Suzanne Calling

In preparation for 5 nights of progressive rock music, some performed by acts I can sing along with most of their catalog and others whom I'm not as well acquainted, I started a Pandora station for progressive rock. Then, I was pointed to Aural Moon. The headphones have a lot of good music filling my ears, though I find that Pandora's music genome works TOO well. It often pulls from other genres that are on my other Pandora channels. Um, no, Depeche Mode does not belong with Genesis and ELP! Some of my favorites from the acts performing on the cruise: Marillion (the number one reason we are booked on this cruise...), The Great Escape from 'Brave' A little bit of background. Marillion has had two lead singers, and I became familiar with them when 'Misplaced Childhood' was released, with Fish (Derek Dick) was the leading vocalist/song writer. He was a great front man for the band, so I wasn't excited about Steve Hogarth (aka 'H') replace...

With the holidays around the corner, I am drawn to things like Messiah Sing Ins and other songs of the season, or songs that to me, are part of the season by virtue of singing them for a winter concert or two (or five) as a teen. One of the great things about that choir reunion I attended back in September is that various alumni shared their recordings of concerts with everyone else via Dropbox. Each year, the members of the choir chose whether they wanted to record the Winter or Spring Concert, as it was not an inexpensive proposition. I remember one year, getting two votes, because I'd sold double the quota of fruit in the recent fundraiser. I chose Winter. Alas, it didn't make it to vinyl like years past, we got cassette tapes. Mine was lost years ago. However, the archives restored the concert to me, and the memory holds musical scores much better than anything else. Still, I would like to have the sheet music for favorites we didn't record-and that's wh...

I gave you some musical monstrosities last time, but this time, actors who really CAN sing! Brent Spiner released an album in 1991, Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back, and I worked in a record store when it was released. Alas, I couldn't bring myself to make the purchase after hearing the recently shared William Shatner songs via the internet. Brent, however, covered some standards of the 1940's and does a respectable job. Heck, he even had some backing vocals from Michael Dorn (Worf), Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. Riker) and LaVar Burton (Giordi LaForge) and the marvelous dulcet tones of Patrick Stewart doing the spoken word portion. It's a Sin to Tell a Lie http://youtu.be/-jexAHF_NpQ In which case, I'll be honest and say that this is enjoyable...

I'm in final exam mode, and research proposal mode, so this week's will be short. This old Debbie Gibson song has been running through my head lately. Odds are good that you haven't heard it, because it wasn't released as a single, but I like it.

One of my classes this summer has focused on the four main theories of education: Scholar Academic, Social Efficiency, Learner Centered and Social Reconstructionist. Each has qualities that are good, but my opinion is that none of these is idea without incorporating elements of at least one other curriculum. This week's homework involved reading about a comprehensive study of five northern New Jersey schools around the time that I started middle school. The teaching materials used in two of the schools were the same ones I used in my elementary classroom. It was cool to see that, and frustrating to see that students from working class communities in the same school district, with the same budgetary dollars, weren't given the same quality education. This song went through my head, because one of the comments made in the study by an educator was "The parents don't care, anyway, so why should we bother?" Last week's assignments focused on Social Reconstructio...

It's summer, so time for some favorite summer songs: Enjoy!

Time Marches On I'm starting this off with a confession that I'm pretty sure I've shared before: I can't stand Bruce Springsteen. His voice and horrible lyrics just turn me off. It is better to listen to Bruce's songs covered by other artists, mainly because I cannot stand his voice. (To my New Jersey friends: I know it's a law that you all like 'The Boss,' but I've never resided in the Garden State and am therefore exempt from the legal ruling) However, from the first Bruce song I ever remember hearing (Tenth Avenue Freeze Out), the thing that always stood out was that saxophone. As I didn't like The Boss, I never made an effort to find out who was blowing that sax so fine. It was that instrument that made all of Bruce's songs great. Can you honestly imagine 'Born to Run' or 'Rosalita' without it? In the mid-80's, a song came out and got heavy rotation on MTV, in the days when they actually played music videos. ...

Bonus Tracks Do you remember back before our cars had CD players, we had iPods and adapters to use them in multiple locations, how we used to tape our favorite music onto cassettes to listen to on the daily commute? I had dozens of them. Even my dad got a few (Basia and Grayson Hugh on one, until he confessed that he fast forwarded it to hear Basia, so I made a new one with the same album on both sides.) Anyway, I made a tape with the two October Project CDs that got played over and over, to the point that both boys can sing along with them. The limitations of a 45 minute cassette required me to shave a song off each album to fit the format. So, now when I hear those two songs, as I haven't heard them nearly as much as the rest of the album, I think "Hey, an October Project bonus track!" The two tunes that are my 'bonus tracks' Be My Hero from October Project One Dream from Falling Farther In How about you? Do you have tracks that got shaved from the cassette ...

Songs of My Youth I loved this song when it came out, and enjoyed hearing it played often on WABC that year. When I started working at the college radio station, when I got the "Good Gold" show, which was a past top 40 format, I think I played this one as often as I could get away with before Jim Green would hassle me about Good Gold didn't mean I only played Andrew Gold. My trusty Joel Whitburn Top 40 Hits (not the one pictured, but similar), informed me that his mom was Marni Nixon, a woman I knew to be the singing voice for Natalie Wood in 'West Side Story' and Deborah Kerr in "The King and I" What I didn't know until yesterday is that he was born in 1951 and his sister, two years later-just like in the song. Top 40 hits book Andrew died yesterday at 59 years old. Besides this hit, he had a busy career backing up some of the biggest names in music on their biggest hits, including playing all the instruments on Art Garfunkel's "I Only ...

With GameTeen's prom last night, I thought about how fast time flies. One day, you're bringing home a tiny infant and the next thing you know, they're in high school and going to proms. No, I'm not here thinking "My Baaahhhhbeeeeeeee", but realizing that as I get older, the time just flies by so fast. So, of course, I thought of a few songs from my youth that touch on the subject of time. The first, probably one of the first Steely Dan songs I can recall hearing (Do It Again was released first, but it didn't make as much of an impact.) At the time it came out, it was in heavy rotation and the words didn't mean much. Now I appreciate the sarcasm. A guy whose voice has always caught my attention is Al Stewart. In 1978, this one was all over the airwaves and for some reason, it seemed to be played every afternoon in the half hour drive between my junior high school and my bus stop, not that was a bad thing. Anything to cut down on Don Imus running ...

I know, I know. Long time readers are scratching their heads, figuring I was done with the Sunday music posts. It's time to resurrect this topic, because I like being able to prepare what I'll write about. Especially now that there will be three classes and a job to occupy most of my time! A friend started doing the 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook last month and well, I had to do it. It was a meme with a twist, asking participants to name a song that reminded them of an event, a song that made them happy, guilty, or a song that they listened to when angry. It inspired a lot of thought. Some of the selections were tough. I really couldn't come up with one for guilty until Ed told me what his was (he took the challenge, too). In this space, I'd mentioned that we had three songs with the designation "Our Song." I posted one, he posted another. (We selected the same song to be played at our funeral) Some of the choices might not have been so difficult...

Now that I'm back to school, it's time to resurrect SSS. This past summer has been an awakening of sorts for Chef. Always musically aware and having his own distinct musical tastes, there is a noticeable shift lately. We probably can thank the video games to an extent. With the purchase of a new game system came a used copy of a game "Brutal Legend," which is heavily packed with the major players of heavy metal, such as Lemmy Kilmister and Ozzy Osbourne. The kid ate up all the classic music coming his way, some of it he'd heard in the past-but much he had not. Other games for this system featured other classic rock, heavy metal and even classical music, all of which were either sung or whistled by Chef throughout the summer. It probably would surprise him when Mom or Dad would sing along and know the song, or in my case, I'd find the track on You Tube and play him the full version of these tunes. In addition to the game system as a source of discovery of ...

Over the almost five years of writing the blog, I've mentioned my love of the nightly fireworks show at Epcot, IllumiNations, Reflections of Earth. Of all the pictures I have of WDW vacations, I easily have more of this one show than anything else in the Disney parks or resorts. I know the soundtrack intimately, thanks to a coworker handing me a tape of it not long after I started working at the stores. She told me that it was her treadmill tape of her absolute favorite thing at Disney. It was easy to see why, the music effectively inspired mood. In April, 2001, we made our first trip to WDW since Ed and I were married and saw the show for ourselves and discovered what Tina had already known-this was the BEST way to spend an evening at Walt Disney World. Over time, we found our favorite place around the World Showcase Lagoon to view the fireworks (near Germany, with a nice glass of German white wine)) and we probably enjoyed the music more than the fireworks. As a result of ...

A friend mentioned on FB yesterday how this time of year made her pull out the Jesus Christ Superstar Sundtrack and listen to it over and over. Another friend added that for her, the show of choice is Godspell. This sent me off on the search of YouTube for one particular song. In college, attending all ten nights of the theatre department's production of Jesus Christ Superstar actually was the catalyst for my return to theatre as a course of study. I'd been a communications major at that point. I have the soundtrack and know it intimately, some of the songs are so tied to the actors in that production. For instance, it'd be hard to beat Josh Mostel's " King Herod's Song ", but the actor who did it in that production was phenomenal. Another musical of religious theme from that era has music that always caught my attention, but until last year, I didn't own it, the movie was purchased at rock bottom price during Circuit City's demise. As a huge ...

It has been mentioned here many times that my musical preferences were shaped in part by what my siblings would play on the stereo. I was very young when I was immersed in the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel catalogs, and it is hard to recall a time when there wasn't music of some sort playing. My oldest brother had control of the stereo for a good bit of time after he'd returned home from his four years in the Marines. He'd amassed quite a record collection while overseas and the artists were quite eclectic. Then, add to it the fact that he worked at one of the most influential nightclubs on Long Island and his future wife worked for a record label, and well, there are artists that I heard that most people said "who?" and soon after, that would be the most popular act around. (the Police, for instance) While my sisters tended towards Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jackson Browne and CSNY, my brother would play Kansas, Rockpile, George Thorogood, Janis Ian, Blondie and ...

In 94 Soundtrack Sunday posts, you'd think I'd have mentioned this before, but it looks like I haven't. As much as Ed and I like music, we have several songs we call our own, but in addition to that, we made each other mix tapes (remember those?) when we first started dating-so those songs make us think of each other as well. Contained in the tape he sent to me were a few songs that have special significance that are not of the type you'd hear on the radio (when's the last time you heard Steve Hackett's solo works on the air?), but several of them are. When I do happen to hear them in passing, it makes me smile and think of the words Ed wrote to accompany the tape. Today, I share a few of them with you. Chicago, Wishing You Were Here. Ours was a long distance relationship, so this one made a lot of sense. The second significance was that he was living in Chicago at the time. Billy Joel, Until the Night. Another one that had special significance, as Bill...

Tonight's Super Bowl game reminded me of the one trip to Nawlin's (as the locals pronounce it) back in 1984 for the World's Fair. It's a city I've wanted to visit ever since, full of history, good food and fine music. In honor of the city, some songs that mention New Orleans: Great song, great artist and one of the highlights of her live show. Hey now, hey now! It wasn't until I was in the Crescent city that I found out this song was about a parade collision of two 'tribes' there. A change of mood, but still a great song: To finish out, a musician that reeks of New Orleans to me, Dr. John. There aren't that many cities that can boast more than a dozen songs about them, but this town has plenty more than the ones I mentioned here. I'm sure the partying is going to last for days!

On the TV, there's a piano theme. One of the most recognizable movie themes: Halloween. It begs the question, how many movie themes or songs do you hear and instantly are transported to watching that movie. I may be one of the few people on the planet who has not seen Jaws, but I know the theme well. It came out in 1976, and if my dad dared to take me to the theater to see it that summer, it wouldn't bode well for his Sunday ritual of soaking in the sun at Jones Beach. That wasn't the first theme that was memorable. Once again, a horror movie captured the attention, but that time, I didn't realize it was. Mike Oldfield wrote Tubular Bells, and The Exorcist may have catapulted to the top of the box office because that song was everywhere when the movie came out. Other songs may have extremely strong associations with the movies that contain them, but the horror movie themes? They stay with me. How about you?

It's always cool when a favorite artist teaches you a word or five in a foreign language within a good song. This came to mind the other day in my Spanish class, as we were learning about the different subjectivos en espanol. (gotta figure out how to get that tilde on there) We learned about historia, anthropologia and psicologia and my mind went to a wonderful gem of a song from Julia Fordham, "Genius". In the song, she talks about having to be a genius to work out the relationship issues she is having as she sings the song to her partner. This bossa nova inspired song then shifts to Portuguese, though I thought it might be Spanish. Alas, I tried to find a decent video on You Tube to share it, but the one good video only performs the song in English, but I did find Genius at Lastfm.com. One that came out while I was taking French in middle school was this gem from Billy Joel. I remember singing it while walking into class and my teacher got annoyed with me that I...

Fun and Games on the Radio Nowadays, my morning drive involves listening to Morning Edition as I head into Tampa. One, because I finally found out that USF has the local NPR affiliate and two, because the best disc jockey in this radio purgatory got canned in April (Skip Mehaffie, I miss you!). The other day, a conversation about a wedding of all things got me thinking about the games that the morning hosts would have that made us laugh and/or go nuts trying to be the contestant and win cool prizes. On LI, I'd vary between the two big rock outlets, but my favorite was WNEW from NYC. Dave Herman and Marty Martinez had great banter, good music and the best part? Fun games. They would do Old, New, Borrowed and Blue, Name that Tune and Rock and Roll Jeopardy. Over my tenure at the gas station, I actually won quite a few things from NEW, and I think a couple of those prizes are in a box in my garage-I know there are several CD's in the shelves behind me, thanks to fast fingers...