[Editor's Note: Steve Almond, author of the Rock and Roll Book Club's inaugural book club selection has graciously offered to participate as we read his book "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book By and For The Fanatics Among Us" throughout the month of January. He'll also be joining Boston area book club members at our book club meeting (aka party) on February 16th at the Enormous Room in Cambridge.]
One of the great things about music is that it is so intuitively powerful that sometimes you find yourself loving songs that YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD HATE. For me, this pattern started early. I used to wait hours to hear the DJ on KFRC play “Undercover Angel” back in 1977. “The Things We Do For Love”? Hells yes. I also loved nearly all of Styx’s early work (“the Renegade who had it made retrieved for a bounty!”) and the late, horrible work of Genesis. “Head Games” by Foreigner blew my mind in eighth grade. I knew so many girls at Wilbur Junior High who were “as cold as ice.” The list goes on and on. By the time I was in high school, I was blessing the rains down in Africa with Toto and doing the Safety Dance (whatever the fuck the Safety Dance was) with Men Without Hats. And to remember these infatuations now is DEEPLY SHAMING.
But it’s also weirdly liberating.
This is what music does: it comes in below the critical radar. A great rhythm and melody bypass all the “cool kids” posturing we do around music and speak directly to your limbic system. They release your ass from the ass cage, and swell your heart with ridiculous and delicious feelings — usually of woe or lust.
So here’s my question to all you mods and rockers and mockers: what are your guilty pleasures. What song, or songs, do you LOVE BUT HATE YOURSELF FOR LOVING? And what memories go along with those songs?
“Undercover Angel” by Alan O’Day
“The Things We Do For Love” by 10cc
This song can’t be embedded — watch it on YouTube.
“Cold as Ice” by Foreigner
“Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats
off the top of my head i would say kiss- i was made for loving you baby. i first heard it in a skateboard video in highschool and since we watched it over and over. i just started looking forward to hearing the horrible disco kiss.
For me, it all started when I was 5 in 1978 and my parents gave me my first record player plus a yellow "portable record box" (with handle!) filled with a few choice gems including Kenny Rogers, Juice Newton and Tom Jones.
"Seeping Single In a Double Bed" by Barbara Mandrell
"I Love a Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbit
"Elvira" by Oak Ridge Boys
"Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band (I knew all the words when I was five and would sing-along obviously not knowing what exactly an "afternoon delight" really was. Nice!)
More recent additions include:
"Naughty Girl" by Beyonce with Lil Kim
"Rock Your Body" by Justin Timberlake
"Love At First Sight" by Kylie Minogue
I cannot believe I'm making a public admission (blame the wine(, but it's Kansas and Electric Light Orchestra.
Please. Kill. Me.
But when I say Kansas and ELO, I mean the older stuff.
Ha ha, as if that counts.
Oh God, now the whole world knows how uncool I am.
I think Lester Bangs, in my favorite movie, Almost Famous, says it best:
"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool."
- Lester Bangs
It took me a long time to "come out of the closet" with some music I like. But after being a music writer for so many years I happily realized eclectic taste is the norm. I love Supertramp. I love show tunes. Esp Webber. I also love classical music probably the most. I liked some of Steve Perry's solo stuff. I like covers. I love 80's music. There really isn't anything I don't like. except like over processed classic rock. Chicago is awesome though.
What's your favorite polka song or album? :-p
hrm. I don't think I've heard enough polka. I do really like the accordion though.
Yeah, I'm just being a brat since you said you like most everything. I'm from Nebraska. I've heard a lot of polka. Growing up, a friend of mine's dad was a polka band leader. For the band, he went by the name Mustache Joe. LOL (That's mooo-stache not mustache.)
I also love Meatloaf and know all the words to most of his songs.
Dude, I saw Men Without Hats on the Pop Goes the World tour. Me and seven other people.
I asked my teenage daughter which of my favorite songs, given how (ahem) cool my tastes tends to be, is the most embarrassingly out of character for me.
Her answer: Kiss, “Lick It Up”
Oh god, Benny Mardones, Into The Night, on two accounts, 1) cheesy 80s ballad, and 2) maybe statutory.
and Bobby Caldwell, What You Won't Do For Love mainly because he's a mullet-clad white dude
"Sister Christian" by Night Ranger ("You're motoring. . . ."). The piano intro still gives chills. And those pounding toms right before the last verse/first verse reprisal, at the end of which the singer (drummer! I'm a drummer) lets out one last strident burst of sonorous glory ("Yoooooooouuuuuuuuuu're Mo-to-ri-an") is classic 80's cheese power/metal pop. I recall him looking like he's totally gasping for air in the video during this part.
Some others:
Climax Blues Band – "I Love You"
Joey Scarbury – "Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It Or Not)"
Rick Springfield – "Don't Talk To Strangers"
OK. I'm gonna go away now.
Heat of the Moment by Asia and Since you Been Gone by Rainbow are such guilty pleasures of mine
Rainbow! Wow … now there's a gem.
Nobody's ever thought I was cool, which is good because if they knew how often I get "Too Much Heaven" by the Bee Gees stuck in my head (and, more to the point, that I don't mind so much), I'd be in for it.
Kelly Clarkson – Since You've Been Gone. It gets stuck in my head for weeks. I won't allow myself to download it, either.
I will confess, that I, too love a Kelly Clarkson song — "The Trouble With Love Is" … it *is* a good song!
I'm not feeling nearly as bad about my ELO and Kansas confessions after reading this…
I also wanted to qualify my remarks. I grew up with a jazz musician father who was so convinced the Beatles killed his career (it couldn't possibly have been the smack and his failure to appear at gigs) we were forbidden to play rock music in the house. So I got my education by sneaking onto FM radio at night after he was passed out for the evening and Philly was a big prog rock town. They were playing early Kansas and ELO, the epic stuff, not the pop singles which later made it into the top 40. My first boyfriend, thank God, was a guitar player and when I mentioned Kansas and ELO, after rushing to the bathroom and vomiting, proceeded to give me the world's best music education, and then I got involved up close and personal in the actual business where I found even better "teachers. ")
Hey Robin — the world takes all kinds — even Kansas! (OK, I joke.)
Dearest DFs —
Some pretty impressively awful/wonderful stuff here. I'll be doing a little DJing on Feb. 16 and will try to get some of these, er, gems, in the mix!
Rawk,
Steve Almond