[emily] 9:45 a.m. - Song

Song: What You Own
Artist: Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp - RENT Original Cast

Why: Who knows! RENT is stuck in my head quite often, and this is one of my favorites. It popped in there while I was getting ready for work this morning. The "I don't own emotion, I rent..." line started replaying over and over. Ah, RENT!

[stan] 8:12 a.m. - Song

Song: More
Artist: Matthew West

Why: It accidentally started playing on my phone's music player as we left for work today. Once I got to work, I brought out the iPod and listened to it in full. What an amazing song about how much God loves us:

I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are Mine, and you shine for Me too
I love you
Yesterday and today and tomorrow
I'll say it again and again
I love you more

[stan] 1:39 p.m. - Song

Song: Spooky
Artist: Classics IV

Why: I don't really know. It came from virtually nowhere. Spooky.

[stan] 7:00 a.m. - Song

Song: (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
Artist: Elvis Presley

Why: Okay, this one's a little bit strange. Do you remember the opening scene of the movie Walk the Line, when the concert inside Folsom Prison is just starting, the band is playing an introduction and Johnny Cash is still waiting to go onstage (while staring poignantly at the woodshop's table saw)? And because he's taking his time to go out there, all you hear for a couple of minutes is just the pulsing, repeated introduction to the first song? Well, that's kind of how I heard this song in my head. Not the verses, not the chorus, just a repeating measure or two of the bassline and beat. It's like when a radio DJ uses a snippet of a familiar song, seamlessly looped over and over, as an underlying musical "bed" for whatever he is announcing.

As for where it came from, or why it was just a basic loop instead of the main song, I have no idea.

[stan] 10:45 a.m. - Songs

Song: Y.M.C.A.
Song: Macho Man
Artist: The Village People

Why: I saw that ridiculous photo from my blog post a few days ago, and that triggered not one, but two of The Village People's ridiculous songs.

That's something about The Village People, KC & The Sunshine Band, and a handful of other disco-era acts that makes me actually like their music. It's not that I like it for straightforward reasons, like most disco fans do (and certainly not for its gay themes) - it's that their music actually sounds just kind of silly. And I really do appreciate songs that have a silly quality to them, at least in the way that I internally measure silliness. I mean, there is music that most people would describe as silly - like carnival music, for example - but personally, I don't find it as silly as others do. The silliness factor to me is entirely personal. If a song's sound makes me laugh a little, then I like it.

This explains why I also like The Beauty, The Beta Band, Soul-Junk, Beck, Jim Noir and most any song that features a banjo breakdown.

[stan] 11:15 a.m. - Song

Song: Landslide
Artist: Fleetwood Mac

Why: I heard this song literally three times in the course of about 90 minutes, on the radio(s) in the background at work. I have no idea what would make the radio stations want to play this song so often.

I have never liked this song. Ever. From the first time I heard it until now. I do not know why people think it's such a good song, such an important song, etc. It's terrible. Stevie Nicks' voice is normally really annoying to listen to, but in Landslide it is over-the-top terrible. Smoke another cigarette why don't you.

When The Smashing Pumpkins recorded this song in 1994, it did not improve at all. Considering that the only direction it could go was better, it still failed. Then I heard The Dixie Chicks try it in 2002. Sure, they have some talent with the harmonies and the fiddles and what not, but they could have picked a better song. I mean, any song would have been better. Like "2 Legit 2 Quit" or maybe "Manah-Manah". Or maybe the W section of the phone book set to "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star."

(By the way, I don't usually backdate posts from two days ago - it's the 24th as I write this - but I didn't get a chance to blog this one when it was actually stuck in my head.)

[nicole] 4:45 p.m. - Song

Song: My Prerogative
Artist: Bobby Brown

Why: Well, I just happened to make the statement on my blog that something was "my prerogative." Enter: Bobby Brown.

[stan] 1:13 p.m. - Song

Song: Real Love
Artist: Jody Watley

Why: Wow, I have no idea at all. It wasn't on any radio. I haven't heard this song in at least a decade, not even on the ubiquitous 80's retro programming on any radio station in town. I haven't even heard the words "real" and "love" next to each other in the same sentence lately. So, this one squeezed its way right out of the usually-locked Vault of Songs I Really Don't Ever Need To Hear Anymore, where hopefully, when it realizes how lonely it will be in the General Assembly area of my brain, it will return soon.

There's this tiny part of me that wants to wonder what Jody Watley is doing now, but I think I can ignore it. Does it really matter?

[stan] 7:00 a.m. - Song

Song: London Bridge (live version)
Artist: Clumsy Lovers

Why: I listened to the Live! album last night on the iPod while studying. That album gives me such a happy feeling whenever I listen to it. I am so bummed that on the one chance we would have to see them perform in SW Missouri (over in nearby Branson on Oct. 9), we'll actually be in Portland.