Via Daypop, good, hard-rockin' fun with retroCRUSH's 50 Coolest Song Parts. Yes, there's a lot of Queen, The Who, and Rolling Stones (and more than a few bands in the "guilty pleasure" category). There were also a lot of picks that made me think to myself "No way-- who are they kidding?!" But almost every entry has an MP3 to accompany it, and when I listen to the snippet, I am forced to admit that, yes, that is an exceptionally cool bit of music. (Except for #22.) Robert Berry was dead-on with #27, though:
Sometimes the coolest song parts are just about the lyrics. Stan Ridgeway, the front man of the original version of Wall of Voodoo lent an inimitable nerdy twang to the lead vocals that was something special, and on a song like "Mexican Radio" it was just magical. Full of instruments and sound effects that I can't even begin to identify, this fuzzy sounding fast paced hit is full of great laughs (and has a great video, if you're ever lucky enough to see it), but only once every so often, do the stars align to produce a lyric as golden as:I wish I was in Tiajuana,
eating barbecued iguana!The video accompanies the line perfectly with a juicy giant lizard being rotated on a spit above a fire. And Stan delivers the line with gusto, with special tremble as he says, "bar-be-cuuuuuuuued" that ensures instant immortality.
So, go on. Start at #50, and work your way up to the top. You may be surprised.
Posted by rv at June 11, 2004 01:05 PM to music