instrument adequately (well two if you count the recorder but I don’t – although I did used to pretend that I could play the guitar when [Jason] would let me strum while he did the cords for me), her voice is unbelievable and holds up to two hours of what is basically abuse without looking like it’s anything difficult. She is also very funny – “God I have just insulted Australians we are going to have nowhere left to tour.”

Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay for getting to see Top of the World live and yay for having seen Natalie sing Not Ready to Make Nice live when [my internet friend] hasn’t (I feel like I have cred now!) – it was fantastic especially the bridge, the delivery of “how in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they’d write me a letter saying that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over” was so powerful (and yet still so in tune).

I sang, I danced, I jumped up and down and I can barley talk today and I would gush so much more but [Jason] is on his way over to spend the day with me cause he leaves the country tomorrow and I can’t go to his going away dinner tonight cause I have to work

Vertigo

2007-08-27T01:54:47Z

[Just so you know - while I happen to love Auchtung Baby and Zooroopa I have not always been the biggest U2 fan and Bono shits me. Felt the need to forewarn you in case you've been keeping so huge U2 love closeted from me]

I don’t know if this is going to end up being a very abridged version of what I had in mind but given that until about 20mins ago when Denise Scott started cracking me up on Spicks and Specks and woke me up a bit, I didn’t think I was going to get anything posted this sentence is more than I had imagined that I was going to achieve tonight. Am suffering some pretty life threatening fatigue us a result of the

I am clearly very, very old cause being out that late on a school night nearly killed me – seriously I think when I look over my notes tomorrow they will be virtually unintelligible. Of course the fact that I went to work at 630AM yesterday so that I could sort things out and then go and sit in the sun from 2pm may have been a factor (am proud to say that despite the fact that it was scorching and they provided us with no shade I didn’t get burnt – which is a far greater achievement than at the races the other weekend – my mother was describing my sunburn as “third degree” – it clearly wasn’t because I was feeling a whole lot of pain).

I have never been to a ‘stadium’ concert before – have no idea what I have been doing with my life that that hasn’t happened until now but it was completely eye opening – I tried to bring so very little so that I had nothing to carry in and the more experienced people around me had chairs and eskies that apparently they had brought for the sole purpose of the queuing process and were happy to leave them there when they finally went inside – this is probably commonplace but I had absolutely no idea this happened, I lead such a sheltered little life.

I had fun in the queue – essentially I was getting paid to drink frozen drinks (there was no blue so I had to settle for purple) and play poker and Euchre with [BenDavid] – we won’t mention that to work (I mean my boss is aware and my ward and the community team are aware because clearly I wasn’t there but the powers that be that sign my time sheets certainly aren’t aware and certainly don’t need to know) – we will mention that I am the Queen of both poker and Euchre!!!!!

[James] was also in the queue but a fair way ahead of us cause he got there at 6AM. Now I have never claimed to be a huge U2 fan – given the fact that I hated them at school (right up until the point when they released One and the line “have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head” turned me around – damn 100% Hits Cassettes changing my life) so I’ve come a long way in even going to a concert of theirs. [James], on the other hand, is a little bit of a zealot – he has been amusing me greatly for two weeks by sending me updates on the progress of the building of the stage (complete with pictures) and has spent hours hanging out at the stadium – he did get autographs for his efforts but my favourite part of his obsessiveness was when he was telling me that I hadn’t really slept for two weeks and that his U2 widow of a wife would wake up in the night to find him wide awake singing U2 songs in his head.

So our queuing paid off and when got inside the partition that divides off the stage and next to [James] and the U2 Widow in the middle part of the left catwalk – is was the most amazing spot. Sadly, I am me and am not allowed to have such things (or needed to be punished for skipping work) and fate vomited all over me. [Cate] was later than us and couldn’t get into the partitioned off area and so she didn’t have to spend the concert alone I ended up further back with her – they kept letting other people into the area but they would never let her in so I couldn’t get back in there (you would think I’d be rewarded for doing the right thing by my friend but you would be wrong). [James} and [BenDavid] were very helpful after the concert telling me that it wasn’t that good where they were, what with having to deal with Bono dropping sweat on them and all.

Ok so I am not about to say that I didn’t have a good time or that I didn’t enjoy the whole spectacle or that I didn’t jump and shout and scream and sing (and can I just say yay for my new plan of learning set lists – it makes my life a whole lot easier – although U2 don’t stick to a strict set list and I had a lot of songs to cover that had been included only a few times in the tour but it was still much easier than learning everything song that I wasn’t familiar with) – I did all of those things and I had a great night but I don’t really get the whole U2 phenomenon. I don’t discount that they have talent (The Edge rocks and Bono can sing – although people around me seemed to be blown away when he held notes I have to say that he didn’t do anything that challenged my lung capacity (Idina Menzel he is not) and he didn’t make singing seem effortless like Natalie Maines does nor does he sing in chest voice notes that are about an octave above where I need to move to head voice like Kelly Clarkson can) and I appreciate that they want to change the world (even if I do find it ridiculous that they want me to sign a petition to Make Poverty History while they are staying in a resort with $2000 dollar a night rooms and being helicoptered to the stadium to practice) but I like my concerts to be less political. I am very shallow – maybe concerts (and music) about politics and full of religious themes are a good thing but I like my concerts (and music) lighter – people screaming ‘hell yeah’ in response to Bono’s various inflammatory political statements may make them feel good but it’s not going to change the world so I’d rather not pretend – I’d rather stick with happiness and fluff and songs about dancing and drinking and wedding rings being left behind (Yay the mighty Aloud).

The atmosphere was awesome and I LOVED the number of times that Bono threw to the audience and that everyone really was singing and that when Bono was singing his own thing the audience were singing the tracks as they are on the albums. Some moments were very powerful and they did quite a bit of Achtung Baby (yay!) but sadly not Mysterious Ways (which is totally [James’] fault – they have never played it at any of the many U2 concerts that he has been to in various countries but apparently often play it the day before or after – we are waiting to see how things go at the Sydney concert for him [they played it and he rang left it on my answering machine]) – which is sad cause I do love singing ‘On your knees boy’ and while I know they wouldn’t do my fav song Stay (Farway, So Close!) but I was at least hoping for All I Want is You.

Showgirl

2007-08-27T01:50:10Z

[I can't say that I get all obsessed about Kylie - I like her well enough but am not even sure that I like her music all that much - other the the awesomeness of Especially For You - are some great childhood and karaoke memories attached to that song - I so loved my cassingle of it]

Am stuck in a land of dial-up (complicated by the fact that my mum doesn't like the phone line to be tied up and the fact that I am working and so can’t just get on The Net after mum has gone to bed) but sometimes life is a little good to me and having agreed to come and help out my former place of work (at a time that my current place of work found acceptable) I get here to find that they are so much better staffed than they ever were when I was here (that’s not the bit where my life gets better, that’s the bit that is SNAFU aka the default state of my life) and I have very little to do – this means that I might have time to get some posts and fic done, was worried how I was going to achieve that here because in the evenings my mother and I are busy trying to get through season 7 of The West Wing before I go back home (on that topic, Kristin Chenoweth is too adorable for words and my boy Josh is having a much better season).

Ok so onto the things that I am very behind in – Thoughts on Showgirl - The Homecoming

This is one of those times where I get all obsessed with science fiction parallel universe thoughts and spend far too much time thinking about what this post would have been like if I had done it the night of the show (as opposed to a week or so later) but I guess – short of someone making me a TARDIS – we will never know.

I am not going to pretend that Kylie is the world’s most talented singer or dancer but I really wanted to go to her concert because I had heard that the girl knows how to put on a show. It’s kind of incredible to think that I have seen this concert (even if they delay did mean that I didn’t go with [Jane] as initially planned), for a while there I was developing a collection of tickets to concerts that had been postponed indefinitely and I was thinking of getting my collection framed. Before we go on to talk about my thoughts on the show, let’s pause for a moment while I mention the impact that it has had on others. I have spoken to sooooo many people who hated the show – who thought it was lewd and offensive and were appalled that she didn’t change the nature of her show when there were so many children in the audience. Now I know that I am possibly the least maternal person on the planet but for fuck’s sake people!!!! These people chose to take children to Kylie, they know that she is a gay icon, I presume that they know a little bit about what her show is like (and if they don’t then I think they are just irresponsible – in the years that it has been since these tickets were bought (bringing to mind the question of just how young these children were when the tickets were purchased) the Showgirl Tour has been on TV and is available on DVD – I see no excuse for not screening what you take your children to – now I know that I didn’t watch it on TV or DVD because I didn’t want to spoil the concert but I don’t fall to pieces at the thought of naked flesh and glitter and so am allowed that luxury, these people clearly don’t fall into that category. I am told that children were crying and saying “what’s are they doing Mummy?” which again takes me back to the for fuck’s sake people response – yes there were scantly clad individuals and yes there were homoerotic gestures but there was little that you wouldn’t see watching the top 50 film clips on a Saturday morning and if these kids aren’t watching that, just how into music are they and what the hell are they doing at a Kylie concert????????

Ok so I’m getting back down off the soapbox now and moving on to the weekend before the concert – during which Kylie was playing constantly at my house (and during which I had my own little Murder in Suburbia moment but unlike Scribbs I was just building flat pack furniture with a married man). I had my brother for the night and it was a v fun night of junk food and computer games and when Especially For You was on, he asked who she was singing with and then when I answered he asked me who Jason Donovan was – are children today being taught nothing in school, how can such an influential person in history have been neglected??? I so loved my Especially For You cassingle back in the day and have very found memories of the dance routine that my sister, my neighbour and myself made up to the B-side.

I loved the concert – I just thought it was a great experience – the set was phenomenal. I was a little worried at the start – those head dresses look mighty impressive but they really seem to restrict one’s movement and the dancing in the opening numbers was terrible. (I was also a little worried by the fact that I always seem to be seated next to someone who screams loudly and sings badly). Unlike the people described above I found the shower/gym scene to be fun and tongue in cheek and to have a Rocky Horror feel about it (maybe these kids should be watching Rocky Horror, maybe then they wouldn’t be so traumatised by a Kylie concert, maybe it’s a good thing that I am never going to have children…………..) and it was one of my favourite bits in the show. I found the fact that Kylie said “now that’s my kind of working out” in reference to a train of guys doing pushups with their feet of the back of the guy behind them funny (and if this means I am going to hell for willingly traumatising children I can live with that).

She has such personality on the stage and I loved how insistent she was that everyone was up and dancing (“I didn’t wear a leopard suit for nothing!”) and I loved how genuinely pleased she seemed when people were clearly getting into the concert. I really enjoyed the whole puppet/passivity phenomenon choreography and the guy doing flips all over the joint – the sidesault down a flight of stairs was amazing. However my hands down favourite moment (which was apparently something that really upset a whole lot people) was the slowed down, burlesque version of The Locomotion – Fan-fucking-tastic!!!!!!! I feel the need to ask has The Locomotion always been about sex and I have just been too dense to notice????????? (cause the lyrics worked just a little bit to well with the choreography and now I am thinking that I have missed the point of The Locomotion all this time). [I am serious on that - I need to know if I totally missed the point]

Close Encounters

2007-08-26T23:48:18Z

[I know your feelings on Robbie - one of the most endearing things that you have ever said to me was when you told me (at the casino) in relation to Robbie that I had taught you that you don't have to like all the same things to like the person. I only hope you continue to feel that way about me at the end of the show and tell session]

Last night marked what I assume is the end of my concert run for 2006 (so clearly now it’s time to start getting excited about the Scissors Sisters in Feb and Pink in May) and it was a truly awesome way to end the year. I know that Robbie is someone who polarises people but I have never had a problem with him – I did have quite the fondness for the mesh singlet wearing Take That boys (and as far as a song about your career goes “Never Forget” may not be Freedom and it may not be Tonight (oh NKOTB how huge you once were) but I always enjoyed it) and the man can perform his arse off!!!!!!!! And between songs he was funny and swearing and generally making me realise just how annoying it was to have Bono preach to me all night. I LOVED the concert – from the moment the fireworks went off to the moment the lights came back on and I say this without reservation even though he didn’t sing Sexed Up (which for some reason is my favourite Robbie song ever). I sang, I danced, I screamed, I did one hell of a mean rap to Rudebox (and can I just say that I was stressed when he kind of incorporated a few lines from Rudebox into Millennium earlier in the show as I thought that was going to be it (cause I am not down with hearing Rudebox if I don’t get to hear the “are we going to have sex? Will you wear your knee socks?” line). The girls to the right of us rocked and also did some mean rapping with me, the people behind me who spilt beer all over my hair and shirt should be shot, as should the guys to the left of us who spent all night going to get more drinks (I don’t get the point of drinking during concerts – you can drink any time, you can drink before and then after, you have paid money for this people, watch the fucking show!!!!) but at least I can take comfort in the fact that I would have annoyed them with my rousing renditions of various songs (I was particularly impressed with my Back For Good and my Come Undone). There were no bad moments (unlike the vast majority of the audience I wasn’t angry about the fact that he had a Lions’ jersey on – in fact I was going off like a frog in a sock about that – I love, love, love, love, love that he wore an AFL jersey to “break the hymen” (TM some dude Robbie spoke to on Monday night) of a NRL stadium and, as Robbie put it, that he “penetrated deeply.” – I am definitely in support of more concerts at Suncorp even if it is a nightmare to get out of). The best thing about the whole night (and one of the best things ever and making up for the fact that they had Robbie Rubik’s cubes on the displays but didn’t have any available to buy – for I am a geek and do love my cubes) was towards the end of a concert when a girl collapsed and had to be carried off and he was singing to her about how she should have hydrated better and how she was going to miss Let Me Entertain You and Angels – HEEE!!!!!

Dear Mr Robbie Williams,

I still think you are kinda slimy and that you likely carry many diseases but you fucking rock and you can entertain me any time you want.

With affection and admiration,

ME

TA-DAH

2007-08-26T23:40:48Z

[I am not really sure where my love of the Scissor Sisters came from - I didn't think I liked their first album, I didn't even buy it until I knew I was going to the concert. But a good concert it was..........]

I have had a particularly craptacular week on call, a rather rough 12 hours at work today and my uterus is attempting a coup and the level of pain that it is producing is may manage to overthrow my brain so this will be brief and really won’t reflect how awesome the concert was…….. I went to the Scissors Sisters last night. And? Fucking Rocked!!!! Towards the end of last year I went to some pretty big name concerts with a whole lot of production values it is kind of nice to go to a concert where the big “production” is some smoke and lights and Jake Shears jumping around in a tiny outfit looking like “the gay love child of Liberace and the Crocodile Hunter”. It was also nice, after the comments I was subjected to from people who didn’t like Kylie and Robbie, to be in a crowd of people who appreciated glitter and features and knew what they were there for and had fun (I was also very happy that the people who had young children there didn’t seem to worry that they might be traumatized by the experience – evidently these were different children to the ones at the Kylie concert – and little girl in front of me, you had the best hair EVER and I loved the silver lighting bolts on her face and if I wasn’t worried about you putting your fingers on my TV I totally would have stolen you from your parents). Due my tragic inability to gush and pimp at the moment I will simply direct you to [somewhere that I am not yet ready to tell you about but I have included a clip of Jake in shiny clothes jumpimg up and down
and as seeing Ana with a tambourine has made me realise that although there is much Girls Aloud gushing to come, I don't cover their concert I feel the need to include Girls Aloud and red tambourines and the best dance break ever!!!!!!!
] and mention that I LOVED Ana’s second dress (a truly girlie observation on my part that would worry me a whole lot more if the dress hadn’t have been all sparkly) and her telling the audience to dance with their faces and that jumping up and down to “I Can’t Decide” (which by the way is my fav Scissor Sisters song – “it’s a bitch convincing people to like you” – so, so, so good!!!!) and singing loudly was a great, great experience (although possibly not for the people beside me).

[I wasn't able to find a playlist for the concert before hand so didn't get to study properly and still can't find a reasonably reliable list so have just included the songs that I like the best]

I'm Not Dead

2007-08-26T23:07:00Z

[This is rather brief and was written when I wasn't exactly at my best but I maintain that it was fabulous and far better than the DVD suggests]

So this is very late in coming and is coming from another time zone, from another country, from another continent, from another hemisphere and is accompanied by some killer fatigue but that should in no way belittle just how fucking fantastic I thought the show was.

It annoys me no end that I had to spend so much time at work in the week following the concert (the things one has to achieve when they are not going to be at their day job for a month) and that logistics have made it difficult to have adequate computer time here and so this is not as fresh in my mind as I would like it to me.

This was my first time seeing Pink live and I probably owe my desire to see her to [my internet friend] sending me Pink songs prior to my exam last year – so thank you a bijillion times babe.

I do recall that I had heard of the support act (The Androids) and knew a grand total of one of their songs and that I was unbelievably pissed off that they didn’t play it (I will wonder to my dying day whether they were reluctant to (or not allowed to) sing a song that mentions Pink at a Pink concert).

Ok so onto the lady herself -

Man oh man was she impressive. She is so fucking fit, it is obscene. I liked that despite her ongoing political sentiments, she seems to have mellowed since the Europe DVD that I have – she is less angry and more thoughtful somehow. I am impressed with just how talented and versatile she is and what stage presence she has.

My fav bits –

• The weird little ‘Lady Marmalade’ audition video – a great way to deal with a costume change and delightfully self-deprecating, I loved that she wanted to be Mya!

• The opening of ‘Stupid Girls’ where she made reference to Paris’ recent jail sentence.

• Fingers – her work in the net was very impressive and I would have loved all the people who complained about the Kylie concert to been there and have to deal with a watching her sing a song about masturbation while she made some very suggestive and explicit gestures.

• The slowing down of the show for her imaginary campfire cause she couldn’t afford the insurance for a real campfire on stage and that when she requested chocolate she got it and eat it while she sang – pausing to laugh when there was too much chocolate in her mouth to make the notes.

• ‘The One Who Got Away” – this was very well performed (around the chocolate issue) and the fact that she kept referring to it as her Stalker Song and pointing out the bits where she sounded like a stalker was very endearing indeed.

• The ribbon work in ‘Get the Party Started’ and how much more skillful she has gotten at this – some of the poses were amazing and seeing her sing ‘Sweet Dreams’ whilst spinning upsidedown was v impressive.

My friends and I were very loud (I have been told that I was the loudest) and I think Pink loved us. I am sure that if she could have seen them, she would have been very impressed with our ‘Whiskey’ and ‘Cocaine’ headbands. I sang, I danced, I jumped and I yelled solidly for 2 hours – it was a fantastic night, in fact one of my friends (who only came along to be social) stated, “I wasn’t a Pink fan before tonight but I am now.” [that was Cate by the way]

My Internet Friend's original Girls Aloud Post that started the obsession

2007-08-26T11:41:42Z

It has come to my attention that not everyone has heard of 'Girls Aloud'. Or if they have, they don't know exactly how fabulous they are. This is my attempt to help those poor, poor people. [In case you were wondering I was the person how was not aware of how fabulous they are – poor me]

[Edit these were not the original pictures she included - but they looked about 14 in the original picture so I took a little bit of licence with regard to the prettiness and the hotness). Also there are (from left to right in the FHM picture - Sara, Cheryl, Nicola, Nadine, Kimberly)]

Girls Aloud are unashamedly a pop group. They were created during the second UK series of Popstars, which was called Popstars: The Rivals. The intent was to create two groups, one boy group and one girl group, who would then go head-to-head in the race for the 2002 Christmas #1. Ten girls sang to get into the group. Five made it. Those five were (in the order that Davina announced them) Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding. Everyone was shocked that one Javine Hylton did not make it into the group, as she had arguably the strongest voice. There were rumours of fixing phone lines and conspiracy theories galore. But Javine went solo and sort of faded into obscurity. Whereas the Girls are still going strong and about to release the fabulous single 'Biology'.

Anyhoo, the so called 'race' for the Christmas #1 sort of turned into a bit of an embarrassing contest between a thoroughbred and a three-legged donkey. The boys were all 'serious' musicians and released a predictable ballad along with a Bee-Gees cover. The girls were regular girls who were thrilled to be in a pop band and released the barn-storming 'Sound of the Underground'. Which sounded nothing like anyone expected of a Christmas #1. And nothing like anyone expected a Popstars band to release. It was a brilliant move. The boys never really recovered from this and only went on to release one more single before disbanding amid talk of bitching and backstabbing.

Despite an early setback during which Cheryl was accused of racially aggravated assault in a nightclub toilet (the racial element was taken out and she was eventually charged with assault), the Girls went on to release the even better 'No Good Advice' and an album of unadulterated pop brilliance. Everyone stopped being shocked at how great they were. Now everyone is shocked when they release something that is less than brilliant ('I'll stand by you', 'Long hot summer').

Girls Aloud have never claimed to be 'all about the music' or that they even have the slightest clue about anything to do with music other than being handed the words to a song and told to sing along. But their music is, nonetheless, amazing.

I think this month's 'Marie Claire' sums it up well:

"That's the thing with Girls Aloud - they're just ordinary girls who happen to have good looks, good voices and good luck. They don't act like they're anything special. Which, of course, is why they are."

Popjustice reviews of the three 'Girls Aloud' albums. Way better and funnier than I could ever be. [Edit – sadly Popjustice have changed their format and the reviews don’t seem to be there anymore] Buy them. All of them.
Sound of the Underground
What will the neighbours say?
Chemistry

Completely arbitrary top fives:

Top 5 Girls Aloud Songs
1. No Good Advice
2. Love Machine
3. Deadlines & Diets
4. Love Bomb
5. Real life

Top 5 Girls Aloud Covers
1. Teenage Dirtbag
2. Jump
3. Girls on film
4. Grease
5. I'll stand by you

Top 5 Girls Aloud Members: singing ability
1. Nadine
2. Nicola
3. Sarah
4. Kimberley
5. Cheryl

Top 5 Girls Aloud Members: amount of lyrics they get to sing*
1. Nadine
2. Cheryl
3. Nicola
4. Sarah
5. Kimberley

*This is in no way scientific

Top 5 Girls Aloud Members: my favourites
1. Kimberley
2. Nadine
3. Cheryl
4. Sarah
5. Nicola (maybe if she smiled more?)

Top 5 Performances on Popstars: The Rivals*
1. Nadine: Show me heaven
2. Sarah: Holding out for a hero
=2. Sarah: Anyone who had a heart
3. Nadine: Fields of gold
4. Nicola: Shout
5. Kimberley: Unbreak my heart

*Sorry Cheryl

Top 5 Girls Aloud videos [I added the videos just in case you might be interested - and to force my interests onto you and to show you my mad skillz!!! I love you!]
1. No Good Advice (The tinfoil outfits, the tambourines...it doesn't get any better)

2. The Show (Girls Aloud running a Salon with Kim as 'The Boss')

3. Biology (Lots of pink. And Nadine's funny dancing)

4. Love Machine (Cheryl makes funny faces when she sings)

5. Jump (For the Cheryl/Nadine subtext)

And there you have my take on exactly why Girls Aloud are the best thing in pop. Ever.

[It really wasn't all that much or all that detailed when I think about it but it certainly had an impact in my life).

I'm talking' 'bout a whole lotta history.....

2007-08-25T00:16:02Z

[What follows in a combination of three posts probably done over the space of 6 months - I apologise the the format of the Chemistry one differs form the others - I thought about changing it but had a very Homer-esque "Whatcha gonna do?" response to that thought"]

My little tribute to Girls Aloud - Which might as well be labeled “My little tribute to [my internet friend] seeing as my knowledge of them would be limited to one song if not for her – Still I gave her the world (or at least the wonder that is Firefly and Serenity) so I think it was a fair trade.

Have been meaning to tell [my internet friend] how impressed I am with her recommendation (I realise that this sounds kind of dubious but, while I love [my internet friend] and think she has awesome taste, there is the issue of the ‘Gentle Country Drama’ [aka the fact the she likes McLeod’s Daughters which is about as difficult for me to palate as RN) that is always a cause for concern) and was going to email her about this as it is probably only really of any interest to her but when I was looking up more Girls Aloud stuff to buy on Amazon I came across the Amazon reviews for Sound of the Underground which were very unfavourable (annoying songs, bad lyrics, every copy should be torched, if you buy this CD it will ruin your life…..) and I got all indignant and as always, my indignation forces me to foist my opinions on the world at large (or you know, on the two of you that read this).

I should point out that at this stage I only have two Girls Aloud CDs [are memories - what a sad time in my life that was] which is quite an effort as they were not easy to track down in my little town so it’s not like I am an expert but more stuff (including DVDs) is on order.

Sounds of the Underground

Oh I have the version with the black album cover. [Well at least that used to be true – I now have three versions of the album – maybe I shouldn’t tell you quite so much, you may never take to me again]

I loved this from the first time I heard it (which I never know if it’s a good thing or not, most of my favourite CDs are things that I grew to love rather than loved automatically) but how could I not, it’s mainly about music and dancing and glitter balls (I find it hard to think what’s not to love here and note to all the Amazon people that don’t think the songs are deep, I feel very sorry for you that you can’t appreciate the joy of glitter balls, you lead sad, shallow existences).

Sound of the Underground

A song very close to my heart cause I am notorious for playing my music, far, far too loud (an issue that ran me into a lot of trouble at college and still makes my neighbours irate – there really needs to be more songs about playing your music loud (come to think of it, the reason that I like Sweet Home Alabama may be only because of the “Turn it up” bit at the start….).

So hard to pick my favourite line – it would be choice between -

“Neighbour's banging on the bathroom wall he's saying crank the base I gotta get some more” – cause it reminds me of the fact that my neighbour bangs on his ceiling (my floor) every time I play my Britney Dance game on the dance mat (unfortunately I don’t think he is trying to encourage me)

“Water's running in the wrong direction” – because it just fucking rocks

“Pumps the bass line up into my brain” – cause that is what I think I am trying to do when I have my Ipod up full ball.

No Good Advice

So I know this is [my internet friend]’s fav Girls Aloud song and I tried not to be swayed by this but it is really very, very good. It’s kind of angry white girl music (TM [Jason]) but all popified (and yet with a My Sharona feel) and it’s awesome.

Lines I adore –

Pretty much the entire bridge – “Here I go, off the road, crank the stereo I flick a finger to the world below, oh, here I am, dirty hand, I don't give a damn, shut your mouth because it might show” – loud music, obscene gestures and hands with a mind of their own, it doesn’t get much better than that.

The entire chorus is pretty cool too – I think choruses should feature the words wasted and anaesthetise much more often.

And almost every line in the talky bit in the end but the best are – “I don't need no good advice, no well intentioned sacrifice” and “Hell I don't need no beauty sleep, no need to count those dirty sheep”

Some Kind of Miracle

The agony of potentially unrequited love but all wrapped up in dancing and glitter balls (glitter balls baby!!!!!) – Brilliant!!!!

Naturally I love any mention of the glitter ball, I also like – “I catch your eye and then the whole world tumbles down” and “I kinda smile as if the whole thing's so passé but deep inside I close my eyes and pray” – clearly this taps into the same part of my personality that gets all misty in Celine Dion’s Falling Into You (“so close your eyes and let me kiss you and while you sleep, I will miss you” - sigh) [Another thing that I probably shouldn’t tell you if I want you to still love me]

All I Need (All I Don’t)

Ah love that’s not good for you – the topic of almost every drabble I write “I hate to love you” and “And you want me and you get me” could be my drabble mantras – that said it’s probably my least favourite song on the album.

Life Got Cold

Now this I really, really like. So it’s a song about disillusionment with love (and life in general) but it references so many things about the futility of life and the little things that we do to get by that it’s hard to know where to start with the commenting or the lyric choices (these would apparently be the very badly written lyrics according the reviewers at Amazon but I happen to think they are mighty fine). I like that it seems sort of slow and the music makes it seem lyrical but the words themselves are actually quite fast.

As mentioned, it’s really hard to pick my favourite lyrics – they are so many good ones and the contrast between the lines at times is so cool. If I had to pick, it’s probably “We text as we talk, we're running as we walk” and “We skate as we date, as we slowly suffocate” and for completely different reasons – “I don't believe in Romeo's and heroes anymore”

Mars Attack

So it may not have the best lyrics on the album but it’s funky and the processed sound works for it and yay again for songs about loud music and dancing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Even if it does mention Hip Hop like it’s a good thing). It’s fun and I see no problems with having no time to think so long as that’s related to dancing and rocking.

Stop

More odes to dancing and music (why isn’t more pop about this instead of love?) and also kinda to the coolness that is them. I like the way the drums (or probably more accurately the drum machine or synthetiser – but let’s stick with drums cause they allowed me to go off on a Rogue Trader’s tangent – “So here it come the sound of drums, here come the drums, here come the drums") don’t kick in until part way through the first verse.

Best line definitely “No sleep for the wicked, no fun for the good” but I really like the change in sound in the “move to groove” bit.

Girls Allowed

I have to admit that I laughed a little at the title and thought it was cheesy but I also have to admit the song is good enough to pull it off. It may be a song about believing that a guy is perfect but at least it acknowledges how sucky guys can be. Also like that confidence in their own mad skills – “don’t regret it, don’t forget it”.

Best line – “I don't need a man doing everything he can and giving up his life and everything he has to please me” – cause those are some pretty darn cool priorities (and pretty much the antithesis of what a whole lot of songs and movies try to tell us that we should want) but I also think that “I don't like a man who drives a fast car to make you think they're bigger baby than they really are” has its charms.

Forever and a Night

A pretty enough ballad. I can’t really explain why but for some reason – forever and a night seems so much cooler than forever and a day but the thing the really makes this song for my is the “boy” bits just thrown into the middle of the lines.

Love/Hate

See and here they switch it up with fast music behind slower lyrics (maybe this happens a lot more often than I think it does – it’s just that I am not usually overanalysing everything – well not to this level anyway). I like that the love/hate thing in this is different to the love/hate aspect in All I Need (All I Don’t) – well at least by virtue of the fact it’s about someone else.

Best line – “When I give and take, you don’t reciprocate”

Boogie Down Love

Let’s take a moment to reflect that I really do seem to like songs that mention Boogie – Blame it on the Boogie, Play that Funky Music, Boogie Shoes, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Let’s Groove and enough of that, I will return you to the program at hand – and this is no exception – it may have some bad lines “down love, boogie down love” and “I give into you when we play peek-a-boo” but somehow they really work in the song.

Best lines-

“We got some dancing to do” – which may have something to do with the fact that it reminds me of Xanadu (hey I may have trash taste but at least I am honest about it).

“Cos a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do for a groove” – amen to that.

But I really do like the words (and the sound) of the “clap your hands and finger snap” bit

Don’t Want You Back

This is such an interesting song – I love the idea of still being in love with them (obviously “but I’m still gonna love you forever”) but realising that, sadly, sometimes this is not enough and yet this is not in a down beat, dreary, music to slash your wrists to kind of song – it’s pretty and poppy and seems more concerned with knowing what you want and what’s good for you than the eventual outcome.

White Lies

I didn’t really like this at first and it seemed like such a strange song to end the album with (I understand the other version is different – does it still finish with this?) but I love it now – which might just be because I like singing “You’re ruining everything” at the top of my voice.

Best bit – really like the rhythm of the “But that's no reason let me see you, feel you, hear you twist the truth around” bit (especially the middle bit of that).

[and then there would be the songs that I didn’t originally have when I did this post but did manage to still gush about elsewhere…

You Freak Me Out - I wasn’t sure about this at first cause when it came on it wasn’t the song I was expecting next (it’s weird having more than one version of a CD) and I’d get all disconcerted but I really like it now.

Best bits – (I think both of these lines are kick ass)

“And my feet don't fit in your sensible shoes but you just won't quit 'till you've killed my groove”

“And if I smile you think I'm doing it to get my way and if I don't I've got an attitude”

Girls on Film - So the first time I heard this was on the What Will the Neighbours Say? Live in concert DVD and pretty much anything associated with that concert rocks (well except the colour of the dresses) – excuse me am busy having a flashback to the world’s best ever dance break and am dreaming about owning a red tambourine. I was never a huge Duran Duran fan (although they get major points for the name and the Bond theme – am now in danger of going off on a whole new tangent of Bond themes) and so I have no problem with the cover.

I Say a Prayer for U - Man Nicola sounds so young in bits of this song (like seriously young – 12 or so) – she has a very sweet voice but she needs to trust that she can put power behind it (which she seemed to do back in the Popstars days – what happened to that?)

Best bit – “But your green eyes own me” [or in my case your brown eyes]

100 Different Ways - This song starts so quickly that I have to confess that for a while I thought it was part of I Say a Prayer for U – admittedly Nadine doesn’t sound like a 12 year old. I really like this one – I-e, I-e, I shouldn’t sound anywhere near cool as it does in this song –

Fav bit – (other than I-e, I-e, I bit)

“I'd write it out in blood if I thought you'd change but, oh it's not enough for you”

.
Love Bomb - I wasn’t really sure at first – my expectations where rather high cause I knew [it was one of my internet friend’s favourites] – and when I first heard it I was thrown by how talky it is. Naturally, cause it’s Girls Aloud I LOVE it now. You’re right, anytime that Cheryl does talky stuff it is awesome. I do enjoy dancing around to it. My fav line is probably – “But can you handle 5 fly cuties when we're chilling out in the place.”]

What Will the Neighbours Say?

Ok so before I got this I knew that it was on [my internet friend’s] list of favourite albums and when I first heard it didn’t immediately grab me and I didn’t think it was a patch on Sound of the Underground (I mean it wasn’t about dancing, there were two covers in a row, what was a girl to think?) but my initial assessments are often wrong and now I think it is infinitely better.

The Show

So very, very cool. The parts of this are very different and yet they work well together, my favourite part being the fast paced “Shoulda known, shoulda cared, shoulda hung around the kitchen in my underwear” part.

Best line – “shoulda fluttered my mascara like a butterfly” – Best Line EVER!!!!!!

Love Machine

Has kind of a country vibe to it (so I am guessing that Angie loves it!!!! Have been off to check and indeed it is her second favourite Girls Aloud song). It also gets points for including the album title without making it the focus of the song.

Best bits –

“So, Mr. prehistoric make your wheel and I'll breathe underwater cos I like the way it feels” – Second Best Line EVER!!!!!!

“I need a squeeze a day 'stead of this negligee” – cause who doesn’t really?

“We're only turning into tigers when we gotta fight back”

“Let’s go Eskimo” – a line I have got to try and use in my real life.

I’ll Stand by You

It’s a reasonable cover (I mean I don’t skip over it when it comes on or anything) not really a whole lot more to say about it .

Jump

Another cover but it also (by virtue of Love Actually) holds the important distinction of being the only Girls Aloud song I was familiar with before [my internet friend] convinced me that I needed to learn more about them.

Wake Me Up

“Was it just the margaritas, or are you looking at me?” – the line that really stood out the first time that I listened to the album. Fast paced and fun and I love the idea of a song about asking someone to wake you up before you drop out being this lively. It also references sherbet (that can never be bad) and masochism “You treat me rough to show that you care and I just can't refuse baby”

Deadline and Diets

This would be the other song in which lines just jumped out at me the first time I listened to the album and there were lots of them (at danger of quoting the whole song – will try to keep it down)

“It's 3am and you still look gorgeous, my morning-after feeling's kicking in, I hate to say but I'm feeling nauseous, I put that down to too much gin”

“You left no number left your wedding ring”

“A never ending story of deadlines, diets, and devious men”

“Wham-bam my life’s a disaster movie”

I love this song.

Big Brother

I don’t really like this one, I guess it’s my least favourite on the album – I wish I didn’t have to say that, cause it’s the kinkiest song on the album and now I sound like a prude.

Best line – “Close up, rewind, you're in, my mind, one touch, too far, eyes meet, so sweet, in the dark” With “And when I'm home at night and mister lonely bites” a close second.

Hear Me Out

The music really, really reminds me of Mel C’s (aka my favourite Spice Girl) Never Be the Same Again (as another example of me no knowing what I am talking about – I thought that song was the weakest on the album and couldn’t believe she released it as a single, so naturally it was huge, huge, huge hit). I just adore the concept of “no other man I love is gonna leave me in the rain”.

Best lines –

“As the rain pours down the window (And I've turned my life around) I'm no longer here in limbo”

“My heart is broken and bleeding, but it's beating” – once again not the best line on paper but it really, really works in the song.

Graffiti My Soul

Such a very cool title, come to think of it, such a very cool song. I mean “Your kisses taste of Cyanide”, “An open heart is suicide”, “I need a walking talking mannequin

that simply folds away”, “You're getting jaded but you're fascinated” – all completely kick ass!!!

Real Life

Full of reasonably good real life advice – even when in trouble – “I was thinking of nights with out you” and “I was thinking or life with out me” leading to “Damn right I’ll see it through” and “now I know it’s just insanity” respectively and there is something in that for all of us really.

Best lines – “He started as a squeeze but pretty soon he was a tourniquet” “It started with a kiss and pretty soon it was a compromise”

Here We Go

Another cover but I am actually only familiar with this version so I don’t think it counts – I am going to take this as the gold standard of the song. Oh and at least it’s a little, tiny bit kinky, so I am not entirely prudish.

Best lines –

“The modern girl's delighted to be risqué”

“The bass line cuts deeper than, the sharpest stiletto” (despite my line choices I don’t have a weird obsession with bass)

“I don't do sex, but I do do second base” – I am so immature at times that this line actually makes me giggle.

Thank Me Daddy

I find it hard to relate to this song – may be it has something to do with the fact that I am a very good girl or may be it has something to do with Smurfgate 1983.

Best Lines –

“And listen to the noise that I'm making not the boys on my answer-phone”

“The people in my bed are making me brain dead”

So in summary – Girls Aloud? Love them! So much so that I have followed more of [my internet friend’s] advice and now have two Dixie Chicks albums – don’t get all excited about your power babe – they were on special [obviously I was wrong about that as ended up at a Dixie Chicks concert]

Chemistry

Ok so much like when I first heard “What Will the Neighbours Say?” and was all this is no “Sound of the Underground”, when I first heard the album I really wasn’t all that sure if I liked it. Naturally it has continued to grow on me and I love it now – I probably like it more than “Sounds of the Underground” but “What Will the Neighbours Say?” definitely remains my favourite.

I hate that this CD does not have lyrics in the liner notes because due to my tendency to create mondegreens with even the most simple of lyrics I had to go a searching on the net and there is an awful lot of disparity out there about the lyrics (so I admit that some of my fav lines may not be the actual lyrics but I have no way to confirm what the correct words are).

Intro – I really didn’t like this at all at first, it kind of seemed like pointless fluff and that it just got in the way of the album but my thoughts have been swayed with time and repeat exposure and now I jump around my living room to all 40 seconds or so of it. I, of course, love that it mentions baselines and that it’s kind of loud and in you face and has an I am who I am so fuck off vibe

Due to its short and repetitive nature, it’s hard to pick my favourite line but I guess it’s

Don't ask me to say my name, don't ask me to share my fame Because (as we’ve discussed) when I first got my Girls Aloud stuff (before I had watched Popstars the Rivals) I had a hard time working out who was who, what with all the hair changes and all (I had an especially hard time discerning Cheryl and Nadine but that’s okay cause either way they are still so doing it).

Models - The first actual song on the disc and one of my favourites (I would have selected this over some of the singles that they have released). People who I have made listen to Girls Aloud tend to dislike the fact that the tempo changes so much throughout their songs and they tell me that they don’t think the parts of the songs sound like they go together but I actually love that (maybe not when I first listen to the songs but it definitely works for me once I know the songs). I like that the words are the same but that the Why don't you call? Why don't you call? Why don't you come around baby? sounds and hence feels so different to all the Why don’t you calls that proceed it.

I have to admit that I totally picture [Jason] when they are describing the guy in the song (well except for the fact that he only wishes that he was sleeping with models – but in his head I’m sure he thinks that all of the models are crying themselves to sleep because he’s married).

Fav lines –

Nothing at all rocks my hunger like a trip to the mall Although in my case you could probably replace ‘mall’ with ‘JB HiFi’

A girl's got style, legs for miles, seen them walk all over you

Someone thinner's got you talking in code so fitting with the elitist world of modelling (as taught to me by that bastion of knowledge that is Next Top Model)

Biology - As far as I know the only single from the album to chart over here (I don’t even know if they’ve released any others) and usually the one that my friends are bitching about when they talk about tempo changes but I love, love, love it. It has a very fond place in my heart because FFM and I were on a table singing it at his going away party but it’s very addictive and gets stuck in my head a lot. I adore the tempo changes that everyone else dislikes because you get to change your dance style during the song – I especially love jumping around 60s style to the We give it up and then they take it away,,,,,

I like that the song is so confused in its intent because if it were clearer I might have to dislike it on principle (as it is it worries me that I love it so much when really it’s about wanting to be loved for everything that I think of as the wrong reasons) – I like the knowing better aspect of it but just not being able to put those thoughts into actions. It does worry me that many of my favourite lines go against what I would consider to be my values, especially the fact that my absolute favourite line is –

C’mon and hold me, hug me, say you love me and not my dirty brain although I have to admit that when I first heard the song I thought the line was “hold me, hurt me, say you love me” – I’m really not sure if that’s better of worse when it comes to my values.

Wild Horses - So this is a song that even I had trouble with the fact that the intro is so different to the rest of it when I first heard the CD but it doesn’t bother me at all anymore. I like it well enough but I don’t love it. I can certainly be found bopping around to it but it’s not my favourite track, I don’t really know why.

Fav bits –

I was trying to sedate him trying not to blow trying not to hate him

Rings on his fingers were fake as the kisses he gave - I think mainly cause it reminds me of season one Australian idol – my mother hated the winner (Guy Sebastian) with a passion and she felt that he was faking sadness whenever anyone was eliminated. In the final show he had this pimp jacket and a nose ring and sang “Crazy in Love” and at the end of it he took the nose ring out – my mother’s response to this was “Look it’s fake just like everything about him” and every time I hear that line it reminds me of that moment and makes me smile.

See the Day - Until I was writing this I didn’t realise that this had been released as a single and I find it a really surprising choice, don’t get me wrong – I really, really like it but I never saw it as having single potential. I like that it’s about a guy (or possibly a girl – I really shouldn’t make such assumptions) who has been hurt and may just be too damaged to be with and that there is a sense of realisation that no matter how much you do or how hard you try it just might never be enough.

Also, in the tiny little bit that she has, Nicola sounds great.

The lines that really get to me –

Or do you see in me what you always see In every girl that you fall for?

s it mean to say that she haunts you night and day?

And does it hurt your heart when I say let's start.. To heal the part that's been torn

Don't you see that I, I'm really worth a try? - it’s just so hopelessly hopeful.

Watch Me Go - Ok let’s start off with the fact that I really, really, really want to like this song because there are so many bits about it that I LOVE but it is completely ruined for me by the ending – I just can’t stand the <i>I know what you're thinking you've been thinking bout my butt Bet you'd like to know what's got my body feeling hot </i> talky bit at the end – now I do realise that the song isn’t exactly classy but this just seems crass and unnecessary to me (and every time I reach that bit I get disappointed and am forced to remember why it is that I don’t love the song). OK so let’s pretend that bit doesn’t exist and move on to the many, many, many, many lines that I do adore –

Got the keys, got the gasoline, pour it on I'm ready to blow

I was dressed in red, tied up to your bed, begged you on my knees - my fav line in case you were wondering

You were back again, said your name was Ben, then we went for more

So, strippers and the vicars in the back and that would be a close second

Waiting - This song always reminds me of something else – I want to say “Counting the Beat” but that doesn’t seem entirely right, it definitely has some of the feel (the backing is similar – are you allowed to call something a vamp if it goes for the whole song?) of that but it always niggles at the back of my mind that it’s really familiar, as though I want to sing something else when it starts but I’m never sure what and I find that really distracting and it makes it difficult for me to comment on the track itself.

Fav lines –

All night, been looking at your hard earned six pack - cause like me, it’s delightfully shallow

I'll never get to heaven with my glass half full

Whole Lotta History - it is completely tragic just how much I adore this song and how overly emotional I get when I am singing it, it’s my favourite song on the album (so maybe I really am all about the angst). Alright so I am going to have to cut down on the favourite line quoting for this one cause it is essentially the whole song.

My favourite line is Baby, I miss you so tell me, is she really that beautiful? - pretty much confirming just how ridiculously angsty I am.

My favourite line to sing however is I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't but you cost me so much love - admittedly I don’t sound as awesome as Nadine singing it but that doesn’t stop me (I really love the rise to the so much love bit)

And since I’ve spent my day watching GA stuff I’ve finally seen the film clip and how much do I love the fact that if you only watch the first verse it’s like Cheryl and Nadine are singing about one another!!!!!!!!

Long Hot Summer - I find the whole concept of this song amusing – the girls don’t really live somewhere that I associate with having a ‘long hot summer’ (it’s kind of the like the whole <i>water’s running in the wrong direction</i> thing in Sound of the Underground – it’s a matter of perspective but from the point of view of the long, hot summers that I experience I can definitely appreciate the song but once again it’s not a song that I would have selected to release as a single.

Favourite lines –

I know you like to wear my dressing gown when I'm not there - I just really like that it’s in there and open to some different interpretations.

It's only Sunday morning and I need that Friday feeling again - I can completely identify with this, although I tend to experience it by about lunch time on Saturday.

Swinging London Town - I really like this song, more for the words and what it’s about than for how it sounds (because it’s not really a great sing-a-long track, nor is it one that I can easily dance to). I find it fascinating that this song was selected for the album – it’s not often that you get a commentary on the fickle nature of fame and the jet set life without it being a sort of been there done that parable of warning. I like that it is somewhat tongue in cheek and yet also very true and I like the idea of drowning in this lifestyle but not being able to let it go, not knowing what else to do.

Favourite lines –

I pussyfoot from drink to drink

Now we're down the slide to rehab

Martini sipping charm

Cocktails with pricetags make you choke on your sushi

D'you know the me that wakes in places...faces I've never seen? The mother of all hangovers to remind me where I've been Probably my favourite but for the record that has never happened to me (Sure I may not be able to recall huge portions of the night but I’ve never woken up somewhere unfamiliar and I rarely have true hangovers)

It’s Magic - Okay I am going to state that I quite like the song and the idea of suddenly wanting someone once you realise that they don’t seem to want you any more but I am going to get completely sidetracked by lyrics comparison – the sites just couldn’t seem to reach a consensus on the lyrics and I offer up some examples. (Also is this entire song Nicola????? – that’s a real question because I always thought of her as having better diction than some of the others)

Hugs and kisses, wondering wishes Bedtime pieces are on replay

Hugs and kisses, broken wishes hearts and pieces, on the replay

Hugs and kisses ?? Bwa ha ha ha – I love that they just gave up

I’ve decided just to cobble together the bits I like best so that would be bedtime pieces on replay but broken wishes rather than wondering ones (although I had been singing drunken wishes and I think I will stick to that)

And when we're ready don't speak, it's happening

Remember when you were last week, it's happening

??, it's happening

No Regrets - I really like the sound of this one – the mix of the latin-like percussion with a heavily synthetised sound backing what is just a simple ballad (oh and of course the awesomeness of Nadine’s voice). I love that by the first line of the song the tittle is a lie and that it’s so transparent that it would have to work hard to get to ‘the lady doth protest too much’ levels.

Far and away my fav line - Fish and chips in NYC - Tee hee so very British – I just love the concept of going to New York and the thing that you remember is having fish and chips

Racey Lacey - I’m not sure what it says about me that I love this song but I do – I like everything about it from the Austin Power’s sounding music to the biting lyrics, although I find the chorus disappointing when compared with the verses – it’s very hard to pick my fav lines – I mean where does one go when the first verse is I know this girl, she's not too bright but she's educated in bed alright She's made seduction a work of art a PhD with her legs apart I do like singing She's got dreamy eyes and Lolita lips, she's got undulating grundulating grinding hips though.