3:34 p.m. - April 29, 2008
Smed's Top 200 #106-95. So Where Was I???
So where was I?
Yeah, on the road a lot, and I have some more work upcoming as well. It�s good to be busy. Really good. True fine good.
At any rate, it�s been a while for the Top 200, so without further ado�
106. Gentlemen � The Afghan Whigs. Not exactly the most, well, upbeat band in the world, really. But the little girls loved Greg Dulli. Well, some of �em at least. Enough for them to make somewhat a career out of angst and pain way before those emo kids took it over. Actually, Dulli and the Whigs would make mincemeat out of the emo poseurs. This song, like most of theirs, had an evil swing to it, and a to die for wah-wah solo. You can see why I mixed the hell out of it!
105. (Last Night) I Didn�t Get To Sleep At All � The Fifth Dimension. Yes, my Mom loved this group. And still, I love some of their work as well. You can definitely form a karaoke group and sing it with all of the requisite hand motions and movements.
104. Love Me Tomorrow � Boz Scaggs. It�s a pity that there�s no video or audio available, but trust me, check out Silk Degrees, which has a couple of his better known hits (and a couple of songs where he sounds like Fozzie Bear) and a whole bunch of cool album tracks in different styles. This is semi-reggae, and fits the band and Boz well. Oh, and the band backing him? Most of them turned into Toto. In fact, I call Silk Degrees the best Toto album. Heh.
103. Picture Book � The Kinks. The only reason that most people know this is from an HP commercial. However, the album this is from, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society is arguably the strongest Kinks album ever. I often joke that we na�ve Americans have no taste because we ignore great albums and bands. Well, they ignored this album in the UK as well. So, hooray for us for not being the only idiots?
102. Michael � Franz Ferdinand. You know, 20 years ago, if you said that one of my most played songs would be about homoeroticism on the dance floor, I may have called you insane. But times thankfully change! They remind me of a cross between Joy Division, The Buzzcocks, and Gary Numan in this clip. (The look, and somewhat the sound, but the look for sure�)
101. (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy � The Magnetic Fields. Even though not every song was a winner, or not even half-baked, the 69 Love Songs record was genius. One of the big time winners was this gem that really shows off Stephen Merritt�s baritone to its best extent.
100. Hey You � Bachman-Turner Overdrive. �Hey,� said one of the overweight bearded Canadians. �We�ve had two big hits. How are we going to follow them up?� �Why not combine the best parts of both songs and come up with another one?�, said another one of the overweight bearded Canadians. And well, the rest is history. �Hey You� was a moderate hit, and you can definitely tell that they nicked this song from the two songs by BTO that everyone knows. Actually, this video is about as creative of an effort as the song deserves.
99. Cabinessence � The Beach Boys. Part of the great lost Smile album, this came out on their 20/20 collection in order to fill it out and it mystified and dazzled people, and confused them to no end. It really didn�t hold together, but then again, the complicated and diffuse parts did have some meaning and thought and connection to each other. And listening to the Beach Boys� version in headphones is a pleasure. Here is the Brian Wilson solo version, which isn�t as heavenly as the Beach Boys� version, but you can hear some of the allure and majesty.
98. Biology � Joe Jackson. For a while, Beat Crazy was the only Joe Jackson album I didn�t have, because it disappeared out of print for whatever reason, and it was then not fully on iTunes. But I plucked this song off of a collection and it was a treat to hear. It�s the original Joe Jackson sound with a little more bass and adventuresome arrangements than his first couple of records. Sadly, I can�t find a clip of a video or a performance on YouTube. Trust me, get this one!
97. Better Than Nothing � Jennifer Trynin. I�ve written about this before. It�s a damn shame that her career fizzed.
96. Date Stamp � ABC. The Lexicon Of Love, unlike many new-wave albums, really held up over time. Every track was strong, and this was the strongest of all of the tracks (even more so than the hits). With lines like �I get sales talk from sales assistants /
When all I want to do girl, is lower your resistance�, it�s a smart keeper as well.
95. Coming Up Close � �Til Tuesday. Now, Aimee Mann has written some pretty good tunes, but frankly, any Mann or Tuesday record is spotty. However, this is one of my key tracks from my college days, mainly because my first love (Marie�sigh�) and I used to listen to Dylan, and then we broke up, and then THIS song came out and mentioned a lot of stuff going through my head and talked about listening to Dylan with your ex. So yeah, it stuck with me, even as much as when I had Anita back at my place, listening to this album, this song came on and then my mood to vroom was quashed. What could have been. Sigh.
And on that totally self-revealing note�I bid you adieu for now.
