Tagged by Daisy!

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring-summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to."

I go thru phases of listening to tons of music then not listening at all. Right now I'm in a "not listening at all" phase. However, that doesn't mean that music isn't constantly playing in my head. Or as the Buzzcocks say, "There's a harmony, in my head." My taste in music is extremely eclectic. I love everything except rap/hip hop and new country. You are just as likely to find me listening to Mozart as you will the Sex Pistols, Partridge Family, bluegrass, 1940's swing, or the Grateful Dead.

1. "Someone's Lookin' At You" by the Boomtown Rats, because it seems that everywhere I go, there are cameras. Traffic cameras, store security cameras, parking lot cameras.... It's getting to the point where I can't deal with a wedgie situation in a store anymore w/o being watched by someone. I used to have this poster in my bedroom, much to my parents' chagrin.

2. "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane, because it reminds me of my fantabulistic trip to Vancouver Island last summer.... ....the amazing time I had, how much I love to travel by myself, and how utterly heartbroken I am that I have to skip my annual trip to Canada this summer b/c of the damn economy and gas prices. Oh well. At least I have my photo albums.

3. "Bittersweet Symphony" by the Verve, because you have to admit, it's a killer, hooky song. It also reminds me of my trip to Vancouver, BC in the summer of 2006. And sometimes I feel like the words were written just for me:

"Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life

Try to make ends meet

You're a slave to money then you die

I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down

You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet yeah

No change, I can't change

I can't change, I can't change

But I'm here in my mold, I am here in my mold

And I'm a million different peoplefrom one day to the next

I can't change my mold

No, no, no, no, no, no, no,no,no,no,no,no..."

4. Just watched my alltime fave rave movie, "Paper Moon" and that's chock full of music that I absolutely love. They used authentic recordings of the music that was popular in the 1930's. I was lucky enough to score the soundtrack album a few years ago and it's awesome. One of my faves that seems to get stuck in my head a lot is called "Keep Your Sunnyside Up". A lot of the music in the early 1930's was very topical and tried to cheer people up during The Great Depression. "Sunnyside" is one such song. Of course the way things are going in this country, we may need to resurrect some of the Depression Era music.

"There's one thing to think of when you're blue, there are others much worse off than you.

If a load of troubles should arrive, just laugh and say it's great to be alive.

Keep your sunny side up, up, hide the side that get's blue.

If you can't buy lobster and cake, you're in luck, your tummy won't ache.

So keep your sunny side up, up,

Let your laughter come thru, thru,

If you meet with gloom, don't fall down go boom,

Keep your sunny side up

Keep your sunny side up, up, hide the side that gets blue.

If you have nine sons in a row, start a baseball team, they make money you know.

So keep your sunny side up, up, let your laughter come thru,

Stand up on your legs, be like two fried eggs, keep your sunny side up."

5. "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" has also been coming and going thru my head, because many of our clients have mortgaged themselves to the hilt and now have massive negative equity on their homes, thanks to their subprime loans & plummeting property values. I keep singing, "The percentage you're paying is too high priced, while you're living beyond all your means, and the man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he's made off your dreams...." And it also reminds me of road trips we took up to Fort Bragg (CA not NC) in the 1990's, as it was on a mix tape we used to listen to a lot.

6. And what would be a list of summery songs without a selection by the Dead. This is a tough one b/c so many songs remind me of summer tour. But I'd have to go with their version of "Hey Pocky Way" from 7/3/88, Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine. I met Brian at that show. Can you believe the ticket price was only $20???? I found a pic of these tix on line as mine are in our Dead scrapbook. I used to cheerfully ask the gate attendants "Rip it pretty, please!" so that they wouldn't tear it carelessly, as seen above.

7. My final choice is my fave Bruce Hornsby song, "Across the River," which reminds me so much of the summer of 1990. We wuz dirt po' back then. Po' po' po'. Couldn't even afford cable TV. Had to buy generic beer. I saved a can. It's white and says, "BEER" on it. By the summer of 1990, both of us were finally hitting our stride in SF: We'd survived our first major earthquake, we got to our very first New Years Eve and Mardi Gras Dead shows, we'd met Bobby Weir and Jerry Garcia, we had a ton of new Deadhead friends, and we managed to scrape up enough $ to see the Dead as much as possible. Our lives literally revolved around the Dead back then: tape trading, shows, swapping lists, hanging out w/ friends practically every night, eagerly awaiting our next copy of "The Golden Road" or "Relix", calling the hotline 3x a day to see if new shows were announced. That was the summer that their keyboardist, Brent Mydland, died and Hornsby stepped in along with Vince Welnick. Unfortunately, even though Jerry Garcia is the lead guitarist on the studio version of "Across the River", for some reason the Dead never played it. At least not that I know of.

No pressure, but consider yourselves tagged:

Axe

Susan

Kris

A Moralized Criminal

Bryde

Kathleen

Danger Panda