Songs that mean something to me, but probably not you…

So, my wife is trying to expand her music database, and had asked her friends for suggestions.  Then she finally came to me.  She wasn’t going to ask, but I was offended. She thought she had heard all of the songs that I would recommend. 

But, her question wasn’t just, suggest some songs. 

 It was,   “I’m looking for new music. If you’re willing, send me 5 to 10 songs that you think are great and mean something to you. 

The “mean something to you” part of the question was the part that I realized could be expanded upon. 

So I decided to make my answers public.  She said it was ok.

So, here are 7 songs, and really, I could write on and on, but 7 seems nice. Like a phone number from your childhood. 

I left my Heart in San Francisco – Tony Bennett

It’s late 1995 or early 1996. My Grandpa Bob had died, but if I remember correctly, Aunt Cathy had not.  So that puts it between November 95 and March 1996.  Anyways, My other Grandpa had a barbershop show out at the Chateau room at the Brat Stop.  There were a variety of acts, coincidentally, this was also the first time I had ever seen anybody play the spoons.

So, it was like a dinner and show kind of thing, I was there with my mother, my 2 grandmothers and maybe some other family members . I just remember the three of them. 

So one of the groups did this song, and I guess it was ok.  That’s not really what I remember.

What I remember is that this was the first time I saw my grandmother cry. She held it together when my grandpa died; she was the strong one for our entire family. And there she was sitting across from me, my mother’s hand holding her left hand and my other grandmother holding her right hand, and her in the middle crying.  I am in tears now just thinking about it.

Apparently that was her and my grandfather’s song. Or it held some special meaning between the 2 of them.

So another thing happened that night, I learned that music can be more than just music. I learned words can mean so much.  That is the night that music became something that I could get lost in. This led me to finding so much to listen to. This led to me being a DJ and to writing a blog. This was when MUSIC began for me.

The Barber of Seville Overture – Gioachino Rossini

This is an interesting one, eh?

So this is actually just a few months after the last incident. Maybe a year at the most.

I was in the Orchestra at McKinley Jr. High and we got to go on a field trip to see the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and they played this song.

It was the only song they played that any of us knew, But we didn’t know it because our teacher’s had taught it to us. We didn’t know it because our parents taught it to us. Hell we weren’t into that shit. Ok, maybe a few of the weird kids were. But certainly not me and my friends.

Anyways, we knew this because Bugs Bunny taught it to us as he tormented Elmer Fudd.  He was the Rabbit of Seville. 

So this was a like, another moment where it was like, hey this classical music can be cool too. We had been watching Merry Melodies cartoons forever.  Bugs Bunny could make anything funny.

So I include this because it really opened my eyes to finding something of value in every genre or style.

Also, this song always goes through my head when I am getting a haircut.

Here it is performed live with the video as accompaniment.

 Listen to the crowd reaction. Still eating this shit up!

Good Night – The Beatles

Having kids is a great thing.  You get to introduce them to music anytime you want.

And you can share so much with them.

I always played music for them when they were in the womb.

But the best part was finding them a lullaby.

Rivers was easy, I mean, any weezer song would do. I sang Butterfly and My Name is Jonas for months.

Hayden, it took a while.  And here’s what I mean, I sang him many things, and sometimes he’d calm, sometimes he’d cry right through them.

I’d try Weezer, Popes, anything I could think of. I probably ironically sang Brick to him.

Then I remembered this one. The last song on The White Album, Ringo’s classic. Hayden just loved it, and from then on I had a song. I could sing it to him and he would just calm down.  It doesn’t work anymore, but then again. Nothing calms down a 9 year old.

Good Night - The Beatles from Susi Sorglos on Vimeo.

Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On – Neal McCoy

Ok, so here’s some more personal info. This is a weird one.

For anyone playing along at home,  I am in my third marriage.  If you didn’t know, now you know. 

Now there’s break up songs, and they are great. I mean you’ve got, Pretty Pathetic by Smoking Popes, Radio by Alkaline Trio, The World Has Turned And Left Me Here by weezer, God I could go on and on.

Those songs are sad and or angsty. 

Those songs are listened to during the point that Billy in the song is in. Just broke up, and partying all night crying all day.

So even though my second marriage was ill advised and doomed from the start. I still had to get over it.

I had to go out and be Billy.

But then I got to this song, and realized that I can look back at that initial heartbreak and find the humor in those initial behaviors.

So it wasn’t like this song helped me through it. This song was the graduation. It meant I was good now, and could move on to find wife number 3, (the best one yet).

Tha Crossroads - Bone Thugs-n-Harmony

Yep,

So remember the Barber of Seville story. 

This is the rap version of that story.

Rap had been around since before I was born, and it went through stages.  80’s rap was fun and party stuff, then it got more reflective of the lives of these rappers and families, it got dark,

Rappers were finally talking about the streets and things happening in their lives.

Then this song came out as almost an anti Gangsta rap song. Yet it still was one.

This one showed us the other side to life. Or shall I say the opposite.

Rappers had already been telling us they killed people. But this was one of few songs to tell us that they knew people that died.  It wasn’t the first time anyone did it, but somehow this one became a hit.

And that was when I really found the merit in rap music.  A good rap song can be just as influential as any folk song or anything really.

The song won a damn Grammy

Oh, and here it is with the lyrics if you can’t keep up-

Guerrilla Radio – Rage Against the Machine

So, there were punk examples, and rap examples, and I am sure rock examples (Fugazi, Black Flag etc…)

But this was protest in such a different way than I had ever heard before, and it certainly became commercial.

This would influence American Idiot indirectly 4 years later at least in my opinion

This wasn’t the Bob Dylan or Peter Paul and Mary my mother listened to.  This wasn’t my dad’s Buffalo Springfield, or Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

No,  This was my Rage Against the Machine!

This was a different kind of protest. This was, aptly named, a fight against the whole thing or The Machine.”

I’m not sure that I was totally ready for this sort of thinking, But, the music, I was ready for.

Odd thing about this song, is somehow it inspired me to dye my hair black. I’m sure that’s not the message they were going for. But for me. I don’t know.

The Video

Live on Lettermen

Live in Dusseldorf

Fat – Weird Al Yankovic

This isn’t my favorite Weird Al song. 

And in Today’s PC world it would never be allowed to exist. But back in the eighties you could make a joke about fat people without losing your TV show and book deal.

But in 1988 you could do it.

And the 6 year old version of me realized music could be funny, it taught me that you can make funny words and put them to regular music. 

It was just an epic time for me. I was able to play outside by myself, which really just going to the other kids houses to watch TV, cause we didn’t get cable.

So I had to get my MTV. 

It’s weird because when I think back on it, this may have been the first time I ever bonded with someone over music.

It was cool too.  In another way.

I loved Michael Jackson. He was my favorite, but I still thought this was cool. A lot of people don’t like to hear their music parodied, and fans of bands get offended if someone makes fun of their beloved songs.  

But for me, these were 2 different songs.

Michael Jackson did Bad, and Weird Al did fat.  I

n fact, thinking on this, and Eat it vs Beat It. It’s hard to say, what did I like first, Weird Al or Michael.  

I guess this is my musical chicken and egg.  

Eat It

So there are 7 for today, maybe I will take this up again sometime.

Let me know what you think.

No really