Четверг 24 Янв 2008, 6:31

Featured Artist: John Mayer

1. Ben Lee - Home (2:40)
2. Pasty White - Ice Cream (3:23)
3. Spiderbait - Tonite (4:22)
4. Graham Central Station - Feel The Need (3:56)
A different type of love song. Nice and funky, get up and dance to; probably don't even think about it much as a love song if you're hearing it for the first time. "Feel the need in me" - I don't think it comes any more directly than that. Larry Graham clearly more than just a champion slap bassist.
5. Specials, The - Too Much Too Young (2:05)
6. Aerosmith - Janie's Got a Gun (5:30)
A song about incest. Paedophilic incest. Janie puts her father out of her misery. The "cradle robber" is shot by Janie because nobody believes her when she tells them what he's doing. A great little story in this song and there's something pretty brave about writing it.
7. Flight of The Conchords - Think Think About It (3:30)
8. John Butler Trio - Zebra (3:59)
9. You Am I - Purple Sneakers (3:30)
10. Counting Crows - Accidentally In Love (3:12)
Yet another love song; this one from the soundtrack to the film "Shrek". A nice little ditty, nothing too spectacular lyric wise but it is basic which makes it good in a sense. Ending with the words "I'm in love" pretty much summing up the song. It's a cute one; for when love kind of finds us unexpectedly. Never happened to me, but what can I say? I've seen it happen to others at least.
11. Snout - Got Sold On Heaven (3:04)
12. Stone Temple Pilots - Plush (5:12)
13. John Mayer - Waiting On the World to Change (3:19)
14. John Mayer - Say (3:49)
This one probably the more subdued song lyric wise of the three I chose to play from Mr. Mayer, however it is without doubt my favourite.
"Have no fear for giving in/Have no fear for giving over/You better know that in the end/It's better to say too much/Than never to say what you need to say again"
It is this concept of being open, honest and saying things; which I live by quite closely, instead of masking and hiding what needs to be said. I always prefer things to be out in the open and not concealed. I have not been too in touch with John Mayer's music but this has been a wake up call. He was always in my mind after hearing "Your Body is a Wonderland" years ago; and the three songs on this list probably accentuate that he is not only a very talented lyricist but also a brilliant composer and musician in his own right. A salute to a true legend. He deserves that status.
15. John Mayer - My Stupid Mouth (4:16)
16. REM - Everybody Hurts (5:20)
17. Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The - Break So Easy (2:45)
Heavier songs also have meanings, and heavier songs also have brilliant lyrics in them. This one, from skacore kings the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, is one I feel about a frustrating relationship, or perhaps non-relationship with another person. "Trying to answer questions forced/Forced inside of me/You were forced across the line/You're not providing me" I was always fond of this line, particularly because being part of the chorus it is hammered into you throughout the song. Another good one "You would break so easily/I watched you break so easily". A weak character, obviously.
18. Dropkick Murphies - The Gauntlet (2:49)
19. Beatles, The - Yesterday (2:05)
Some may say the best song ever written; well it's certainly up there with the best The Beatles have ever written. A song about a broken-hearted man, a song about a man who'd lost his love so recently and written about it as he were to "long for yesterday". Sad, beautiful and well pieced-together. It's no doubt that the fab four were in their own league at the time, and probably lead the way in that elite league nowadays.
20. Einstein's Wardrobe - Stan (4:38)
21. Strokes, The - Heart in a Cage (3:27)
22. Unleash the Nugget - Peanuts (4:04)
What do I need to say about this one? Boy meets girl at a bar, girl is keen; boy takes girl away, girl turns out to be a boy as well and has a larger package than the "real" boy. 'nuff said. Funny-ass song, great lyrics so casually put out there. Kudos to Ken McLean for sending me this about 4 years ago.
23. The Fratellis - Baby Fratelli (3:56)
24. Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take it (3:37)
25. Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady (3:21)
26. Cruel Sea, The - Black Stick (5:00)
Ah, the use of similes & metaphors. Only a talented man can use them as well as Tex Perkins does here, however his ego is already at the point of maximum expansion, so I won't dwell on it too much! The song is genius, really. Sings about his body being a city, an empire, saying what each body part represents; and then the line that captures it all - "I could be your whole world". Amazing bloody writing, Tex. A crying shame that the Cruel Sea didn't make it further - a really awesome Australian blues rock band.
27. Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild (3:30)
28. Fini Scad - It's Not Real (3:16)
29. Icehouse - Great Southern Land (5:15)
A song about the European invasion in the eyes of an Aboriginal, yet written by a white man in Iva Davies. To me, it is an absolutely amazing show of talent to be able to write lyrics from the point of view of someone else; and for someone to have written it about such an extreme like this is purely phenomenal. A classically trained musician, anyway; Davies expresses immense talent in this song from Icehouse as it lives on today. He would be in the upper echelon of songwriters purely on this one piece.
30. Travis - Driftwood (3:33)

Next edition: January 30, 2008. Feature artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival

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