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Ellen “I vowed to prove them wrong.”
Tailz “I believe this is about where we got to before.”
Luke “You mess this up and you’re history! Hear me?”
Nana “You should be soulmates not lovers.”
Emotions run high when Ellen Lloyd steps up to the mic as the new vocalist for rock band After Life. Will she prove to be heaven sent or will her arrival see the band descend into the depths of hell?
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A couple of weeks back, as part of a team fun Friday thing, I was asked to name my “guilty pleasure” song.
Many of you who read this blog regularly will know that I love listening to music. There’s always music playing while I’m working or writing. It’s playing right now as I type this. I love going to gigs. Love being on the rail watching the band on stage. I also admin a successful FB fan page supporting one of my musical heroes. My days and evenings are music fuelled.
So, asking me to pick one song is almost as hard as asking me to pick a favourite book.
And the “guilty pleasure” bit threw me somewhat.
I Googled “guilty pleasure”-
“something such as a film, television programme or piece of music that one enjoys despite
feeling that it is not generally held in high regard.”
This definition threw me a bit too.
Music is a matter of personal taste. Yes, there will be songs/genres of music that a person prefers over others but it doesn’t mean everything else isn’t great too. It just suggests that its not pleasing to your ears and not to your taste.
It’s that mindset that led me to develop my Thumper Principle when writing gig reviews. “If ya can’t say nothin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”
So, what then would I class as my “guilty pleasure” song?
The question was still bugging me.
I never ever feel guilty about listening to music I enjoy. No one should feel guilty about liking the songs they turn to.
I pondered the question some more…then decided to turn it on its head slightly.
I chose a song that never fails to make me smile. There’s nothing guilty about it but it does lift my spirits and bring a few minutes of pleasure to the day every time I hear it.
Friday arrived and the team quiz was to match the song to the person. I sat quietly on my zoom screen and took the playful teasing about “I bet Coral has picked some obscure rock band non one’s heard of” in the spirit in which it was intended.
True, I primarily listen to rock music but as I said at the start, I love music. I listen to music of many different genres. I grew up in a house that was filled with a mix of Scottish and Irish folk music, rock’n’roll, Elvis and songs from musicals. Believe it or not, I actually have a fairly eclectic taste in music but freely admit to my love of hard/heavy rock music.
I chose Ain’t Nothin’ Like by country star Brad Paisley.
A country song? Why?
For the simple reason that the imagery in that song makes me smile every time. I love the lyrics-
“Ain’t nothin’ like watchin’ a bunch of young ‘uns run screamin’ through the sprinkler in
their little bare feet.
And ain’t nothin’ like finding twenty dollars in the pocket of the britches that you wore last
week.”
I first heard the song on a music tv channel a long time ago when I was holiday in the States. Hearing the song reminds me of happy times. The song reminds me of running through the spray from an open fire hydrant on the 4th July in Philadelphia. Happy days….
Not surprisingly, no one guessed that that was my song choice.
So, what would your “guilty pleasure” song choice be?
It’s no secret that I love listening to music and one of my guilty pleasures is playing very loud music in the car while I’m driving and singing along very badly.
There’s a very embarrassing story from a long time ago when I got caught at a set of traffic lights on a hot sunny day with the windows downs. I was alone in the car and singing along enthusiastically to the CD that was playing….yes, singing Heigh Ho Heigh Ho Its Off To Work We Go from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It was the kids’ Disney CD that was playing…. I’ve no defence. It’s a catchy song whether the kids are in the back seat or not. LOL
CDs in the car are a thing of the past and while I haven’t yet graduated to using Bluetooth to pair my phone up to listen to my streaming service, I do own an iPod (OK two) and play my music through that.
I usually select my music of choice by artist or a particular album by an artist I like (No, it’s not always Alter Bridge!) that was until 30th November 2019.
I remember it was an icy cold Saturday morning and when I started the engine, my iPod reset itself and returned to the first song stored on it alphabetically. I was about to return it to the album that had been playing when Boy Child suggested…Ok challenged me… to play right through the music library in alphabetical order by song title.
Challenge accepted!
It got me thinking though as I drove off down the hill….how long was it going to take to listen to 2988 songs while driving?
Well, there was only one way to find out!
Ironically, the Gracenote for the first song on there is back to front. The first song that was already playing was Medicine Man by Aaron Keylock.
Christmas passed with no Christmas tunes being played (Hallelujah cried my kids! They aren’t fans of my Christmas music choices.) I was somewhere about B or maybe C at this point.
Other dilemmas occurred too… what if there were multiple versions of the same song by the same band on there? Did I play them all or was it OK to skip a couple of versions? (Depending on the song, I skipped a few but there were a few that I played all versions)
The there were instances of the same song but by different artists…. These were all played, I promise.
Then there was another challenge that hindered alphabetical progress.
We went into full lockdown for 10 long weeks!
Instead of driving a 14 miles round trip to the office, I was walking for a few seconds between the bedroom or kitchen to work from home in my living room. During those long weeks I was only ever in the car once a week to drive to the supermarket.
Progress therefore stalled a little around the letter L.
There was a little stutter to my alphabet during T. There are several albums on my iPod that I got the day before the official release date (thanks to pre-ordering) and the Gracenote hadn’t caught up. These are all titled Track 1, Track 2 etc …C’est la vie.
As I reached the last few letters there still seemed to be quite a few songs to be played.
Coral McCallum 