Frank Sinatra

Song: Frank Sinatra
Artist: Cake
Album: Fashion Nugget
Released: September 1996

Well first off, the song is called Frank Sinatra, if you haven't heard it before, the title alone should give you a clue as to how awesome the song is. Frank Sinatra has no particular personal meaning to me lyrics wise (they are however spectacularly written),but it is more of reminiscence thing. I remember my brother showed "the distance" (another song of the same album) to me while I was playing a computer game called "Lords of the Realm II". I will never forget the moment I discovered Cake. Why on earth would you name a band Cake? Well the sound was definitely something different than anything I had ever heard before. It was fresh, but kinda old sounding, it wasn't rock but then it kind of was, it was weird, but in a good way. Whatever it was, it was freakin' cool, and even my young 7th grade musical palette could figure that out. Fashion Nugget soon became a staple of my 7-10 disc rotation. When I was privileged enough to ride in my brother's blue Chevy S-10 with the rockin' system, Cake was a regular request. Fashion Nugget as a whole was an album that has remained on my frequently played list, mainly because it is just so cool. It's hard to explain, it just makes you feel like...dare I say Frank Sinatra? Yes I do.

Also it seems an appropriate time to tell you that I love to sing, and I love singing along to Cake. Now when I sing I usually am not satisfied with the softly sung melody, weaving in out of falsetto for the high parts, that most people indulge in. I crank the volume up and I belt it out like I'm performing at my very own concert. Yes, I am that guy at the stop light singing at the top of his lungs, that you and your friends stare and laugh at. Don't worry about it though, its cool, I laugh at people like me too. After all I am 26 and still singing to the steering wheel, full throttle. The point of this long explanation is that I love singing along to this song. Yes, it was a huge factor in Frank Sinatra's ranking, and really, it is for a lot of the songs you will see on this countdown.

This song is also my wife's favorite song off the album, and honestly, we both love to rock out to it in the car. Before we had our son, we could turn the volume up and I would sing slash drum the beat on the steering wheel, while she danced. My wife is a dancer at heart, she also sometimes rocks the backup vocals. This scenario played out many times on our way to go shopping or pick up a movie or even to pickup groceries. Ah, good times.

To be quite honest, I don't have it in me to critique the actual music tonight. Suffice it to say that the drums drive the song perfectly, the organ is a very nice touch, and the guitar is suttle but right on. The trumpet also adds very nice overtones through out. I hope you take the time to watch the video at the top of the list as it is done quite well. Enjoy feeling awesome while you listen/watch.

We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations,
A faintly glimmering radio station.
While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather,
The flies and spiders get along together,
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record.

Beyond the suns that guard this roof,
Beyond your flowers of flaming truths,
Beyond your latest ad campaigns,
An old man sits collecting stamps
In a room all filled with Chinese lamps.
He saves what others throw away.
He says that he'll be rich some day.

We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations,
A faintly glimmering radio station.

We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations,
A faintly glimmering radio station.
While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather,
The flies and spiders get along together,
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record.

Movin' On

Song: Movin' On
Artist: Default
Album: Elocation
Released: November 2003

Movin' On marks a fairly big event in my life. As is obvious in the lyrics, the song is about a break up. For me I can relate to nearly every word of the lyrics, because this was not just a break up, it was the break up of my life. I'm talking this was my first true love and all that sappy stuff, 5 years worth of sappiness. We had half our wedding planned before I ever left on my mission for the LDS church, picked names for our unborn children, appeared in each-other's family pictures, owned furniture and even a dog together; it was generally accepted by our families and friends that we were one couple that would make it through the two year (no contact save letters, mind you) wait. Movin' On doesn't en-capsule all of the emotions I felt, but it does capture some of them. So, I tell you the part of the story it fills.

About 6 months before I left for New England, I caught my girlfriend (of 3 1/2 years at that point) cheating on me. Now this was not cheating in the sense that she was sleeping or fooling around or anything, she had just kissed some loser a few times, and was planning on dating him. We both held our LDS values and so kissing was as far as we could go before marriage. So to me this was treason in the highest, and we both knew it. Well to make a long story short, after about 10 tumultuous days we decided to work it out and stay together. I think we'd both agree that it happened mainly because of my efforts, but she held up her part of the bargain by sticking to my ridiculously strict terms (which even her parents questioned) so I knew she was committed. I can't be sure, but I think this would come back to bite me hard later on. Over the holidays, our families spent Thanksgiving together, and we stayed at each-other's homes through Christmas and New Year's. I got this CD from her for Christmas that year as a matter of fact. By the end of the holidays things were as good as they had ever been and I had no doubt whatsoever that she would wait. On May 5, 2004 I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. Three months later my mail from her stopped completely for 1 month, then resumed as if nothing had happened. 1 year later I found out why when letters again had stopped for another month. Needless to say my Augusts on the mission were worrisome. She had cheated again, this time it was much worse, it was cheating in everyone else's terms. That's why the mail stopped my first august, and that's apparently why it stopped again in my second august. So in the chorus when Dallas Smith sings "the last time I gave in, the next time I'm leaving" you can understand how it fits perfectly. I didn't pursue her when I got home, not because I couldn't forgive her again, or because I didn't care for her anymore. Quite the contrary, I thought I had buried all of my feelings for her during the last 6 months of the mission, but when I got home we spent a day together, and I realized that there was a lot left in the feelings bank "I miss the love that you've misplaced".

Her parents (whom I still love) asked me if I was thinking about trying to patch things up, and her father especially pushed for it. I told them though, that this time, if anything was going to happen, it would have to come from her. I forgave her, I still cared for her, but I couldn't trust her. I knew that if I didn't mean enough to her for her to stick her neck out and pursue me, and put in the work to make things happen, then it wouldn't be enough. It wouldn't have worked. I would've always be wondering/fearing if she was thinking about someone new. "Sharin' trust wore thin, I'm movin' on" that simple statement summed it all up for me.

The song starts out with a soft guitar and slow beat. It sets a very laid back feeling, almost like a chilling out song, but builds towards a valiantly trudging chorus. It gives me the closest thing to closure that I have on the subject matter. The way the guitars are played you get the sense of something extremely difficult, but also an overwhelming calm, that everything is going to be alright. I see this most clearly in the bridge "you pushed me off, you pushed me off, your secrets out. Don't pick me up, don't pick me up, I'll climb out". Even though the event that you feared the most in life has come to pass, there is still a light shining for you somewhere. You just have to be strong enough to find it.

To take not give your only way
You used up all I have each day
Whispers of where your head has laid
It's hard to ignore all the things that they say

The last time I give in
The next time I'm leaving
Sharin' trust wore thin
I'm movin' on

Each time you say you'll be home late
I pray to God that you'll behave
I miss the love that you've misplaced
My love not something to be played with

The last time I give in
The next time I'm leaving
Sharin' trust wore thin
I'm movin' on
You pushed me off
You pushed me off your secrets out
Don't pick me up
Don't pick me up
I'll climb out

The last time I give in
The next time I'm leaving
Sharin' trust wore thin
I'm movin' on

Turn My Head

Song: Turn My Head
Artist: Live
Album: Secret Samadhi
Released: February 1997

Alright the first thing yo need to know is that Live is my favorite band, I mean head and shoulders above the rest, it isn't even difficult for me to decide that. It was hard to not include 10+ songs of theirs on this list. But I'm not sure that I made the right choice with Turn My Head, with all the other great songs they have. When I made the list I tried to do it on a "which would I rather listen to" basis and there are probably two or three other songs on that album that I would rather listen to. So hear we are 4 songs into the countdown and screw up number one is revealed.

Oh well, Turn My Head is a great song. The reason for my liking Turn My Head so much has a lot to do with why I like Live. The band is so versatile. On their first album (Mental Jewelry) they were kind of an indie rock, philosophical, slash a little weird, kind of young band. It's an album that takes some getting used to, especially if your first exposure to the band was Throwing Copper (the greatest album of all time, hands down), as was my experience. Then on Throwing Copper they really blossomed into a band that could flat out blow the doors off with rock, or move you with mid tempo to slow softer tunes. Throwing Copper is a journey that showcases all the best parts of Live. Secret Samadhi was, by a lot of accounts, fallout of the mega success the band experienced for two plus years during the Throwing Copper days. Ed Kowalczyk (lead singer/song writer) himself said "Secret Samadhi is the sound of full retreat, yet not out of fear but necessity. I was only 25 and already half-eaten by the monster of show-business. We were spiraling and spinning into the hell of cultural acceptance; we were successful! Something had to be done! We'll make a record that dances, explodes and swirls all around, and it shall be about 'nothing'". I hardly think the album is about nothing, there are clear re-occurring themes about self destruction, both on a personal level and as a society, but that's a different discussion entirely. Still the album hit number one the billboards, produced number one and number three singles, and had a Grammy nominated video. Still to me Secret Samadhi is a close second best on the band's resume of albums. It is even more diverse than Throwing Copper, or any of their other albums, both lyrically and musically. The album's songs range from brooding, exploding, enraged, to satirical, regretful, love smitten, melancholy, and finally proverbial.

Turn My Head is, I believe, Live's first real love song. Honestly I never really connected to it in a big way until recently. My brother always loved it and demanded that we listen to it every time I put the cd in his truck deck. To me it was always just kind of a sad sounding song, that lacked the signature freak out that I love in Live's earlier songs. These freak outs often occur in the bridge, being punctuated with a wooo!, yeah!, or these kind of primal rising screams, that Ed had once mastered. Turn My Head on the other hand show cases. for the first time, the more tender side of the band. The song starts out with a clean picking guitar, after the first measure the bass comes in gently laying the rhythmic foundation (which is perfect by the way), quickly followed by the drums. Chad Gracey (drummer) in my opinion is the most underrated piece of the band, he is simply amazing. Ed's vocal on this song is tremendous, it is the first song that he uses his falsetto as a major part of the song, and it works magically. That's the kind of thing that didn't fit my musical pallet at 13 or 14, but now I can fully appreciate. The lyrics of the song skip a long Ed's personal feelings like a flat stone on calm water, keeping the real meaning private, but still public enough to allow the listener to claim full ownership of the emotion behind it. You can kind of fill in the blanks, and that's what I like about it. I love Ed's choice of words in this not so wordy song. You feel that this person is mysterious, but completely captivating in his use of keep it whispy, I've fallen down, drunk on your juices. She's delicate, and vulnerable, but she's so pure and intoxicating that she's tamed him to where he will bow because of the power her attraction has over him. This is, hopefully, the same way all men feel for their significant others. While Turn My Head isn't a song that I would term as  one "our songs" (my wife and I's), it is a song that makes me think of my wife, and it is just plain, an awesome love song. In my library those are actually kind of hard to find. The song peaks at the bridge (Live are the masters of the bridge) which flows into a great little guitar solo which carries the song into a gentle finale capped by one more coo of falsetto by Ed. Great song folks, maybe it does belong on my 100 after all.

anyone, caught in your mystery
keep it angry
keep it whispy
i've fallen down
drunk on your juices
.
turn my head
turn my head
it's aimed at you
.
funky temple
your dress is torn to shreds
your eyes are crazy
i bowed to save my head and
i can't forget you
but i can remember
.
turn my head
turn my head
it's aimed at you
.
oh no,
we came to love you all day
these bastards are leavin'
somebody's got to stay
whatever we called you
it's just a name
just a name