Take Five--Great Country Song Titles

[Take Five. Every Friday, at least in theory, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

Writing good song titles is an art. Even though most of the time the title features somewhere in the song’s chorus, I’m not talking about great choruses. For purposes of this post, a good title is one that just reading it makes you want to go out and listen to the cut it adorns, sound unheard.

There are some folks around today who write monster song titles as a matter of course: Amy Rigby (“Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?”) and the Drive–By Truckers (“When The Pin Hits The Shell”) leap to mind. Interestingly, both of them had formative exposure to Country & Western, the popular music genre which on average has the best titles, hands down.

So without further ado, here’s evidence of my argument. Five country songs whose titles I’m betting will make you wanna check ‘em out--that is, if you don’t already have ‘em.

TAKE FIVE

Girls Lie Too —(Connie Harrington, Kelley Lovelace, Tim Nichols) Terri Clark

Always Keep An Edge On Your Knife—(Corb Lund) Corb Lund Band

Women’s Prison--Loretta Lynn

Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly (Fond Of Each Other)--(Ned Sublette) Willie Nelson

If The Trailer’s Rockin’, Don’t Come Knockin’—Billy Joe Shaver

If you are indeed tempted, I can also warrant that none of these tunes is a letdown from the title. Meanwhile, why don’t you chip in a couple of your own favorites in the comments section below?

And there’s a prize for any reader who guesses what else these five songs have in common (hint: this unifying factor may lead to future Take Fives on the same topic).

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Take Five: Tom Morello's Favorite Revolutionary Songs

[Take Five. Every Friday, at least in theory, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

Well, I do call it Take Five, but I wasn't actually planning the "Take" to signify outright larceny. This list by Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame, now recording solo as The Nightwatchman) of his five favorite political tunes comes from a worthy general music site called Spinner with the usual combination of news, free downloads and kicky features. One of the latter is called Count Five (which, speaking of larceny, seems to have been inaugurated this month, considerably after Take Five).

TAKE FIVE

1. 'Biko,' Peter Gabriel: I think this might be the greatest song of all time. 'Biko,' which concerns the martyrdom of Steven Biko, who was killed in a South African jail by security forces, is about a specific instance. But it has a timeless quality where hope and anger collide, and how the death of this great man could be the spark to overthrowing that racist regime. That's quite a thing to capture in three and a half minutes of music.

2. 'Imagine,' John Lennon: It's a song couched in such a beautiful melody that people don't realize it's about anarchist revolution. It's a song that, woven into the lyrics, has the hope for a just world of peace and harmony. But implied in the lyrics is that it will take a complete overthrowing of the status quo to get that -- and Lennon spoke of that in some of his writing. That song was often misunderstood.

3. 'This Land Is Your Land,' Woody Guthrie: Another great misunderstood anthem of protest, it's probably the most subversive song ever written. And it is no accident that when you learn the song in third grade they leave out the three class-war verses that make the chorus of that song resonate so true. The song was written as an answer to Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America,' which Guthrie thought was sticky-sweet patriotism and missed the point of what this country should be about.

4. 'White Riot,' The Clash: There are a number of Clash songs I could name, but 'White Riot' was probably the kickoff. There's a stanza I wrote on my refrigerator, and I used to look at it to gut-check myself every day. It was, "Are you taking over, or are you taking orders?/Are you going backwards, or are you going forwards?" The Clash and Joe Strummer -- heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics combined with such ferocity and unapologetic truth that it really felt like anything was possible in music and on the streets.

5. 'Redemption Song,' Bob Marley: Marley would have been a hero to billions whether he was Irish or Jamaican or Japanese. But he happened to be from Jamaica, so reggae music was the conduit for his genius. Yet there is no musical artist in the history of the world who is as important globally as Bob Marley. From frat parties at Stanford to teens in Kenya, 'Redemption Song' is sung, and it is certainly the spiritual content of the lyrics, the uplifting message and ... whatever that guy was channeling it's just true, and it's just beautiful. That guy is number one, and his number-one jam is 'Redemption Song.'

Okay, friends, name your top five!

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Take Five--Top Girl's/Women's Names For Pop Songs

[Take Five. Every Friday, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

Might call this one Five by Five.

It got started when iTunes random brought up Arthur Alexander's "Anna" and I fell to thinking about the fine old '50s rock and roll practice of recording songs with female names as the title. I think the theory was that there was such a plentiful supply of Sherrys, Donnas, Susies, Rhondas, etc. around that literal-minded boyfriends buying 45s and asking for dedications on radio request shows might just get a group some sort of half-assed hit.

So are there names that particularly lend themselves to pop glory? You just betcha! Here are five of the best names and, to prove my contention, for each one five totally worthy songs with the chosen name in the name in the title itself for you to check out.

TAKE FIVE

Annie The title rule means I couldn't even include Buddy Holly's "Midnight Shift" and The Band's "The Weight."

Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy--Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Poke Salad Annie--Tony Joe White
Work With Me, Annie--Hank Ballard & The Midnighters (actually all of the"Annie" trilogy)
Annie's Lament--Annie Ross & Brad Mehldau
Wildhorse Annie--Tom Russell & Patricia Hardin

Valerie Oddly, all five of these have just the name as title and I've got as many more, but only a couple where the "Valerie" is part of a longer title.

Valerie--The Zutons
Valerie--The Monkees
Valerie--Ghost Of The Robot
Valerie--Ronnie & The Hi-Lites
Valerie--Richard Thompson & Ry Cooder

Mary Ann Throw in Mary Anne (as preferred in the UK) and Marianne (The French) and you've got a hands down winner.

Keep Your Skirts Down, Mary Ann--Aileen Stanley & Billy Murray
May Ann Thomas--Bobby Freeman
Mary Ann--Ray Charles
Mary Ann--Regina Spektor
How Married Are You, Mary Ann?--Bill Anderson

Caroline In the face of some stiff competition, the first song here may be the best of the 25.

Caroline, No--The Beach Boys
I Did Acid With Caroline--Daniel Johnson
Caroline--Kristy McColl
Caroline Oh Yeah Hey!--TéTé
Caroline--Outkast

Sally Like Annie, a plain name, but a lotta tunes, especially ones with "[adjective(s) or noun used adjectivally] Sally" as a title, like two of these.

Mustang Sally--Sir Mack Rice (the man who wrote it)
Sally, Go Round The Roses--The Jaynetts (also The Pentangle, The Great Society, Mitch Ryder, Holly Golightly)
Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley--Lee Dorsey
The Ballad Of Sally--The Mekons
Long Tall Sally--Little Richard

Your turn. Give me another name with five genuinely listenable songs, or five more similarly excellent songs for one of the existing names and win a prize--assuming you have included an email somewhere so I can contact you.

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Take Five--Let’s Leave (As In Iraq)

[Take Five. Every Friday, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

With the Bush administration escalating and the Congressional Democrats dithering, it’s once again time to amplify the drumbeat for immediate withdrawal of all US troops and bases from Iraq. Or, in the vernacular, Bring Them Home Now!

And because we have to belabor the point, it’s nice to have a number of ways to say, “Let’s go.” And there sure as hell are a lot of ways to say it. Here are five of my favorites—add your own.

TAKE FIVE


Let’s make like a shepherd and get the flock out of here—My personal fave in the “make like a” pantheon, because when you’re in elementary school it’s awfully funny. [before my time]

Let’s cop a mope—This is here because I like how it sounds. This was around in NYC in the ‘70s, and I have a hunch it may have come from police slang, though not because of the “cop” part (that’s related to “copping” drugs, a feel, and so on, and more specifically to “cop a squat” for sit down.) [1970s]

Let’s book—Beating out “Let’s went” by a hair because I like books even better than I like fucking with grammar. Why are there so many one word—one short word--slang variants for this concept—let’s jet, let’s jam, etc.? And has anyone ever done a study of when and where they have arisen and spread out from? And why “book”? [1960s]

Let’s get in the breeze—This is my favorite among ones that differentiate between indoors and outdoors. Kinda poetic in a haiku-y way. [?]

Let’s absquatulate—I love this one for its archaism, though I read someplace that Tom Pynchon uses it in his new book, which means it loses its coolness points for obscurity—still rolls nicely off the tongue though. [pre-Civil War]

Bonus—Color my ass gone! I include this as a bonus simply because it doesn’t lend itself to collectivity—I’ve never heard anyone say “Color our asses gone.” The first time this one ever stuck deeply in my mind was in the early ‘80s when I heard a band at the Rat in Boston do a punchy song with this title. Same bill with SS Decontrol, but I can’t remember who it was.

Okay, now it’s up to you. Kick in your favorites. History, ruminations, reminiscences, and so on are welcome, but not required. Just drop your favorite phrase.

And don’t stop working to end the occupation!

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Take Five--Points Toward a Summation of the 1st Annual Blogging Against White Supremacy Day

[Take Five. Every Friday, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

Okay, so this is kind of low road. I didn’t have a topic (like political James Brown tunes a few weeks ago) conveniently thrust before me by the world, and I wasn't having much luck casting about for ideas—five kinds of dental floss? five cool episodes of My Mother The Car?

At the same time I have been feeling a little unsettled that the first annual Blogging Against White Supremacy Day came and went without any summation. This is, I know, in keeping with the short shelf life of stuff on the Internet but I get old school about this sort of thing. When a project of some political importance is undertaken, there should be some summation. What follows is not that summation, but one guy’s ideas about what happened and how to look at it. Others should please chip in. (The most complete set of links to participating blogs is at Pottawatomie Creek, the blog where the original call went up.)

TAKE FIVE

1. Quantitatively, I count twelve or thirteen bloggers who put up something privilege–related between the 14 and the 17th. (A few who signed up to do it don’t seem to have actually posted at the time.) In addition there were a bunch of interesting comments, especially on the better-established blogs. While I knew most of those who participated, there were a couple of gratifying discoveries, and I trust others had that experience.

2. Most of the posts can be slotted (or forced) into a few broad groupings (leaving out Lauren’s inspired choice of an Audre Lorde poem and CelticFire’s graphic).

Historic documents: Haisanlu, LeftSpot and me

Reflections on Dr. King’s role and his holiday: Bolivariano Roja, the indefatigable LeftSpot, EightOneUnderRedStar

Aspects of white supremacy today: Yolanda (twice). Lefty Henry, John, Modern Pitung

Personal reflections: Jesse on hipness and white supremacy in Santa Cruz and Nelson H on having a White Citizens Council skeleton in the family closet.

[I personally found these last the most interesting and most thoughtful. They were also the most in the diary spirit which blogging still carries from its origins, a spirit which is more personal and less instrumental that most political blogging.]

3. Ya gotta organize. As Mao says, without a general call the broad masses cannot be mobilized. Nelson H issued such a call. But Mao goes on to call for going deeply into the work in a few places to make breakthroughs. As above, this isn’t how Teh Internets work in general, but we aren’t average netizens; we are, most of us, revolutionary socialists, and we know a few things about organizing which may be applicable in situations like this.

For example, uniting with the advanced to win over the intermediate. Two places where more effort, I would argue, would have been richly repaid occur to me immediately. One is Stan Goff’s interesting and well-trafficked Feral Scholar. Even more important, I would argue is the young feminist/womanist of color patch of the blogosphere. Folks like Yolanda and Zooey are steady blogging about white (and male) privilege and the intersectionality of oppressions, never mind a particular day, and coming up with some really interesting stuff.

4. Overall, I thought the first Day of Blogging Against White Supremacy went pretty good and I hope folks are primed to keep addressing these issues over the coming year. Keep your eyes open to develop links and ties with others you come across over the next 12 months who address these questions, so we can start the 2008 BAWS push with a cohort at least triple what we wound up with this time.

5. As I’ve been mentioning every chance I get, The Cost of Privilege: Taking on the System of White Supremacy and Racism, the fantastic new book by Chip Smith and a small research and writing team, will be out within weeks. Along with it will come a new website for the book, which promises to deliver some “value added” for folks who visit it. Right now, I’d like to ask each person who blogged on BAWS Day for permission to add a link to their contribution. If you say “yes,” it’ll spare me chasing you down one-on-one to solicit you.

(Okay, so 5 is not a point of summation. Sue me.)

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Take Five: Songs Against The Occupation

[Take Five. Every Friday, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

Hey, this Take Five is a natural. W has just opted for escalating the war in defiance of public opinion, of the brass (sweating over the damage the “new way forward” will do the military), of the new Congress (where the Dems are being forced to deal with the war instead of their First 100 Hour “gimme” list) and of the world (even Bush’s poodle, Tony Blair, is withdrawing troops).

It’s war over the war now, folks. And the soundtrack is being cut as we fight. Here are five I’ve been listening to a lot.

TAKE FIVE

The Price We Had To Pay—Charley Anderson

Take Five isn’t a “Best Of…”, but I challenge anybody: name a better song to come out of this war. Cut by a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, and told from the point of view of a returned combat vet, it moves me to tears, or at least toward them, every time I hear it. The cut is playable (maybe even downloadable?) near the bottom of the left hand column of the homepage at the Bring Them Home Now! website, and it’s a very rough recording. Listen anyhow. More than once.

Girl At The March—The Spunk Lads

This is an anomaly here. It isn’t Iraq-specific, though it references the gigantic global mobilization to stop the invasion in February, 2003. Done by Liverpudlian punk, erm, legends, the Spunk Lads, it too combines the political and the personal—the urgency of the great march and the jolting and inspiring effect a single fellow demonstrator can have.

Ain’t Going Back Again--Peace Machine

Dennis Kyne is a veteran of the first Iraq War and a stone activist, in particular around depleted uranium--DU. This song is as timely as they come—watch what happens as National Guard units and reservists are told, forget all those promises, they’re gonna be shipped back to the Sandbox. This song has been in the top 100 for months at Neil Young’s utterly amazing compilation of 1138 (and counting) independent anti-war songs. Give “Ain’t Going Back Again” a vote there.

Halliburton Boardroom Massacre—David Rovics

Rovics is a fine and prolific songwriter, and left as hell. Plus which he puts tons of his stuff up for anyone to download (make a donation, eh?). I could pick a dozen, two dozen songs from his work over the last few years, but I decided to go with this because David chose to make it the title tune of his most recent CD. It’s interesting in this company, because the song’s protagonist is an Iraq vet, like Charley Anderson, and hit by DU poisoning (see Peace Machine above). By me, the well-composed lyrics still lack the power that comes from experiencing the real thing, but the violence fantasy the title references speaks to me loud and clear, and I suspect will to all but the most Gandhian among us.

Bullet—Rhymefest

I went back and forth on including this because only the first verse directly references the war, but decided it’s a definite yes. The title munition in that first verse takes out a high school grad who enlists for the same reason as Rovics' guy:

He ain't really a killa though, takin' a lotta risks
This is what a poor person do for a scholarship
He turned around and got a face full of hollow-tips
But don't be mad, he died for the flag.

Yeah, I know, “hollow points” shows his frame of reference is Hip-Hop Nation, not Anbar Province, but the next two verses make a sharp critique of two poisonous masculinist behaviors—playa and thug-- that connect to the combat macho of the first verse. And the end is just as grim.

We made for more, we die for less,
When you starvin' in the ghetto, I'ma write the rest
See my girl think I'm hard, and my Momma think I'm hard
But when I'm all up in the dark, I just fall on my knees.

There's mine. Kick in one or two of yours.

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Take Five—Mystery Novels

There is, in the blogosphere, a tradition of regular weekend-associated posts, like hobbyists who blog photos of orchids or kitty cats every Friday, or Amanda Marcotte's Random Ten, where folks post ten songs dished up by iPod shuffle (which can be a tad embarrassing at times, believe me).

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photogenic hobbies (here’s Brother Higgins napping on his sofa, here’s Jimmy asleep in a friend’s chair, here’s old JH drooling down his shirtfront on a bus…) and I’m too Adult ADD to focus on one theme week after week.

Thus, Fire on the Mountain’s entry into the Friday sweepstakes, Take Five. Every (in theory) Friday (give or take a day or two) we’ll post a list of five cool things—songs, books, tactics, jokes, whatever—and encourage readers to weigh in with their own favorites.

For an easy start, here are five mystery novels (not thrillers—that may wind up being a later Take Five) featuring left politics in one way or another. Not the five best, mind you, not by a long shot, just five that might interest you, and I hope aren’t too obvious. Now throw in a couple of your own!

TAKE FIVE


The Bandaged Nude by “Robert Finnegan” (actually Paul William Ryan)

This one is here mainly because under a second pen-name, Mike Quin, Ryan was a CP journalist in the 30s and ‘40s, and wrote the definitive first-hand account of the San Francisco General Strike, The Big Strike. Before his death at 41 in 1947, he wrote three quickie mysteries “to make crime pay.” The psychology of detective fiction can be fascinating—at a time when loner detectives were the thing, his hero Dan Banion is part of a collective enterprise, a newspaper reporter, who is always getting help from everyday folk like workers and immigrants.





The Penny Ferry by Rick Boyer

His series character, oral surgeon Doc Adams, takes on the case of Sacco & Vanzetti. Not a mystery for the ages, but the theme makes it irresistible, and his denunciation of capitalism as embodied in the textile mills of Lowell, MA is sweet.



The Man Who Liked To Look At Himself by "K.C. Constantine"

I don’t much like cops, so my taste in mysteries leans heavily toward the tough guy, private eye end of the spectrum. That said, Constantine’s decades-long series revolving around Police Chief Mario Balzic is a brilliantly written look at what happens to working class life in a Pennsylvania mill town as the Rust Belt goes belly up. I chose this one from half a dozen favorites, because it includes an early and perceptive glance at homosexual panic.


The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout

This is a guilty entry. I was recently discussing with my arch-feminist friend Judith our longstanding mutual fondness for the fat misogynist Nero Wolfe who stars in Stout’s books. We couldn’t decide quite why we both gave him a pass, but this book, in which Wolfe takes on and bests J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, came up early in the conversation.


A Radical Departure by Lia Matera (with a taut short story at the link)

We live in the age of legal thrillers—Grisham, Baldacci, & Co. Can’t stand ‘em myself, but Matera writes old fashioned mysteries and the hero in her Willa Jannsen series, of which this is the second, is a red diaper baby and a lefty lawyer. This book pivots in part on a contested election in a Bay Area Teamsters local where her firm represents the insurgents from the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU).

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