Category: Music

New Song: Doorstop Believer

This is one of those songs that just popped into my head. I rushed to my computer to write it down! Hope you like it…

Doorstop Believer

Just a small time world
Leavin’ in a lonely whirl
She took a midnight drink of it anyways

Just a CD burn
Barney raced in self control
He took a midnight drink of it anyways

I sit here in a Spokane room
I smell Hawaiian cheap perfume
Foreigns smile bacon Sharon Tate
It blows on and on and on

Strange ears
Wading
Morton Downey bully hard
Hair shatter surging in delight
Streetlife
Beeper
Living just to find a moose and
Hide it somewhere on the right

Twerking heart to get my mail
Everybody wants a grill
Handy Mandy won’t you roll the dice
Just one more dime

Summer win
Summer loose
Chuck Norris will drink some booze
On a boat that never ends
It blows on and on and on

Strain jeers
Wastin’
Morton Downey bully hard
Hair shatter surging in delight
Scream like
People
Livin’ just to fight a notion
Hide it somewhere on the right

Doorstop believer
Hold on to that sweet deriere
Streamline
Bingo ahhhhhh!
Doorstop believer
Hold on, is it 3am?
Streetlight
Beeper

Summer win
Summer loose
Some were born to sleep with Jews
Otis muzak never ends
Egos on and on and on

Don’t stop bleeding
Hold on if you’re feeding
Sleek tights
Peepholes
Don’t stop Felipe
Hold on, is it 3am?
Streamline
Bingo

October 20, 2015
Fantastic Version of Tempted with Squeeze & David Sanborn

I love odd pairings of musicians when the result is fantastic like this!

August 15, 2015
1978 Dance Grooves

Disco? Yes.

Music of my youth? Yes.

Feather back your hair, grab your roller skates and get ready to dance, dance, dance:

August 4, 2015
Dumpster Diving – Alone

1987, the band Heart had a huge #1 hit covering a song titled Alone. Whenever I hear it, I squirm a bit because I don’t care for their cover version.

But there’s a story here.

First a little history about this song. It was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Billy wrote a lot of hits such as Like A Virgin, True Colors and Eternal Flame. The song Alone was released on Billy and Tom’s pet project I-Ten in 1983. It was coproduced by Steve Lukather from Toto and features several of the Toto boys.

When I was in high school in 1983, I spent some time doing some very strategic dumpster diving at the Columbia Records office building downtown. This became one of my early entrepreneurial ventures. Needless to say, I had some very cool posters on my bedroom walls! I also built a record collection of over 1,000 records from bartering the Columbia trash to a local used record shop who was thrilled to get a lot of the promo materials Columbia tossed out.

InAmong the many varied treasures I found was a cassette tape master recording of Billy and Tom’s project: I-Ten.

The night I found the cassette, I saw Lukather’s name on it. I was a big Toto fan, so I knew it would be good. I remember popping that tape into my Dad’s station wagon cassette deck and listening to it for the first time on the way home. This trash did not disappoint.

Often, when you hear a song for the very first time, it makes its biggest impact. Such was the first listening to Alone by I-Ten.

Although I traded the majority of my dumpster diving treasures for vinyl records which wore down many a diamond stylus, I held onto the I-Ten tape. In fact, I still have it in a box of keepsakes.

About three years later, I was in my junior year of college when I heard that familiar piano introduction and then Anne Wilson’s voice sing, “I hear the ticking of the clock. I’m lying here, the room’s pitch dark.”

“I know this song!!!”

I love Anne Wilson’t voice. But from the first time I heard Heart’s cover version to the 1,671st time, it has never been as good as I-Ten.

Here is the entire album:

July 25, 2015

Desert Island Albums

In my blog reading, I’ve come across some fellow bloggers who’ve taken the time to list the 10 albums they would want with them on a desert island. It’s a ridiculous notion, really, to contemplate not only landing on a desert island, but remembering to bring your 10 favorite albums.

With my smartypants on, I decided right away that I would pick my 10 favorite box sets, but then decided to make it hard and exclude all box sets and greatest hit compilations. There goes my beloved copy of Slim Whitman’s Greatest Hits.

So if I’m stuck on a desert island, I’m hoping it’s not a deserted desert island. If so, I’d be sitting around playing euchre with Gilligan, John Locke and Brooke Shields (all whom forgot to bring their 10 favorite CDs) and jamming to these classic albums.

What are your 10 desert island discs?

The Age Of Plastic – The Buggles
90125 – Yes
II – Chicago
Out Of The Blue – ELO
2112 – Rush
Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd
A Night At The Opera – Queen
The Sweet – Sweet
Toto – Toto
Asia – Asia

Honorable mention:

Difford & Tilbrook – Difford & Tilbrook
War – U2
Can You Still Feel? – Jason Falkner

July 16, 2015

How To Get A Song Out Of Your Head

Start by playing the song all the way through. If anyone interrupts the song, start it over. This purges the system.

Then, you must immediately play any* song by J. Geils Band three times in a row. Again, no interruptions or you should start over.

This is also the cure for hiccups and is being tested on monkeys with brain cancer.

* Please note this does not work with the song “No Anchovies Please” off of the Love Stinks record.

July 6, 2015
How To Ruin A Song? Make A Christian Version

I’m sure there a lot of ways to ruin a good song, however near the top of the list for me is making a Christian version of the song especially by changing the lyrics altogether. This was a pet peave of mine for a long time and part of what turned a lot of people off to Christian radio in the mid 80’s.

If you want to sing these original songs to God and you feel they are appropriate, then please just do it. If you have to change the lyrics, then maybe you shouldn’t cover the song at all?

I can’t say this without also thanking musicians that have become Christians and have not gone back into their past and changed or re-rerecorded their songs. Among these: MC Hammer and Lou Gramm (Foreigner)

A friend and I have started a list of songs that (in our opinion) should never have been “Christianized”. Here is the beginning of this list:

1. Some Kind Of Wonderful by Grand Funk – Mark Farner
2. Lonely People by America – Dan Seals
3. Broken Wings by Mr. Mister – I can’t remember the band, but trust me, it was not good
4. My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion – The Joshua Band
5. Jesus Just Left Chicago by ZZ Top – Just kidding, but imagine how bad this would be?

Are there others I’m missing?

June 3, 2015
Top 10 Misheard Lyrics: Deuce or Douche?

Update December 2012:

Springsteen was recently interviewed and says he changed Manfred Mann’s original lyric from “cut loose like a deuce” to “revved up like a deuce” yet admitted the reason the song went to #1 was because people heard “wrapped up like a douche”. This was the one moment in the history of the universe that millions of people collectively longed to hear a song with this bold statement!

Original Blog July 2007:

According to AmIRight.com, the most misheard lyrics in a song ever is Blinded By The Light, a Bruce Springsteen Song, made popular by Manfred Mann’s Earth band in the seventies.

I must admit, this is a very difficult song to figure out from verse one. I have one word of explanation: drugs.

I nearly coughed up a lung tonight reading the misheard lyrics for:

“Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night”

Be honest. What was your version of this lyric?

I actually had it pretty close, only using “wrapped” instead of “revved”. I did get “deuce” right while I think most people thought Manfred was singing about a nocturnal feminine hygiene activity.

Please enjoy my PG-13 rated, Top 10 misheard versions of this famous lyric:

10. Wrapped up like a goose, let the wind blow through my hair.
9. Lit up like an illusion in the middle of the night.
8. Rapped up like a douche, another rumor in the night.
7. Wracked up, like I knew she was a hooker in the night.
6. Red ball like a douche and throw me out into the night.
5. Wake up like a douche and go running in the night.
4. Wrapped up like you’re douchin’ in the middle of the night.
3. Warped up like Medusa, oh the runner in the night.
2. Grabbed up by a douche, another robot in the night.

and last but not least:

1. Wrapped up with a douchebag’s aroma in the night.

December 5, 2012
Best Compliment You Can Give A Band (Styx)

I tried, unsuccessfully (thank goodness), to blow my home theater speakers watching the Styx Grand Illusion / Pieces Of Eight DVD.

Those two albums from the late 70’s are so great. The band plays both albums back to back. It was the first time I’ve ever heard songs like Castle Walls and Aku Aku performed live.

Here’s something about Styx that I think sets them apart (at least for me). When you go back and listen to albums like this, you find yourself thinking, “Ok, this is my favorite Styx song”. Then the next song starts and you think, “Ok, this is my favorite Styx song.”

And the cycle repeats.

I have a feeling for some musicians that may be the best compliment they can receive.

March 24, 2012
Commercial Destiny

Some old songs are destined to have a second life in TV commercials. Let’s start a list of those yet to come:

1. Antacid: “I can feel St. Elmo’s Fire burning in me”

March 12, 2010