iTunes as an indicator that I have too many showtunes

I was listening to iTunes and a song called "The Robbery" popped up...and it was one of three with that title. From, yes, three different musicals: Blood Brothers, Les Miserables, and Oliver.

Do you want to know if you have too many showtunes? Check for things like the number of songs you have called "Overture" (my count: 23) or "Entr'acte" (9) or "Finale" (26). I also have 14 "Prologue"s and 4 "Epilogue"s.

I mean, I guess my "Showtunes" playlist with 1,662 songs (nearly 4 days' worth!) is another good indicator. (And no, I'm not entirely sure if it's up-to-date or whether I caught all the showtunes in my library.)

(Another note: I have 5 songs called "Confrontation," but two are different Les Mis recordings and two are different Jekyll & Hyde [don't judge!] recordings.)

$156.01 of iTunes (and more!)

I recently finished a large freelance project, and one of the things I did with the money was buy everything on my iTunes wish list. That's $156.01. For that, I got 172 songs--including 7 albums and a lot of songs from Glee. (By "a lot," I mean 47.) (Yes, 47. God help me.) (Interestingly, some are categorized as "pop" and others as "soundtrack." And that's not by songs from shows vs. songs not from shows.) And then I got a bunch of songs that either I ran across randomly or, more likely, I saw when I was looking at my tapes and was like, "OMG I HAVE TO HAVE THAT SONG RIGHT NOW!!!" (I'm also using some of my earnings to get a bunch of tapes converted to CD.)

Want the breakdown?

Albums
Newclear - Euan Morton
So Close - Daniel Boys
Barnum
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Blood Brothers
1776
The Fantasticks

Glee
Nowadays / Hot Honey Rag [feat. Gwyneth Paltrow]
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Lucky
Rolling In the Deep [feat. Jonathan Groff]
Like a Prayer (feat. Jonathan Groff)
Happy Days Are Here Again / Get Happy
Jar of Hearts
Marry You
Whatever Happened to Saturday Night?
Sing
I Feel Pretty / Unpretty
The Only Exception
Telephone
Fat Bottomed Girls
Dog Days Are Over
Born This Way
Damn It, Janet
Just the Way You Are
She's Not There
Animal
Silly Love Songs
What I Did for Love
Sway
Don't You Want Me
Friday
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One
Like a Virgin (feat. Jonathan Groff)
Need You Now
Bills, Bills, Bills
Marry You
Start Me Up / Livin' On a Prayer
Forget You [feat. Gwyneth Paltrow]
I've Gotta Be Me
Go Your Own Way
I Know What Boys Like
Empire State of Mind
Dancing Queen
Touch a Touch a Touch a Touch Me
Take Me or Leave Me
One Love
Make 'Em Laugh
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Just the Way You Are
Tik Tok
When I Get You Alone
Firework
Blame It (On the Alcohol)

Random Songs
Two Princes - Spin Doctors (Mmm, it's high school all over again!)
Let's Go to the Mall (From How I Met Your Mother) - Robin Sparkles (YES!!!!)
The Glory of Love - Bette Midler
Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Goody Two Shoes - Adam Ant
Shut Up and Dance - Aerosmith
Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
Rock the Casbah - The Clash
Come Out and Play - The Offspring
Fuck You - Cee Lo Green
The Gambler - Kenny Rogers (How did I not already have this song?)
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers (Ditto!)
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Mari Wilson (Theme to the British Coupling. This Wish List has been a long time in the making)
I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
C'est La Vie - Bewitched (I had forgotten this song existed, then stumbled across it in the iTunes store and just about flipped out.)
Mutha (Don't Wanna Go to School Today) - Extreme
Pocketful of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield (Thanks, Easy A!)
Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners (No idea how I didn't already have this one.)
88 Lines About 44 Women - The Nails
Be My Yoko Ono - Barenaked Ladies
Soon We'll Be Found - Sia
The Lovers That Never Were - Paul McCartney
Oh My God - P!nk (I first heard this in a YouTube fanvid about David Tennant. Yum.)
How Bout Dem O's - Warning Track Power (A year or two old, but I don't care.)

AND I got Everclear's Songs From an American Movie, Vol. One: Learning How to Smile and No Doubt's "Just a Girl" from Amazon.

On music and history colliding inappropriately

On my way to the Metro on Saturday, as I headed downtown to volunteer at Ford's Theatre, I found myself listening to the Beatles Past Masters - Volume 1. Which is how I found myself standing next to the gun that Booth used to kill Abraham Lincoln, dancing slightly to "I'll Get You." The chorus?

"It's not like me to pretend,
But I'll get you in the end,
Yes I will, I'll get you in the end"



Yeah. Disturbing.

Hey, at least I didn't have the children's song "I'm Gonna Catch You" by the Laurie Berkner Band. Super cute, but they chorus of THAT is:

"I'm gonna catch you, you better run
I'm gonna catch you, here I come"



Cute for my 3-year-old niece. Less so when discussing assassination.

Counting the days

Oh my G, people. When I was little, I had a Sesame Street Christmas album (on tape) that I loved. I adored this thing. I only had the tape itself, not the case. But I listened to that thing all the frickin' time around the holidays. To the point that yes, my tape died. And then I couldn't find it on CD. And I was heartbroken, because there's nothing people like more than to relive things from their childhood.

And then, oh day of days!, there it was. On Amazon. I LOVE THE INTERNET. I sampled the songs. The track list was right. And, for $8.99, it was mine. And then I scared the cats by clapping excitedly and squealing. I do not care that it's not even Thanksgiving. I AM LISTENING TO THIS BAD BOY RIGHT NOW.

And I have never been happier.

Edit. I am possibly gaining insight into my psyche. During "The 12 Days of Christmas," they go through and make comments on each piece. Grover had "8 maids a milking" and you hear cows and he says, "Aw, cows!" And I? Love cows. And Grover is my favorite. This all makes sense now!

Behind the times

I consider myself fairly up on pop culture. I do pretty well in general conversation; if someone mentions a book or a movie or an Internet meme or celebrity scandal, I usually have heard of it and am familiar with the general situation/plot/whatever.

I run into problems with music, though. I don't think I've been really up on music since I was in elementary school (and buying Madonna's True Blue on record). I frequently have heard of a song--which, when it comes to a movie or tv show, is good enough. I can cough up actors or the latest evictee from a reality show. But with music? It's harder. I can see people referring to songs, but rarely have I actually heard the song.

For example, watching Glee, a lot of the time, I'm all, "I don't know this song at all," and my friend Dave will be all, "Really???" I heard of Cee Lo Green's "F--k You" AGES ago, but only just heard the song itself a couple of days ago (when I finally watched the video on YouTube) (totally worth it, by the way) (and, OK, I did it because I know it's going to be on Glee next week). Katy Perry's "California Gurls"? Heard of it in, like, June. Heard the song? August or so.

This is the problem with getting so much your pop culture knowledge from the Internet instead of actually experiencing it for myself.

Happy 70th

I wish I had been older than 2 when he died. I wish the world could've known what John Lennon would have done with the past 30 years.



And also...just because I love this scene from Hard Day's Night

And now I can tell them apart!

I just watched a bunch of episodes of JONAS, the Jonas Brothers' Disney TV show. (I was going to watch the episodes of Gossip Girl I had on my DVR, but it turns out I either erased the second or it never recorded, and I was too lazy to get up to see what happened that episode. Anyway. I'm not sure that story helped your opinion of (a) my taste in television or (b) my lifestyle in general.) Anyway, I found myself analyzing the show and comparing the brothers to the Monkees, which is a bit tricky, because there are only three Jonas Brothers and four Monkees. Then I was like, "I should watch a bunch of episodes of The Partridge Family and find other sitcoms about 'famous' musicians and compare!" What can I say? It's Friday night. My brain is fried. But my laziness prevailed. Yet I'm going to share my impressions of the show with you anyway. Sorry!

I wasn't terribly impressed with their music. It was OK, I guess. I kept getting the songs mixed up, to the point that I was convinced that the first two episodes I watched kept using the same song over and over--like, it was the title song, and the songs in the episode. I will say, though, that compared with the Monkees, they have way fewer songs in their show. I mean, some of the episodes didn't have any. That may be because the Jonas Brothers were already a hit before the show started; they don't need to promote their music on their show. Plus, it seems that bands today put out music a lot less than they did in the 1960s. So I don't know. I can't imagine going to see these boys in concert, but they weren't, you know, bad.

They are, however, charming, and act fairly well. I've decided that Kevin, whom I think is the oldest (...yes, Wikipedia confirms this), is the Peter Tork of the group. Frequent jokes are made at his expense, though he is, of course, good-hearted and sweet. Nick, the youngest, appears to be the Michael Nesmith--he has the understated humor and from what I can tell, is the brains of the group. Joe is the Davy Jones; he's the heartthrob and seems to be the lead and has the romantic storylines.

Which makes no sense to me. Nick is way cuter, and is the smart one and the one who writes the songs (...in the show at least) and is the one who actually got them started. Plus, again, cutest. And by that, I mean he has, by far, the best hair. Joe really just needs to get his out of his face.

I will give the show credit for its writing. The plots are actually somewhat interesting, if not incredibly unconventional, but there are a lot of little jokes in the show that I liked. (For example, someone mentioned manatees, and Kevin started to sing about manatees. Also, to show that Joe wasn't a jerk, Nick said he'd show that Joe was "panda-loving.") (These were possibly funnier on the show than as written here.) So, credit for that.

Also, credit for the fact that the show isn't on the Disney Channel all the time. I think it comes on maybe once a week; at least, that's what a cursory look at my DVR listings showed me. I happened to catch a marathon. (Which I DVR'd. Don't judge me!) I get the feeling that even though Disney helped propel them, they've managed to retain some control--and good for them.

What I would like to compare with other shows is the handling of the group's fans. In the Monkees, it wasn't an issue, because they were portrayed as being a struggling band--they didn't have fans. But what did the Partridge Family do? In JONAS, there are screaming fans all over the place...when it suits them. They're not horrible about it, but it does jar a person to watch an episode about how the boys are all crushing on the pizza delivery girl, and so going to the door all the time without any noticeable screaming, then to see an episode in which in they can't take out the trash because the screaming girls will take them down.

But that sounds all efforty. And I really don't need to devote any more time or energy into comparing teenybopper rock band sitcoms.

Don't question the quality of free music

I live in the downtown part of my town, and every Saturday there's a farmers market, and from 10 to 11, live music. Which means that I'm woken up every Saturday by music. It's not bad, really, and it keeps me from sleeping in too late. (I make up for this by napping later.) So naturally this morning, I woke up and heard music. I realized that the group was playing "Got to Get You Into My Life" by the Beatles. Only...they were not doing such a great job of it. They were, in fact, doing a pretty horrible job of it. I'd say the singer consistently forgot maybe 50% of the lyrics. If you don't know the lyrics, don't sing the song!

As I got up and wandered around the apartment, I continued to listen. I could hear enough to make out the songs and some of the words, but not all of them. I'm still not sure whether they were doing Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" or a parody of it. The singer consistently sang, "I lied, lied, lied!" in the chorus, and he didn't have a lot of the other lyrics right, but he had enough right to really make me question what he was doing.

I'm not even going to mention the Michael Jackson medley.

While it has been interesting, I can't say I'm disappointed that this was the last week of live music on Saturday mornings. I look forward to uninterrupted sleeping in...3 weeks. Which is the next time I'll be able to sleep in, unimpeded, on a Saturday morning.

Hippity hop

So I was visiting Becca last weekend, and we found ourselves sitting outside a bar on Saturday night chatting. We gradually noticed the total awesomeness of the songs being played--"Humpty Dance," "Baby Got Back," "You Say He's Just a Friend," and so on. Naturally this led to us compiling a list of songs that need to be on this mix. But I'm opening this up to the public--what songs are we missing? And do you want to send me the songs I don't have? (The ones I do have are marked by an X.) Because putting together this mix is going to cost, like, $25, and that sucks. And I refuse on principle to pay for "Me So Horny."

1. Humpty Dance
2. It's Tricky - X
3. Push It
4. Baby Got Back
5. Funky Cold Medina - X
6. Say He's Just a Friend
7. Gettin' Jiggy
8. Shoop
9. Girls
10. Walk This Way (Run DMC)
11. Never Gonna Get It - X
12. Jump Around - X
13. The Dinosaur - X
14. Informer
15. Wasn't Me - X
16. Bombastic
17. 2legit
18. Me So Horny
19. Da Butt
20. Bust a Move
21. OPP
22. Ice Ice Baby
23. I got a man (Positive K)
24. Back to Cali
25. I'm Gonna Knock You Out
26. Boom (Shake the Room) - X
27. Good Vibrations (Marky Mark)
28. Back to Life (Soul II Soul)
29. Motownphilly (Boyz II Men)
30. Jump (Kriss Kross)
31. Strike It Up (Black Box)
32. My Perogative
33. Poison (Bel Biv Devoe)
34. No Diggity

(Cross-posted to my other blog)

Maybe I should start just randomly buying cast recordings, to help

The Washington Post had an interesting story today about cast albums. Admittedly, I own quite a few, and it makes me sad to see how it's becoming harder and harder to produce them. I can't imagine the time when songs from musical theater was popular music, but there was such a time, and it's sad that we're so far past that. There are jukebox musicals, which take popular music and turn it into a musical (and I admit that I'd rather people buy ABBA Gold than the cast recording of Mamma Mia!), but I wonder whether that gets people to see other shows. I somehow doubt it. It is encouraging to see people snapping up copies of CDs at shows...they need to continue to be made. It's how I relive those experiences; I can't imagine seeing a show that really moves me, and not be able to listen to the songs over and over again.

And it's nuts to think that there used to be many versions of shows recorded. Do they still make Broadway and London recordings of shows? I mean, at one point, I had the London, Broadway, Complete Symphonic, and 10th Anniversary recordings of Les Mis. I can't imagine that they'd do that these days. Unfortunately.

(I don't have the Broadway version anymore. What's the point? No Michael Ball.)

U! S! A!

I was in my car this morning, and the radio was playing "Little Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp. Then "American Woman" came on. And it got me wondering whether other countries have as many rock songs about their own country as the U.S. does. I mean, we have a lot. Granted, a few of them aren't necessarily complimentary to the country (e.g., "Born in the USA"), and some, like "American Woman", are anti-war and such. And what's interesting is that "American Woman" is by the Guess Who, who are Canadian.

Now, I'm not talking folk ("I'm Proud to Be an American", "God Bless the U.S.A.") or even country ("Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue"). No, I'm talking rock. Growing up, "America" by Neil Diamond was my favorite song. (I've always been cool!) I mean, there's "American Girl" by Tom Petty and "American Idiot" by Green Day and "The Hands That Built America" by U2.

I really don't have anything of substance to say on this; I just find it interesting. I find it really interesting that there are many rock songs about America by bands that are from other countries. I'm sure some U.S. bands have written songs about other countries, but right now, the only one springing to mind is "Blame Canada" from the South Park movie.

I hope someday you'll join us

I think my iTunes is psychic. Or it knows what day it is. When I opened it, it played "Watching the Wheels," and now it's playing "Not a Second Time." Why is that significant? One's a John Lennon song, the others a Beatles song. And today is December 8, the 28th anniversary of John's death.

I've spent the past 20 years or so in love with the Beatles. John's never been my favorite, but man, the guy is fascinating. And I always like to stop and remember him today.

One of my favorite memories is when some friends and I went to New York City in December of 2001--7 years ago today, in fact. I insisted on dragging my friends to Central Park, to the Imagine mosaic in Strawberry Fields. And, since it was both the anniversary of John's death and just after George's death, there was a large group there, standing, singing. It was fantastic. So moving. And so something John would want.

Top 15 Songs Played on My iTunes

1. For No One - Beatles
2. Life Is Wonderful - Jason Mraz
3. I Like to Move It - Reel to Real
4. Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
5. Boom! Shake the Room - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
6. Flowers in the Window -Travis
7. The Night Before - Beatles
8. If I Loved You - John Raitt & Jan Clayton (from Carousel)
9. Henry Ford - Original Broadway Cast of Ragtime
10. What About Everything - Carbon Leaf
11. The Boxer - Carbon Leaf
12. Leavin's Not the Only Way to Go - Original Cast of Big River
13. Another National Anthem - Original Cast of Assassins
14. Where Does the Good Go - Tegan and Sara
15. Only You - Yaz

He's a funny sort of spectre

My first introduction to musical theater was a mix tape my dad made with songs from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Cats. Yep, an Andrew Lloyd Webber mix. And I love Lloyd Webber. Not so much some his more recent work; I couldn't get into Beautiful Game at all, and am not even slightly familiar with Woman in White (well, I know the book, which is awesome and you should go read right now) or Bombay Dreams. But even some of his more obscure pieces--Song and Dance/Tell Me On a Sunday, Aspects of Love, Whistle Down the Wind--I own and enjoy.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is something of a guilty pleasure. Theatre geeks tend to look down on him--the spectacle of Phantom of the Opera, the strange concept of Cats. For theatre cred, you're supposed to swoon over Rent and Sondheim and Spring Awakening and In the Heights. I'm hot and cold on that sort of thing; love Sondheim (who seems to be OK with Lloyd Webber, at least judging from the video they did for Cameron Mackintosh's birthday), never got into Rent, totally have no interest in Spring Awakening, want to see In the Heights. Love the old musicals, too--movie musicals, stage musicals. And for some reason, all of those are OK; even the crappy early movie musicals with laughable plots. Hey, the dancing is fun!

But I grew up on Lloyd Webber and just can't feel bad for liking his stuff. I even enjoy Cats. There. I said it. The dancing is phenomenal, and the music is fun. The stupid operetta thing in Act II is a bit much, but that's OK.

This all is coming up because I was listening to Phantom of the Opera the other night. It was the first musical I ever really became obsessed with (followed eventually by Les Mis). Like a lot of other shows of his, I've grown to find some of the set songs ("Music of the Night," "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," and from other shows, songs like "With One Look" and "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina") to be pretty tiresome, but I still really like the show. I can't help it. Especially the "Notes" songs.

And above all, the overture. How can anyone not get a thrill when those first notes are played? I thought the movie version was pretty terrible, but I did love how they did the overture. The raising of the chandelier, the transformation of the theater--love it.



Of course, as much as I love most of his work, I do think it's probably a good thing that Lloyd Webber is focusing more on producing and doing reality television. In some ways, it's all been downhill from Evita. But it's been an enjoyable way down.

Best of all worlds!

I've admitted that I'm a complete sucker for fanvideos on YouTube. This video combines The Office with one of my favorite Mika songs. Such a cute video--and it uses some of the blooper reel clips, which makes it SUPER cute. Honestly, I'm posting it here more so I can always find it quickly. My life? Really is that exciting.

Stuck in the 80s

As I drove home from tap tonight, since the O's game was postponed, I was flipping around the radio. I found Bon Jovi's "I'll Be There For You" on Jack and happily sang along. (And counted to make sure that it's five words. Because I have to make sure every time I hear that song. Apparently I don't remember from the previous time. Or believe Jon.) Then they said that it was 9 at 9, where they play 9 songs from one year; the year tonight was 1989.

There's a part of me that's firmly stuck in the 80s. In 1989 I turned 11, and a large chunk of me still thinks that things that were cool then are still cool. My dancing style hasn't particularly changed, and I can't really mock some of the outfits I see on old tv shows and movies, because the 10-year-old in my mind is going, "But she looks cool!" Not all styles, mind you, but a lot. It's sad, really.

Anyway, after Bon Jovi and the announcement of 9 at 9, I thought I recognized the very beginning of the next song. "Is this 'Iko'?" I wondered. And it totally was. And it was the version that I think of when I think of that song; I actually have another version of it on CD. After that was "Like a Prayer." Then "Cult of Personality," which I appreciate for countering each bad guy (Josef Stalin) with a good one (Ghandi). Also, awesome video.

I maintain that 80s music is far superior to anything that has come since.

Hangin' tough

So it looks like New Kids on the Block are officially reuniting. I certainly enjoyed NKOTB back in the day, but I'm kind of disappointed. Mostly because when I think of Donnie Wahlberg, I no longer think of NKOTB, I think of Carwood Lipton, from Band of Brothers. He was really, really good in it. (And by the way, if you haven't seen it, go watch it. It's crazy long, but so worth it. Plus, pretty much every actor in his 30s was in it.) Seriously, watch this scene. At this point, I don't think I could see him on a stage singing "The Right Stuff" without it seriously messing with my mind.

Plus, I have no desire to relive my middle school years. Those are best left in the past.

Ouch!

At the height of my Beatles obsession, my sister and I rented All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary about the Rutles (Dirk, Barry, Stig, and Nasty). It was quite enjoyable, and it held up when I saw it again a few years ago. (I actually enjoyed it more than This is Spinal Tap).

So I was obviously delighted to hear about a Rutles tribute band, of sorts, that's been playing in New York. A band playing onstage as the movie airs? Awesome! As the article says, the movie's more enjoyable if you know a lot of the details about the Beatles, but it's pretty fun even if some of it goes over your head.

Plus, it's from Monty Python alum. Definitely worth checking out.

Music to doze to

I've been doing a lot of work on my computer at night lately, mostly copyediting. (When I'm not playing Cake Mania, that is.) While I'm doing that, I like to have my "Mellow" iTunes playlist going. I need some sort of background noise, but anything much more than instrumental music or Michael Bublé distracts me. A good chunk of that playlist is movie scores.

It's been a while since I've listened to a lot of these, and I keep noticing the Gladiator soundtrack. I used to have to have music playing as I fell asleep (ironically, now I can't have music playing when I try to fall asleep), and I spent the summer after college graduation listening to that CD as I lay in bed. So every time I hear certain songs on that soundtrack, it brings me back. Like, I usually got partway through "The Battle" before I dozed off, and would vaguely hear it as it crescendoes. For some reason, "Now We Are Free" stands out to me, too.

It is a really good score.