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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Thank you again for having me here!

… and for tolerating me in the fantasy league. Lol. Sure is a lot of fun,though! 😀

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

I talked about This Must be the Place in my last newsletter lol https://open.substack.com/pub/kristinwritesmuch/p/letting-the-days-go-by?r=1iil3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

All I Do Is Win is an incredible hype song. I once saw the Ducks walk out onto the field at Autzen Stadium while that was playing, and it was electric.

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Adam Yee's avatar

I do like a good entry.....

My War - Black Flag

The Way I Walk - The Cramps

Alright - Red Aunts

Wild About You - The Saints

Death Valley 69 - Sonic Youth

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Gary Trujillo's avatar

this one is a winner

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

I love this idea, and love both of your 5 selections and stories!!

Kevin- I recently wrote about This Must Be the Place and links it under one of your comments above lol! And love Blue Monday! It made me go check to be sure it was Bizarre Love Triangle that was used in the movie Married to the Mob - I believe it was a scene of clips of the FBI guy (Matthew Modine) in different disguises and coming in doors. I’m going to have to scour YouTube to see if I can find it! So, for those reasons, I’m going to have to say Bizarre Love Triangle is my #1! It’s definitely a song I would like to be playing when I enter a place.

#2 would be Teenage Dirtbag by Wheetus. A couple of months ago, I saw Wheetus was going to be playing at a small venue here, and was talking with my friends about it one night at the brewery. They weren’t as excited as I was. But, I LOVE the song! I was super excited- even though I knew nothing from the rest of their catalog (aside from an Erasure cover that was on the same album). A couple of weeks later, I was vending outside at an event at the brewery, and one of my friends was DJing from inside. The second I heard the song start - I RAN into the building, so I could dance and sing loudly in my appreciation for him playing the song! I would love this song to be played every time I walk into a place. Side note: it was last night Wheetus was here, and I didn’t go. It was solo and acoustic. If money wouldn’t have been an issue, and if I could have found just one friend to go with me, I would have been there!

I’m going to have to come back in a bit with my #3-5

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

BLT was definitely in Mrried to the Mob. I still have the CD somewhere, I think?? I can’t remember all the tracks, but w/o looking, I seem to remember it being full of artists we like. I think Sinead O’Connor’s “Jump in the River” is on there… maybe the Tom Tom Club, tpo?

Brb. Off to Google. Lol.

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

Yes!! I had forgotten about Jump in the River! I’m sure I either have the soundtrack on cassette, or had it on vinyl at some point!

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

I just checked the soundtrack listing on IMDb - some great stuff!! And so hilarious because just a few days ago, a friend sent me a clip from the movie Clerks where Jay is dancing to a song, wanting to know what the song was - immediately I knew it was the song from Silence of the Lambs: Goodbye Horses by Q Lazarus- literally the next day, a different friend posted a meme that had a picture of Buffalo Bill from the start of that scene - so I had to post a link to the song, which is on this soundtrack as well!! So, I’ve encountered that song a ton in the past week! LOL

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Bob Tooker's avatar

Only five?

1. Bad Company - Bad Company

2. I am Evil - Diamond Head

3. English Civil War - The Clash

4. Swords and Tequila - Riot

5. Not Fragile - BTO

Punk Version

1. I want to Conquer the World - Bad Religion

2. Society - Pennywise

3. Bigger than Kiss - Teenage Bottle Rockets

4. Don't Drag me Down - Social Distortions

5. Your a better man than I - Sham 69

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Jeremy Shatan's avatar

This is delightful! If I were going to make a top five along these lines...lightning round:

AC/DC - Back In Black (power chords, obvs)

Grace Jones - Use Me (Bill Withers + Sly & Robbie x Grace = rhythmic perfection!)

Public Enemy - Black Steel In the Hour Of Chaos (killer Isaac Hayes sample...and Chuck D!)

Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (move through the door in a sandstorm of your own imagination)

Steely Dan - Black Cow (put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip...)

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Christopher Bradley's avatar

The live RATM cover of Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos is excellent too!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

These are awesome, Jeremy!

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jeleonard193's avatar

Use Me! Great call but I prefer the original Bill Withers version.

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Dan Pal's avatar

Man this is tough but fun to complicate! Going through my Top Ten lists, these are the songs I think I'd most like to have played when I enter:

Don't Rain on My Parade - Barbra Streisand

Top of the World- Carpenters

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' - Michael Jackson

Come Fly With Me - Michael Buble

The Man - The Killers

These are probably attitudes I'd like to have and project or just cool beats I'd love to hear when I enter someplace!

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Christopher Bradley's avatar

Love this list with one caveat--Come Fly With Me has gotta be the Frank Sinatra version!

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Dan Pal's avatar

Well, I’ve never been a Sinatra fan but I do love interpretations of some of his work.

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

Love this list!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I love it!

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

#3 Youth by Daughter. An association of actually walking into a place and hearing one of my favorite songs of that time. I had become completely obsessed with Daughter! Youth was one of my top favorites. A friend had booked a singer who had won one of the singing competition shows (a lot of the details are escaping me - I don’t remember her name - maybe Joey?? She had an incredible voice and was a bit weird)… anyway, when I walked into the show she was just starting a cover of Youth, so of course I screamed with glee!! After she finished, she asked if anyone knew the song, and I think I was the only one to raise my hand.

#4 Seether by Veruca Salt (to get back to more of a commanding entrance type of song). I love Veruca Salt and love the energy of this song! I just listened to American Thighs last week because a friend had played Volcano Girls on touchtunes at a brewery - which isn’t on American Thighs, but it reminded me how perfect American Thighs is. Also, yesterday, when I was at a brewery and talking about Wheetus and Teenage Dirtbag (lamenting about not going and instead signing up to spin a vinyl set there that night) the bartended wasn’t familiar with Teenage Dirtbag, and since they had just opened and there were just a couple of people there, she played Teenage Dirtbag, and Seether came on next and she got excited, so left it play - even though the brewery is associated with metal and plays exclusively metal (aside from vinyl nights on Wednesdays or yacht rock one Sunday a month).

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

Still thinking about #5 hahaha

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

I think you broke me. 🤣🤣🤣

My mind immediately went to Moment of Weakness by Bif Naked. No idea why. I’ve been trying to come up with a better one, more “on-task” ever since! I mean there’s so many good ones. But, I think my mind settled on Bif Naked. Probably because I was still obsessively listening to Veruca Salt’s American Thighs four years later when Bif Naked came out with this one…

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Kristin DeMarr's avatar

Ran across the name of the girl that sang the cover of Youth (an advertisement for the show was in my Facebook memories today!) Her name was Joey Cook, and got 7th place on American Idol 14th season.

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Brad Kyle's avatar

Nice maiden voyage, Chris.....and, great list o' songs, Kevin! The first "when you walk in the room" song I thought of was "When You Walk in the Room" by Jackie DeShannon in 1963 (I was 8, you whippersnappers)! Covers abound (well over 100), and it's a song that so perfectly lends itself to a Spector-ish arrangement and production (and many have, including Dick Glasser on Jackie's original!), as well as dusting off an army of Rickenbackers and given a gorgeous power pop run-through (as many have)!

Here's Jackie lip-synching (and botching her intro, but recovering nicely) on TV's "Hollywood a Go Go" in the '60s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVCBSIn_1j0

The Searchers in '64, with the quintessential power pop template to follow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVc4HU-eGk

The great Paul Carrack marries both approaches in '87 (he includes a majestic modulation that few have thought of!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4IgTVRQhCI

That'll do.....looks like I unwittingly devolved into an "Inside Tracks," Chris'n'Kevin, rather than a Top 5! Oh well, Top 5 next week, Chris, and Kevin, thanks for setting a fine template for Chris's new lane!

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Matty C's avatar

Great stuff, dudes. This was super fun.

Double points to Kevin for the Hemingway reference hidden in the Cars section.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I was hoping someone would see that!

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Rob Jones's avatar

I was asked this on a podcast a while back and the 2 I settled on were Ben Folds - Always Someone Cooler Than You and of course Beyonces Single Ladies

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Dee Rambeau's avatar

Oingo Boingo: Just Another Day

Ride of the Valkyries: Richard Wagner

Eminence Front: Who

Crazy: Seal

Synchronicity II: The Police

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Joi's avatar

Excellent theme! Might need to make an entire playlist based on this.

Here are my picks.

#1 Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her

#2 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Let The Day Begin

#3 Jimi Hendrix - Gypsy Eyes

#4 No Doubt - Hella Good

#5 David Bowie - Let's Dance

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Great list! I used to have a roommate that would sing "Hella Good" a lot. He was not...good at all. lol.

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jeleonard193's avatar

I love this idea because each of your lists are, to say the least, eclectic. Not the run-of-the-mill list of favorite songs of all time or songs you want on a desert island. I am going to have to think about this. I'll be back.

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jeleonard193's avatar

I'm back.

I started out thinking of songs that bang from the top. But then I though "Wait a minute, I am walking into a room not a stadium." So I switched to songs that catch your ear in the first four bars, but don't blow your head off. When I play the following songs in my head, I can picture them starting exactly when the door swings open, then walking into the room with the song in control of my strut.

Jumpin' Jack Flash (Stones, 1968)

Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum, 1969)

Use Me (Bill Withers, 1972)

Psycho Killer (Talking Heads, 1977)

Beautiful Day (U2, 2000)

"Use Me", in particular, is a great room entry song. It loosens me up and gives my the funk.

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Christopher Bradley's avatar

Spirit in the Sky is a song I want played at my funeral--which will be both an exit and entrance of sorts, I suppose.

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Jim Ruland's avatar

Hello Again is a great choice!

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Wayne Robins's avatar

1. Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove

2. Rolling Stones: Prodigal Son

3. Grateful Dead: Franklin’s Tower

4. Stevie Wonder: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

5. Steely Dan: Home at Last

Now I need to wake up and have some coffee, music-free. Morning coffee requires silence.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Steely Dan and the ‘Dead on the same list is my kinda mix, Professor!

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