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Perfect Songs –“She Will Have Her Way” by Neil Finn
For many years my perpetually adolescent outlook on life had led me to view with deep suspicion all acquired tastes. If a taste had to be acquired, I thought, what good was it anyway? At some point in...
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Perfect Songs –“Addicted to That Rush” by Mr. Big
OK enough with the quietly introspective songsmithery; it’s time for some adrenaline-soaked, mach-10-with-your-hair-on-fire, sonic bombast rock and roll. If this song doesn’t make you want to get in a...
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Perfect Songs –“Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & the Drells
If aliens came to me and asked me to play them one song to represent humanity at its best, I would play “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & the Drells for them. It is distilled joy. If this song does not...
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Perfect Songs –“Buddy” by De La Soul
In the 80′s there was a brief media to-do about backmasking, the encoding of evil messages in heavy metal records, accessible by playing certain albums backward. If only they’d known about the coded...
View ArticlePerfect Bands: The Mike Keneally Band
In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Buckaroo’s guitarist Perfect Tommy asks why he must give his coat to a lady, to which Buckaroo responds, “Because you’re perfect.” The...
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Perfect Songs –“Goldilox” by King’s X
There are any number of reasons why King’s X were never as huge as the bands they influenced (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) went on to become: Christian themes, a mohawked black guy for a lead singer, a...
View ArticleTop Tunes of 2011
I decided to do this year’s list by album rather than by song. I had a surprisingly good year for albums in 2011. Junip – Fields By far my favorite album of the year. Junip is a new band from Sweden...
View ArticleOde to a Guitar Shop
Recently I was informed that an old acquaintance of mine had died. Fred was a salesguy at the now-defunct Sigler Music Center in Little Rock who made me a great deal on my trusty Fender Eric Johnson...
View ArticlePerfect Songs: “Slip Slidin’ Away” by Paul Simon
Like so many songs of my early childhood in the late 1970s, “Slip Slidin’ Away” became part of my pre-linguistic sensory experience. Instrumentally spare even for a Paul Simon recording, it...
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