The soundtrack of my life - 07/04/16 05:16 PM
I had originally planned this thread as simply a selection of about 20 of my favorite songs. Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans...
What the concept has evolved into is a sort of free-association, non-linear look at my favorite songs, interspersed with stories from my life and what those particular songs mean to me.
Deciding which song to start with was REAAAAALLY difficult. I finally settled on this 80s chestnut...
...for the following reasons, in no particular order:
- I love hair metal and make no apologies for that.
- I love that this band was willing to risk alienating their fans with a synth-pop song.
- After 32 years, I'm still not sick of it, even though it's a staple of 80's nostalgia and "classic rock" stations. That synth fanfare is positively iconic!
- Dave's lyrics may be artless, but they sum up my basic life philosophy pretty well.
- But most importantly, my cousin Susan sang it many times when she was fronting a Top 40 covers band during the 80s. Which behooves me to mention that when Dave left the band, he was almost replaced by ex-Scandal frontwoman Patty Smyth. Patty's one of my favorite singers to come along in the last 30 or so years, a petite pack of pure NYC attitude with a deep, rich singing voice. For a band like Van Halen to have been fronted not only by a woman, but by an exceptionally talented and charismatic woman, would have been ground-breaking and awesome! To give only one hypothetical example, can't you just imagine how "Why Can't This Be Love?" would have sounded if Patty had sung it instead of Sammy Hagar?
Well, we may have never gotten to hear that, but Patty still recorded quite a few good songs. And coming up next will be one or two of hers.
What the concept has evolved into is a sort of free-association, non-linear look at my favorite songs, interspersed with stories from my life and what those particular songs mean to me.
Deciding which song to start with was REAAAAALLY difficult. I finally settled on this 80s chestnut...
...for the following reasons, in no particular order:
- I love hair metal and make no apologies for that.
- I love that this band was willing to risk alienating their fans with a synth-pop song.
- After 32 years, I'm still not sick of it, even though it's a staple of 80's nostalgia and "classic rock" stations. That synth fanfare is positively iconic!
- Dave's lyrics may be artless, but they sum up my basic life philosophy pretty well.
- But most importantly, my cousin Susan sang it many times when she was fronting a Top 40 covers band during the 80s. Which behooves me to mention that when Dave left the band, he was almost replaced by ex-Scandal frontwoman Patty Smyth. Patty's one of my favorite singers to come along in the last 30 or so years, a petite pack of pure NYC attitude with a deep, rich singing voice. For a band like Van Halen to have been fronted not only by a woman, but by an exceptionally talented and charismatic woman, would have been ground-breaking and awesome! To give only one hypothetical example, can't you just imagine how "Why Can't This Be Love?" would have sounded if Patty had sung it instead of Sammy Hagar?
Well, we may have never gotten to hear that, but Patty still recorded quite a few good songs. And coming up next will be one or two of hers.