Category Archives: song of the day

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Song of the Day #3,360: ‘Welcome to the Jungle (Live)’ – Guns N’ Roses

Closing out week one of the 30 Day Music Challenge, our mission today is to name ‘A Song That Needs To Be Played Loud.’ Certainly many songs fit the bill, but I’m trying to go with the first thing that occurs to me for each of these categories. And the first thing that occurred to me for this one was Guns N’ Roses’ classic ‘Welcome to the Jungle.’

This is a song that needn’t be played at all if it isn’t played loud. It was named the best hard rock song of all time by VH1, and the best hard rock songs need to be played at 11.

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Song of the Day #3,359: ‘Stuck in the Middle With You (Live)’ – Jeff Healey

Day Four of the 30 Days Music Challenge calls for ‘A Song That Reminds You of Somebody You Would Rather Forget About.’

I was at a complete loss on this one, which I take as a good sign. I find that I have almost universally positive associations with music. I tried thinking about people I don’t like, and couldn’t come up with a single musical connection. Even songs that make me sad don’t make me want to forget the people they’re tied to. As Inside Out taught us, sadness is an essential part of happiness.

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Song of the Day #3,358: ‘Happy Together’ – The Turtles

Our third entry in the 30 Day Music Challenge calls for ‘A Song That Reminds You of Summertime.’

I struggled a bit with this one. My first instinct was to think back on various “Songs of the Summer” — from Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ to Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ or Luis Fonsi’s ‘Despacito.’ But those songs don’t really invoke the season for me. The ‘Song of the Summer’ is more of a music industry concept than a mood-setter.

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Song of the Day #3,357: ‘5ive Gears in Reverse’ – Elvis Costello

Day Two of the 30 Day Music Challenge calls for ‘A Song You Like With a Number in the Title.’ I had many options from which to choose, from Wilco’s ‘The Lonely 1′ to Barenaked Ladies’ ‘If I Had $1,000,000’ and everything in between.

I opted to go with ‘5ive Gears in Reverse’ from Elvis Costello’s excellent Get Happy!! album, because Costello was so committed to the number in the title that he replaced the ‘F’ in ‘Five’ with a 5.

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Song of the Day #3,356: ‘Green Grow the Rushes (Athens Demo)’ – R.E.M.

Note: I write these posts in advance, so as I’m scheduling this one, I have no idea if looming Hurricane Irma has laid waste to South Florida or spared us the worst of her wrath. I’m going to optimistically assume the latter and proceed as if it’s business as usual.

I roll my eyes at the Facebook equivalent of chain letters, where users are expected to post a certain thing in their status each day and encourage all of their friends to do the same. However, one I saw recently struck me as pretty good fodder for my blog, if not my Facebook page.

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