My Music

Update: True to form, I got the name of one of the songs (My City of Ruins) wrong in my original post. I called it The Rising, but my own in-house musicologist, Ed, pointed out my error. Hey, I'm doing well to know the name of the artist. Name That Tune isn't my strong point.

OK, I guess I'll give in. It seems everyone else is doing it, so even though I don't normally take part in the blog world's personal survey crazes, I'll do this one. I'm doing it mostly since Scott asked, and this gives me a chance to help generate a few more hits to his already insanely popular site. (The guy is a hit-generating machine, surpassing in like 3 days the total number of hits I've had on two combined sites in over a year.)

So anyways...here we go:

1. How much music is on your computer?:
Very little (something <100MB). Now before you go thinking that I'm some kind of anti-social, music-hating neo-con dweeb, the reason I don't have many music files is that I have the luxury of relying on Ed's massive music collection. He's the master mixologist in our house, with a large and diverse music collection. Since we tend to have similar tastes in music, it's just a lot easier to let him download songs. Whenever I need an MP3 player update, I don't go to iTunes. I go to EdTunes instead.

2. The last CD you bought was:
Simon and Garfunkel's Old Friends Live on Stage 2 CD/1 DVD set. I bought it as a Christmas present for Ed, but then realized I really bought it for myself and could kill two birds with one stone by letting Ed think it was a Christmas present for him. Unfortunately for Ed, he gets stuck with some crappy Christmas presents because of my tendency to do that. Fortunately for me, I got a pretty good CD out of the deal. S&G weren't together long, but they created some good music while they were.

3. What song did you listen to just before posting this message?
Beautiful Day by U2. It was on the radio on my way in to the office this morning. Great song.

4. Name 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you and tell why they mean so much:
Hmmm. This is tougher than I would've thought. I like a lot of different music, but I don't usually attach any kind of special meaning to most songs. They're just songs. My typical reason for liking one or another is, as they used to say on American Bandstand (yeah, I'm that old), "it has a good beat and you can dance to it." With that in mind, here's my list of top 5 songs that I can think of at the moment:

• Bruce Springsteen - My City of Ruins. This one may be an exception to my rule of not attaching meaning to songs. This one came out (or at least I first became aware of it) right around the time of the September 11 attacks. The first time I ever saw it performed was on the post-September 11 telethon/concert. It gave me chills then and it still does.


• Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire. I've always loved this song, mostly because it combines my passions - politics & history - in a catchy little ditty. OK, I'm a dork. I admit that. But give me a song that mentions Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Ho Chi Min, Watergate, Krushchev, and Stalin and I'll love you forever.


• Annie Lennox - Walking on Broken Glass. I could name any of a dozen Annie Lennox songs for this list, but I'll go with Broken Glass. Annie's got one of those voices that I just sometimes can't believe. It's so crystalline and pure. Plus, she's just way cool. We had the pleasure of seeing her in concert a couple years ago, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. She's got a lot of soul and rhythm in that little body.


• U2 - Vertigo.  As I told Ed the other day, U2 is my favorite band of all time, I think. I'll go with Vertigo for now as my favorite U2 tune since it's constantly clanking around in my head - especially that "unos, dos, tres, catorce!" part.


• Melissa Etheridge - I'm the Only One.  Melissa's album, "Yes I Am" came out around the same time that I was first coming to terms with the whole gay thing. This is one of those albums that anytime I hear any song from it, I immediately transport back to a certain time in my life - not a necessarily good or bad time, but a time with a lot of intense feelings and experiences. I always felt like Melissa was singing about the things that me and my new-found gay friends were going through.

5. Who are you going to tag next? (3 persons) and why? I'll tag the 3 fellow bloggers because I'm sure they all have strong opinions and interesting lists:

Sam (Madlife) - He's a huge music lover and has strong opinions about every song and artist out there - his would be a well-informed list, no doubt.

Todd (Word of Todd) - A new acquaintance in the blogosphere who seems to see the world from the same perspective as I do a lot of the time. Plus he has a really cool name.

Lee (Eau de Humanity) - A fellow Arizonan with a wacky sense of humor.

Tag, guys. You're it!