In a way, this is an admission. It’s admission of having what I like to say are “Guilty Pleasures”. You know, you like things that people would never expect a person like you to like. For example, Dave Mustain from megadeath loves Reality TV. That’s a guilt pleasure. You have them, I have them.
Since I have tried to keep Friday’s column primarily about music, this one will be about those guilty pleasures of mine, musically speaking.
Top of my list will have to be The Guess Who. Derided as too pop, they were one of the hardest working bands of the early 70’s. Touring non-stop and recording album after album, they pretty much forced their way onto the radio back then with “American Woman”,”Undun”, and a dozen more top 10 hits. Aficionados look down on them but this is why I never get tired of hearing them sing. Burton Cummings voice. Something about his voice that just keeps me listening and I know people will disagree but I have always felt it was one of the top ten voices in rock. Sue me.
Next Guilty Pleasure is not a stretch but as I get older, I realize that besides the weirdness, Alice Cooper, was a damn good rock band. Go dig out your copy of School’s Out and tell me that that isn’t one fine piece of rock and roll. Everyone now is appalled at the Show of Alice Cooper and the bands love for the dark side without ever really touching the dark side but musically they were as tight a band as there ever was and the stories they tell rang true with a large group of adolescents.
Here is a shocker. I used to love Madonna! Ugh! I can’t believe I put that in print but there it is. I didn’t get into any of her Madonna as Chameleon Bull. I just liked a few or her songs. “Rescue Me” and “Ray of Light” are on constant rotation on my
. I will be honest. There really is nothing I like about her personally. Never thought she was pretty. Her attempts at breaking barriers or empowering women never struck a chord with me but I can’t deny that I like and listen too a few of her songs even twenty years after they were released.
I will put these two songs together. Two different artists that I can say the same thing about. Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” and Sinéad O’Connor’s “Mandinka”. Two songs that really have no relation to each other but I never turn them off when I hear them.
Since I am bringing up songs, another not so surprising guilty pleasure would have to be Gordon Lightfoots’ “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. Obviously, I like a good story with my music and “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” might just be one of the best stories ever put to music. I looked up and did some research and Lightfoot held very close to the facts and I always get transfixed to another time and place when I hear it.
Here is one that you might have a hard time grasping but I love UB 40. They were an English Reggae and Pop band back that started in the late 70’s. Now, I do like some reggae but most of it I find unapproachable so my interest is very limited. However, UB40 changed that. They do some great covers, for instance, “I got you Babe”, and “The Way You Do the Things You Do”. The one song however, that I play over and over again is “Rat in Mi Kitchen”. The musicianship that separated UB40 from most of that New Wave/Punk phenomena is front and center in this 7 minute little ditty. “There is a rat in Mi Kitchen and Imma gonna tell ya what I’ma gonna do.” Sing that over and over with a reggae beat.
There are dozens of songs and influences out there that I haven’t brought up and over time, I am sure I will. What are your Guilty Pleasures?
Well, one thing for sure, You are Eclectic. Its what makes You, You, in investing;)