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Obsessions



Some of mine:

+ Secret Oktober - Duran 2 (the greatest song of all time, I can listen to 
it 30 times in a row and still be happy)

+ A View to a Kill - Duran 2 (Really, I didn't just want to alienate you all 
by picking two Duran songs in a row; I geniunely believe this to be a 
perfect example of pop music.  It has it all.  Mystery, intrigue, power.  17 
years later and it still sounds fresh.  ABC TV network had some James Bond 
special the other week where they surveyed thousands to determine their 
favorite James Bond theme, Duran won.  I didn't even vote once!)

+ Avalon - Roxy Music.  Obsessed with this CD, I still am.

+ Fragile - Sting.  Over and over again I've played this.  This song made me 
less violent.  Other Sting songs that fit the subject line were Desert Rose, 
Lazarus Heart, and I Burn For You.  Yz and I are in sync on many of those 
picks.

+ Country Feedback, Find the River, Fall on Me - REM.  Shwoo.  All great.

+ Do They Know it's Christmas - Band Aid.  It may seem hokey now, but I 
didn't have this thing off of my record player at the time for two months.

I have been compiling a list of my favorite songs for a while now, ever 
since Dan (dtemm) emailed me his favorite 3 CDs from each year since 1985.  
And it's taking forever.  But I filtered some of the obsession songs from 
that, and there's a mini-pattern where I become unnaturally obsessed with 
songs slow or fast where the singer sings especially quietly or breathy.  
Here are some of those puppies.

+ Being Boring - Pet Shop Boys
+ Captain of Her Heart - Double
+ Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
+ Big Hush - Shriekback
+ Mr. Wilson - Optiganally Yours
+ Pony - Thingy
+ I Know What I Know - Paul Simon
+ Miss Misery - Elliott Smith
+ Say Yes - Elliott Smith
+ A Little More Love - Olivia Newton John

+ Drowned World/Substitute for Love, Till Death Do Us Part - Madonna.  It's 
amazing that someone so populist can still write or select songs so 
meaningful.  These songs kick.  And the BT/Sasha remix of the first song is 
my favorite remix EVER.

+ The Cross - Prince.  A lot of his songs I'd repeat over and over.  This 
one especially.

+ The Reflex - Duran Duran.  Summer of 84, I listened to the remix of this 
song every day for three months at least, except when I was on vacation.  My 
poor family.

+ Hoover Dam - Sugar.  Loud racous pop that means nothing to me lyrically 
but whoo boy that keyboard solo is the definition of fun.

+ Kiss Me - Sixpence None the Richer.  I saw a John Taylor solo show in 
Columbus and 6p opened; they were giving away little cassette samplers with 
a one and a half minute version of this song on there and I played it the 
entire drive home, rewinding constantly.  Then I got the CD single and 
played the song in it's entirety repeatedly.  My friends at the time had to 
assume that the damned CD was stuck in my player.

+ Your Ghost - Kristen Hersch.  I think I butchered the spelling of her 
seemingly simple name.  Great track, Mike Stipe sings on it too.  Haunting.

+ Telling Me Lies - Trio.  Almost embarrasing to admit.  This is the "band" 
of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt.  My mum played this 
tape over and over at home one year, and the harmonies on this track are 
bootylicious.

+ Jupiter - Gustav Holst - DJ "Johnny" Williams jam.  Keyboards were used to 
augment the Boston Pops version of this kick ass track.  I couldn't give a 
rat, it sounds awesome.  Probably an audacious example of what's wrong with 
classical music, it's very Star-Wars-y over the top, but it definitely is a 
bringer of jollity.  Jollity??

Gosh, this has to be boring to read for someone.  It's SO MUCH fun listing 
them all though.  I wanna check out some of you other people's obsession 
songs.  We should have a tape tree (ducking thrown cans).  Brad Caviness had 
something where you could store 40MB of data (audio or otherwise) online 
somewhere for free; we should each get one of those accounts if that service 
is still around and swap our "best" obsession songs.

The next group are a few songs that meant a lot to me lyrically, so I 
decided playing them over and over again might help.

+ Your Sort of Human Being - Emm Gryner
+ Ordinary World - Duran Duran
+ Gas Hed Goes West - +Live+
+ They Stood Up For Love - +Live+
+ Scarecrow - John Cougar Mellencamp
+ Mistake No. 3 - Culture Club (I know, but it IS a good song)
+ Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson (as an adult, the lyrics to this 
song's verses really barely make sense.  it seems to be just a ramble to 
stir emotion but as a kid it worked for me)
+ Code of Silence - Sir Wm Joel/Cyndi Lauper
+ A Matter of Trust - Billy Joel
+ Serious - Duranduran
+ Love Will Tear Us Apart - Paul Young and Joy Division
+ When the Angels Fall - Sting

And the following just grabbed me for whatever reason and I played them ad 
nauseum.  Or am still playing them.

+ Limp - Fiona Apple
+ Heaven - Eurythmics
+ True - Spandau Ballet
+ The Message - Men Without Hats
+ Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
+ Harold & Joe - The Cure
+ Let's Go To Bed - The Cure
+ Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue
+ Let Love Be Your Energy - Robbie Williams
+ Waiting for the Night - Depeche Mode
+ I Call Your Name - a-ha (really, a great album here - east of the sun, 
west of the moon.  really organic, piano/acoustic guitar driven, GREAT 
songs.  if you see it cheap, buy it)
+ Weather With You - Crowded House
+ A Day in the Life - The Beatles
+ Try Whistling This - Neil Finn
+ No Myth - Michael Penn
+ Stars - Simply Red
+ Palomino - Duranduran


Holy cow, that's exhausting.  I listen to lots of music, and obsessively so 
quite often.  So as I typed each of those songs, snippets of them would be 
in my head.  I have a headache now.

Lalala, lalalalala, lalala, lalalalala
I just can't get you out of my head,
It's more than I dare to think about,
Bruce


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