Monthly Archives: June 2009

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Song of the Day #328: ‘It Was a Good Day’ – Ice Cube

icecubeI like the idea of second careers in show business. I don’t mean second acts, like the one Mickey Rourke is entering, or the one Pulp Fiction gave to John Travolta, but entire second careers in a field or medium different from the one in which somebody originally found fame.

An obvious example would be someone like child actor turned Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, who went from Opie to Richie to helming Apollo 13. Then there’s Mark McGrath, who first found fame as the lead singer of pop group Sugar Ray before becoming a full-time anchor on TV’s Extra. Henry Rollins went from a frightening hard rock band leader to a frightening host of a film-focused talk show on IFC.

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Song of the Day #327: ‘Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)’ – Billy Joel

riverofdreamsLooking at the numbers makes Billy Joel’s “retirement” all the more impressive. He truly went out at the top of his game, with River of Dreams selling more than 5 million copies and vying for an Album of the Year Grammy. To just hang it up after a success like that takes some guts.

When this album came out (in 1993), Alex and I went to the store and each bought a copy of the CD. This was in the days before iPods and easy CD burning, and several years before we’d get married and merge our CD collections. It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since I last purchased a Billy Joel album.

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Song of the Day #326: ‘The Downeaster ‘Alexa” – Billy Joel

stormfrontI singled out Streetlife Serenade as one of Joel’s weakest albums, but I’d have to give the dubious title of his worst record to 1989’s Storm Front. Released more than three years after The Bridge, Storm Front had none of that album’s musical or thematic complexity and, though it fared much better in the marketplace, it was a big step backward.

Opening track ‘That’s Not Her Style’ is an awkward defense of then-wife Christie Brinkley’s reputation (“The papers say… she chartered a Lear when she heard her career was in danger and gave the pilot somethin’ extra for a perfect ride… but that’s not her style”). Every time I hear it (especially in light of how things turned out for the couple) I can’t help but thinking the piano man doth protest too much.

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Song of the Day #325: ‘Superstition’ – Stevie Wonder

stevieOK, now I’m going to blow your mind.

Stevie Wonder was just 22 years old when he released Talking Book, the critically-acclaimed album that contained ‘Superstition.’ No, that’s not the part that should blow your mind. This is: It was his 17th album!

Seventeen albums in ten years, starting as a boy of 12. And he followed up Talking Book with a trio of albums as well-reviewed and well-loved as any ever recorded: Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life. Then he turned 26.

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Song of the Day #324: ‘Tears of a Clown’ – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

smokey2The great thing about these Motown Weekends is that the music is so easy to find on You Tube and these are some of the best songs ever written… can’t beat that combo. The bed thing is that I don’t have a ton to say about them (cue the chorus of ‘Trust me, that’s not a bad thing!’ comments).

I didn’t grow up with these songs or with the artists, so I don’t have many associations to explore. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, my first exposure to many of these songs was The Big Chill soundtrack, but there’s only so much mileage you can get out of that.

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