Friday, May 8, 2009

The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #119

#119: "Old School" (2008) - Lyfe Jennings featuring Snoop Dogg


I was fortunate enough to be born into a middle-class family. I never had to know from want. I had what I needed and mostly what I desired, so it wasn't until around high school that I really began to notice any sort of class disparity. Clothes, automobiles, houses--the obvious and immediate identifiers of social strata--we had as much if not more/better than many, and not near as much/good as a few. I didn't care, though. I had my comic books, my video games, my music, my family, my friends, and none were hard to come by, and none ever went away. My mother always told me I was going to be rich and successful. My grandparents were apparently poor, but it never seemed to bother them. Sure, they weren't very sophisticated, and they didn't sound very educated, but, hey, they had television, and one was (eventually) even in color. They had money to give me every weekend. Life was good for me, so why shouldn't it be for everyone else?

My mother always told me that I should be grateful and thankful for what I have, for many others weren't as fortunate. I nodded, and I said "Thank you," and "I enjoyed it," and I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Everyone had it good enough, and if not, then he or she could just study harder or just get a better job.

Then came college. I couldn't go to my university of choice because I had a full scholarship to a community college, but only a partial one to Mississippi State University. I had to attend the community college. I was angry. Why didn't my parents save enough money? Why didn't my dad get a higher-paying job? Why didn't my mom complete her college education after she had my sister and me (and later my brother) so that she could get a good job? We weren't poor. I should have been able to go to whatever college I wanted to. It's all my stupid parents' fault. Wasn't the reason Dad came home so late every night during my childhood because he had to work overtime or sometimes two jobs so we'd have money? Well...where did all that extra money go? Wasn't the reason that we couldn't ever get a real swimming pool because we had to save money for college? Whatever.

Years later, and I'm a teacher, and a goodly proportion of my students come from a low socio-economic background. I make a few home visits during my first couple of years of teaching, and I begin to see what my mother tried to impart to me for so many years. I start completely supporting myself, living on my own, and I finally understand about paycheck-to-paycheck. I get married, and I now know what Sonny & Cher meant when they sang, "Before it's earned/The money's all been spent."

I get several years experience under my belt, and I'm now ashamed at how I treated and blamed my parents for trying their best to rise above their station in life. I research a few books, and I see concrete, statistical evidence that corrorborated what I had seen over the past few years of teaching, of how difficult it is to shift from one socio-economic class to a higher one. I learned more than I ever wanted to about generational poverty.

Generational poverty is what Lyfe Jennings means when he says, "Old School." In the chorus, Jennings equates "Old School" with "soul food," using detailed imagery to nostalgiacally describe the culinary delights of his class, but in the verses, he details his problems with poverty, about not being able to live paycheck-to-paycheck, about multiple jobs, about mounting and impending debt, about increasing prices and decreasing income, about the folly of pride when it comes to harsh reality ("I'm a king/but my crown's in layaway"). If "Old School" is "the color of soul food," and that color is any color but green, then his life has always been that way, as that's how he was raised, and that's all he knows. It was his parents' life, is his life, and (he's afraid) will be his children's life.

He doesn't see an end to it, either. By surrounding his words with sumptuous and sympathetic horns and strings straight from the early '70s seminal soul records that first brought national attention to the sorry situation of African-Americans in the ghettoes and sub-suburbs that was caused by poverty and caused rampant crime, Jennings hopes--like the socially-concious records by his spiritual soulfathers Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and Percy Mayfield and Sly Stone and War and the O'Jays and the Temptations--to again shed light on poor and disenfranchised before they turn into the dead and the buried.

Jennings uses the term Old School in a darkly ironic way, as he knows that the good old days weren't always good, and romanticizing them can lead to further degradation of a race and a class. Glossing over and glorifying the past is as much of a crime--and can do as much damage--as ignoring it completely. Hopefully, Jennings' records attests, someone will open their eyes to the problems while they're current, before time runs away and we're left blaming people who were only trying their best to provide and warn us in the first place.


Thursday, May 7, 2009

The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #120

#120: "Your Man" (2006) - Josh Turner

Two months ago, when describing Josh Turner's record "Would You With Me", I hailed that song as Turner's best. I was wrong. Mea Culpa. I changed my mind. It happens often, especially with music, and especially when deciding between two different types of songs from the same artist. I mean, how does one choose between, say, "Stairway to Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love,"* or between "What's Going On" and "Let's Get It On"? I know the answer: mood.

If I'm driving to work in the morning, then--as much as I love the song--I don't want to listen to "He Stopped Loving Her Today;" I'd much rather listen to "The Race Is On." If I'm driving back late at night from a gig somewhere, I don't care to hear the Black Crowes tear through "Hard to Handle," as I'd prefer the languid dregs of them playing "Wiser Time." Music sets a mood, but it reflects one, too, and I'm a moody person. Just ask my wife.

This list is about the best music, though, regardless of mood. Well...It basically comes down to preference. There's no objective criteria for determining exactly why one song is better than another. Artistic quality is subjective. I know plenty of people whose opinions I value and whose intelligence I respect who do not like some of these songs. I know plenty of people who know more about music than I do who think some of these records are trash.** I know plenty of people who write much better than I do who laugh at some of these selections. Know what? They're wrong. Know why? It's my list.

It's not*** just a list of personal favorites; I hold music to the upmost standards****, and if I've listed a song on here, then I've found (and hope I've noted) at least one reason why that song is exceptional. On "Your Man," I'll give you five:

1). Great steel guitar lick.

2). Josh Turner's Possum-like delivery.

3). Josh Turner's voice.

4). The lyrics (though not as deep as on "Would You Go With Me") offering devotion by a man with a slow hand.

5). My wife thinks it's sultry and sexy.

I think that last one trumps 'em all. "Your Man" is a song that can put you in the mood even if you weren't in it to start with, and if that ain't art....




NOTES
*Yeah, I'm on an Adam Lambert kick right now.

**They'd be right, too. Some of these are trash. Popular music often is. That's part of what makes it great.

***It is a list of personal favorites, but not just a list of personal favorites. The difference between those two is almost as great as the distance of empty space between my ears.

****Even if some of those standards are--seriously--"It's a trip, it's got a funky beat, and I can bug out to it."

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #121

#121: "Choctaw Bingo" (2002) - James McMurtry

After my massacre of the Spanish language yesterday, I decided to lend today's narrative to one of the best songwriters working today, James McMurtry. Son of the famous novelist "Lonesome Dove" Larry, McMurtry has been playing Texas rock n' country n' folk for twenty years now. He's often hailed for his powerful political protest songs, but I find that he's much better at storytelling than he is at polemics.

McMurtry has about a dozen superb story-songs, but this one's my favorite, and it's the funniest, and as most any low-to-middle class folk from the South can attest, this one contains whole heaping trunkfuls of truth, as McMurtry takes us on an intrastate trip with family and kids in tow. He's also backed by the best music of his career, as his band boogies and shakes and rumbles and syncopates some of the meanest Texas snakeskin rock and roll of the past ten years. If Bob Dylan and the Band would have all been from Texas, this might be what Blonde on Blonde and Music from Big Pink would have sounded like. Lyrics, too. They're as detailed and direct and descriptive and funny as anything Dylan ever wrote.

"Choctaw Bingo" is the best road song of the decade, and it's length--eight minutes and thirty-three seconds--is needed, 'cause when you've got to visit a relative who's cooking crystal meth because his moonshine doesn't sell well anymore, then you know you're in for the long haul, and it's time to strap those kids in, give 'em a little bit of vodka to calm 'em down, and blast some James McMurtry 'cause it'll be one great big ol' party like you never saw.



Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #122

#122: "A Border Tale" (2005) - Robert Earl Keen


¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo (o si mi compadre Mr. Mitchalotchovitch en Philly, PA está leyendo, entonces ¡Feliz Cinco de Marko!), amigos!

¡I have for you un regalo especial! Senor Robert Earl Keen, a Texas troubadour who's been a part of the Austin music scene for durante vienticinco anos, nos da the funniest and most organic mash-up of the past ten years (y primer en esta lista). Senor Keen weaves together "El Juego Se Fue," "Cancion Mextica," "Streets of Laredo," and "Cieleto Lindo," with his own short composition about the owners of a nightclub in (Ciudad) Acuna and his friends and how their infectious laughter in the adjacent alley effects some frat boys and a girl who looks like the Virgin of Ciudad Acuna.

Realmente.

Él sala su historia con una mezcla de mandolin, mariachi horns, a marching snare, and seventy-nine year-old Ray Price (who here sounds like Tex Ritter), all in waltz time, one element on top of another. ¡Está loco!

So order up a round of Vampiras and smoke yer Delicados if ya got 'em, 'cause it's Cinco de Mayo, and Robert Earl Keen está aquí entretener, but he can't stay long, porque se enciende el camino por siempre, y el partido nunca termina.

¡Ole!

Monday, May 4, 2009

The Tournament of Metal: Round 2, Bracket 3

Up this week: bands M-R. The battles are over on the right sidebar, so go vote!

This past week, the following metal acts left us:
  • Enuff Z'nuff
  • Extreme
  • Firehouse
  • Lita Ford
  • Frehley's Comet
  • Giuffria
  • Great White
  • Hanoi Rocks
  • Helix
  • Helloween
  • Keel
  • Kix
  • Krokus
  • Loudness
  • Love/Hate
  • Lynch Mob
while the following headbangers soldier on, and we'll see them again in three more weeks:
  • Europe
  • Faster Pussycat
  • Guns N' Roses
  • Sammy Hagar
  • Honeymoon Suite
  • Billy Idol
  • Iron Maiden
  • Jackyl
  • Judas Priest
  • Kiss
  • L.A. Guns
  • Lillian Axe
Anyway, exact results of this past week's intra-band battles:

2 Enuff Z’nuff’s “Fly High, Michelle” v. Honeymoon Suite’s “New Girl Now” 5
6 Europe’s “The Final Countdown”
v. Frehley’s Comet’s “Rock Soldiers” 2
2 Europe’s “Carrie” v. Faster Pussycat’s “House of Pain” 6
1 Extreme’s “More Than Words” v. Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” 7
0 Firehouse’s “Don’t Treat Me Bad” v. Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” 7
4 Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly” v. Billy Idol’s “Rock the Cradle” 4 *
0 Giuffria’s “Call to the Heart” v. Judas Priest’s “You Got Another Thing Coming” 7
3 Great White’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” v. Junkyard’s “Hands Off” 5
8 Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” v. Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself” 0
8 Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” v. Love/Hate’s “Blackout in the Red Room” 0
8 Guns N Roses’ “Paradise City” v. Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” 0
8 Guns N Roses’ “Patience” v. Kiss’s “Forever” 0
1 Guns N Roses’ “Used to Love Her” v. Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” 7
8 Guns N Roses’ “Don’t Cry”
v. Helix’s “Heavy Metal Love” 0
7 Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal” v. L.A. Guns’ “Sex Action” 0
2 Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” v. Kiss’ “Heaven’s on Fire” 6
2 Hanoi Rock’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” v. L.A. Guns’ “Ballad of Jayne” 5
0 Helix’s “Rock You” v. Kiss’s “Lick It Up” 6
0 Helloween’s “I Want Out” v. Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” 6
5 Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face”
v. Kix’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes” 1
3 Jackyl’s “The Lumberjack” v. Lynch Mob’s “Wicked Sensation” 3 *
7 Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law” v. Keel’s “The Right to Rock’ 0
5 Kiss’s “Crazy Crazy Nights” v. Loudness’ “Crazy Night” 1
2 Krokus’ “Screaming in the Night” v. Lillian Axe’s “Misery Loves Company” 3

NOTES

*Both of these tied battle were decided by my son Nicholas. He knew none of the songs. I asked him which titles he liked best, and...there ya go!

The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #123

#123: "Paper Planes" (2007) - M.I.A.

Even under a new administration, and even with the recession and the swine flu capturing everyone's attention currently, Americans--and most of the world--are still concerned with the war/military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that concern still carries with it an anciallary xenophobia as well as worry for our soldiers in those countries who sometimes have to face military insurgants under the age of twelve. Couple these fears with the recent urban anxiety over killer cops and cop killers, and the result is a widening disparity between social classes.

In "Paper Planes," M.I.A. reflects this disparity, feeds it, provokes it, acting as a catalyst, not merely reporting on the undercurrents in the world's hotspots, but gleefully bucking the establishment (and not just of America). "All I wanna do is BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM and CLICK CLICK and take your money" she sings in the chorus. The onomatopoeia there isn't onomatopoeia; the words are aurally replaced with sound effects for (respectively) shotgun shots and guns being cocked. To magnify the situation, she doesn't sing alone on the chorus: she's got a chorus of children singing with her. She singsongs the verses, tossing them off as if they're nursery rhymes.

It's frightening, the ease she brings to this song, as if terrorism and crime are matter-of-fact. In some parts of the world, though, they are.

At the end of Prince's "1999," a child asks, "Mommy...why does everybody have a bomb?" In "Paper Planes," it's the mother that's doing the asking.