My 50th Favorite Song of All-Time

First, let’s recap what has already gone before.  To see the individual entries of each song, click here.

100.  “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something
99.  “Jack & Diane” by John Mellencamp
98.  “Hotel California” by The Eagles
97.  “American Pie” by Don McLean
96.  “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson
95.  “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” by Dr. Dre
94.  “Bushwick Blues” by Delta Spirit
93.  “For the Workforce, Drowning” by Thursday
92.  “Fish Heads” by Barnes and Barnes
91.  “Shimmer” by Fuel
90.  “Rubber Biscuit” by the Blues Brothers
89.  “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals
88.  “Asleep at the Wheel” by Working For a Nuclear-Free City
87.  “There’s an Arc” by Hey Rosetta!
86.  “Steam Engine” by My Morning Jacket
85.  “Scenario” by A Tribe Called Quest
84.  “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane
83.  “Fits” by Stone Gossard
82.  “Spring Flight to the Land of Fire” by The Cape May
81. “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” by The Postal Service
80.  “Sober” by Tool
79.  “Dream is Collapsing” by Hans Zimmer
78.  “Why Don’t We Do it in the Road?” by The Beatles
77.  “In This Light and on This Evening” by Editors
76.  “Lemonworld” by The National
75.  “Twin Peaks Theme” by Angelo Badalamente
74.  “A Comet Appears” by The Sins
73.  “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” by The Decemberists
72.  “Pepper” by Butthole Surfers
71.  “Life Wasted” by Pearl Jam
70.  “Jetstream” by Doves
69.  “Trieste” by Gifts From Enola
68.  “Oh My God” by Kaiser Chiefs
67.  “Last Exit” by Pearl Jam
66.  “Innocence” by The Airborne Toxic Event
65.  “There, There” by Radiohead
64.  “Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews Band
63.  “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen
62.  “The Best of What’s Around” by Dave Matthews Band
61.  “Old Man” by Neil Young
60.  “Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three
59.  “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel
58.  “Machine Head” by Bush
57.  “Peaches” by Presidents of the United States of America
56.  “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones
55.  “Fell on Black Days” by Soundgarden
54.  “The New Year” by Death Cab for Cutie
53.  “Call Me Al” by Paul Simon
52.  “Real Muthaphuckin’ Gs” by Eazy E
51.  “Evening Kitchen” by Band of Horses

And my 50th favorite song of all-time is:

“Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” by Primitive Radio Gods

I distinctly remember the first time I heard Primitive Radio Gods’ “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand”.  I was on vacation with my family in Ocean City, Maryland (as well as my friend Brock, who still doesn’t have a Facebook page!)  I was somehow alone in the hotel room, and MTV was playing.  MTV was still something of a luxury in those days; if luxury is not the right word, perhaps treat would do.  I remember hearing the opening chords and being interested, and then seeing the strange band name and stranger song name on the bottom of the screen.  At the time, all I was was intrigued.  It wasn’t my type of music.

A year or two later, my tastes had changed, and I came across the Primitive Radio Gods CD in a music store.  I bought it on a hunch, like we used to do in those days.  Turns out, the whole CD was really good, and really hit the wheelhouse of Young Seth’s developing musical tastes.  Over the years, the album (which is entitled Rocket) has consistently been one of the CDs I re-purchase when I am re-building my CD collection every few years; I’ve probably bought it 6 or 7 times.  And “Broken Phone Booth” is probably the song I have put on mix discs more times than any other song, not just because it is totally awesome, but because it’s a great tension-break amidst a string of higher-tempo or higher-octane songs.

The song has really helped form both what I look for in music, but also in literature.  I loved the lyrics’ mix of irreverent detail amidst serious, cosmic realities.  I’d have to say that in the intervening years, my tastes (and even my own writing abilities) have advanced beyond this song’s scope; parts of it are, in fact, rather sophomoric, but I’ll always be fond of the song for the memories and its sweet earnestness.

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My 51st Favorite Song of All-Time

Click here to see all previous entries in this list.

And my 51st favorite song of all-time is:

“Evening Kitchen” by Band of Horses

Certainly the only song that I’ve ever heard that is tender and beautiful while discussing how a lover (or former lover, hard to tell) has disappointed and angered them over a period of time, mainly just through being a difficult, hugely flawed person.  Not a song about cheating or breaking their heart, but just about being late all the time and being a general pain in the ass.  Sometimes it’s OK to not be singing about heartbreak and turmoil, but some of the more mundane but very real challenges we all undergo throughout life and relationships.  Plus, it’s just a damn gorgeous song.  Underneath the studio version, I have included a live version from an already-famous impromptu show they did in New York’s Grand Central Station in 2010:

 

Philly Journal, 6/25

Yesterday, Mom and I went into Philly to scope out my new place of employment (for those of you relatively new to my blog, we don’t use actual company names here).  I’d been quite anxious to see where it was situated.  I knew that is was very much in “Center City”, but I wasn’t sure to what extent.  The big question that was looming was the question of parking/ transportation.

It was not a great visit to the city for me.  The location is essentially as close to the center of the city as you could be—which is awesome and is going to be a lot of fun to work at, but my stomach sank as I came to realize that driving to work was going to be essentially impossible.  It would cost almost as much a day for me to park there as I would be making!  My mom and I drove home with me feeling more than a little dejected.

(a little more on the location:  it is smack dab on the middle of the Avenue of the Arts–for criminy’s sake, people, click the link—which is also within sight or very short walking distance of Philly landmarks such as LOVE Park, Rittenhouse Square, and the Wells Fargo Center.  I am not blowing smoke up anyone’s whatever when I say I am working as center as “Center City” gets in downtown Philadelphia.)

Shortly after arriving home, my sister chimed in with the clear and brilliant solution of PATCO, a light rail rapid transit system that runs from South Jersey right into Center City, Philly.  Basically, I’m taking the train to work.  Really, any solution other than this would have been silly.

So today I did a dry run.  I left the house at the approximate time I’ll be leaving for work this week.  It went like a dream.  It takes me about 20 minutes to get from home to the closest PATCO station, in nearby Woodcrest (this number, of course, is very reliant on traffic).  The train ride then takes another 20 minutes.  Then, my place of employment is literally within sight once you emerge from underground at the subway station.  So, within about 45 minutes after leaving home, I can be at work in the very center of Philadelphia.  Not too shabby, for $6 a round-trip.

Of course, I took some pictures, because that’s how I roll. (remember, if you want to see any pictures full-screen, click on it, then when it re-loads, click on it again).

The PATCO platform at Woodcrest, NJ.

You can see my place of employment here. This pic doesn’t do it justice; on the other side of the street are tons of recognizeable Philly landmarks.

Because I love pictures of myself.

My 52nd Favorite Song of All-Time

is:

“Real Muthaphuckin’ Gs” by Eazy E

Eazy was far and away my favorite rapper back in my rap-liking days.  His unique voice and flow style coupled with his unashamed misogynistic love of sex (I was a teenager), plus the fact that he was short and still a badass, made him a shoo-in for a poster on my bedroom wall.  And while “Real Muthaphuckin’ Gs” is far from his best song, it stands as my favorite for two reasons: it was at the top of my playlist during the rocky turmoil during the beginning of my first serious relationship (the period this song was on the playlist was mostly a bad period, with a whole lot of angst on my part, but I find all a memory needs to be pleasant after such a long period of time is a certain level of accuity), and the fact that this is an unabashed retaliation song, a straight-up “diss” song, on Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog in the big “war” between those two rap factions.    In my estimation, it is the best diss song out there, as it doesn’t attempt to be subtle or cutesy, but comes right at it’s subjects.  It is bold and daring, and creative in it’s rhymes.  In addition, the feeling of animosity toward it’s subjects is truly felt and palpable, unlike on Dre’s initial volley, “Fuck Wit’ Dre Day” where Dr. Dre, while dissing Eazy E, sounds like he might be reading a parts list off a manifest.

Two other rappers are featured in “Real Muthaphuckin’ Gs”: BG Knocc Out and Gangsta Dresta.

My 53rd Favorite Song of All-Time

Click here to read about this list, or click here to see all previous entries on the list.

…and my 53rd favorite song of all-time is:

“Call Me Al” by Paul Simon

I have no specific memory of my father and I enjoying this song together, but in my mind, this song was one of the first instances of my being aware that my father and I shared the same sense of humor.  The video, featuring Chevy Chase famously lip syncing and doing all kinds of crazy stuff, I know tickled both my father and I, and the lyrics, seemingly nonsensical, certainly hit both of us in our funny bone sweet-spot.  I’ve continued to love it more and more as I get older, especially as I realize the verses seem to contain serious material, seemingly unconnected to the nonsense chorus…always leaving me to wonder how much is nonsense, and how much is the work of a genius, working far over our heads.

Philly Journal, 6/21

Erie seems like a dream.  What was that?  Where was I?  Was that me, doing those things, being those places, thinking those things?

I moved there on what was, essentially, a lark.  I made a decision what seemed spontaeously to live my life without a plan, to roam, to live for experiences rather than goals.  As such, the suddenness of it, the supposed meaningless of it, now makes the experience seem, just two days removed from it, like some sort of fever dream, a shadow glanced in a forest.  I lived there for almost excactly two years, but it somehow manages to feel simultaneously like 2 days and 2 decades.

I’m incredibly glad I did it.  I loved my time there and, despite how cliche it sounds, I learned a lot about myself.  In my 30s, I found myself continuing to evolve and change (not in all positive ways, mind you) and, ultimately, “find myself”.  I used to think that saying was meaningless, but now I think it means something.

So, all that happened in Erie, but somehow it still feels like I dreamt it, or even just imagined it.  Here I sit in my mother’s living room in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia, where I have moved at this stage in my life to continue what I began with the move to Erie: living for experiences and not goals.  But I remember, like yesterday, when my friend Michael (that’s the female Michael, yo) and I moved all my stuff into my apartment in Erie.  There is, to my perception, zero difference between that day and literal yesterday.  Here’s a picture from that day:

And then a picture from yestrday morning:

It’s like the time in between was about the lessons learned and the self-discovery, but in the final analysis, like no time passed whatsoever.  The strangest thing is that I haven’t simply moved back into my apartment in Carlisle, PA.  The absence of my life before Erie is the most concrete evidence that time has moved.

Tonight will be my second night here in Mantua.  Most of my stuff is now put away, or at least the boxes are in the appropriate rooms.  I’ve spent some quality time with my mom and nephews (the sis and I are having a spa day next week.  Not really.  But I would, if somebody else paid for it.  Speaking of my sister, read her writing on this site, she’s amazing!).  This afternoon I ventured “out” for the first time by myself.  I pretty much just found my new Planet Fitness, but my excitement over the, frankly, ordinary stuff in the general area where I live confirms my suspicion that I am actually too easily entertained.  I drove around thinking to myself, look at all these supermarkets I can go into and That looks like a cute Radio Shack.  Even crappy, useless chain retail seem, to me, like terra incognita. 

And I haven’t even thought about actually going into Philly yet.  And have I mentioned New York City is only two hours away?  And I get to live with this fucking cat?

I will come to your house and I will be Vicky, alright.

Last night, I called my friend Kyle to try to help him with a phone problem he was having.  The first call unexpectedly went to voicemail, and I thought I’d leave him an interesting one.  Using something like a cartoonish gangster 50s-era Brooklyn accent, I went on a long, stream-of-consciousness tirade that made almost no sense.  I’m certain it wasn’t comedy gold—perhaps just a little interesting.  But it got funny when Kyle e-mailed me a little later saying that Google Voice had transcribed the message, or at least, what it THOUGHT it had heard.  I suppose the program was confused by the accent and the speed at which I spoke.  The transcription is below.  It is amazing just HOW wrong it is.  I said almost none of these words.  (interestingly, I didn’t even say the names it uses!  I think the only name I said was Frank).  The only words I recognize as having used are Frank, Pickles, Key, and Meet.  Thanks, Google Voice, for a great laugh!

Bill, Wayne Anderson. Here there buddy there, but I’m lying Towers guy. They’re, weighing fishermen. Frank this a number that is exactly the other day and I was walking around the world of Pickles and i was like in the building another. The because of the been fickle. Look, I don’t know from the close. What I’m trying to sell used. I don’t have the key it in the comment tonight. Alright, I can meet today without the key. You know I don’t know where you live. I don’t know what I mean. I don’t know what the story. I don’t know whether golf balls well, but I don’t know if you knew and I. If you wanna. I had to go out to the possibly work with Chef and you wanted to add. I will come to your house and I will be Vicky, alright, do a complete and clear one alright. Bye bye.

 

PS LICK BAWLS

This time of year, many of my younger employees graduate, and it always gets me thinking about my high school experience.  Tonight, I broke out my senior year book and was highly entertained by the things my friends at the time signed in it.  (this is nearly 18 years ago now!).  I thought I’d share some of the ones that made me chuckle with you here.  I have omitted any names, and haven’t included any of the more sincere ones from my closest friends or my long-term high school girlfriend.  So strange to look back on these now!  I’ve kept all their spelling and punctuation as they wrote it.  The blank places are names removed.

Seth, to my long ago “ex”.  We had a lot of fun in espanol especially making that video.  I think we’ve had a class together every single year.  Well have fun with B____ and we’ll see about J______.   Love, T______.

 

Hey Seth or should I say Wallflower.  Hope ya have a great summer.  And good luck with college.  You stupid, hillbilly, liver eatin’, sock suckin’, crab infested, junk collectin’, crimefightin’ jerk.  Have a great year.  D_____.

 

Seth—  Never forget me, but then how could you!  Never forget our talks about your uncle and all of the other perverted stuff!  Take care of B_______!   Hey never forget “P_______”!  (You pervert!)  Love, S_______

 

Seth, this year we are GODS.  Except some people like in our Health class, and some more than others, like D______, for huge enormous reasons which we all know (I’m saying he’s more godlike than scrublike).  Well I hope you have fun this year and lots of luck!  Love, J_______

 

Seth, to the cutest little pervert I ever met.  You always make me laugh.  Thank god this is our last year.  Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.  Love, A_____

 

S-Dawg, Too the coolest Dawg I met this year.  S-Dawg I am glad I met you, because you are the coolest friend a person could have.  Stay in touch with me and keep it hanging loose. PS LICK BAWLS.  J_______

 

 

Philly Journal, 6/10

So of course, before I move on to planning all the marvelousness of my new life in Philly/ Jersey, it seems apt to look back on the time I spent in Erie.

Really, I couldn’t have gotten luckier when my company offered to move me to Erie.  I came here with no pre-conceptions about the area, but it turned out to be perfectly suited to me.  While it isn’t a “big city” by any means, it has all the benefits of a big city without any of the drawbacks.  I’m an artsy bastard, and Erie has a surprisngly vibrant art community.  Sadly, most of the people who live here are pretty unaware of the constant barrage of plays, concerts, poetry readings, films, and art openings going on all around them.  A vast majority of these events are free or cheap (as in, under ten dollars).

In addition, just as I arrived here, I happened to be undergoing a transformation in regards to my feelings on sports.  For quite a long time, I had not just disliked sports, I had reviled them.  I still think that, on the whole, professional sports are more of a harm than a help for our society in general, but I’ve drank the Kool-Aid anyway and am now fully invested in the sports world.  Erie offers a full range of rather satisfying minor league sports, at which I spent a lot of time.  In addition, the nearby cities of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo offered entrance into professional league events.

Speaking of those cities: love them.  These Northern dinosaurs, once great bastions of American commerce in the age of Rockefeller and steel and coal, are all three still on the rebound from their great falls.  As such, I find them tremendously endearing.  All three cities are welcoming, unique, pedestrian-friendly gems.  I shall miss my easy access to them.

Erie offers quick and easy access to lovely nature facilities, of which I am a big fan.  Presque Isle alone is worth living here.  Some nearby state parks make the nature-lover’s existence here a well-rounded experience.  And the lake, while not quite as lovely as an ocean, is an under-rated place to swim.  You just have to know the right beaches to go to.

I’ll never regret my decision to move to Erie, even if some folks don’t really see the sense in it.  It’s been incredibly important for me, in the formation of me as a person, and bottom line, it’s just been a lot of fun.  Residents of Erie reading this:  learn to appreciate this place more, it’s great!

 

My 54th Favorite Song of All-Time

is:

“The New Year” by Death Cab for Cutie

(note: I wrote this entry about 4 or 5 months ago.  Isn’t it interesting how it ties in so perfectly with my life right now??)

I not only love this song because it’s an amazing song, but for the time in my life that it evokes in my memories.  First, about the song:

It has pretty much established most of my thoughts about “new years”, as we call it in this culture, and things like resolutions…all the kinds of shit I bitch about starting around December 28th.  Like most of what Ben Gibbard writes, every word is absolutely perfect, the meaning is intensely conveyed and no word is ornamental or extra.  The pulsing, undulating chords of the music reflect the solemnity of the lyrics, and the desperate yearning of the final repitition…”there’d be no distance that could hold us back” reeks of the honestly of a man who knows the past is unreachable.

I bought the album this song is on (Transatlantisicm) a few weeks before I got hired in my current job as a manager for a restaurant company.  This was a major step up for me.  This was also shortly after I’d bought my first-ever brand-new car.  This was a banner time in my life, a life which had only recently come back from the very brink.  Musically, I was just starting to branch out into “indie” music, an area of music I knew I wanted to be a part of but hadn’t yet figured out my entry point.

So anyway, I bought this Death Cab for Cutie album right before my company sent me to Pittsburgh for two weeks for training classes.  They put us up in a hotel that was about a ten minute drive from the corporate office, so every morning, bright and early, in this brand new car and in this amazing brand new life, I would find myself driving through early-morning Pittsburgh as this album played.  “The New Year” is the first track on the CD, so I heard it often (and often had it on repeat).  It was a truly magical time, and this song takes me back there.  Also, fuck resolutions.

So this is the new year,
and i don’t feel any different.
The clanking of crystal,
explosions off in the distance.

So this is the new year
and I have no resolutions.
They’re self-assigned penance
for problems with easy solutions.

So everybody put your best suit or dress on.
Let’s make believe that we are wealthy for just this once,
lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
as thirty dialogues bleed into one.
I wish the world was flat like the old days
and I could travel just by folding a map.
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways.
There’d be no distance that could hold us back.

My 55th Favorite Song of All-Time

is:

“Fell on Black Days” by Soundgarden

I’m actually not a very big Soundgarden fan, nor do I find “Fell on Black Days” to be especially gratifying as a song.  But on one specific occasion in my life, it may have kept me from just plain old losing my mind.

The story itself is far from interesting.  It was about 3/4 of the way through my alcoholic drinking, and things had just started to really fall apart around me.  I essentially had no place to live, my body was shutting down, and I was fading out of contact with a lot of my loved ones.  Then on this particular day, I was leaving my mom’s apartment in Dillsburg to go to work in Carlisle (about a 15-20 minute drive) and my car wouldn’t start.  This just seemed pretty horrible at the time.  I wasn’t yet fully aware of the fact that my dependence on alcohol was ruining my life, but this day aided in the dawning of the realization.

I called work and told them of my issue, and the main boss said he would come get me and even arrange for a ride home.  This is slightly before the age of everyone having cell phones and GPSs, so we had to do the let-me-tell-you-while-you-write-it-down directions, and it wasn’t an easy trip.

I stood outside on the sidewalk by the road for 20-25 minutes waiting for him.  I was very close to slipping into a serious depression about my life in general, when this song somehow popped into my head.  I didn’t know any of the lyrics except the chorus, but somehow it seemed a comfort as I kept replaying it in my mind.  Sure, the song itself is depressing, but it felt nice to know that other people had, well, fell on black days.  Throughout the rest of my trying times (in the parlance of my blog, before the fire), the song was always in the back of my head, telling me I wasn’t alone.  And the phrasing, fell on black days, seems to imply there is something less bad after them.

 

 

 

 

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My 56th Favorite Song of All-Time

My 56th favorite song of all-time is:

“Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones

To me, this one is all about atmosphere.  It is such a sensual, creeping groove, coupled with intense but vague lyrics about finding shelter and “war” being a “shout away”.  It’s a perfect mood setter and, for my money, the height of the Stones’ power.  Below the studio version, you’ll see the version from the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert, performed by U2, the Black Eyed Peas, and Mick Jagger; it’s a scorching version.

 

 

 

 

My 57th Favorite Song of All-Time

is:

“Peaches” by Presidents of the United States of America