139. White Zombie – Thunderkiss ’65
The is THE most perfect driving song ever. Get behind the wheel with this tune cranking and you’ll find your speedometer climbing almost of its own volition. The driving bass line, the guttural delivery, the way you want to watch the needle climb past 100 as you scream 1965………..yeah. Windows down. Sun blazing. Is that a cop on your ass or is that the siren in the song? Probably both.
140. Helmet -In The Meantime
Bass. Drums. A mean guitar lick. And a voice like a ten ton hammer. Heaviness personified. A great song to play when you want to counter act your neighbor’s inistence on blasting Loverboy while he’s washing his car. Turn it up to 11 and watch him cower when Page Hamilton starts screaming.
141. GBH – Knife Edge
This song was made for the pit. The starts and stops, the breakneck pace, the winding guitar, the machine gun delivery of the lyrics, and then the drop, it’s like the band was giving you a break, letting you catch your breath before they kicked back in and you had to get your feet moving all over again. Livin’ my life on the edge of a knife. Kick ass.
142. Journey – Separate Ways
How can you not sing this song when it comes on? I can’t be the only one who takes the nearest thing that resembles a microphone and does a Steve Perry grimace while banging my fist against the wall motion. You have seen the video, haven’t you? Some people call this video and song the ultimate in cheese rock. And they are right. But I love it.
143. Bon Jovi – Dead or Alive
I hate Bon Jovi. But this song. I can’t help it.
This is how you measure a guilty pleasure song: does it make you burst out singing even when your heart and soul are yelling a big Darth Vader Noooooooooooooooo!? When this song comes on I am a fucking cowboy. Riding a steel horse. And when he gets to that part – oh yea you know what part – it’s all I can do to keep from pumping my fist in the air. Cause I’ve seen a million faces. And I’ve rocked them all.
Maybe Bon Jovi was lying to himself there, but we all sing it like we mean it.
145. 5th Dimension – Stone Soul Picnic
(this one is for Ken. He made so many suggestions and I’m finally getting around to one of his).
I’m about six years old, laying on a blanket in my backyard because my mother thinks being out in the sun will cure the nasty cold I have. I’ve got a glass of orange juice and a chocolate snack pack pudding -back when they used to come in metal tins with flip top lids that you could cut your tongue on, if you were the kind of person that licked the lid. Which I was. Blood and chocolate really isn’t a bad mix. My mom is stretched out next to me and we’re looking at clouds and pointing out shapes like poodles and castles and the little radio is on next to us. Might have been on WABC back in that year. I just know it was AM and sounded like it was being broadcast from a tin can. This song came on and mom and I just laid there in silence, watching the clouds drift by and the music made me feel so relaxed, so mellow, so good. I was six years old and getting a natural high. And my cold went away that night. Coincidence?
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