Memery

[jere7my]

List 10 singers or musical groups that you like. (Do this before reading the other questions.)

1. David Byrne
2. Bob Dylan
3. Aimee Mann
4. Elvis Costello
5. "Weird Al" Yankovic
6. Nick Cave
7. The Jayhawks
8. Cowboy Junkies
9. Tom Waits
10. R.E.M.

What was the first song you ever heard by 6 (Nick Cave)?

Red Right Hand, of course, on the episode of The X-Files in which Duane Barry kidnaps Scully.

What is your favorite album of 8 (Cowboy Junkies)?

The Trinity Session, probably. It is wavering and heartbreaking, like the last candle.

What is your favorite lyric that 5 ("Weird Al" Yankovic) has sung?

Goodness. Um, possibly

Hey fella
I bet you're still livin' in your parent's cella
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gella
And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-a
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yella
You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Helen Kella.

How many times have you seen 4 (Elvis Costello) live?

Zero, alas.

What's your favorite song of 7 (The Jayhawks)?

What Led Me To This Town, I think. It keeps coming up in my life. ;)

What is a good memory you have considering the music of 10 (R.E.M.)?

Pinewoods. Nightswimming. Of course. ("Considering"?)

Is there a song of 3 (Aimee Mann) that makes you sad?

Is there one that doesn't? Her saddest songs for me are probably The Fall of the World's Own Optimist and That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart.

What is your favorite lyric that 2 (Bob Dylan) has sung?

Gosh. Best lyricist of the 20th century, and one of the most prolific, and you ask me this? Let's say,

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?

Or maybe

Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody's shouting
"Which Side Are You On?"
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row

But then, I also like

Bring the wife and family. Bring the whole...kids.

And

I don't mean trouble, please don't put me down or get upset,
I am not pleadin' or sayin', "I can't forget."
I do not walk the floor bowed down an' bent, but yet,
Mama, you been on my mind.

And

Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun!

And...

What is your favorite song by 9 (Tom Waits)?

Another hard question, but I feel an irrational joy every time I hear Kommienezuspadt.

How did you get into 3 (Aimee Mann)?

I thought it was via Elvis Costello, since they worked together and his music led me to hers, but then it turned out I'd already liked her in 'Til Tuesday back in the 80s.

What was the first song you heard by 1 (David Byrne)?

As part of Talking Heads or solo? For the former, it was doubtless Burning Down the House, when Dan Metevier lent me Speaking in Tongues in 8th grade. Solo, I'm sure it was What a Day That Was, since it's on Stop Making Sense.

What is your favorite song by 4 (Elvis Costello)?

I'll Wear It Proudly, as it is one of my anthems.

How many time have you seen 9 (Tom Waits) live?

Zero.

What is a good memory you have concerning 2 (Bob Dylan)?

Playing his music at Pinewoods on a sad night and having a knot of crewmembers circle up around me to listen.

Is there a song of 8 (Cowboy Junkies) that makes you sad?

Again, is there one that doesn't? That last note in the harmonica solo of You Will Be Loved Again breaks my heart every time, so let's say that.

What is your favorite lyric that 3 (Aimee Mann) has sung?

I do like this one a lot:

Today's the fourth of July
Another June has gone by
And when they light up our town I just think
What a waste of gunpowder and sky

What is your favorite song of 1 (David Byrne)?

Solo, probably Angels from his eponymous album, or maybe Glass, Concrete & Stone. As part of Talking Heads, I'd have to say This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody).

Comments

[adfamiliares.livejournal.com]

Bring the whole...kids!

Hmmmm

[(Anonymous)]

This Must Be the Place would be an answer from me to the last, although of course it would depend on my mood. It's strange to think of our age difference, actually pretty small, made our experiences of Byrne/T-Heads totally different. By the time SMS came out, I had been a T-Head fan for years, and was sort of cashing in cool points. I doubt that I heard Psycho Killer in 1977, but I'm sure I had heard it and liked it by 1983.

And I, too, have never seen EC live. I nearly did at one point, but it was a moment when spending $25 on an evening would have been a Bad Idea, and I made the right choice. Now, as time goes on, and perhaps I could spend the immense ticket prices to see him (and more immense ticket prices as time continues to go on, I'm sure), I'm less likely to enjoy the show. What I should do is invent a time machine and go back and see the Singing Songbook.

So, a question about the meme. Well, two questions. (a), where did you get it from, and (2), don't you think it would be easier and more interesting with musicians that you like, but that aren't in your top fifty?

Thanks,
-Vardibidian.

Re: Hmmmm

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

1) I got it from lysana, and b) possibly, but I didn't know what the meme was before I picked the musicians, now did I? :)

I'm sure you were more aware of the musical scene at a younger age, because I was a musical shut-in. While I did buy a tape of Thriller when it came out, borrowing Speaking in Tongues in 1985 (me = 13) was really my first exposure to anything that wasn't either a novelty song, more than 10 years old, or inescapable on the radio. It was a long time before I heard the originals of most of the Weird Al I listened to.