Yay! A deeply embarrassing meme!
Shazza didn't exactly tag me, but politely hinted which is much nicer.
So let's have a look at the rules before we rip 'em up and bin 'em:
1. Post the link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Okey dokey.
2. Share 5 songs you are embarrassed to admit to others that you like and tell why.
Yikes! This is gonna hurt.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.
Fuck that.
Actually, I thought I'd already done this one but a brief and furtive delve into the archives reminded me that what I had done was in fact this similarly themed meme: Maria's Ten Records In Your Collection That Nobody Should Ever Confess To Owning.
I confess to owning a lot of very peculiar crap.
Shazza's meme, however, has that extra cruel twist of nastiness that I love; the admission that I actually LIKE these songs.
Man, that's harsh!
Right … Time to fess up to the awful truth.
Warning … This is gonna get nasty!
(1) George Michael: Careless Whisper.
I saw you flinch!
And I must confess I winced myself whilst typing it.
Hokay … Georgie boy: love him or hate him you gotta admit that's a fucking gorgeous sax riff.
And the lyrics just wrench a part of me that shouldn't be wrenched.
There's no particular personal reason why I like this; no association or memory attached to it (least of all one set in a public lavatory with a policeman); I simply think it's a fine piece of songwriting.
I love this song and I am deeply ashamed.
(2) Wings: My Love.
People love to hate Wings.
I grew up a hardcore Beatles fan in the sixties but in the early seventies faced understandable social ostracism for liking Wings (I was also uncool enough to like Yoko and Linda).
Again, there are no personal associations with this song but the solo by Henry Mc.Cullogh is one of my all time favourites (now there's an idea for a Dive post: my all time favourite guitar solos).
It is a gorgeous piece of guitar playing and it tears me apart. Like George Harrison's solo in "Something" it is simple and heartfelt and perfect for the song.
The lyrics don't suck much, either.
(3) Heart: Dreamboat Annie.
Okay, Okay … Snigger all you want. This one does have associations.
I was young, I was (scary, this) cool, I was enjoying copious sexual congress with the hottest girl in school and the two of us played this album for most of 1977.
I cringe at the associations the track "Magic Man" has, but I also giggle and grin smugly.
Sigh …
(4) Art Garfunkel's version of "I Only Have Eyes For You".
Brr … My hardcore friends are gonna read this and rip me to shreds.
The Peggy Lee version, fine; The Flamingos, wonderful; but Art Garfunkel? Holy crap! This one's going to come back and haunt me at gigs for the rest of my life.
But hey … Ming The Menstrual and I were young and in love way back in the Jurassic and this was one of our songs (the other - somewhat bizarrely - was Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen" … Strange but true).
(5) Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn.
I can hear Michael's snorts of derision but I have a huge soft spot for this most difficult of second albums.
I mean, how the hell do you follow Tubular Bells?
Certainly not with this critically derided and twee confection of faux-folkie twaddle.
But I still love it.
The uilleann pipes on side two tug at my soul, awakening a deep yearning that - oddly enough - only uilleann and Northumbrian pipes can reach (I can't abide Scottish bagpipes but most other pipe music calls to something feral and atavistic somewhere icky inside my abdomen).
Yes, you have to hit STOP before the embarrassingly awful song at the end, but the instrumental sections are quite lovely.
Hey ho …
Any shred of reputation and credibility that I once had are now ripped away and I face a life of torment and ridicule, but at least this shame is at last out in the open and I can breathe a sigh of something approximating relief.
I wouldn't dream of inflicting this mental torture on anybody else so I'll tag nobody, but should you be waxing masochistic, feel free to give it a go.
Lay bare your pain.
Fess up to the Donny Osmonds, the David Cassidys, the Bay City Rollers, the Streisand, the Cher, the (shudder) Andrew Lloyd Webber monstrosities that lurk in your mental closet so the rest of us can wince and giggle at your expense.
You know you want to.
23 comments:
Oh, I love Art Garfunkel's version of I Only Have Eyes For You ... and Wings. Then again, as you know, I have absolutely no shame about my dubious taste in music.
I also must admit that I own every Art Garfunkel album. There is this song called "All I Know" that makes me weep each and every time I hear it.
And I was never interested much in David Cassidy, but now...on The Partridge Family, I thought Laurie Partridge was about the most hot woman I could ever imagine dating. Now, I see re-runs of the show and I am sort of like..."HUH?"
Dive,
I fessed up to a George Michael song too. Mine was the Wham tune. The song is an ear worm it just gets stuck in your head. He does have a nice ass though!
I once went to a Cher concert, 6th row center. I got a little drunk and the took turns yelling, "I wanna fuck Cher" with the gay guy next to me.
Cher does that to people.
When I was 12 my favorite song was "Don't Give Up On Us" by David Soul (aka Hutch from Starsky & Hutch). I just watched him sing it on a YouTube video and it still gives me chills.
And although I'm not a big Streisand fan, I love "The Way We Were" (but maybe that's because in the movie Robert Redford says Katie a lot).
Yay for you guys!
No shame at all. Hee hee. You just dive right in there with the confessions.
Wonderful!
Betty: You are too young to remember those things. That's scary.
Maria: Hee hee! Susan Dey, eh? Hokay, I'll fess up I had the real hots for her, too. You've got taste.
Sigh …
Neetzy: If I agreed with you about his ass I'd be in real trouble.
T: Cher scares me. All that plastic actually moving like its alive. Brr …
EEEEK! Oh, thanks, Katie. If I get that stuck in my head all day I'm walking under a train.
Robert Redford, eh? Nice choice. Though my favourite Streisand song is "I'm Five".
more than words - extreme
the king of wishful thinking - go west
photograph - nickelback
good morning sunshine - oliver
two princes - spin doctors
and i LOVE listening to them all! xoxoxox
Mike Oldfield i can't bear, but yes Careless Whisper! I like that too but then that doesn't surprise you does it. Art Garfunkel was a massive favourite of mine way back and actually still is. Eyes was great, and Mr. shuck n' Jive, remember that? Marionette? Ahhhhhhhh.....i've heard and sung them all a thousand times.
David Cassidy adorned my bedroom walls for a long time. He was looking at me from those posters. Whaaaat? He was, honest....sigh...
Glad I didn't mention any of the Stephen Sondhiem tunes I had wanted to put up there!
You got me with the George Michael song....you definitely got me on that one!
I don't want to. But I like Careless Whisper too! In fact I have a George Michael CD somewhere. Snigger. I always thought it was such a shame that he went the other way.
Most of my other embarrassing choices are on my playlist which I think has nearly had it's day. Even I'm getting sick of it.
mmmmwwwwaaaa
Savannah: I'll confess to occasionally listening to More Than Words and Two Princes; they were both in our sets for years.
xoxox
Lynn: Artie seems to be a hit with the ladies. As for David Cassidy … ahem … Never admit to that as it reveals your age. Hee hee.
Shazza: Yay, show tunes!
Ha! Careless Whisper gets me every time, too. Dammit!
Mme: I think it's such as shame he went the other way, too, as I don't really fancy him. He could knock out a decent tune, though.
I must admit to scouring your playlist for The Beatles and Cream, but that's just my age.
Anonymous … You're weird!
Are you the same anonymous as before? We'll have to start giving you guys numbers.
Well, Dive, most of these I have never heard, but I confess to singing along with Neil Diamond lately. How utterly gross!
Hee hee hee, Katherine. Made even worse by the fact that my mum used to like him back in the seventies.
I love Annie's Song by John Denver. Actually I love most of Denver's early stuff.
The entire soundtrack to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. South American Getaway being my fav.
I will still listen to the whole Ommadawn album.
My favorite Manilow tune is Weekend in New England.
As for Senor Art Garfunkel. I still gotta sing along every time Bridge over Troubled Waters plays.
Thanks for your message Dive. The accident was horrific with a family devastated - their Mum killed, and her 2 teenage boys critically injured. The only saving grace - the youngest child got out with only scratches. Life is short so we must make the most of it everyday!!!
So in honour of that I am going to read your posts and have a good laugh - I need it!!!!
I hate to admit it - I did like David Cassidy too!!! But I was an Elvis fan as a teenager before he got all big and slurry - sssh!!!!
I do like Country Rd by John Denver too - God there it is all out in the open!!!!
Ooooooh, Vic! You hit a nerve there.
Rocky Mountain High and Sunshine On My Shoulder occasionally creep back into my head and I sometimes let 'em stay there.
The doo-bi-doo-bi-doo Southern Getaway from Butch Cassidy is nothing to be ashamed of. It is AWESOME! I love it and it's often running through my mind when I'm running up escalators and along platforms to catch my stupid train.
You got me with Manilow; I could never get into someone my mum listens to. And Bridge Over Troubled Waters is still one of the best songs ever.
Excellent choices and almost no loss of reputation there.
Oh, Jules. That is such devastating news.
My thoughts are with them and with you.
And hey, nobody should be ashamed of Elvis, except perhaps his dietician and whoever got him to record Wooden Heart.
Hang in there.
XX
Problem: I only recognized the first song and artist! I was 11 or 12 when that came out. And your post title - HIT PARADE! That was the name of the TV programme that showed song videos from the most popular artists - like Wham!
I forgot to say, the one song of George Michael's that I love and obviously not ashamed to admit is Kissing A Fool. Love the lyrics, love the melody, love the general tone/mood of the song and the video - it was in black and white.
Joy, mercifully you're too young to remember most of that rubbish.
I'd already been an old man for decades when Wham came along, which makes my Careless Whisper addiction even more shameful. Hee hee.
Poco-Crazy Love
Michael Martin Murphy-Wildfire
Harry Chapin-Taxi
Glen Campbell-By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Bread-Make It With You
Really! There are quite a few more and they are just as sappy!
How about Indian Reservation-Paul Revere & The Raiders or One Tin Soilder-Coven....there now you know I am a freak!
Hey, nothing to be ashamed of there, Prudence. Indeed Phoenix and Bread still get regular play on my iPod.
But then your musical taste is as close to immaculate as any human's can get.
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