"It's The Time to Disco" by Kal Ho Naa Ho [Film Singers]

SONG TITLE: It's The Time to Disco
ARTIST: Film Singers - Sadhna Sargam, Sujata Bhattacharya, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, and Shankar
ALBUM: Kal Ho Naa Ho
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2003
WORDS: HindiLyrix.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This song has a little bit of everything. It's part classic 70s disco throwback, part 21st century pop song, part Bollywood blockbuster. It rambles and it's jumbled and not all that coherent, but when she tells me It's the Time to Disco, I can't help but think she's absolutely right. The video for this song was playing on the TV behind me at breakfast the other day, and it was all I could do to keep my ass in the chair. I hear this song, and my feet want to dance.

"Shadows and Tall Trees" by U2

SONG TITLE: "Shadows and Tall Trees"
ARTIST: U2
ALBUM: Boy
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1980
WORDS: macphisto
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

Bono and the boys were barely 20 years-old when they released their first album, and their youthful vigor still electric 25 years later. Bono's voice on this collection is nearly unrecognizable from later releases - it's primarily The Edge's unique guitar sounds that make it clear you're hearing the same band.

I've always thought Bono must have had a cold or something when they were recording this album. The studio track of "Gloria", which didn't make it onto the album, sounds like a man in desperate need of Benadryl. "Shadows and Tall Trees" has much the same nasal quality, though to a lesser extent than the other.

There are lots of great tunes on this first disc, but "Shadows and Tall Trees" always stood out as my favorite. I can't really say why; I guess the melancholy feel just appealed to my morose early 80s self.

Anyway, the song popped into my head this week while studying the tall skinny Ashoka and Palm trees at my hotel in India, and it's been great to rediscover an old favorite.

"Laura Non C'E'" by Nek

SONG TITLE: "Laura Non C'E'"
ARTIST: Nek
ALBUM: Best of Nek: l'Anno Zero
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2003
WORDS: metrolyrics
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I only have about 50 words of Italian, so I can't really tell you much about what the song means. I can tell you that something stupid took place and at one point he's sorry about something (though for all I know, it could be "I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to kiss my ass"). Inside my head, he's done something dumb and Laura's pretty pissed off about it, and he's demonstrating the sincerity of his apology by writing her this jaunty little pop song.

The tune is infectious - I can't seem to get it off "repeat" on my new iPod - and Nek is a real find. I realize that comparisons to pop superstars are trite, but he really does sound to me like the demon love child of Bono, Sting, and some cute boyband or another. And he's quite easy on the eyes as well.

"Fields of Gold" by Eva Cassidy

SONG TITLE: "Fields of Gold"
ARTIST: Eva Cassidy covering Sting
ALBUM: Songbird
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1998
WORDS: Sting Lyrics
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

There's something in Eva that pushes every Weepy Puddle of Goo button I've got. She can reduce me to a quivering pool of emotion with half a verse, no matter how well I know the original version or how many times I've heard her recording already.

As the some Washingtonian wrote:

When radio stations play Eva, their switchboards light up. Many callers say they were in their car when they first heard her and had to pull over to cry. "Eva evokes that kind of reaction. Not just 'She's good' but 'Who the heck is that?'" says Keith Grimes, who was a guitarist in the Eva Cassidy Band. Cassidy had great control, phrasing, and range. She was petite - five-foot-two - but could belt out a bluesy "People Get Ready" as easily as she could sing a delicate tune like "Autumn Leaves." Some who heard this soulful Scotch-Irish-German woman thought she was black. It's more than Cassidy's technical skill that grabs people. It's the sense as she sang that she was reaching from her heart to her listener's. "There are singers that have great instruments but are just singing the notes," says Grace Griffith, a friend and local chanteuse. "Other singers have emotion but not the instrument. Eva had both."

I never really understood what phrasing meant in vocals until I heard Eva sing songs I already knew. Rather than pushing the words out into the world, it feels like the music is being pulled straight out of her by some intractable invisible force, every idea whole and nuanced and carrying a weight of meaning that I'd somehow missed before. This gives it a fragile vulnerability that completely at odds with her technical polish.

I'm sure some of the force of these emotions comes from the fact that she's dead and gone, and never had much commercial success when she was alive. I like the idea that she was leading a normal humble unsexy life, carrying around this huge talent that hardly anyone ever knew about.

There are lots of great articles about Eva out on the web, which you can easily find with your favorite search engine. Two of the best are "When Chuck Met Eva" and "Echoes of a Voice Stilled Too Early", both lengthy profiles in the Washington Post. There's also an article up on the official website specifically about her cover of "Fields of Gold".

"Ghanan Ghanan" by A.R. Rahman

SONG TITLE: "Ghanan Ghanan"
ARTIST: A.R. Rahman
ALBUM: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2001
WORDS: in Hindi with pop-up English translation available
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This one is the latest entry on a long and glorious list of songs I've learned to sing phonetically. It started at the age of 11 with Menudo, when the fact that I didn't speak Spanish in no way diminished my teenybopper need to sing along. Not surprisingly, making the right Hindi sounds is a bit more challenging for this white girl than the Spanish ones. I have two additional decades of experience to apply to the situation, though, which pretty much means I can fumble along like a three year-old.

This is the first musical number of the first Bollywood movie I ever saw, and it is the standard against which all others are measured. Perfection!

"In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry

SONG TITLE: "In the Summertime"
ARTIST: Mungo Jerry
ALBUM: In the Summertime
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1970
WORDS: text
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

One-hit wonders Mungo Jerry somehow flew under my radar for the first 20+ years in which their hit was riding the airwaves. I first recall encountering "In the Summertime" a few years ago, watching VH1 Classics in a hotel room with KJV. It was one of those vids-before-they-made-vids classics. Sometimes the lead singer's lips moved with one line of the melody and sometimes with another, and it was awesome. Like many unsuspecting radio listeners in 1970, I soon fell victim to the song's catchiness, and the resulting earworm stayed with me for an insane length of time. My water fitness instructor has this song on her regular workout mix, which always gives me a happy.

I'm still shocked by the lack of guile in the if/then parts of the song. Couldn't we at least pretend in our pop songs that wooing someone is a bit more romantic and less opportunistic? But in a bizarre and unexpected way that sort of adds to its kitschy appeal for me. Maybe it's that being so open about their opportunism seems naive - they don't know yet that they're not supposed to be sexist classist pigs, which makes it nearly sweet.

Or something. I dunno. I have a hard time with this one. Mainly, I just like the song. The tune is catchy and irresistible.

"Me and Bobby McGee" by Melissa Etheridge

SONG TITLE: "Me and Bobby McGee"
ARTIST: Melissa Etheridge covering Janis Joplin
ALBUM: N/A
YEAR OF RELEASE: N/A
WORDS: text
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This week's selection honors the incredibly brave performance of the divine Ms. Etheridge and the 2005 Grammys this month. I admire Melissa for a million reasons, only one of which is her constant, unending bravery and willingness to go where others won't. Appearing on stage totally bald from chemo treatments for breast cancer, Melissa brought it to a new level. There are plenty of places to find video of her performance: here and here, for example.

I am highlighting a different Janis tribute Melissa did, however, as song of the week. It's the visuals that make the Grammy performance amazing. For pure musical goodness, her "Me and Bobby McGee" is a better choice. Enjoy.

"Save the Last Dance" by The Drifters

SONG TITLE: "Save the Last Dance"
ARTIST: The Drifters
ALBUM: Save the Last Dance for Me
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1962
WORDS: love song lyrics
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I think pretty much every Queer as Folk US fan in the world saves a special place in their hearts for "Save the Last Dance". I am no exception, though my love for this song also pre-dates my love for the show. As has probably become clear to readers over time, unconventional love songs are the ones that get me going, and this one snuck up on me even as a kid.

Desperation and longing and lust have their places, sure, but so does quiet confidence. That's the part that always seemed the most out of reach to me, and therefore the most attractive. I always aspired to be the person who could enjoy their lover being the center of attention, flirting, goofing off, without having to establish territory and betray my own insecurity every minute. It's songs like this, that say as much about the singer as they do the object of their affection, that I love the most.

"Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads

SONG TITLE: "Road to Nowhere"
ARTIST: Talking Heads
ALBUM: Little Creatures
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1985
WORDS: text
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This song continues with my ongoing theme of The Futility That Is My Professional Life. Not to be too literal here, but something about hearing this one during the commute isn't too bad either. I don't have too much to say about this one, I guess. I just loves me those Talking Heads.

"You Don't Treat Me No Good" by Sonia Dada

SONG TITLE:"You Don't Treat Me No Good"
ARTIST: Sonia Dada
ALBUM: Sonia Dada
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1992
WORDS: soniadada.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I have a special, lifelong love for the kiss-off song. It doesn't matter if I'm happy or sad, coupled or alone, there's nothing that makes my heart swell like one party telling another to get bent. It's not enough just to quietly leave, it has to involve standing up and saying "fuck this, I can do better". Getting a little something off your chest. It's all about the fear, and overcoming it, and using that moment to say the things you've held back.

For obvious reasons, the most frequent targets for this message are lovers and bosses, but not always. These moments are equally great when they appear outside of music too - there's the Buffy finale when all the potentials were activated, and the elevator scene in Living Out Loud where Holly Hunter goes apeshit on her ex and screams out "god, what was I so afraid of that YOU were a better choice!?"

For the past 13 years, "You Don't Treat Me No Good" has been my shining example of the most perfect kiss-off song of all time. It's plaintive and empowered and peppy and I love it so. I can sing along at the top of my lungs and feel good doing it. There are other great songs on the same album, filled with self-torture and angst and bearing hilariously consistent titles like "We Treat Each Other Cruel", "You Ain't Thinking (About Me)", "Never See Me Again", "Deliver Me", and "I Live Alone". Sona Dada are an unusual band. For one thing, they're huge - seven regulars, plus sit-ins and specials. For another, they're incredibly stable, surviving about 15 years with almost no changes in line-up. I hear they're quite good live, but I've never had the pleasure.

As I was listening to this song this week on the way to work, I was conscious of how desperately I need to kiss-off my job. I started running down the kiss-off songs I keep in my head, and juxtaposing the job songs with the lover ones, and vice versa, and realizing they were all coming from similar emotional places. And while thinking of this song in relation to the nutty co-dependent goodness that is my professional life, things morphed until I was starting to envisioning it as a Mulder-centric X-Files vid. I shit you not. I was never a big Mulderfan, but somehow the thought of him finally saying "I'm gonna quit. I can't stand it. I'm gonna give it up and quit and ain't never coming back." filled me with the happy. Because if Mulder could do it, maybe I could too.