Category: My Sunday Song

My Sunday Song – “Love The Way You Lie ” by Eminem (featuring Rihanna)

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For My Sunday Song #55, I am going with Eminem’s “Love The Way You Lie”.  The song features Rihanna and is one of my favorite Eminem songs and favorite songs period.  The song was released on June 25, 2010 and is on the album ‘Recovery’.  It is one of Eminem’s most successful song selling over 6 million copies, hitting #1 on almost ever chart, receiving numerous Grammy nominations and winning the Billboard Award for Best Rap song in 2011.  To say this song struck a chord with a lot of people is an understatement.

Why do I like this song?  Easy…it is bringing to light a very dark subject matter that isn’t talked about enough.  Domestic Violence.  The song is about a couple in an abusive relationship that refuses to separate despite the dangerous situation they are in.  The song is very graphic and so is the video which I will discuss shortly.  The song’s dark theme and powerful music along with the combination of Rihanna’s vocals and Eminem’s aggressive rap encapsulates every emotion that you would imagine this kind of relationship would garner.  I also love how the song jumps from pleasant views to the violent aspects and back and forth.  It really makes the song impactful.

What I also find interesting about the song is that it actually mirrors both singers life.  Eminem was in an abusive relationship with his ex-wife Kim and of course every one knows Rihanna’s history with her former boyfriend Chris Brown.  Knowing their history adds so much credibility to the song.

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My Sunday Song – “Barracuda” by Heart

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My Sunday Song #54 is by the one and only Heart.  The song is “Barracuda” off their 1977 album ‘Little Queen’.  The song was their second highest charting song at the time and it was their second Top 20 hit peaking at #11.  “Magic Man” was their only song higher charting at #9.

Why do I like this song?  Easy, that guitar riff that opens the song and is played throughout is enough!!  It was one of their heavier rock songs and showed they could kick some serious ass.  The aggressiveness of the music and the lyrics made them a powerhouse and I think made people take note of how great they can be.  This was the song that made me a Heart fan.

From what I can find on the song, it is mostly about Ann Wilson’s disdain for their former label Mushroom Records.  Apparently Mushroom Records had placed ads in magazines/papers that hinted that Ann & Nancy were lesbian lovers having an incestuous relationship.  Needless to say, this angered her greatly and from great anger comes great music. (thanks to Songfacts.com).  You can see the add that was placed by clicking on HEART AD. That would have pissed me off as well.  The band left the label shortly thereafter and the rest is history.

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My Sunday Song – “Vasoline” by Stone Temple Pilots

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For My Sunday Song #53, I have gone with “Vasoline” by Stone Temple Pilots.  This is one of my favorite STP songs…one of many.  The song was the second single off their second album ‘Purple’.  It is also the second most successful song they had.  It reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Rock Album Tracks chart for two weeks.  The most successful song was “Interstate Love Song”.

What do I like about this song?  That opening bass part is flat out amazing.  The best part of the song.  I also dig the uptempo, fast driving feel to the song.  The guitar solo is also fast, but impactful.  And of course, Scott Weiland’s vocals.  The song is short at under 3 minutes, but what an impression it leaves.

In researching the song, I found out how they came up with that sound effect on the bass.  Robert DeLeo ran his bass through a wah wah pedal.  As I am a fan and not a musician, I had to look up “wah wah pedal”.  Here is what wikipedia says…

A wah-wah pedal (or simply wah pedal) is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name “wah-wah”. The pedal sweeps the peak response of a frequency filter up and down in frequency to create the sound, a spectral glide, also known as “the wah effect”.

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My Sunday Song – “Do You Love Me” by Guster

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For My Sunday Song #52, I have gone with the peppy little jaunt called “Do You Love Me” by the band Guster.  The song is from the 2010 album called ‘Easy Wonderful’ which was their sixth studio album.  The song is their biggest hit which reached #9 on the Adult Album Alternative chart.  They have not had a Hot 100 hit.

For those out there that don’t know Guster, they are an American alternative rock band.  They are also labeled as a Jangle Pop band.  Jangle pop is defined as follows (per wikipedia)…

Jangle pop is a subgenre of pop rock that emphasizes trebly, ringing guitars (usually twelve-string electrics) and pop melodies reminiscent of those from the 1960s.

That definition would describe this song.  What I love about the song is twofold.  First, the music and melodies of the song are so catchy, poppy and just plain fun.  You can’t help but feel good when you hear the song.  It is very infectious.

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My Sunday Song – “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.

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My Sunday Song #51 is my favorite R.E.M. song called “Losing My Religion”.  The song is off the 1991 album ‘Out of Time’ and it reached as high as #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It was probably the most popluar R.E.M. song at the time and maybe ever.  It was nominated for 4 Grammy Awards and won for 2 of them.  One of which was for music video and you can see it at the end of the commentary.

Why do I like the song?  I really love the guitar sound and that mandolin that Peter Buck plays.  It captures to essence of the song and helps bring to life the imagery of the lyrics.  Michael’s voice is so unique and for this song it was a little creepy which is perfect as the song was about obsession over another.

“Losing My Religion” is an old phrase meaning that you have lost it.  You are losing your wits or temper.  As this is an obsession song, the singer has lost their mind over this person and is fantasizing about them constantly.  Lyrically it is very disturbing.

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My Sunday Song – “Hotel California” by The Eagles

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My Sunday #50 is “Hotel California” by The Eagles.  When you add on 2 special edition weekends, this is the 52nd week of My Sunday Song.  One full year!!  Each 10 weeks I have been switching up the theme, but I am enjoying going through my favorite songs so much that I will continue with this theme for a lot longer.

I had to choose a very special song to celebrate a year’s worth of My Sunday Song so I chose what just might be one of the songs ever written or ever played.  “Hotel California” is pure magic in songwriting.  Musically it can’t be beat and lyrically it conveys a mastery of storytelling.

“Hotel California” is the title track to the album of the same name.  The single was released in February 1977 and went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  The song also won the band a Grammy (which they did not attend because Henley didn’t believe in contests or something like that).  The song was written by Don Felder (who wrote the music), Don Henley (who wrote the lyrics) and Glenn Frey (who contributed some lyrics, but mostly helped with the outlining of the story).

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My Sunday Song – “Until I Wake Up” by Dishwalla & JR Richards

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My Sunday Song #49 is “Until I Wake Up” by Dishwalla.  Well, it was Dishwalla originally where I discovered the song and really liked it.  Years later, when JR Richards, the lead singer of Dishwalla, left the band he re-recorded the song and I discovered it again.  This time it stuck with me and I can’t stop listening to it.

The album was originally off the Dishwalla album from 1998 called ‘And You Think You Know What Life Is About”.  Most recently, JR Richards released it on his 2016 album ‘Stripped” which is of course acoustic songs of his work with Dishwalla.  It also includes their big hit “Counting Blue Cars”.  Well worth a listen.

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My Sunday Song – “Headphones” by Matt Nathanson

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For My Sunday Song #48, I am going with my favorite Matt Nathanson song called “Headphones”.  The song features singer LOLO and is off Matt’s album ‘Show Me Your Fangs’ released in 2014.  It is one of his best albums, so check it out.

The song “Headphones” for me is about putting on my headphones, listening to music and escaping.  When you listen to music, it can take all your cares in the world and throw them out the window. With music, you can feel invincible (as the song states).  The song is everything I feel about music and how important it is in my life.  Heck, I even started a blog where all I talk about is music.  I have only known this song for 3 years now, but it is the soundtrack to my feelings on music.

The song is actually about a girl who moves to the big city to have a fresh start.  Where everyone around her is concerned with trivial things, she is out there being who she is.  Her escape is music and she is happy just sitting around listening to music and not getting caught up in the madness.  Matt is great at telling stories and he knocks another one out of the park with this one.  Matt is one of the best songwriters out there and I can’t get enough of his music.  If you want to hear what Matt Nathanson says about the song, go to USAToday.com and check this article out.

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My Sunday Song – “Life by The Drop” by Stevie Ray Vaughn

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My Sunday Song #47 is “Life By The Drop” performed by Stevie Ray Vaughn from his album ‘The Sky is Falling’.  The album came out in 1991, a year after Stevie’s death.  It was his final studio album.

I had always thought the song was about drinking, but I was wrong.  The song is about two old friends reunited after years apart.  One of the friends has gone on to make something of themselves while the other has not.  The song is basically saying to live life to the fullest and go after your dreams.  You don’t want to end up old and having tons of regrets.  When I discovered this was the meaning of the song years later, it made sense and I connected on another level with the song.

The song was written by an old friend of Stevie’s name Doyle Bramhall with the help of Barbara Logan.  Doyle wrote the song about Stevie and how his friend went off and succeeded in life, but he didn’t reach the same level of greatness.  He was proud of Stevie, but apparently had a lot of regret on his own success or lack thereof.  From what I have read about Doyle, he did finally release his own album in 1994 which was 3 years after his friend had passed away.  Doyle later died in 2011.

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My Sunday Song – “The Day The Ravens Left the Tower” by the Alarm

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For My Sunday Song #46, I have chosen “The Day The Ravens Left The Tower” by The Alarm.  The song is off the album, ‘Strength’, from 1985 and is one of my all time favorite albums from the 80’s.  They were never hugely popular in the States although MTV played them a lot.  The album did reach #39 on the Billboard 200 Chart.

“The Day The Ravens Left the Tower” is a very dark song and was a real jump in their songwriting lyrically.  They have always been political with their songs, but the maturity and growth in songwriting really shined on this song for me.  I know I read this somewhere that the song was inspired by a hallucination that Eddie MacDonald had when he was sick with the flu.  I think that is cool if that is true.

What I am fascinated with about the song is actually the story of the ravens.  For those that don’t know, there are ravens that live in the Tower of London.  There have been ravens living there since as far back as 1660 or so around the time of King Charles II.  It is believed that the ravens are there to protect the Crown. If they should ever leave the tower, the Crown and Britain would fall.  I know there is a lot more to the story, but I am not a historian and the site is about music so you can look it up further if you are interested…it is fascinating stuff (also any UK readers want to add anything, please leave a comment).

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