Monthly Archives: August 2009

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Song of the Day #382: ‘Don’t You Want Me’ – The Human League

humanleague20 Best Songs of the 80s – #20

Over the next four weeks I’ll count down my twenty favorite songs of my most formative decade, the 1980s. I’ll do five per week, breaking on the weekends for the usual Motown classics.

First, allow me to lay out some ground rules. These songs are not necessarily my favorite songs released in the 80s… they are my favorite 80s songs. Yes, there is a difference. Plenty of my favorite artists released music in the 80s, so this list could easily consist of tunes by Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Lyle Lovett, Talking Heads and so on. That’s not what I’m after here. I’m looking for songs that typify the musical style of the 80s and, more important, trigger my memories of that era.

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Funny People

funnypeopleFunny People is a step forward for writer/director Judd Apatow even as it’s the weakest of his three films. It’s his attempt at a Manhattan or Hannah and Her Sisters (with more dick jokes), while 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up were more lightweight Annie Hall.

Don’t be misled by the Woody Allen references. Judd Apatow is no Woody Allen. But his films tread the same ground… modern relationships, wall-to-wall jokes, a showbiz milieu (with Los Angeles in place of New York City). And Apatow is the reigning voice in comedic filmmaking today, as Allen was in his heyday, though Apatow’s reach extends beyond his own films to a slew of movies he’s written and/or produced.

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Song of the Day #381: ‘My Guy’ – Mary Wells

marywells

Another Smokey Robinson classic that became another #1 hit for Motown. Robinson should have a special wing in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Hell, he should have his own building. I wonder if he wrote this before or after ‘My Girl,’ and if he wrote whichever one came second as a companion piece to the first. Wikipedia, usually so helpful in these matters, is silent on the subject.

This is one of those songs in which the singer professes love by dissing the object of her affection (‘My Funny Valentine’ is another that comes to mind). “No muscle bound man could take my hand from my guy…. no handsome face could ever take the place of my guy.” If this song was directed to me I’d be pissed! So I’m weak and ugly, but at least you love me. Thanks!

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Song of the Day #380: ‘She Don’t Want Nobody Near’ – Counting Crows

filmsghosts[Note: Please welcome another guest blogger, my sister Amy, whom you know well if you read the comments here]

Clay is notorious for his hatred of Greatest Hits compilations. He won’t own them, even if those are the only songs he wishes to listen to from a particular artist. Therefore, when he realized I owned “Films about Ghosts,” the Counting Crows’ version of a “Greatest Hits” album, despite the fact that I own all of their other albums, he understandably chided me.

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New trailers

First, a new one from Nancy Meyers called It’s Complicated. I love the cast (Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin plus John Krasinski running around in the background) but I’m a little wary of Meyers, who hasn’t made a film I’ve liked since 1998’s The Parent Trap.

And here’s Zombieland, a comic horror film directed by newcomer Ruben Fleischer. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg look like a great team in this one. [Warning: This is the ‘red band’ trailer and it’s a bit graphic in parts]