Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Consistently wrong since 2002

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

When we show up, we win.

This really is a full service blog.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

In after Baud. Damn.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Let’s Talk Music: The Number Ones

Let’s Talk Music: The Number Ones

by | 103 Comments

This post is in: ,

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Music!

Let’s talk music.  I have had this site open in a tab for over a month: The Number Ones

It’s been so long that I don’t even recall who first posted the link, but I do recall some good-natured cursing at the person who did, by people who had gone down the rabbit hole.

Once this post goes up, I’ll add it to the Featuring menu in the sidebar so the conversation can continue any time you want to talk music overnight.

edit:  h/t Nicole!

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    James E Powell

    Love that site even though I disagree with him a lot. But I love arguing about music with people whose passion is near or greater than mine.

  3. 3.

    JMG

    What a well chosen thought! I was just about to post on any thread how Alice, an Internet sleuth supreme, heard our favorite local radio station play the original Pipeline and in three minutes found a version by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Dick Dale. Needless to say, it was a somewhat more aggressive version. Totally shredded every note by two masters.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    I am certain that I got the picture of that very handsome behind from Bruce’s album cover.  I chose it as the banner image for the Music category (see Topics in the sidebar) during the site rebuild, and I couldn’t use the whole photo because the banner images need to be a certain shape.

    I will eat my hat  Bruce’s hat  if I am wrong about that.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: What is up with that?  I had heard nothing until Another Scott posted a tweet earlier.

    What’s this about 13 years?

    I would pay good money for the cliff notes version of this story.  Is there a quick summary?  It sounds horrific.

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl:  Maybe it was CCR’s Born on the Bayou??

    Or The Stanfield’s Born on the Wrong Side of Town??

    Or…

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: Britney Spears has been living under a conservatorship controlled by her father for thirteen years, since having a mental health crisis of some type. She has apparently been increasingly unhappy about it, and she made a lengthy public statement in court today. It sounds terrible. Apparently she has gotten no say in her medical care, including having an IUD that she doesn’t want, and being forced to take medication she doesn’t want to take.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: Wow.  How can they do something like that without it being able to be challenged or changed when she recovered from whatever it was???

    Reading about this makes me want to swear in ways that the nuns said we could not.

    edit: holy fuck, she’s nearly 40 years old!

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @Suzanne: And her public defender never told her that she could request to have the conservatorship ended.

    Lots and lots of people – including her lawyer – better plan on giving her all their moneys….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I watched High Fidelity earlier today. It’s a horrible John Cusack romcom from 2000.  Bruce had a small cameo in it.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: Here’s the statement.

    It should be noted that she has worked and earned a lot of money in those thirteen years. And her father and a lot of attorneys made a lot of money off of her during the conservatorship.

  21. 21.

    Benw

    @James E Powell: I agree with him on almost everything! :)

    Interestingly, Tom and I are only a few years apart in age and clearly fans of the punk/hardcore scene in the US/UK.

    But his willingness to dive wholeheartedly into every song makes the column a joy to read. I’m up to 1982 and reading every entry!

    Watergirl, I recall that Nicole was the first commenter here at Balloon Juice to link to the site, she was my gateway at least.

  23. 23.

    Suzanne

    @Another Scott: I don’t think her lawyer is a public defender. I think he was appointed, but she’s not up on criminal charges. She has to pay that lawyer.

  25. 25.

    opiejeanne

    @WaterGirl: Eh, you’re probably right. There was a George Michael video with that exact pose, but now that you point it out, I remember this Springsteen album cover.

    Getting old sucks when it’s the memory that’s gone.

  26. 26.

    Alison Rose

    @WaterGirl: She’s tried to challenge it many times, but the people in control don’t give a shit about her.

    After consulting with Ms. Spears, her conservators and her doctors, the probate investigator concluded in 2016 that the conservatorship remained in Ms. Spears’s best interests based on her complex finances, susceptibility to undue influence and “intermittent” drug issues, though the report called for “a pathway to independence and the eventual termination of the conservatorship.”

  29. 29.

    Suzanne

    @debbie: One of the small details that nonetheless really stood out to me was that she hadn’t been able to get her nails done for a year (pre-COVID). My God. That’s such a small thing that to keep someone from doing that is just so unbelievably controlling. Like, I can see a conservator saying, “No, you can’t buy an Italian villa”. But FFS! GTFO.

  30. 30.

    Alison Rose

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: I wouldn’t go so far as to call it horrible, but I remember watching it a few years ago for the first time in a long time, and my older self was like “Wow, this guy was a douche.”

    However……….Lisa Bonet was and remains smoking hot. I’d watch it again just for her.

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    Since we have a music thread going…

    The first time I heard Joni.

    This week has celebrated the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s marvelous album Blue. Back in 1971 I was a college freshman and had invited a classmate to study and listen to some records. I was nerdily proud both of my stereo rig, which featured a Dual turntable with a Shure cartridge, and my knowledge of contemporary jazz.

    I put on s Keith Jarrett album called Mourning of a Star. The second cut was a little piece called “All I Want.” I had no idea who the composer was, but it sounded really sweet. My classmate friend got up and did a little spontaneous dance, twirling around barefoot on the bare floor of my dorm room. Charmed and captivated the hell out of me.

    I don’t remember if she already had it or bought the Joni Mitchell album later, but when she brought it over later and let me play it, I was immediately knocked out by it. The setting of the mainly acoustic instruments, the grace and intelligence and raw beauty of the songwriting had me hooked.

    My friend and I had some interesting adventures all through college and for some time afterwards.

    Novelist Zadie Smith has a wonderful appreciation of Mitchell from a 2012 issue of The New Yorker. Still stands up well.

  35. 35.

    Benw

    @WaterGirl: it’s Bruce’s butt!

    Some of us are goofing on the similarity between Bruce’s butt and George Michael’s jean-clad butt in the “faith” video, which he made after leaving Wham!, increasing the stupidity of the joke.

    This will be the final butt clarification I do tonight. :)

  38. 38.

    Alison Rose

    Since it’s a music thread, I’m glad they brought back the Shakedown Stream, because I had a crap work day and it’s been nice to wind down with some GD. Though drums are coming up, which means “mute and read” for me, LOL

    (Hopefully they’ll take the bears off the screen soon……they do this weird graphic art shit for sections of every stream, and I don’t know why)

  42. 42.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Alison Rose: He just smoked and complained the whole movie.  Maybe I liked it my mid-twenties.  Probably.  I liked Empire Records better!

  44. 44.

    Suzanne

    @Another Scott: Oh yes. Especially her father, who appears to be a garbage human.

    If she still needs a conservator, I hope they go with someone totally impartial who she picks. I am still not convinced that anyone who is functional enough to work needs a conservator, but I don’t know that. But it’s pretty clear that it shouldn’t be her father or any of these people hired by him.

  46. 46.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Boomers get blamed for so damned many bad things that was all Silent Generation.

    Recently I read that we shouldn’t have bought houses to raise our kids in, and that’s why the current generation can’t buy houses. I remember struggling to buy our first house, which cost all of $15,500 in Riverside, CA in 1970.

  50. 50.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Alison Rose: I treasure that movie because it was my introduction to the wonderfulness that is Jack Black.  And it was great the way Todd Louiso and Sara Gilbert get together. Otherwise, yeah, John Cusack’s character was a dick (even his sister, played appropriately by Joan Cusak, thought so).  Upon reflection, I realize I like several movies a lot because of supporting characters, not the leads. Exhibit A: Return To Me, with Bonnie Hunt and Carroll O’Connor.

  53. 53.

    opiejeanne

    @Danielx: I remember having a terrific crush on Bruce. Lord!

    Even Erma Bombeck was not immune; she said he wasn’t married because he was waiting for her (or something like that).

    Funny, while I think George’s butt is better, I never had a crush on him. I thought he was cute, but nah.

  54. 54.

    Nicole

    @Benw:

    Watergirl, I recall that Nicole was the first commenter here at Balloon Juice to link to the site, she was my gateway at least.

    Guilty as charged.  And I check the site every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings now, to see the latest entry.   I’m so glad it’s given other folks as much pleasure as it has me (and probably as many lost weekends).

    Holy cow, the entry for “Sweet Child O’ Mine” was good.  Though my favorite is the one on “Dancing Queen.”  If you’d told me an essay on ABBA’s sole number one hit would open with  8 paragraphs about John McCain…  I tell you what, Tom Breihan’s a really good and funny writer.

  56. 56.

    mousebumples

    Best song ever is whatever Queen song I decide I like best that day.

    Frequent favorites – Hammer to Fall, Under Pressure, Killer Queen, The Show Must Go On, Somebody to Love, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Radio Ga-Ga, You’re My Best Friend ….

    And as much as I love Queen, the overplaying of We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions related to sports (and I love sports) … make those among my least favorite Queen songs. *shrugs

  59. 59.

    Benw

    @Nicole: he’s so good! And thanks for being my gateway.

    I’m reading chronologically, but I’ve HAD to skip ahead for the GnR, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi entries. They’re so great.

  61. 61.

    opiejeanne

    @WaterGirl: I liked High Fidelity then too, but after thinking about it for several years, now I think his character was a jerk who got off too lightly. Maybe I’m wrong, I dunno. The part where he revisits all of his old girlfriends was pretty good.

    I’ve liked him in quite a few movies, but he disappointed me by his political behavior in 2016.

  64. 64.

    Barbara

    @opiejeanne: ​It’s not fair, on the other hand, I do feel like childhood years for boomers roughly correspond to the last period of time in the US during which society and social policy were oriented around the welfare of children– more and better schools, and affordable college.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    @Alison Rose: My J had been replaying the Bob Weir and Wolf Bros recent concert at Red Rocks for days on end.  She bought a ticket and expected it to die a day or so after the concert was over, but she kept playing certain songs over and over and over for days…

    Peggy-O!!1

    She hasn’t been so happy in quite a while.  ;-)

    (It finally quit a day or few ago.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    opiejeanne

    @Alison Rose: I posted like that because I wanted to be clear that that was the movie I was talking about, so you (and others) wouldn’t have to backtrack to see what my seemingly random comment was about.

  68. 68.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    If she still needs a conservator, I hope they go with someone totally impartial who she picks. I am still not convinced that anyone who is functional enough to work needs a conservator, but I don’t know that. But it’s pretty clear that it shouldn’t be her father or any of these people hired by him.

    Any artist with a considerable amount of assets, and who has shown any significant health or emotional issues, often needs solid financial advice or guidance, but rarely get it, especially from family members. And I don’t know whether the father here has any particular financial acumen.

    A case in point is actress Mary Astor. Her parents and some shady family “friends” controlled her money and paid her an allowance. When Astor finally gained control of her own money, her parents sued her for financial support.

  69. 69.

    opiejeanne

    @Barbara: I think you’re right.

    I remember getting a new history text one year (8th grade?) and the teacher ranting about the quality of the paper it was printed on, and thinking that the content was the best and most interesting I’d seen in a school text. There were interesting little sidebars on almost every page and tons of illustrations.

  72. 72.

    Emma

    @Suzanne: I want disbarments and maybe prison. Including the doctor putting in the IUD, if they did it knowing that she didn’t want it. God.

     

    @mousebumples: are… are you… me? (Although I also really like their non-commercialized songs that they haven’t played in concert since like 1972. I love Queen II.)

  73. 73.

    Percysowner

    @opiejeanne: There is a great YouTuber Dominic Noble who does a series Lost in Adaptation where he compares books to the movies made from them. He agrees that the protagonist of High Fidelity is awful, although apparently he is worse in the book.

    Warning, this can be another rabbit hole!

    For another musical rabbit hole, try Todd in The Shadows. He talks in depth about music. My favorite from him is his One Hit Wonderland, where he looks at the one hit, looks at the band’s background, what happened after the one hit and rates if they deserved better or not. I love him.

  75. 75.

    RandomMonster

    I was a college kid in Europe shortly after Born in the USA came out. Though a critical protest song, in Reagan America it was adopted as a jingoistic anthem by redneck yobs and yahoos. I hated the song and unfairly disliked Springsteen for years.

  76. 76.

    Nicole

    @Benw: I also love the Bonus Beats at the end of the entries; I discover so many excellent covers of songs I didn’t know existed- Al Green’s cover of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is just awesome.

    Though my favorite might be in the comments for “A Hard Days’ Night”- someone put in a clip of Peter Sellars reciting the song in the style of Lawrence Olivier doing Richard III.

    @WaterGirl:  It made me very happy to read that you’d had the tab open for a month.  For a long time I could type in “ste”  in my search bar and google helpfully filled in the address for the page for The Number Ones, year 1984, for me. :)

  77. 77.

    dnfree

    @opiejeanne: our first apartment was in a commercial strip on Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn IL in 1967. Rent was $137 a month. We used to walk around the affluent area north of us and marvel at the beautiful homes. “I bet that one costs fifty thousand dollars!”, we would exclaim.

  79. 79.

    Emma

    Since people are mentioning more rabbit holes, I’ll add the PBS Youtube channel Sound Field. The hosts’ combined expertise is awe-inspiring, and I also felt very validated when watching their Fur Elise video lol.

  80. 80.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @RandomMonster: I love Springsteen, I get what the real meaning of Born in the USA is, and I hate it as a song. Also the Dancing in the Dark, even if it’s less of an assault on the ears.

  81. 81.

    Mousebumples

    @Benw: yeah, fair. I just had to cut myself off somewhere before I was listing literally dozens of songs…

    @Emma: haha, maybe? I’m in my mid 30s but loooove Queen. Have seen Queen + Adam Lambert in concert twice. ?

    Some of the non commercialized songs are great, but I grew up loving my dad’s Classic Queen and Greatest Hits albums. Flash is great (the movie… Less so). Las Palabras De Amor is another deeper cut i enjoy.

    @Nicole: my husband is a trivia and Jeopardy nerd, so we’ve been going through the archives. Up to the Ghostbusters theme tonight. Can’t go too fast but we’ll run out of entries soon enough…

  82. 82.

    piratedan

    say what you will about Cusack and his political viewpoints, but when it comes down to selecting soundtracks for his movies, he was very astute in choosing the songs and artists for those films.  Very much like John Hughes in tapping into what would be the middle-class white-guy zeitgeist of a generation.  While John Hughes had it crafted for the early 80’s, Cusack had the late 80’s-mid 90’s pretty well pegged in soundtrack selections for his audience.

    It’s an aspect that I think really helps to sell a movie to an audience, if you can evoke emotion via a song or a musical piece that allows that emotion to resonate, you get a picture that will likely be somebody’s all-time favorite (see Guardians of The Galaxy soundtracks).

    and on that note, I have to go play Go All The Way by Raspberries one more time to transport me back to fall of 1972.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    @piratedan

    Read an anecdote ages ago which stuck in the brain regarding a movie director (don’t rightly remember who). Stripped down paraphrased version:

    Q: That song you used in such and such scene, it was an unexpected and bold counterpoint to what was being shown. What was your strategy and intention for choosing it?

    A: The studio flatly refused to shell out another penny for music and rejected any suggestions I submitted. What happened was they already owned the rights to a total of three songs, none of which were anything close to what I had in mind, and dictated those were the only tunes which could be used. The one you mention was the only one of the three I could stand listening to for more than five seconds.

  88. 88.

    piratedan

    @NotMax: LOL, and upon such decisions forgettable cinema is made to later be recycled for the likes of MST3k and Rifftrax :-)

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    @RandomMonster

    Ancillary reminder of the description of a fictional stage star within the musical The Drowsy Chaperone.

    “Beatrice Stockwell was famous for her rousing anthems. She entertained and inspired the troops in every major world conflict — up to and including the Falklands war. Of course, by that time she was in her late eighties and her anthems didn’t so much rouse as stupefy. Still, she demanded that a rousing anthem be included in every show she ever did, even if it wasn’t appropriate.”

  93. 93.

    Emma

    @Mousebumples: I just turned 30 and was likewise indoctrinated by my dad into listening mostly to ’70s and some ’80s rock in my childhood/adolescence. He had that black Queen: Greatest Hits album that I then improved upon in 7th grade when I bought BOTH volumes of Queen: Greatest Hits (the blue and red ones). I got to go with my family to a Queen + Adam Lambert show, too, so my Queen bucket is filled for now :)

  94. 94.

    James E Powell

    Rob Fleming/Gordon in High Fidelity is definitely an asshole. When his girlfriend leaves, he is forced to confront this and realizes that he is one, then tries to figure out how not to be one, but isn’t sure he will succeed.

    One of the reasons I loved the book so much is that when it came out, I had a client who owned a couple of records stores and one of them was exactly like Championship Vinyl.

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    @RandomMonster:
    A generation of American military veterans see themselves as the guy in Born In The U.S.A. For me, Bruce Springsteen is the Howard Zinn of rock’n’roll.

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I read the emotion in the song as the Vietnam vet’s bewilderment and anger at being sent off to fight a senseless and ultimately futile war, and then coming home to a country that hadn’t saved a place for him.

  98. 98.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Benw: ​

    his willingness to dive wholeheartedly into every song makes the column a joy to read.

    This, and his great knowledge of pop music history, have made this series a pleasure. Doesn’t matter whether I agree or disagree with him about a particular song – and it’s a real mix, I can tell you.
    I’m taking it slow – I’m only up to 1966 yet.​

  100. 100.

    The Other Bob

    First concert I ever attended – 1984 Springsteen – Born in the USA tour.  Pontiac Silverdome (RIP).

  101. 101.

    Miss Bianca

    @Benw: I too went down The Number One rabbit hole and I’m up to…oh, I’ve lost track. I’m somewhere in 1984, I think – Time After Time was the last one I listened to before getting swamped with work. Great song, but Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (which hit Number Two!), is the one that’s been stuck as my mindworm for the past couple weeks after I clicked on it.

  103. 103.

    J R in WV

    Just got home after a long afternoon in town (got some great big red tomatoes at the farmer’s market, FORGOT the bacon!!!) and want to make some comments late:

    Brittany’s father should be shot by an angry fan, a greedy monster mistreating his daughter to steal her money! The doctor who implanted the IUD should be castrated later that night!!! The lawyer should be disbarred and sent to prison to meet people angry because of their terrible legal representation.

    Brittany should be free to select her own financial advisor, a fiduiary, and to select her own choreographer, arranger, musicians, songs, where to perform, etc. She is an artist and musician star, and no one should be able to send her to a shrink because she doesn’t like a piece of choreography,

    Many years ago I read a novel which had a character who was a young woman heir to a fortune, but sent to a mental institution in horror-ville New England by her family who wanted the money. It hit me right where I live — not that I was heir to much of anything~!!~ Anyway, Brittany is exactly right there, wealthy, captive of her family who are milking her for every penny they can steal, and they all belong in prison without a nickel to spend at the commissary.

    I’m not a fan of her music, but it is her’s, and people love it enough to make her rich, and NO ONE ELSE deserves one red cent of her money!

    In the 1970s I was into Pink Floyd and King Crimson and Dr John and NOLA Gris-gris music. Bruce is good, but I’m not that big a fan. My first concert was (leaving out classical music) Ramsey Clark Trio at a local college town. In the Cafeteria IIRC. Next was the Newport Folk Festival 1968 — a blues show with Janis Joplin as the headliner Saturday night. Slayed me!!!

Comments are closed.