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?