Three Songs To Check Out Tonight

I'm having to trap myself again. The "Saturday Night Flashback" was not as successfully followed as I expected. So here's the deal. EVERY night I'm going to look through my music collection and find three songs that spark my interest and give a little information as to why they do. I'm not sure how this sharing things works quite yet and I'm definitely not sure if I can share songs that I legally downloaded. We'll just have to see.

There's going to be songs you've heard before and songs you've never heard, all by artists who you may/may not know. My specificity is one of my stronger attributes.

So here goes:


Song: "Chasing Pavements"
Artist: Adele
Album: 19



I have to admit that I was one of the bigger fans of Amy Winehouse's 15 minutes. And as we close in on possibly the final 15 seconds of it (and possibly her life if "Blake Incarcerated" stays in the picture), it's great to know that I've already found a reasonable and slightly less crack-addicted replacement for her. There's something great about that old school jazz club sound that Adele and Winehouse have brought back into the forefront of pop music.

Hop on this bandwagon before the Grammy's and you may end up looking hip to all your friends who only talk about music once a year.

Song: "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)"
Artist: Beach Boys
Album: Pet Sounds



There was a time in my life when I thought that the Beach Boys were cool because they let Uncle Jesse play bongos for them. As my affinity for Full House began to subside more quickly than DJ Tanner's looks, I soon wrote the Beach Boys off as a party music product of the 60's and 70's. Then I started to notice that this album, "Pet Sounds," was present on every greatest albums of all time list ever compiled. So I checked it out. And this dark, unique song was the one that quickly caught my ear.

Song: "The Way Young Lovers Do"
Artist: Van Morrison
Album: Astral Weeks



There's nothing that gets my blood-a-boilin' faster than when I bring up Van Morrison and someone's immediate response is, "Oh yeah! I love 'Roadhouse Blues!". Van Morrison is not Jim Morrison. And Van Morrison is not limited to "Brown Eyed Girl!" In fact, I believe he may be one of the most underappreciated artists by our generation when we look back on the 60's and 70's. Without Van, guys like Ray LaMontagne don't even get a second listen.

This song captivates me in a way that few before it have, and is one of the primary reasons I called Roger about a month ago and told him I was down to do this blog. I heard this song in a different way. I always picture a scene of a TV show or movie where this song plays as two people who have had sexual tension build-up finally hook up and bang through the front door and all around the apartment/house. Gotta love it.