What are your Desperado songs?
 

Remember that Seinfeld episode with the guy who couldn't speak if Desperado came on the radio? What songs are like that for you? Try to stick to singles as they might actually play on the radio...

Weezer - Say It Ain't So
Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Foo Fighters - Everlong

Hahaaaaa!! Yes, of course I remember that Seinfeld episode!

And Elaine gets kinda peeved/kinda jealous and wants her own "Desperado" and tries to go with "Witchy Woman." Baaahahaha!

Ok, so I never really listen to the radio around other people unless I'm at a bar (rare) or at the supermarket, but I will try to answer as well as I can.

• Kanye West - "Runaway" ... I don't often hear this song unless I'm playing it, and I don't often play it in the company of others since it's so goddamn intensely personal for me, but it was a platinum-selling single from one of the biggest albums of the millennium, so I imagine there's a chance that someday I will hear it on the radio when I'm with someone. If and when that time comes, that person will see me freeze like a powered-down robot. Then probably dance a little.

• Kim Carnes - "Bette Davis Eyes" ... This one HAS come on the radio, or been feather on television, many times while I'm around other people. It actually happened pretty recently. In the supermarket. I pulled my cart off to the side and just stood there, under a speaker, and tranced out. Probably cried a little.
Also, it came on during American Horror Story season 5, when I was watching it with my girlfriend last year. We usually chat through episodes, but when this came on, I think I actually said "Shhhh shut up." Which makes me an asshole, even though I was trying to be funny. :(

I can't think of any others for now. Most of my "Desperado" songs are almost 100% unlikely to ever be played on the radio.

Desperado renders me speechless because I'm too busy throwing up.

why don't you come to your senses?

Good topic! I guess I'd pick The Boys of Summer by Don Henley. I love some of his solo stuff & I love the Eagles

Bette Davis Eyes and Boys Of Summer are two great ones. Yeah.

Thought of another one...

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - "Learning to Fly"

I don't really know why, but despite not really giving a fuck about Petty, I've always been caught off guard by this song. And it plays in public a LOT. It's a great tune and it's melody (similar to that of "Bette Davis Eyes" actually) always makes me stop and get wistful and nostalgic.

That's my fav Petty song as well. Ha.

One for me: MJ's "Human Nature."

A few weeks ago I was tuned to a classic rock station and another song from Henley's, 'Building The Perfect Beast,' came on......Sunset Grill. I asked my wife to, shhhh as I turned up the radio and had goose bumps as I hadn't heard the song in over 10 years.......the keyboard parts sounded just as thick and lush as ever!

Not Enough Love In The World is another favorite from the album.

If memory serves, Don Henley was the very first concert at the Woodlands Pavilion in 1990.

They do not play any of my "desperado" songs on the radio, but I always have to listen anytime Magic 102 is playing Nightshift by the Commodores....

Let It Whip

I love Sunset Grill too, they used to play it pretty often on this one radio station I used to listen to years ago. And yes beast is a pretty good album.

I can remember when people used to talk about good music on this message board

lead by example then.

This.

by all means make some new threads if we're not being pretentious enough for y'all.

this whole album, completely. well, maybe minus one song.

and any song that Mimi Parker sings live. She can sing the alphabet and I will have goosebumps for months

I don't know if it's really about being pretentious. I thought that most of us discovered a band like Sonic Youth because we turned off the radio, due to it being full of garbage.
The board was once a resource for me to find out about new things; not so much these days.
Then again, I get that if I'm not contributung these things as well, I'm "part if the problem," so to speak.

I discovered them because I turned off the radio to hear something different. Not because I think that only garbage is on the radio. Sonic Youth is my favorite band by far. But that doesn't make me dislike things that are less challenging, or less cool or whatever.

At any rate, the fact that this is a SY msg board was what made this thread interesting to me. On a board consisting mostly of folks who don't listen to the radio, what "radio songs" are ones that happen to just shut you up? That kind of thing. Was really just trying to spark conversation.

But yeah, I also tend to think that just because there's talk of music that you deem "bad," it shouldn't stop you from talking about music that you deem "good." I don't necessarily think we all have to agree on what's good or bad, but there's more interesting music discussions we could have than "I remember when we used to talk about good music," yeah?

And I did come up with one at least. Let It Whip is a pretty decent song, as hits of mainstream yesteryear go. Got me to think of something.

I may be mis-reading, but I feel like there's kind of a meannesss to some of these comments that bothers me a bit.

For one thing, friends, I took this thread as being kind of *about* semi-shitty music. Or at least unexpectedly good songs from largely shifty genres. Can't we talk about that? I mean, have you ever seen that Seinfeld episode? It's absurd! And "Desperado" is a shit ass song by one of the most famously shit ass bands ever. Wanker in the episode goes all haunted-eyed when it plays, like it's super deep. It's necessary ridiculousness.

Can't we talk about that shit? Like, when it happened to us? I've had a boner for "Bette Davis Eyes" since I was like 10 years old. I don't know shit about Kim Carnes, and I'm sure I'd never like anything else she made, but when that song comes on the radio, I listen. Is it silly? Yes. Absolutely. But it's also a great song.

I guess from my perspective, if you don't like the discussion, don't take pat in it. Why drop in just to say something nasty?

ego needs feedin'

anyway im trying to think of an answer to the original question. hard to come up with one song in particular.

Hah. I'm not sure that's it. Feels more like boredom to me. I just don't really see the point. When I'm bored I find something I enjoy doing and I do it.

When I take a dig at someone, I usually fell like a shut afterwards. Like an immature, petty little shit. That's just me though. Maybe it's Catholic guilt.

There's gotta be something... some track that comes on and just makes you space the fuck out despite yourself.

It's the '90s version of "This is my jam!" Only, y'know, ridiculous in a different way.

I actually think my fascination with "Bette Davis Eyes" is pretty interesting. Throughout every phase of my musical development, even at my crustiest punk phase, I would defend that song to the death. WTF? I dunno.

okay i'll try to put something together

i listen to the radio on the truck cuz it has no input signal

most of the time i try to stick to npr but some shows are dismal so i start punching buttons to find something. it's a constant punching to avoid the mostly dreck. i even have a button for the autotune station tho cuz on occasion it has kept me awake on the highway.

the most reliably satisfying stuff available on my rural radio tends to be "rock", mostly of the 70s, but some 80s or 90s can work as well. driving under the influence of deep purple's "highway star" is a lot fun. beware of crashes.

the other day i got home & sat on the driveway till the end of stairway to heaven haa haa haaa. yeah. worn out as fuck for decades and yet it still delivers.

also hm re: bette davis, it's probably the cracked out drunken voice that's attractive. kind of a broken femme fatale thing.

my grad school advisor who was deep into academic music and shunned most pop things actually was crazy about that song too.

last: what i meant by ego is the idea of who one is, which is a "i'm this, not that." we think we are this idea, so we spend energy to maintain it (e.g. kirk's "i need my pain."). putting other people down is a great way to do both things-- to separate one's concept from the other and to feel good about it. it's the core motor of human civilization. this is why we have social classes, etc.-- to fit one's self concept and to cast others in a different set of concepts.

oh, interesting article from this morning, slightly related:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...at-the-movies/

Sure. Also...

"I'm edgy outsider SY-listener; must make known even to fellow SY-listeners that we're edgy outsiders and we don't like lame stuff!"

Whatever. World doesn't work like that. I could live on Captain Beefheart and Ex-Ray Spex and the Fall and still bob my head to "Jack and Diane." I mean... I don't.. I hate that song... but I *could.*

I can be a film purist and still line up for the new Thor movie. I can be smart and like dumb things. I can be dumb and like "smart" things.

The whole "I am (x)" idea is socially destructive, and probably very much to blame for the sorry ass state of the world right now. Nobody is one thing. Identity is only partially permanent. Foundational. The rest of it, as a construct, is fluid, and changing. And it should be. Because being one thing just means you're not anything/everything else.

"Under The Bridge" is another. Sure I've heard it a million times. Fucking Frusciante tho.

Man, my grad school advisor was a stone-cold bitch who violated privacy and ethics codes with ease and even glee. But if she had liked "Bette Davis Eyes" I probably would have adored her.

It's definitely the broken femme fatale thing. Also, that crushing melody. The cracks in the voice are certainly part of it too. You can apply it to a million things. Simplistic in its lyrics, but really, utterly hypnotic as a piece of music.
I remember watching the music video on VH1 and thinking, "This is absurd." And the video was indeed absurd and garish and cheesy. But the song just went right for the gut.

I challenge anyone who thinks my adoration of the song is lame to find it right now on your streaming service of choice, put on your headphones, listen from start to finish and then tell me there's nothing there.

Ok, I have to amend my first response: "Runaway" doesn't count for this. Nothing ridiculous or "Desperado"-esque about it. Just a great goddamn song. Not what this thread's about. It's like me saying "Windowlicker" or "Marquee Moon." Nope. Does not fit.

if you can get marquee moon in your local radio station or supermarket muzak you should thank your stars cuz you're a lucky bastard

here's another

total eclipse of the heart- bonnie tyler

o wait wait wait i got what you guys talking about. a "haunting" song.

then i submit "captain of her heart" ha ha ha

yeah. i downloaded that the other day to my phone

it's got a kind of empty hangover sadness, a bit like VU's sunday morning but less adventurous/ more coked up/ plastic

i still like it tho

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm saying. Probably far, far less likely that I'd hear "Windowlicker" either. Even with all the new-fangled radio jobber tech out there.

And I've never heard "Runaway" on the radio. Never.

These songs don't count. They may be haunting or whatever, but they're not "Desperado"-esque.

Yes I'm talking about these stray songs that do come on the radio and you're like OMG yes! And just kind of go off on in daze.

This is one of my personal most hated songs of all time, but somewhere on the internet (unfortunately can't find it just now to link) there is a half hour analysis video of this song. The presenter claims that is the greatest song ever written, and goes into minute detail about the entire structure of the song bit by bit. He concludes with "THANK YOU, JIM STEINMAN. THANK YOU, JIM STEINMAN."

lol that sounds like something an English professor would do :P

Have you heard this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtv1vm5b2U

I don't remember the sound quality being this ropey but it still is way better than the original

Boredom, and a bit of frustration. I just find it strange how Sonic Youth used to be a benchmark band for people who liked exploring music. It used to be the case that if you got talking to someone about music and they liked SY the chances were very good that you could tip each other off to other interesting things. E.g. back in the early days of this board I learned boatloads from Clone about psychedelic music. Now if yr interested in sharing new music you'd be better off pissing in to a black hole than coming here. And apparently people like it that way.

Anywho, in answer to the OP question I don't really know that there is one song that I have to make everyone shut up for when it comes on the radio.
But last week was the annual guest appearance by Tom Lax (guy who runs Siltbreeze Records) on Brian Turner's show on WFMU and I always shut up an listen to whatever he plays.
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/74412