A chronicle of time wasted before dinner: an old meme about music.
List 10 musical artists you like, in no specific order (do this before reading the questions below).
1) Patti Smith
2) Sleater-Kinney
3) X
4) Johnny Cash
5) Dolly Parton
6) Neko Case
7) The Cramps
8) Holly Golightly
9) Wanda Jackson
10) The Gossip
1. What was the first song you ever heard by #6?
Hard to say. I watched her perform with Her Boyfriends as a part of that big free Paul Allen-funded celebration at the grand opening of his newest mid-life crisi--erm, of the Experience Music Project, and that was the first time I'd ever knowingly heard her sing, period. I remember hearing that fiery riff that begins "Mood To Burn Bridges" for the first time, and I remember thinking that "Thrice All American" was a funny, poignant song about Tacoma and who in the hell writes funny, poignant songs about Tacoma?
2. What is your favorite song of #2?
That's easy. "Turn It On." We've been over this before.
3. What is your favorite lyric of #5?
Hmmm. That's hard because so many of Dolly's songs are wrapped around completely schmaltzy lyrics. The voice! The phrasing! Taken out of context will leave you with the sort of thing that you might expect to see in the Great American Anthology of Cherished and Beloved Poetry. Actually, that might be true of most song lyrics but I'll be damned if I didn't have a hard time divorcing Dolly Parton's lyrics from her delivery.
From "My Blue Tears":
Fly away from my window little bluebird
Fly as far as you can away from here
And let not your song fall upon my ear
Go spread your blue wings and I'll shed my blue tears
For the one that I have loved
He has left me and gone
An' I'm in no mood for to hear your sad song
Bring not your light into my dark room, yellow sunshine
Waste not your warmth on the cold glisten here
Oh, trouble me not
Go ye elsewhere
Go light your blue sky and I'll shed my blue tears
For the only one that I have ever loved has gone away
An' I'm in no mood for the sunshine today
That's the whole song and it usually makes me cry. Not occasionally, not sometimes. Usually. There are a handful of songs that can do that to me and I've often considered putting them on a Sick Sad Mixtape for emergency bouts of future catharsis. But, anyway, we were talking about Dolly. Her voice is so young and bubbling and golden in this song and there's something about that contrast that's heartbreaking.
4. How many times have you seen #4 live?
Never. Goddammit.
5. What is your favorite song by #7?
Oh, that's hard. I wanna say "TV Set", but that's only because an old paramour once overheard me singing it in the shower. He was standing in the parking lot behind my apartment building. I was on the ground floor, but I didn't have a bathroom window. Yeah. Thin walls, putting things in teevee sets, yadda, yadda, yadda . . .
6. Is there any song by #3 that makes you sad?
Yep. "Poor Girl."
7. What is your favorite lyric of #2?
I like Sleater-Kinney but I have a hard time getting past "Turn It On". I think it's their best song.
Don't say the word
If you don't want it done
Don't tell me your name
If you don't want it sung
Don't come any closer
That's good enough
Don't go away
I can't stand the thought
It's too warm
Inside your hands
It's too hard
It's too good
It's just that when you touch me
I cannot stand up
I fell into
I fell down
8. What is your favorite song by #9?
My favorite Wanda Jackson song? Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck. Let me think about that. No, wait, that'd be cheatin', so let's just say it's a tossup between "Fallin'", "Sparkling Brown Eyes," and "Funnel Of Love."
9. When did you first get into #1?
I'm not sure, actually. I think I really got into Patti Smith at about the same time I first saw her live in the summer of 2001. It's always the Really Good live performances that ultimately get me into most of the musicians I really like and, kittens, that was a Really FUCKING Good show. I was too young to legally drink, even, and I was still blissed out of my mind.
10. How did you get into #3?
Long story. Youngest older sister's boyfriend was a fan. I was a fan of swiping his tapes. Listened to More Fun In The New World so much that the tape broke, or maybe I manhandled it badly enough to break it. Sister married boyfriend, moved to Okinawa, and left me X-less*. Forgot about X until about four or five years ago when I purchased their anthology on a whim. Listened to "Poor Girl" and remembered that, oh yeah, they wrote that song! I like that song! I should get that album, and the rest of their albums! And so I did.
*They also left me Iron Maiden-less, but that's a whole 'nother story. Eddy the Head gave me nightmares. Shut up.
11. What is your favorite song by #4?
If you'd asked me that when I was, like, six, I would've offered "One Piece At A Time" or "Oh, What A Dream" as answers. I'll stick with those two for now.
12. What is a good memory concerning #8?
Ladyfest 2000 in Olympia. It was Saturday night of that festival and Sleater-Kinney was supposed to end the performances that night with a searingly fierce set. Holly Golightly was supposed to perform at some point before them but their flight was delayed and they were pushed towards the very end because of it. It was around midsummer so the Capitol Theater was hotter'n the ass of Hades. The venue was filled-to-the-brim with a sweat-soaked, enthusiastically dancing, mostly-female audience. Sleater-Kinney ended their set on a screamingly high note with an encore that featured a memorable cover of "Dude Looks Like A Lady." Sweating buckets, dirty, breathless energy bouncing off of every chest in the audience, everybody singing along to "Words And Guitar" . . . then it ended.
...but not before Carrie Brownstein admonished the crowd: "I know we were supposed to end now, but Holly Golightly's up next and they're fucking amazing. STICK AROUND."
About twenty of us stuck around. Holly Golightly was fucking amazing. Ms. Golightly sang with a huskily sweet monotone of a growl and the band dialed it down for a crowd that really needed it all dialed down.
13. Is there a song by #10 that makes you sad?
Weepily so? No, not really, though I was pretty disappointed by most of Standing In The Way Of Control.
14. What is your favorite song of #1?
"Rock and Roll Nigger."
15. How did you become a fan of #10?
"Hott Date" showed up on the soundtrack of the film Group. That song is STUPIDLY, INFURIATINGLY catchy. So I got me a copy of That's Not What I Heard, shoved it into my stereo, and danced, danced, danced.
1) Patti Smith
2) Sleater-Kinney
3) X
4) Johnny Cash
5) Dolly Parton
6) Neko Case
7) The Cramps
8) Holly Golightly
9) Wanda Jackson
10) The Gossip
1. What was the first song you ever heard by #6?
Hard to say. I watched her perform with Her Boyfriends as a part of that big free Paul Allen-funded celebration at the grand opening of his newest mid-life crisi--erm, of the Experience Music Project, and that was the first time I'd ever knowingly heard her sing, period. I remember hearing that fiery riff that begins "Mood To Burn Bridges" for the first time, and I remember thinking that "Thrice All American" was a funny, poignant song about Tacoma and who in the hell writes funny, poignant songs about Tacoma?
2. What is your favorite song of #2?
That's easy. "Turn It On." We've been over this before.
3. What is your favorite lyric of #5?
Hmmm. That's hard because so many of Dolly's songs are wrapped around completely schmaltzy lyrics. The voice! The phrasing! Taken out of context will leave you with the sort of thing that you might expect to see in the Great American Anthology of Cherished and Beloved Poetry. Actually, that might be true of most song lyrics but I'll be damned if I didn't have a hard time divorcing Dolly Parton's lyrics from her delivery.
From "My Blue Tears":
Fly away from my window little bluebird
Fly as far as you can away from here
And let not your song fall upon my ear
Go spread your blue wings and I'll shed my blue tears
For the one that I have loved
He has left me and gone
An' I'm in no mood for to hear your sad song
Bring not your light into my dark room, yellow sunshine
Waste not your warmth on the cold glisten here
Oh, trouble me not
Go ye elsewhere
Go light your blue sky and I'll shed my blue tears
For the only one that I have ever loved has gone away
An' I'm in no mood for the sunshine today
That's the whole song and it usually makes me cry. Not occasionally, not sometimes. Usually. There are a handful of songs that can do that to me and I've often considered putting them on a Sick Sad Mixtape for emergency bouts of future catharsis. But, anyway, we were talking about Dolly. Her voice is so young and bubbling and golden in this song and there's something about that contrast that's heartbreaking.
4. How many times have you seen #4 live?
Never. Goddammit.
5. What is your favorite song by #7?
Oh, that's hard. I wanna say "TV Set", but that's only because an old paramour once overheard me singing it in the shower. He was standing in the parking lot behind my apartment building. I was on the ground floor, but I didn't have a bathroom window. Yeah. Thin walls, putting things in teevee sets, yadda, yadda, yadda . . .
6. Is there any song by #3 that makes you sad?
Yep. "Poor Girl."
7. What is your favorite lyric of #2?
I like Sleater-Kinney but I have a hard time getting past "Turn It On". I think it's their best song.
Don't say the word
If you don't want it done
Don't tell me your name
If you don't want it sung
Don't come any closer
That's good enough
Don't go away
I can't stand the thought
It's too warm
Inside your hands
It's too hard
It's too good
It's just that when you touch me
I cannot stand up
I fell into
I fell down
8. What is your favorite song by #9?
My favorite Wanda Jackson song? Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck. Let me think about that. No, wait, that'd be cheatin', so let's just say it's a tossup between "Fallin'", "Sparkling Brown Eyes," and "Funnel Of Love."
9. When did you first get into #1?
I'm not sure, actually. I think I really got into Patti Smith at about the same time I first saw her live in the summer of 2001. It's always the Really Good live performances that ultimately get me into most of the musicians I really like and, kittens, that was a Really FUCKING Good show. I was too young to legally drink, even, and I was still blissed out of my mind.
10. How did you get into #3?
Long story. Youngest older sister's boyfriend was a fan. I was a fan of swiping his tapes. Listened to More Fun In The New World so much that the tape broke, or maybe I manhandled it badly enough to break it. Sister married boyfriend, moved to Okinawa, and left me X-less*. Forgot about X until about four or five years ago when I purchased their anthology on a whim. Listened to "Poor Girl" and remembered that, oh yeah, they wrote that song! I like that song! I should get that album, and the rest of their albums! And so I did.
*They also left me Iron Maiden-less, but that's a whole 'nother story. Eddy the Head gave me nightmares. Shut up.
11. What is your favorite song by #4?
If you'd asked me that when I was, like, six, I would've offered "One Piece At A Time" or "Oh, What A Dream" as answers. I'll stick with those two for now.
12. What is a good memory concerning #8?
Ladyfest 2000 in Olympia. It was Saturday night of that festival and Sleater-Kinney was supposed to end the performances that night with a searingly fierce set. Holly Golightly was supposed to perform at some point before them but their flight was delayed and they were pushed towards the very end because of it. It was around midsummer so the Capitol Theater was hotter'n the ass of Hades. The venue was filled-to-the-brim with a sweat-soaked, enthusiastically dancing, mostly-female audience. Sleater-Kinney ended their set on a screamingly high note with an encore that featured a memorable cover of "Dude Looks Like A Lady." Sweating buckets, dirty, breathless energy bouncing off of every chest in the audience, everybody singing along to "Words And Guitar" . . . then it ended.
...but not before Carrie Brownstein admonished the crowd: "I know we were supposed to end now, but Holly Golightly's up next and they're fucking amazing. STICK AROUND."
About twenty of us stuck around. Holly Golightly was fucking amazing. Ms. Golightly sang with a huskily sweet monotone of a growl and the band dialed it down for a crowd that really needed it all dialed down.
13. Is there a song by #10 that makes you sad?
Weepily so? No, not really, though I was pretty disappointed by most of Standing In The Way Of Control.
14. What is your favorite song of #1?
"Rock and Roll Nigger."
15. How did you become a fan of #10?
"Hott Date" showed up on the soundtrack of the film Group. That song is STUPIDLY, INFURIATINGLY catchy. So I got me a copy of That's Not What I Heard, shoved it into my stereo, and danced, danced, danced.