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Tonight ~ Kool and the Gang
Remember this slammin' bit of righteousness? It's about a young man "seeing the light" and losing his virginity on the eve of his 16th birthday, and it never fails to make me seat-dance (you know, dancing in your seat? 'Cause actually getting up to dance might put me in traction.). But seriously, I heart the hell outta this tune.
Take Me, I'm Yours ~ Squeeze
I love the trudging synth in this song about the reunion of a pair of lovers...its determined, rhythmic march evokes for me the image of a hero, exhausted from battle, fighting his way through sandstorms as he makes his way home to the heroine. "Take me, I'm yours - because dreams are made of this. Forever there'll be a heaven in your kiss..." ::swoons::
Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Part II ~ My Morning Jacket
Y'all, I don't know for sure that this song's about love, at all. I interpret some of the lyrics as the words of one who's shut himself off from love and, when it approaches him, he feels stunned. ("If you touch me, well I just think I'll scream, 'cause it's been so long since someone challenged me.") But this jolt into awareness stirs him, and it seems hope slowly seeps into him, filling him with joy. ("Oh! This feeling is wonderful! Don't you ever turn it off!") I dunno. What do y'all think?
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Ohmigosh, y'all - "S" was a difficult letter! Not because of a dearth of love/sex/dark songs starting with it, but because there were TOO MANY and I had a devil of a time narrowing it down to three! But the three below are the ones that felt right, so here you go:
(*Suggestive lyrics and video, may not be safe for work)
I was going to say this song's about role-playing games between two lovers but realized that, though the chick goes through various personas (she's a hooker, she's a geisha, she's a goddess, yadda yadda), the dude's only ever a *man* (which is nice and all, but seems a bit lazy, on his part). But whatevs - it's a sensual celebration of sexual exploration, so rock on.
This video enters a deeper, somewhat darker realm than the Berlin tune did; namely, that of BDSM (the preceding link contains images some may find disturbing). But, but, BUT(T)! - don't freak out, as it's a whimsical (sorta) take on the lifestyle. The song itself is a lot of fun, with lyrics that seem to be headed in one particular direction but then cleverly veer off into unexpected realms. Also, it's catchy as hell - first time I heard it I couldn't get it out of my head and went around singing "Smack me around!" constantly (which earned me some funny looks on line at the grocery store).***
Breathe easy, Dear Readers - there's neither a jot nor a tittle of kink in this song. What you get is a sweet, romantic, soothing alt rock ballad-type tune you can turn to "...when the worrying starts to hurt..." ::sighs::
***I learned about the Trike song on one of my friend Ja's online radio shows (there's JaAndLu Underground and JaAndLu Super Show, which both air on Fridays, though one significantly later than the other. They are also both LIVE radio with lotsa talk, quite a bit of which is profane, so don't tune in if you don't cotton to cussing).
About the time this song came out, early 1981, my Mom worked in a factory as a seamstress. She'd save her lunch break for picking me up at the end of my Catholic elementary school day (I'd just turned 10 the previous December) and we'd walk the three or four blocks to the factory so she could finish her shift. I'd hang out, either in the crappy "break room" (more of a walk-in closet where the gals who worked there kept their coats, though there was enough room for a couch) or on the window seat near my Mom's work space, and apply myself to my homework (blah). Numerous Portuguese and Italian immigrant women worked there, of which my Mom is the former. One of the latter had a little radio, upon which the hits of the day blared tinnily. Late one afternoon, Rapture came on. Stricken by the jangly opening, I raised my eyes from my textbook and looked out the large, grimy window into the white glare of the overcast sky, transported. To where, I couldn't have said. I just felt myself floating far away from the roaring sewing machines and raucous, multilingual babble and into a night-time world lit up by neon and strobe lights. Though I'd not have been able to articulate it then, it was the first time I understood what it meant to feel sexy. It was, like, whoa.
Apart from the yummy synth groove of this tune, I dig and find comfort in the lyrics which promise that "...love is only a smile away, getting so much closer to me, every day." Yeah, man. Lay it on me. I could use some righteous lovin' over here, bring it.
If I wasn't clear enough just now, let me reiterate, "...right now, let me take you by the hand; right now, put your lips at my command; right now, fly me off to lovers' land." This snazzy cover by a side-project of Siouxsie and the Banshees members puts a spring in my step and zip in my...well, you know. Let's just say I "...feel it coast to coast." ;-)
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Well, I was stuck for Q songs that fit my theme for the 2012 A to Z Blogging Challenge, which was le major suck (this is not actual French). I put out an S.O.S. to my peeps and they answered the call, bless them. My Dear Friend Katy O suggested Queen and I smacked myself on the forehead for not having thought of them already. So today's post of three will be an all Queen revue!
Crazy Little Thing Called Love: For a long time I thought this was a cover, which made sense after I learned that Freddie Mercury wrote this as an hommage to Elvis Presley. (That is actual French.) Though it was a departure from their usual stuff, the world went crazy for it, and so, I must confess, did I. C'est adorable! (Also actual French.)
Get Down Make Love: My Dear Friend Robin suggested this song and thank goodness she did, as I'd never heard it before! (Woof!) Also was intrigued to learn that Nine Inch Nails covered it!
You Take My Breath Away: I came across this tune, another I hadn't heard, in my investigation of Queen tuneage for this post. Dudes. This really did take my breath away. You da man, Freddie - I hope I can someday do an hommage to you that's worthy of your eternal greatness. I can't believe you've been gone for over twenty years. May God hold you close.
OK. I didn't first hear this song, I first saw the video, and... AoooooROOOOO!!!!! Boy, did it ever do it for me. Woofetie-woof-woof-WOOFIE-WOOF!!!!! This sleek bit of dance rock, with it's stylish video, has a firm hold on my libido, I have a Pavlovian response to it. Plus, it's just fun to rock out to. Also - if anyone knows the name of the lead male dancer, please let me know what it is. Ahem.
Kick-ass chick vocalist growlin' and gruntin' about how you're turning her on so bad she'd do all sorts of things for/to ya whilst another chick vamps out the funky bass. What's not to love? (The answer to that is - nothing.)
Damn, this performance of the tune's so hot, I feel like I need a towel after watching it. (Although I'm annoyed that the guitars were so loud, you could barely hear the bass.)
Fellow writer/blogger Penelope Crowe recently encouraged writers to expose themselves through their work. That's what I'm doing by including this tune, believe it or not. It's my favorite, in the whole wide world of tuneage, and has been for...Lord, many, many moons, now. If it comes on the radio/Interwebs of a sudden, I have to drop whatever I'm doing to focus on it. I can make it repeat on my MP3 player throughout my whole commute home into the 'burbs from Manhattan and not tire of it. I have a number of hopes pinned upon this song - there's just something about it that strikes a prophetic chord in me. Promised You a Miracle holds a special place in my heart and soul, for its assertion that "...everything is possible in the game of life..." From your lips to God's ears, Jim Kerr.
One of the times my parents took me and my sis back to their native Portugal for a visit I saw this weird little...not sure what to call it - a video? an interlude? on my aunt's telly. The background was, I think, black, and there were two pretty, colorful, animated flowers: one daisy-like and open, with traditionally shaped, ovular petals; the other, more tubular, sharper, almost beak-like. (I don't suppose you can already tell where this is going?) They seemed to dance around one another, to this sinuous, lyric-less tune, until suddenly the tubular flower thrust itself into the heart of the daisy-like one, and the daisy's petals closed around it (seemingly in protest but it could've been in welcome and to secure it). WELL. I was rooted to my aunt's couch, in shock. And arousal. But mostly shock. Anyway, I'm sort of convinced, though not by any means positive, that this excerpt from Oldfield's larger instrumental work accompanied that peculiar bit of animation. (If this rings any bells with any of you, I'd love to know what that video was and if, in fact, this bit was its soundtrack.)
They sound like they come from the same musical litter as Depeche Mode but, really, they're a 21st Century act. The song's about the typical nightclub hook-up and, I think, probably one of She Wants Revenge's lighter tunes...certainly not one in which a safe word is required.
How could I NOT include this song? How, I ask you? The sexiest bit of the tune is the call and response aspect of the male singer yelling, "OH MY GOTH!" while a female singer gasps back, "Oh my goth!" The images this exchange puts in my head...well...they'd be telling. ;-)
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Need You Tonight ~ INXS
This is another song I absolutely fell in love with in late 1987. It froze me in place the first time I heard it, and I remember thinking then, at that very moment of immobility, that a) the thing that first attracts me to a man is his voice, and b) it would be a spectacular hit. And it was.
Natural One ~ Folk Implosion
Now, this tune came off the soundtrack for an incredibly disturbing film called Kids, which I haven't watched in its entirety because I simply can't make myself do it - not because it's bad, but because I can't stomach the subject matter. Nonetheless, the song's lush, insistent bass line works its mojo on me (as any sultry bass line will) and I can't help digging this tune. Curiously, whenever I hear it I think of British actor Jeremy Northam, who, I am sure, would disavow any connection to the song and, perhaps, carefully back away from me whilst discreetly reaching for his mobile phone and dialing 911 (or 999, if this were to go down in the UK). There's no reasonable explanation for this association, so you'll have to make do with an unreasonable one - I believe that this song was getting a lot of airplay on my beloved local alt rock radio station, WLIR (now defunct but still available online, thank GOD!), around the time Emma came out (which starred the very man himself as the dreamy Mr. Knightley). Anyway, I'm linking a trippy fan video, below, because the official one's kinda gross and I want nothing to detract from the woof! factor of the song.
Nothing Lasts Forever ~ Specimen
A horrifying realization struck me over the weekend: namely that, for a self-proclaimed Goth Mom, I'd included precious little in the way of proper Goth Rock in these Blogging from A to Z Challenge posts. Next came an existential crisis in which I questioned whether I was more Goth or Rock Mom and how, if I'd been wrong about my Goth-nicity, I could carry on living. I took a bad turn and, a few shots of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur later, resolved my cognitive dissonance with the conclusion that, though my taste in music runs more toward the Rock, my sensibilities are more Goth, so I'm good. Mental breakdown averted, I fished through my memory banks for a Goth tune, so as to even out the scales a bit, that would be in keeping with my A to Z theme. Unfortunately, the ones that came to mind were for letters already done - HOWEVER, this song growled at me from the depths of my poor tortured psyche. I'm not 100% sure what it's about (and I can't find lyrics for it anywheres), though it's got a line about "...flying like a moth into the flame...", so that's hot, right? (Like, literally?) Plus, the guitar and bass are all le rawr rawr, which satisfies me.
The song itself does not run as long as the video clip.
