Music Week: Pat Benatar

For the conclusion of Music Week, Pat Benatar is the perfect way to end off the week.  I love her voice, and she is one of the many amazing trailblazers for women in rock and roll.

I have to say though, it is kind of cool to listen to my iTunes library and realize that some of my all-time favorite artists are either women fronting a rock-&-roll group (like Heart), or women artists like Pat Benatar.

I'd heard Pat Benatar's material on the radio and enjoyed it, but it wasn't till either my freshman or sophomore year of high school that my English teacher, Mrs. Westmore, introduced me to some of her deeper cuts.  And I absolutely adored the ones I got to listen to like Sex as a Weapon, I Need A Lover (which was a John Cougar Mellancamp cover, oddly enough), and Heartbreaker.

And of course, I cannot get out without mentioning the song Love is a Battlefield, one of my all-time favorite songs from Pat Benatar, and also one of the stranger music videos.  I have to wonder how the video was made.  And I certainly do not think it was shot in New York City, where the video was set.  My theory is that it was shot in Cleveland, Ohio, a place where I have spent a lot of time over the years to see my stepmother's family (and where Neil Giraldo grew up, strangely enough).  The house Pat Benatar's character gets kicked out of is definitely in Cleveland architecturally, and I visited almost that exact house to visit my stepmom's sister practically every Christmas until she moved out to move closer to my stepmom's father's house so she could keep an eye on him as he gets older.

So, what are my favorites of Pat Benatar's catalog?  Love Is A Battlefield, We Belong, Invincible, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Shadows of the Night, Heartbreaker, I Need A Lover (the aforementioned John Cougar Mellancamp cover), We Live For Love, Promises in the Dark, and Helter Skelter (a Beatles cover).  That could comprise a greatest hits compilation all on its own.  You're welcome, Pat Benatar.

Music Week: Mary Chapin Carpenter & Bonnie Tyler

I know that many of you are going "What?  Why?" with some of my choices for this week.  I have always, always, always been drawn to strong female artists, and Mary Chapin Carpenter and Bonnie Tyler (my two-for-one today) are no exceptions.

First I want to talk about Mary Chapin Carpenter.  I happen to love most of her songs, and was introduced to this woman's fabulous music at a time when I needed music desperately.  My entire world was crumbling around me, and this was right after my parents divorced.  Now, I know that it makes no sense, especially since people divorce all the time nowadays, but to a young child like I was at the time of my parents' divorce, I was disoriented, and had no clue what was going on, and wouldn't until I was much older.  In my opinion, children suffer the most in any divorce, no matter if the divorce is between two civilians or two celebrities, and I was no different.

Mary Chapin Carpenter's music came at a really difficult juncture and just washed over me and soothed me.  Some of my all-time favorites are Quittin' Time (from State of the Heart), Down At The Twist & Shout (from Shooting Straight in the Dark), the entirety of the album Come On Come On, and On With The Song (from The Calling).

I love MCC's music and while a lot of people thought she was crazy to turn away from country music, I think she's perfectly crazy for me.  Besides, she has taken a different tack in country music.  I still think of her as a country artist.  I have a very clear disdain for country songs that are just tacky, honky-tonk rip-roaring songs, and the subtlety of country music is something that Mary Chapin Carpenter embodies perfectly.  Subtlety is the king of country music in my opinion, and Mary Chapin Carpenter does this beautifully.

Now, for the other artist I am featuring: Bonnie Tyler.  She has a POWERFUL voice that makes my hair stand on end every time I hear a song of hers.  Some of my favorites of hers are: Total Eclipse of the Heart, Holding Out For A Hero, and her cover of Air Supply's Making Love out of Nothing At All.  And I just realized something as I typed this: All three of those songs were either written or co-written by Jim Steinman, the mastermind behind the Meat Loaf classic (and now M&Ms commercial breakout hit) I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That).  That's incredible.  Now I'll probably go find some of her... deeper cuts.

Music Week: Jimmy Buffett

Here's the thing: I'm a lifelong Parrothead (i.e. what Jimmy Buffett fans call themselves).  I went to Jimmy Buffett concerts before I was one year old (and somehow was one of the only things that didn't get soaked to the bone that night), and I have listened to just about every Jimmy Buffett song several times over (and know almost all the words).

So, I must say I appreciate how much Jimmy Buffett and the island sound he introduced to me as a young'un totally got into my soul.

And what are some of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs?  Well, I'll put a few of them below but that only scratches the surface.

• Tin Cup Chalice (from A1A): A song Jimmy wrote about seeing the sunset in Key West.  I truly do want to be there and see the sunset in Key West at least once in my lifetime.
• Jamaica Mistaica (from Banana Wind): It's a song based on a real-life situation in Jamaica.  It also involves the U2 lead singer, Bono, and it was a very unfortunate misunderstanding, but Jimmy got a fabulous song out of it, so it's a win-win.
• Barometer Soup (from Barometer Soup): I could have picked any of the songs from this album to feature here, but the title track from 1995's Barometer Soup is really, really good.
• Surfing in a Hurricane (from Buffet Hotel): This outstanding track from what was largely a so-so album is one of those songs that you wish Jimmy had put out earlier in his career because it is just quintessentially Jimmy Buffett.
• Banana Republics (from Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes): In real life, Jimmy Buffett and Steve Goodman (the guy who wrote this song) were really good friends before Steve left us back in 1984.  This is one of the top 5 songs Steve Goodman ever wrote, and this one is awesome.  Heck, they've even named a whole set of retail stores after this song title!
• Havana Daydreamin' (from Havana Daydreamin'): The title track from Havana Daydreamin' is probably one of my all-time favorite songs, ever and featuring this song, while it is one of those songs everyone talks about constantly, it is really a good song and all the talk is justified.
• Jolly Mon Sing (from Last Mango In Paris): I included this because I had the children's book he wrote with his daughter, Savannah Jane Buffett, called The Jolly Mon, as a child and I still know all the words to that song as a result.  I still do have it around someplace...
• The Wino & I Know (from Living and Dying in 3/4 Time): One of the early classics is this song.  I love the fact that this talks about homelessness, which is still a problem, even now, but this one is just incredible.
• Boomerang Love (from Off to See The Lizard): This is another one of my childhood favorites.  I cannot explain why I love this song so much... I guess it's a "boomerang, boomerang, boomerang love".
• Stars on the Water (from One Particular Harbour): While this is a Rodney Crowell cover, I really like the nuances that Jimmy gives this particular song.  And while I could feature the title track on this one as well, I figured I'd give a lesser-known "deep track" the feature treatment from this album.
• Come To The Moon (from Riddles in the Sand): Another "deep track" and while it is a science fiction-infused track, I wonder who it is from the perspective of.  He makes mentions of starships, but he doesn't make mention of any other Star Trek references.
• Mañana (from Son of a Son of a Sailor): One of my favorites because... well I can't explain it.
• Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On (from Take The Weather With You): Another fair-to-middling album, another standout track.  This spoke to me deeply.  It wasn't just because of Hurricane Katrina, which had hit the previous year and had totally messed everything up.  It's the timing of when Hurricane Katrina hit for me that makes it super somber and makes me a lot more respectful and I dare not forget it: That was right about the time I had to go down to Florida for one last time to see my paternal grandmother before she died.  I still feel a sense of loss, even though I wasn't nearly as close to her as I was to my maternal grandmother (who had passed away a couple of years prior).  So, every time I hear that song I always sing along, and I remember to breathe in, breathe out, and move on.  No matter what happens, breathe in, breathe out, move on.
• Boat Drinks (from Volcano): The only well-known song where Jimmy makes a blatant Star Trek reference: "I'd like to go where the pace of life's slow/Could you beam me somewhere Mr. Scott?/Any old place here on Earth or in space/You pick the century and I'll pick the spot".  I love that portion of that song very specifically.
• He Went To Paris (from A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean): Jimmy hadn't really made a splash when he wrote this song for his third album but his third album, A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, totally hit some kind of nerve and it is one of his stronger early albums.  I love this song because while there are some sad portions, it makes a point that life is worth living, because life is too short.

Music Week: Roxette

This Music Week thing is turning out to be really cool.  I am going to get to talk about the artists I enjoy and be able to showcase my appreciation for them.

Today I am going to talk about the one and only Roxette.  It's a Swedish pop rock duo consisting of Per Gessle (of Gyllene Tider, another Swedish pop group) and Marie Fredriksson that came into full prominence in the 1980s and has barely left since (though they were dormant for a little bit in the early 2000s because Marie was battling some really nasty health issues).

Now, here's the most interesting thing: They are practically an anomaly here in the US.  You typically don't know Roxette if I told you the artist, but if I mentioned songs like The Look, Listen To Your Heart, and It Must Have Been Love, you would go "Oh, okay!"  So, yeah, it's practically an anomaly here in the US.

So, what do I think?  And how did I hear of this wacky group in the first place?  First, I do want to give some background on this.  Here in the States, we used to have a boatload of places that sold actual music on something called a compact disc, or CD for short.  Now this was back in about 2000 or 2001.  I was in a Best Buy, and I think it was like right after Christmas because I specifically remember I had Best Buy money to spend at that point, and I always looked at the CDs.

I specifically remember having listened to Roxette songs before (I think I'd heard the three songs mentioned above), and I saw the Roxette Greatest Hits CD (subtitled Don't Bore Us, Just Get To The Chorus) CD.  Well, I obviously got it, played it to death, and loved every second of it.  So, the Roxette bug bit me right about the time I became a teenager, and while good music has always spoken to me, this just grabbed me and wouldn't let go for anything.  So yeah, I enjoyed them from the very first notes I heard.

This of course is one of my all-time favorite groups and I cannot overstate my appreciation enough.  I think their songs are, to use an 80s terminology that is totally out of date, RAD.  Even wilder, I have gotten to appreciate some of their deeper tracks such as "Wish I Could Fly" and "Almost Unreal". Almost Unreal has a weird, almost bizarre history to it.  It was originally written for Bette Midler's movie "Hocus Pocus", but the song wasn't used in that movie.  Then, a bit later, the infamous Super Mario Bros. movie came out and this song was on the soundtrack for that movie.  It's a fabulous song, but it is horribly out of place in the Super Mario Bros. movie unless you retcon Magikoopas into that dog of a picture.

One song that I really do appreciate is called "Stars".  It has a really nice techno beat to it, and it has a lot of really neat elements, such as a children's choir backing up Marie in places, and just every ounce of that song is just incredible.  (In fact I was expecting that to have a spot in the last Tron movie, it's that good and would fit in that well into the Tron universe.)  So, in conclusion, go find some of Roxette's music.  You won't regret it.

Update: Music Week is ALL THIS WEEK!

I have come to a decision.  Because this week is the Apple Event that Brightens Everyone's Day, I am terming this week to be Music Week.  I'll still do my normal wrapups as usual, but Music Week will be the predominant force this week.  It starts 11am EST Monday Morning (that's US East Coast time for those not in the know) with a post about Linda Ronstadt on what is being dubbed Linda Ronstadt Appreciation Day and will continue till Friday.  Same Bat time, same Bat channel.  I'll tag each one as it arrives in the title.