"Karma Police" - Radiohead

I think those who know even the slightest bit about me are aware of my love of Radiohead generally and OK Computer specifically. Hands down, this is the best album of the past 20 years. The Strokes' Is This It, Roger Waters' Amused To Death, Matthew Sweet's Altered Beast and John Hiatt's Walk On are the only things that come close for me as complete albums.

"Karma Police" is, on balance, my favorite single on the album, though I tend to think of the "Airbag" - "Paranoid Android" - "Subterranean Homesick Alien" - "Exit Music (For A Film)" - "Let Down" - "Karma Police" run as a prolonged mega-single or epic medley (I go back and forth as to whether I consider "Fitter Happer" to be a postscript of that run or a commencement of a new movement within the album; maybe both?). If you are keeping score, "Karma Police" is probably my second-favorite song of all time. So you get two of my top three back to back thanks to this meme. Number one won't be much of a shock, but you shall have to wait a couple weeks for that post.

Apart from the obvious Bhuddist influences referenced in the title, I find the song to be like an elixir that restores balance when consumed. When the bullshit gets too deep; when the tension gets too thick; when the spinning gets too fast--I find five minutes to put on my headphones and let it all go. And let me go. And then I can deal, having even a modicum of humanity restored, revitalized and remaining resolute in the face of the infinite inhumanity of this quantum reality we call "life."

And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself 

25 Songs in 25 Days

"Comfortably Numb" - Pink Floyd

To say that my father was (and is) the most influential man in my life would ge the grossest of banal understatements. My relationship with my father will be examined more closely in future posts. 

He gave me my first copy of "The Wall" on cassette when I was 13. He just let me listen to it for three years and waited patiently. Finally, when I was 16, I asked him my questions about the album. I may have learned more about 20th Century European history in our "Wall" conversations than at any other time prior to my Juinor year in college. The he broke out the movie. WOW.

I have STRICT instructions from him that this song is to close out his funeral when the day comes. I take this charge more seriously than about any other duty or responsibility imaginable.

This was the first song that showed me how the guitar could literally and figuratively be a voice in a song. Still my favority guitar solo ever, and probably one of my top three songs of all time.

25 Songs in 25 Days

I am by no means a huge Sum 41 fan, but when she's singing, I'm listening.

"Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" - Billy Joel

We are going into the way-back machine for me here, because my most recent ex-girlfriend experience was late 1994-early 1995. She was two years younger than me, and I knew it would not last after I graduated, but that did not take away the sting at the time. I was still drinking back then, so I got over it rather quickly...

There was this family-owned Italian joint in her hometown that we would always hit when we visited her home. The name escapes me, but it was the first and last placeat which we ever dined in her hometown. On my last visit ther, Thanksgiving 1994, I told her that this song reminded me of us and that restaurant. Not exactly the song for a lasting relationship, eh? So it was nothing if not apropos. I knew it was dying. I should have euthanized then and there.

I could provide more details, all of which were true, but that would make me sound bitter.

25 Songs in 25 Days