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