Top 10

The first Relaunch Top Ten is from a previous request. This one is difficult. Beyond difficult, really. My list of women in music I love goes miles and miles, and a universe past ten, and the list of who lands in those “top ten” slots do sometimes change, rotate, and vary. But for now, for today, this is a list of My Top Ten Women In Music.

Women In Music
My Top Ten

1. Tori Amos

“Caught a Lite Sneeze” by Tori Amos
from the album, Boys For Pele (1996)

“Caught a lite sneeze.
Dreamed a little dream.
Made my own pretty hate machine.
Boys on my left side,
boys on my right side,
boys in the middle and you’re not here.
Boys in their dresses,
and you’re not here.
I need a big loan from the girl zone.”

2. Chrissie Hynde

“Back On the Chain Gang” by Pretenders
from the album, Learning to Crawl (1984)

“I found a picture of you,
oh-oh-oh-oh.
Those were the happiest days of my life.”

3. Stevie Nicks

“Gypsy” by Fleetwood Mac
from the album, Mirage (1982)

“So, I’m back to the velvet underground,
back to the floor that I love.
To a room with some lace and paper flowers.
Back to the gypsy that I was, 
to the gypsy that I was.”

4. Aretha Franklin

“I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” by Aretha Franklin
from the album, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) (1967)

“Some time ago I thought,
you had run out of fools,
but I was so wrong,
you got one that you’ll never lose.
The way you treat me is a shame.
How could ya hurt me so bad?
Baby, you know that I’m the best thing,
that you ever had.”

5. Aimee Mann

“You Could Make a Killing” by Aimee Mann
from the album, I’m With Stupid (1995)

“I wish I was both young,
and stupid.
Then I too could have the fun that you did.”

6. Polly Jean Harvey

“You Said Something” from Polly Jean Harvey
from the album, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000)

“We lean against railings,
describing the colors,
and the smells of our homelands –
acting like lovers.
How did we get here?
To this point of living?
I held my breath,
and you said something.”

7. Nina Simone

“Feeling Good” by Nina Simone
from the album, I Put a Spell On You (1965)

“It’s a new dawn,
it’s a new day,
it’s a new life for me –
and I’m feeling good.”

8. Jenny Lewis

“Just One of the Guys” by Jenny Lewis
from the album, The Voyager (2014)

“I’m not gonna break for you!
I’m not gonna pray for you!
I’m not gonna pay for you!
That’s not what ladies do!”

9. Natalie Merchant

“Ophelia” by Natalie Merchant
from the album, Ophelia (1998)

“Ophelia was the circus queen,
the female cannonball,
projected through five flaming hoops,
to wild and shocked applause.
To wild and shocked applause.”

10. Fiona Apple

“Sleep to Dream” by Fiona Apple
from the album, Tidal (1996)

“I tell you how I feel,
but you don’t care.
I say tell me the truth,
but you don’t dare.
You say love is a hell you cannot bear,
and I say gimme mine back and then go there,
for all I care.”

The first Top Ten Songs of 2019 was requested by my longtime, music-loving friend, Säde. The Church, an Australian psychedelic rock meets new wave meets dream pop band, who were formed in 1980, in Sydney, is our first band to get the Top Ten Songs treatment at Lyriquediscorde.

I first came to know The Church with their 1988 album Starfish, and the hit song, “Under the Milky Way”. “Under the Milky Way” quickly became one of my all-time favorite songs, which still holds a high place on that list still, even after thirty years. I’ve written a lot about the song, and the way it embedded itself in me, but audibly, and visually. I used to drive around playing the song, turned up high, imagining a film set to the song.

Top Ten Songs by The Church
Lyriquediscorde

Listen on Spotify and YouTube

1. “Under the Milky Way”
from the album, Starfish (1988)

“Wish I knew what you were looking for,
might have known what you would find.”

2. “Metropolis”
from the album, Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)

“There’ll never be another quite like you.
I’m so involved with everything you do.”

3. “Reptile”
from the album, Starfish (1988)

“Go now,
you’ve been set free.
Another month or so you’ll be gorging on me,
with your lovely smile.
I see you slither away with your skin and your tail,
your flickering tongue,
and your rattling scales –
like a real reptile.”

4. “Destination”
from the album, Starfish (1988)

“In the space between our houses,
some bones have been discovered.
But, our procession lurches on,
as if we had recovered.”

5. “The Unguarded Moment”
from the album, Of Skins and Heart (1982)

“So deep,
deep without a meaning.
I knew you’d find me leaving.
Tell those friends with cameras for eyes,
that their hands don’t make me hang,
they only make me feel like breathing.
In an unguarded moment.”

6. “No Explanation”
from the album, Sing-Song/Remote Luxury/Persia (2001)

“Hope you can see,
what that’s done to me.
But, I don’t care to look into your eyes.
There’s no explanation.”‘

7. “A Face In a Film”
from the album, man woman life death infinity (2017)

“Monsters and mirages.
A minaret, a coronet.
Like a motor when it charges.
Gotta pay for all the surges.
Silhouettes and sentimental.
A figure in the surf.
Oh, the time is temperamental.
All our lives are not attained.”

8. “You’re Still So Beautiful”
from the album, Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)

“You’re still beautiful baby,
nobody can take that away.
You’re still beautiful baby,
even when you fall down that way.”

9. “A New Season”
from the album, Starfish (1988)

“It’s strange and wilder.
Ageless bechilder.
Saved by fire.
Touched and finer.”

10. “Laurel Canyon”
from the album, Further/Deeper (2014)

“All those times we parted,
all those times we saw it through,
couldn’t finish what I started,
I was diminished without you.
There’s music in my memory,
and I listen as the miles go by.
I guess I’m only temporary,
like a love song flowing by.”

Top 10 Songs by The Church

Today seems to be reboot day. Perhaps it is due to how tired I am, or how I’m trying to distract myself by making lists (a favorite of mine) and listening to music instead of dwelling on my feelings and anxieties, and how exhausted I am. Last night, during my oldest daughter and our “fuck, marry, kill” album version game we were playing, we got to talking about Tori. Tori and her music has been a huge part of my life since 1992, the year that my oldest daughter was born. Thus, Tori’s music has always been around her, ever since she was a baby. So, it was interesting to hear her explain how she discovered Tori on her own, and what songs, and albums, have become her favorites. They differ from mine in some regards, and overlap and connect in other ways.

On my way into work, I started to think of my favorite Tori songs. What they are, how long I’ve loved them, and what significance they have in my life. It really is near impossible to narrow a favorites list to ten, but I’ll give it a try. Some of the songs that “charted” today have been in my top ten forever, and others are making a new appearance at the top of the list. That’s how it goes with music. The songs and albums evolve, and the way we connect does, too.

It was January 1992 when my world forever changed. That was the month and year that I became a Mother for the first time, the month and year that my oldest daughter was born, and it was the month and year that the here’s and how’s and why’s of my life became not just about me. It was the month and year that everything in my reality changed, and it was also the month and year that I discovered two artists/bands that would have an enormous impact on my life; one of the two was Nirvana, and the other was Tori Amos.

Little Earthquakes hit the record stores two days before my daughter was born, but it was actually the EP single to Crucify that I got a hold of first. I had caught Tori’s cover version of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit on a local radio broadcast about two weeks after my daughter was born, and I remember going with one of my best friends’s to a local record store to get it, cracking it open in the car, and playing it on repeat together. He and I would later see Tori play live three times together, often considering her as our mutual musical love.

It did not take long for me to grab a copy of Little Earthquakes. I played it over and over, finding myself in so many of the songs, recognizing the stories, the struggles, the pain and the pleasures within them. As an ex-parochial school girl, a survivor of childhood abuse and of a rape from two years prior that I was still trying to come to terms with, a grown-up girl who was questioning religion, and who was full of copious amounts of confusion and silences, I felt like the album was written just for me, especially the songs Precious Things, Me and a Gun and Silent All These Years. I clung to it, sang-a-long to it, memorized it, and found strength in it, enough to leave a bad relationship and take a hold of my life as a single Mother and as a twenty-something woman who was going to live, write, and stay silent no longer.

Tori and I would go on to do many things together, her music a continual part of my life soundtrack. She sang-a-long through me trying to give it a go with my daughter’s Father multiple times, and our eventual divorce. She would hold hands with me while I fell in love again, two of her albums coming with me cross-country as I followed my heart and a man who would end up being my second husband, and the Father of my other two children. She would accompany my sleepless nights through his illness, addiction and suicide. She would later grieve with me through a miscarriage, through mistakes and moves from state to state, through infidelities and insecurities. She would be the music to fill in the good spaces, too, and the mundane, the trips to the grocery, the late night talks with good friends, and days that bled into nights when I could not stop writing (and on days I could not get the words out, too).

It all started with an EP full of covers, and her musical magic in my life is far from over today. There are very few artists that have had quite an impact on my life like Tori Amos has, and I am sure this will not be the last time I write about her, and her music, here at lyriquediscorde. (taken from an earlier Tori post of mine)

Top Ten Tori Amos Songs
Top Ten Tuesday
Lyriquediscorde

1. “Precious Things”
from the album, Little Earthquakes (1992)

“I wanna smash the faces of those beautiful boys,
those Christian boys,
so you can make me cum,
that doesn’t make you Jesus.”

2. “Northern Lad”
from the album, From the Choir Girl Hotel (1998)

“‘You change like sugar cane’,
says my northern lad.
I guess you go too far,
when pianos try to be guitars.”

3. “Hey Jupiter” (the Dakota Version)
from the album, Boys for Pele (Deluxe, 2016)

“Took my leather off the shelf.
Your apocalypse was fab.
For a girl who couldn’t choose between,
the shower or the bath.”

4. “Silent All These Years”
from the album, Little Earthquakes (1992)

“But what if I’m a mermaid,
in these jeans of his with her name still on it,
hey but I don’t care,
cause sometimes,
I said sometimes,
I hear my voice,
and it’s been here,
silent all these years.”

5. “Upside Down”
from the Single and the Special Edition of Little Earthquakes (1992)

“I say the world is sick.
You say tell me what that makes us, darling?
You see you always find my faults,
faster than you find you’re own
You say the world is getting rid of her demons.
I say, baby,
what have you been smoking?“

6. “Caught a Light Sneeze”
from the album, Boys for Pele (1996)

“Caught a lite sneeze.
Dreamed a little dream.
Made my own,
pretty hate machine.”

7. “Sugar”
from the Single and the Special Edition of Little Earthquakes (1992)

“Bobby’s collecting bees,
hand hammers;
he used one on me.”

8. “Playboy Mommy”
from the album, From the Choir Girl Hotel (1998)

“I’ll say it loud here by your grave,
those angels can’t ever take my place.”

9. “Jackie’s Strength”
from the album, From the Choir Girl Hotel (1998)

“Make me laugh,
say you know what you want,
you said we were the real thing,
so I show you some more and I learn,
what black magic can do“

10. “Gold Dust”
from the album, Scarlet’s Walk (2002)

“How did it go so fast?
You’ll say,
as we are looking back,
and then we’ll understand,
we held gold dust
in our
hands.”

Its been awhile since I’ve done a Top Ten Pete Yorn songs list. The last time was in April of 2017, and before that, it was November 2015. With Apart, the new EP with Pete and Scarlett Johannsson out and new music from Pete on the horizon, it seemed time to do this again. So, without further ado, here’s Top Ten Pete Yorn Songs – a Redux.

If you want to hear more of Pete Yorn’s music follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and keep an eye on his website for new music and tour listings. If you get a chance to see him play live – do it.

Photo by Jim Wright

Top Ten Pete Yorn Songs – A Redux

Listen here on Spotify and YouTube

1. “Strange Condition”
from the album, musicfromthemorningafter (2001)

“Read me the letter, baby,
do not leave out the words.
Stories and cigarettes
ruined lives of lesser girls.”

2. “Roses”
from the album, ArrangingTime (2016)

“It’s the roses in the water.
It’s the highlight of your night.
When the jasmine bloomed on Sunset Boulevard,
and we fell in love for the first time.”

3. “Crystal Village”
from the album, Day I Forgot (2003)

“You will never have the time.
I would love to change your mind.
You were there,
and it was good in the beginning.”

4. “For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is)”
from the album, musicfromthemorningafter (2001)

“Convince yourself that everything is alright,
‘cos it already is.”

5. “Long Time Nothing New”
from the album, Back & Forth (2009)

“I’ve seen you this way before,
life’s strained but true.
Well, what are we waiting for?
It’s been a long time,
nothing new.”

Photo by Jim Wright

6. “Social Development Dance”
from the album, Back & Forth (2009)

“There’s something missing in us,
we try to make it whole.
Though it never feels like it,
I know you have it all.”

7. “Pass Me By”
from the album, Day I Forgot (2003)

“And, even when I try to sleep,
still looking for my best friend,
when we rely on something more than this.
The words you never cared to say’
‘I want to start a family’ –
I’m tired of all the people,
I’m seeing through.”

8. “Halifax”
from the album, ArrangingTime (2016)

“I know you’re waiting for me,
seen you at the bus stop waiting.”

9. “Broken Bottle”
from the album, Nightcrawler (2006)

“What were you doing?
What was it about?
I guess it was the thought that counts.
And, lovers bruise each other.
And, there’s a courage in what you ask.”

10. “Cigarillo” featuring Scarlett Johansson
from the EP, Apart (2018)

“Everyone just cut you off,
told me you’re not good enough,
demons open all this stuff –
it pays to go along.”

 

Top Ten Pete Yorn Songs – A Redux

 

 

Here we are again. Its Tuesday, and its time for another Top Ten Tuesday request. This time we will be delving into the music of Suede (also known as The London Suede). The Suede-request comes from my fellow music lover and writer friend, Avery. I’m so excited that this is who he picked because I love Britpop, I love Suede, and I’ve somehow never done a Top Ten list of their music. This was great to do, and a lot harder then I expected.

Suede formed in London, in 1989, and was composed of Brett Anderson, Richard Oakes, Mat Osman, Bernard Butler, Simon Gilbert and Neil Codling. In 1992, Melody Maker dubbed the “The Best New Band in Britain”. Despite some Britpop resistance that Suede had, the band would be considered one of the Britpop “big four”, along with Pulp, Oasis, and Blur.

Four albums were released from Suede in the 90’s, their self-titled debut, Dog Man Star, Coming Up and Head Music. The band has had three other albums released since – A New Morning and Bloodsports, as well as Night Thoughts, released last year.

My first memory of Suede comes from my time working at Tower Records. The band’s 1996 album, Coming Up, was playing in the store and the song “Trash” hooked me immediately. A friend I worked with there was a huge fan of Suede, and raved about them to me that day (and a few other days). I’m always immediately reminded of him when I first turn on a Suede-song.

Skip ahead a few years, into the “early aughts”, and my Britpop band loves led me to a new crop of “Indie” bands I’d fall for, like The Libertines, The Strokes, The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, The Cribs, The Fratellis, etc. I feel like, in a lot of ways, Suede was a gateway drug to those bands, even more than my other Britpop loves, Blur, Oasis, and Pulp.

After that first Suede-listen I got myself sonically fixated on the band, especially songs like “Trash”, “Metal Mickey” and “The Wild Ones”. I could hear bits of the Goth/Deathrock music I’d spun around to in the late 80’s, as well as a dash and dab of the Glam Rock I’d grown up loving during my 70’s childhood.

There was an edge to Suede that some of the other Britpop bands I loved didn’t seem to possess. Brett Anderson sounded considerably different vocally, as well, cutting a high-pitched knife where other singers of the Britpop ilk delivered it all with a more melodic tone and style.

I’ve been listening ever since, and have included a few songs into some of my writing before. They’ve definitely played muse for me a couple of times over. So, let’s have a listen to some of their songs – My Top 10 favorites.

Top Ten Suede Songs
Top Ten Tuesday

requested by Avery – available to stream on Spotify

1. “Trash”
from the album, Coming Up (1996)

“But we’re trash,
you and me.
We’re the litter on the breeze.
We’re the lovers on the streets.
Just trash,
me and you.
It’s in everything we do.”

2. “The Beautiful Ones”
from the album, Coming Up (1996)

“High on diesel and gasoline,
psycho for drum machine,
shaking their bits to the hits.”

3. “Filmstar”
from the album, Coming Up (1996)

“What to believe in when they change your name.
Wash your brain,
play the game again.”

4. “Animal Nitrate”
from the album, Suede (1993)

“Oh, it turns you on,
now he has gone.
Oh, what turns you on now your animal’s gone?”

5. “The Wild Ones”
from the album, Dog Man Star (1994)

“There’s a song playing on the radio,
sky high in the airwaves,
on the morning show.
And, there’s a lifeline slipping as the record plays,
And as I open the blinds,
in my mind,
I’m believing that you could stay.”

6. “Metal Mickey”
from the album, Suede (1993)

“We shake shake shake to the trumpet,
and through the slippery city we ride;
skyline swine on the circuit –
Where all the people shake their money in time.”

7. “My Insatiable One”
from the album, Suede (1993)

“Oh, he is gone.
He’s my insatiable one”

8. “My Dark Star”
from the album, Dog Man Star (1994)

“And she will rise.”

 9. “The Next Life”
from the album, Suede (1993)

“See you in your next life,
when we’ll fly away for good.”

10. “Europe is Our Playground
from the album, Coming Up (1996)

“Europe is our playground,
London is our town –
so, run with me baby now.”

Top Ten Tuesday is here again with another Top Ten request. This Week’s Top Ten is one of my all-time favorite artists and someone whose music has been with me through good and bad times since the early aughts. I’ve done two Top Ten’s for Ryan Adams before, but its always time for another. That said, it is near impossible to pick just ten because I have so many that I love, and also, the man never stops making music. But, for today, I will share my Top Ten. Subject to change, and I really need it to be Top 50, at least.

This Ryan Adams Top Ten Songs for Top Ten Tuesday is for my friend, and fellow music lover, Jackie. Thanks for requesting it. I really do need Ryan’s music right now.

I was in Michigan in the middle of a deadline at work when I first heard Ryan Adams. A friend of mine who I can credit with introducing me to some of my all-time favorite artists and bands, time and again, shared the song Harder Now That It’s Over, and soon after, Sylvia Plath. I remember playing both songs over and over and over that day, the melancholic melodies of both songs soothing my overtired and overwhelmed nerves. I recall doing a frantic search via one of those popular music sharing sites of the early 00’s (was it Kazaa then? I think this was post-Napster), and then going out and buying Gold that weekend.

After that, its a bit of a blur as to what came next because Ryan’s music feels like it’s been a part of my life forever. I’m not sure there is another artist that makes me feel things the way he does, nor any other artist that has so many memories that I associate with his songs.

Years after our first music-introduction I would stand in a record store in Manchester, England, where I was buying another copy of Gold, along with a copy of Heartbreaker, and discuss Ryan’s music with a girl behind the counter. We were going back and forth, trying to determine which of his albums were our favorites. Later that night I’d stand in a pub with coins in my hand, feeding a jukebox, setting it up to play La Cienega Just Smiled. I was far from La Cienega, I was far from home, but Ryan was playing and it made the world suddenly shrink and intersect, connecting with me in a way that only music ever can. I remember the song saying all the things I just couldn’t quite say that night.

I could go on and on recalling so many Ryan memories, but for now, I will compile my Top Ten, press play, and take them all in. Hope you enjoy joining me, too.

Top Ten Ryan Adams Songs
Top Ten Tuesday

requested by Jackie – available to stream on Spotify

1. “Starlite Diner”
from the Album, 29 (2005)

“Is it possible to love someone too much?
You bet.”

2. “La Cienega Just Smiled”
from the Album, Gold (2001)

“And, I hold you close in the back of my mind.
Raise my glass ’cause either way I’m dead.
Neither of you really help me to sleep anymore,
one breaks my body,
and the other breaks my soul.
La Cienega just smiles, waves goodbye.”

3. “Touch, Feel, and Lose”
from the Album, Gold (2001)

“But I never wanted to be your rolling train.
I never wanted to be your dancin’ shoes.
I just wanted you to love me.”

4. “Dear Chicago”
from the Album, Demolition (2002)

“Sorry about the every kiss,
every kiss you wasted bad.
I think the thing you said is true,
I’m gonna die alone and sad.”

5. “I See Monsters”
from the Album, Love Is Hell (2004)

“I know you cannot hear me now,
’cause you’re far away,
at the speed of sound.
Colors inside your head go spinning ’round
like a Ferris wheel,
exploding and falling to the ground.”

6. “Oh My Sweet Carolina”
from the Album, Heartbreaker (2000)

“Up here in the city,
it feels like things are closing in.
Sunset’s just my lightbulb burning out.”

7. “Avalanche”
from the Album, Love Is Hell (2004)

“She comes apart in the avalanche.
Fades out like a dance.
Crawls back into bed when it’s over.
And, it’s over.”

8. “Go Easy”
from the Album, Cardinology

“If only to say this to you now,
I love you still,
and I always will.
If only to say this to myself,
I will always love you,
I will always love you,
so go easy on yourself.”

9. “Sylvia Plath”
from the Album, Gold (2001)

“And maybe she’d take me to France.
Or maybe to Spain,
she’d ask me to dance,
in a mansion on the top of a hill.
She’d ash on the carpets,
and slip me a pill,
then she’d get me pretty loaded on gin.
And maybe she’d give me a bath.
How I wish I had a Sylvia Plath.”

10. “Come Pick Me Up”
from the Album, Heartbreaker (2000)

“Come pick me up.
Take me out.
Fuck me up.
Steal my records.”

Top Ten Tuesday is here again with another Top Ten request. This Week’s Top Ten is a Band I’m surprised I’ve never featured before, as they’ve been a Favorite of mine since the late 80’s/early 90’s when I was loving everything Goth and Deathrock and Darkwave.
I’ve had the chance to see this Band play live twice, and have danced many times to their Songs at clubs in Hollywood, as well as in my bedroom I grew up with, and later in my first couple of apartments.

Let’s hear it for Sisters Of Mercy, and their Top Ten Songs, requested by Angelica via lyriquediscorde’s Instagram.

It was 1989 when I started loving Sisters Of Mercy. An end of a decade was upon us and there was a wild, racing, youth-fueled feeling of immortality pulsing through our veins. We slept when we could, usually while the sun was shining, in-between classes half-attended and record store jobs. We were only truly alive at night.

Vampiric, nocturnal, half-zombified dolled up babies haunting the back alleys and dark rooms of Hollywood nights. We thought ourselves the post-modern Studio 54 types, blended and mixed-up with a Warhol Factory sensibility and clothes that mimicked glam rock bands one night, and Morticia meets  Shakespeare the next. I suppose it was contrived at times, perhaps we were living some kind of clichéd rebellion, but at the time it all felt so necessary.

We were all broken; a pack of misfits who banded together, clinging to one another, creating our own family tree. We fell in love, we fell into backseats and bed sheets, we filled veins and noses, we danced and delighted in clove cigarettes and vinyl spins. We were alive in our own upside down wonderland.

Sisters Of Mercy formed in Leeds, in the UK, in 1980. After achieving early underground fame there, the Band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980’s and sustained it until the early 1990’s, when they stopped Releasing new Music in protest against Warner Electra Atlantic, their Record Company. (from Wikipedia)

The Band Released 3 Studio Album. Each was Recorded by a different line-up with Frontman, Singer-Songwriter Andrew Eldritch and a Drum Machine called Doktor Avalanche the only common Musical thread.

What are some of your Favorite Sisters Of Mercy Songs? These lists are always so hard to narrow down and compile, but here’s my best shot of it – at least for today:

Top Ten Sisters Of Mercy Songs
Top Ten Tuesday

1. “Black Planet”
from the Album, First and Last and Always (1985)

“And, I ride down the highway 101,
by the side of the ocean,
headed for sunset,
for the kingdom come.”

2. “Marian”
from the Album, First and Last and Always (1985)

“I hear you calling Marian. 
Across the water,
across the wave.”

3. “More”
from the Album, Vision Thing (1990)

“Some people get by with a little understanding.
Some people get by with a whole lot more.
I don’t know why,
you gotta be so undemanding.
I want more.”

4. “First and Last and Always”
from the Album, First and Last and Always (1985)

“Seems like twenty-five years of ever after.
Ever more more more.”

5. “Lucretia My Reflection”
from the Album, Floodland (1987)

6. “Alice”
from the EP, Alice (1983)

“She needs you like she needs her tranqs.”

7. “This Corrosion”
from the Album, Floodland (1987)

“Gimme the ring,
kissed and told,
gimme something that I missed.”

8. “Walk Away”
from the Album, First and Last and Always (1985)

“And, when the rain comes down,
would you choose to walk or stay?”

9. “No Time To Cry”
from the Album, First and Last and Always (1985)

“Everything will be alright.
Everything will turn out fine.”

10. “Detonation Boulevard”
from the Album, Vision Thing (1990)

“Through the angel rain.
Through the dust and the gasoline.
Through the cruelty of strangers.
To the neon dream.”

 

Lyriquediscorde received five new Top Ten Tuesday requests when we opened up the request lines last weekend. Stay tuned if you put in a request because we will be hitting all of them, in the order they came in Top Ten style. First up is a lyriquediscorde Favorite who has gotten the Top Ten treatment twice already. But, as I’m known to say, Music is fluid and changeable, and our Favorites change along with us. I’m looking forward to revisiting Liz and listing out and listening to, my Top Ten Favorites today.

Liz Phair is up first, requested by J. Coates via lyriquediscorde’s Twitter.

I think sometimes people forget how rad Liz Phair is. She was one of the 90’s Hit “It-Girls” who broke songwriting stereotypes, especially with her Chicago-made debut, Exile in Guyville, wherein she Sang frankly about sex and sexuality and desire, and of coming-of-age as a woman in the 90’s. She was lauded and revered, wrote about in all the top indie magazines, and beloved by most of the girls I knew at the time. She was in her twenties just like me and my girls were, and she Sang like we talked, and she could write one hell of a good Song.

Liz kept her cool with Whip Smart, and to a lesser degree with the album that may just be my favorite, but not a fan-favorite, Whitechocolatespaceegg. Still, even with the less than loved 1998 album, Liz was still an indie darling in that stereotypical, and honestly rather insulting, “girls want to be her and boys want to be with her” kind of way.

Liz kept her cool with Whip Smart, and to a lesser degree with the Album that may just be my Favorite (but not a fan-favorite), Whitechocolatespaceegg. Still, even with the less than loved 1998 album, Liz was still an indie darling in that stereotypical, and honestly rather insulting, “girls want to be her and boys want to be with her” kind of way. Though, hell, I knew quite a few girls who wanted to be her and be with her.

Then the 90’s ended and so did so many people’s love of Liz. Funny how fans so often don’t want their idols to change and grow, isn’t it? Though it isn’t just our idols that we resent changing, we feel that way about each other a lot of the times, too. Liz Phair’s self-titled came out and she got that awful “sell-out” label affixed to her. Some of the Songs were chart hits, and for a while seemed to be in a ton of romantic comedy Soundtracks, but the core fan base that I had been a part of seemed to sneer and run the other way.

I still love her though. I loved her through all that, too, and though her albums from the 2000’s are not my most Favorites, I still have them and have Favorite Songs from them.  (from an early post of mine from 2014 that is still true to me today)

What are some of your Favorite Liz Phair Songs? Though it was tough to narrow down, here are mine:

Top Ten Liz Phair Songs
Top Ten Tuesday

1. “Divorce Song” 
from the Album, Exile to Guyville (1993)

Live Version

“And, the license said you had to stick around until I was dead.
But, if you’re tired of looking at my face,
I guess I already am.”

2. “Polyester Bride”
from the Album, Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)

“And Henry said,
‘you’re lucky to even know me.
You’re lucky to be alive.
You’re lucky to be drinking here for free,
cause I’m a
sucker for your lucky, pretty eyes.’”

3. “Fuck and Run”
from the Album, Exile to Guyville (1993)

Live Version

“I want all that stupid old shit,
like letters and sodas,
letters and sodas.”

4. “Whip-Smart”
from the Album, Whip-Smart (1994)

“And I’m gonna lock my son up in a tower,
’til I write my whole life story,
on the back of his big brown eyes.”

5. “What Makes You Happy”
from the Album, Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)

“I’m sending you this photograph,
I swear this one is going to last,
and all those other bastards were only practice.”

6. “Stratford-On-Guy”
from the Album, Exile to Guyville (1993)

“It took an hour,
maybe a day.
But once I really listened the noise just fell .”

7. “Dogs Of L.A.”
from the Album, Whip-Smart (1994)

“The sawed-off tree trunks stand among the living palms.
You were beaming as I focused in,
and I panned along.
And I raced you to the top,
kicking snakes up from dusty rocks
Young Abe Vigoda plays Frankenstein.“

8. “Never Said”
from the Album, Whip-Smart (1994)

“I don’t know what they told you,
don’t even care what about.
All I know is I’m clean as a whistle, baby,
I didn’t let the cat out.”

9. “Love Is Nothing”
from the Album, Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)

“Love is nothing, nothing, nothing like they say,
you gotta pick up the little pieces everyday.”

10. “Girls! Girls! Girls!”
from the Album Exile In Guyville (1993) and from the Soundtrack to Amateur (1995)

“You been around enough to know,
that if I wanna leave,
you better let me go.”

 

Another Band that I cannot believe I’ve never done a Top 10 for. They’ve been a favorite of mine since 1982 when I bought a copy of Shabooh Shoobah at Licorice Pizza. I’d never heard of them until a friend at school told me about them. We were sitting on the sidelines during 8th grade P.E., our favorite place during that period since both of us was terrible at sports. Music was our sport really, the one we were great at. We sat there talking about Music and Bands we liked. She’d told me about KROQ, and I’d told her about Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. I’d been lucky enough to have gone a few times with my Mom and her friends.

My friends in High School were Music Obsessives like I was. We were the Music Girls and we spent lunch flipping through Music magazines, talking about Songs we’d taped off of KROQ, and Videos we’d seen on MTV. We all had our favorites, but there was a lot of crossover between us. Our big combined Music love went to Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Billy Idol, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, and INXS.

1984’s The Swing was everything to me. This and 1985’s Listen Like Thieves will always be my Favorite INXS Albums. I knew every Lyric to every Song on both Albums and had quite the growing crush on Michael Hutchence. Honestly, all us Music Girls did.

A few years later my best friend at the time and I would find the Movie Dogs In Space with Michael Hutchence. The Video Store around the corner from my house, Video Sky, had a copy and pretty much every Saturday we’d rent it along with Sid and Nancy and Modern Girls.

The Summer after Kick came out my friends and I finally got to see INXS play live. We sat on the grass at The Pacific Amphitheater and danced and Sang-a-Long to ever Song. After this Album everyone seemed to know who they were. Their Music Videos were on all the time, and their Songs were getting heavy rotation. Friends of mine were even in the video for “Devil Inside”, which was filmed in Balboa, California.

The next few Albums all wound up in my collection. I didn’t love any of them quite as much as The Swing and Listen Like Thieves, but there were many Songs that I did love. They made their way onto Mix Tapes and CD’s, especially “Beautiful Girl” and “Not Enough Time” from 1992’s Welcome to Wherever You Are. My oldest daughter was born in 1992 and I used to Sing “Beautiful Girl” to her, even though the Song became more synonymous with the eating disorder campaign it was attached to, then a Lullaby/Ode to a baby girl.

The eating disorder meaning was very relevant to me at the time, as the eating disorder I’d struggled with during my teen years had gotten exponentially worse in my twenties.

I think all of our crushes on Michael Hutchence continued, well past our teen years and into our twenties. He was some kind of beautiful, that’s for sure, and he had a slinky way of moving that recalled Jim Morrison when he was on stage. And we all loved his voice. I know I did.

His death was shocking. He was one of the first from “my generation” to go. It was heartbreaking and unbelievable. The Music though, it has always lived on, and so many of the Songs are part of my long list of all-time, forever Favorite Songs. Coming up with only Ten of them was tough, as I have so many I love, but I gave it my best shot.

What are your Favorites?

Top Ten INXS Songs
Top Ten Tuesday

1. “Don’t Change”
from the Album, Shabooh Shoobah (1982)

2. “Shine Like It Does”
from the Album, Listen Like Thieves (1985)

3. “Original Sin”
from the Album, The Swing (1984)

4. “Burn For You”
from the Album, The Swing (1984)

5. “This Time”
from the Album, Listen Like Thieves (1985)

6. “Never Tear Us Apart”
from the Album, Kick (1987)

7. “The One Thing”
from the Album, Shabooh Shoobah (1982)

8. “Beautiful Girl”
from the Album, Welcome To Wherever You Are (1992)

9. “Need You Tonight”
from the Album, Kick (1987)

10. “Mystify”
from the Album, Kick (1987)

How could I have never done a Top Ten for Duran Duran? It seems impossible to believe, but I’ve done some digging and haven’t been able to find any. On my birthday last weekend, I revisited the Duran Duran documentary Sing Blue Silver and listened to the Rio Album. I talked a bit with my boyfriend about my history with the band, being a fan, and my connection with their Music. I know I’ve written quite a bit about it, too. What the Band has meant to me.

One could blame Duran Duran for the woman I am today, though I am not sure blame is the right word. For me, I am grateful, more so than I often give sufficient thought, nor credit to. The band was this enormous part of my adolescence, in some ways the band was my adolescence, and though I still carry a never-ending love for them and their music, I will be the first to admit that I take Duran Duran for granted, and I often under-appreciate them to a huge degree.

Let’s start with sexuality. Prior to their music, and images, hitting my day-to-day, I did all I could to keep sexuality buried deep within me. Learning too early on about sex from abuse was not the kind of education that my friends had received, at least not that I  knew of. The realization would come years later that more than I knew of my cohorts and companions had been through the nightmares, too. But, at this juncture of my coming of age, I thought I was alone in all of it, and I ran from thoughts of sex as fast as I could.

Then along came this band and I had to stop running. I pretty much had no choice, it was like being smacked in the face, and well, everywhere else, with desire. Whether it be the heart thump and vibration of the bass line, the seduction of the poetic lyrical refrains, or that they were quite beautiful to look at, I was helpless to escape. Nearly every fantasy, every lustful feeling, every personal exploration and vibration beneath the bed sheets was either about, or to the soundtrack of, Duran Duran. My first orgasm was with the lights off, in my bedroom alone, with The Chauffer playing (yes, of course, I remember).

A few years later, the boy who I would later share my virginity with, would also share a Duran Duran related “meet-cute” with me. It went something like this: I saw him at a movie theater before the lights went down, he was wearing a John Taylor style of hat that along with one hell of a smile, got my attention. After the movie we ran into each other again at a late night dinner and when he asked my friends and me to join he and his friends I made mention of his hat and he smiled that smile again, adding a wink to the mix, and said: “John Taylor approved.”

I have been known to say that that boy knew something that a lot of the boys I went to high school did not. They all made fun of the band, mocked the music, the looks, throwing sexuality accusations and dismissing any talent or merit they had because of their predominate female fan-base. These same teenage boys would grow up to be men who would later admit to liking their music in secret, a confession I have heard from many men I have come in contact with, and each time I end up laughing and shaking my head at them. When asked why it amuses me so I always say that if they had been that exception, and if they were interested in girls, they could have had it all over the other boys, a space next to us at concerts and an invitation into the conversation, and the strung up and out desire we were all pulsing with.

It was more than what the music did to our sexy bits though, much more actually. As I consumed their music, and every article and interview I could get my hands on, I started to learn about their musical influences. Without a doubt, I can directly credit the members of Duran Duran for introducing me to Roxy Music, The Velvet Underground, Chic, Joy Division, early David Bowie, Japan, and T-Rex. I was also moved and inspired to write more. Lyrically, the majority of their music reads like poetry intermixed with passionate proclamations and a little bit of wonder. These were not the simple pop-infused love song trope of so much of the other music that hit the radio stations, this was something more, and it had me writing up a storm. Sometimes what I wrote was about them (yes, this was my first venture into fan fiction), but most of the time it was creations all of my own, written with their music blaring in the background.

They gave me big dreams, too. Their videos, all shot in far off and exotic locations, made the world seem so much bigger than my tiny life was. When things were horrible at home and I found myself questioning my existence, and at more than a few low moments, questioning my life, it was their big lives or the perception of their big lives, that kept me going. I thought there was so much more to see, to do, to be that I just had to hang on longer. I could not help but believe in the mystery. I wanted to believe. And, well, I thought I might just someday run off and marry Nick Rhodes. A teenage girl can dream, can’t she?

Here are my Favorite Duran Duran Songs – My Top 10. What are some of your Favorites?

Top Ten Duran Duran Songs
Top Ten Tuesday

1. “Lonely In Your Nightmare”
from the Album, Rio (1982)

2. “Careless Memories”
from the Album, Self-Titled (1981)

3. “The Chauffeur”
from the Album, Rio (1982)

4. “The Seventh Stranger”
from the Album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger (1983)

5. “New Religion”
from the Album, Rio (1982)

6. “New Moon On Monday”
from the Album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger (1983)

7. “Secret Oktober”
from the Album, The Singles 81-85 (2003)

8. “Come Undone”
from the Album, The Wedding Album (1993)

9. “Anyone Out There”
from the Album, Self-Titled (1981)

10. “Do You Believe In Shame?”
from the Album, Big Thing (1988)

I have to say that this list was almost impossible to put together, which is probably why I’ve never done one before. I love so many of Duran Duran’s Songs, and so many of their Songs have meaning and memories attached to them, for me. Today, this afternoon, in March, this is My Top 10. Ask me tomorrow, or next week, next month, next year, and the list might change. There were so many that almost made the list, too. I needed a Top 50 Songs, at least.