End of the music meme

Previous installments for Musical Monday can be found as follows: part one, part two, and part three.

Feel No Shame: Great Current Pop Songs:
I know a current pop song? Um… “Blues Beach” by Steely Dan, and “Archie’s Theme” by the Anderson Council, which ought to chart if there’s justice in music.

Album No One Would Expect You to Love/Dislike/Know and etc.:
Eh. Everyone’s got gaps and quirks and “gee, that’s unusual” tastes.

5 Desert Island Discs off the top of your head (30 sec clock):
Unanswerable. I have nearly 8½ GB of music on my computer, much from compilations and greatest hits albums. I could put the machine on shuffle, listen around the clock, and not hear a repeat for over eight days. It should be noted as well that this is not all of my collection, and that my collection isn’t actually all that large compared to some folks.

3 Contemporary Artists That Were Your Faves 10 Years Ago:
U2 and Steely Dan, no problem. Number three is a big problem – few of my faves are still working now, or were working then. Yoko Kanno has the longevity, but I didn't run across her work until about five years ago. Barenaked Ladies are (hopefully) still active, so we’ll put them third.

New Item! 3 Faves That Hung on Too Long:
You can’t pick artists who’ve died, only acts that seem to have suddenly derailed. My three are:

Chicago. Why are you still putting out albums? This is like Namath with the Rams.

Kansas. The Barking Spider took me along to see them in a dive bar in Old Bridge, NJ, back in college, and they were fantastic - they took requests from the audience and generally enjoyed the hell out of themselves. At one point, violinist David Ragsdale jumped off-stage, mid-solo, to help the bouncers take aside a woman who'd fainted, and then jumped back and picked up where he left off. That's just too cool on several levels. Subsequent shows, however, have been almost embarrassing. Neither have I cared for any of their album work after Freaks of Nature.

Billy Joel. This actually ticks me off. His early stuff is great, and he followed it with these albums at his popular peak: The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, Songs in the Attic, The Nylon Curtain, An Innocent Man. The devil of it is that he still has it. I'll catch clips of him from college tours and small interview/concert deals, and he plays as well as ever. He doesn't need pop music anymore, but he still goes out to do what he loves to do, when he's not crashing his car into stationary objects. The last five years have been such a downer. Please beat the bottle, Billy, I beg you.

Music That Makes You Feel Sophisticated:
Dave Brubeck, classical.

Fave Electronic Record You Own:
About the only one I own is the soundtrack to Paranoia Agent.

Fave Hip-Hop Record You Own:
About the only genre I don’t really get into.

Hip-Hop Song You Know All the Lyrics Too:
Are there any instrumental hip-hop songs? Those ones.

Random Album You Loved In High School But Are Afraid To Admit It:
Back then, pretty much anything I actually listened too. Now, I fear nothing. I owned the soundtrack to Beetlejuice. Heh.

Album You May Have Listened To More In High School than Any Other Album:
The Beatles, Past Masters Volume 2.

If You Could Enter A Wrestling Ring to a Song It Would Be:
I can’t remember where I first read it, but someone brought this up in the context of coming up to bat/out of the bullpen – everyone picks loud, intimidating stuff, but wouldn’t it be tougher to pick something totally screwy, as if you were so good you didn’t care what people thought? Nobody could give you grief for it, because you’re a badass pro wrestler.

I’d enter the ring to “Good Morning Starshine” from Hair. Just think how you’d feel if you got tossed out of the ring by a guy who sings along to “Good Morning Starshine.”

Album to Clear A Room With:
Pretty much any of these. You wouldn’t even have to play ‘em, you could just put the covers onto the wall with a slide projector. Warning - links contain hilarious cussing and way too much Millie Jackson.

This is the end of the meme - but not of Musical Monday. Next week begins with a little reviewing, so come on back.

PS - hearty thanks to the many who visited while I was on vacation, including newcomers crallspace, Grizzly Mama, and MamaQ. My thanks also to KateP, whom I believe is a repeat reader, but just in case, welcome to the Hive. (I replied to your comment on the Ocean City thread, Grizz, just in case you see this first!)