[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 25: A Song That Makes Me Laugh

I have long argued that Britney Spears’s second album Oops!… I Did It Again is one of the great comedy albums of the last 30 years. My friend Eric bought it for me for my birthday when we were in Amsterdam together in 1999, and I giggled through my first listen of the CD. I thought it was so bad it was funny, and then I realized that there’s no way that songs like “Oops!… I Did It Again” and “Lucky” could be anything but deliberately comic, and the cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” has to be a joke. And the spoken word interludes? So absurd that they must be ironic. Like the one before “Lucky”:

(Phone rings once and answer machine picks up!)

Britney: Hey, what’s up?
This is Brit and I’m not in right now,
So do your thang.
Beeeeep.
Ha, ha, ha
I’m just kidding!

(Tone beeps)

Guy: (Scuffs)
Yo Brit, you’re a nerd!
You really need to change that message.
But I was thinking about that movie we saw the other night.
You know how she had all that fame and all that money,
but she still wasn’t happy?
Wouldn’t that make a cool song?

The answer is, of course, yes.

Bonus: My friend Curtis thought that the lyric was “She cries, cries, cries in her lonely car.” And not in her lonely heart. LOLz.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 24: A Song I Want To Play At My Funeral

Late again. Whoops.

Joni Mitchell’s “River” is one of the most beautiful and moving songs ever written. I’m pretty sure that if it was played at my funeral, the folks who aren’t already crying will start. And I want a truckload of tears at my funeral.

Below, I’ve included the original album version and a live version she did with Herbie Hancock. (If you don’t have Hancock’s Joni Mitchell album, you’re missing out.)

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 23: A Song I Want To Play At My Wedding

Well, since Rob and I have been married for nearly six years, I have already had a wedding, so the song I wanted to play at my wedding was the song I actually did play at our wedding. My brother and his now wife made two mix CDs for our engagement, and among the awesome songs they compiled was Pat Benetar’s “We Belong.” When we were listening to the CDs driving back to New York from Boston with our friends Liz and Jason (who were going to be in the wedding), “We Belong” came on, we all sang along, giggled a bit, and I said, “This is so going to be our wedding song.” It’s also a rockin’ pop song, and full of over-the-top metaphors and emotions. It’s a totally tubular 80s classic.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 22: A Song I Listen To When I’m Sad

Again, this is too much like Day 4. WTF? And again, I’ll split the hair and say that this is probably meant to be a song that I will play when I’m sad in order to fell… happier? sadder? Well, when I’m sad, a happy song will just annoy me. I prefer to wallow a bit, even find something that will break the seal and make me cry. The few things that will do it are songs from tragic gay loves stories — psychoanalyze that — specifically “What Would I Do?” from Falsettos (there’s that show again) and anything that Gustavo Santaolalla wrote for the Brokeback Mountain sountrack; I’ve included “The Wings” and the Emmylou Harris-sung “A Love That Will Never Grow Old.”


For a limited time: WHAT WOULD I DO with Stephen Bogardus

Michael Rupert | Myspace Video

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 21: A Song I Listen To When I’m Happy

Is there anything better than this picture?

Anyway, Day 21 is is perfect for today, since it’s my birthday. And I’m happy, not least because my Facebook wall is overloaded with people writing “Happy Birthday!” on it. It’s wonderfully moving seeing these things from people who I’ve never met in person, from my oldest friends, from my newest friends, even from my nursery school teacher. But today’s song is way too similar to Day 3’s, which is a song that makes me happy. I guess one is a song that if it comes on, I’m happy, and today is a song that I put on because I’m happy. I think they’re somewhat interchangeable, and I could answer “Express Yourself” again, but I think that would be cheating.

Anyway, I’ve found myself listening to Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” when I’m in a great mood recently, and it is very happy-making. It’s her first and best song. And, because it’s my birthday, I’m going to be happy for longer than four minutes, and I’m adding on Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA,” which I just adore in so many, admittedly wrong, ways. For me, it’s pure joy.

Dance! Dance! Dance! Party! Party! Party!

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