A few weeks after Billy Joel won the Montauk Madness competition, the Randon iTunes Fairy has served up a song aimed at making all of us regret that outcome.
Billy Joel has written and recorded dozens of excellent songs and a handful of real stinkers. ‘This is the Time,’ from 1986’s otherwise fine album The Bridge, might be the stinkiest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
