[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 5: A Song That Reminds Me of Someone

When I was in college, my most over-the-top, crazypants, tortured love affair was with a talented, if a bit bat-shit crazy, actor. Shortly after we started seeing each other, he starred in Falsettos. When I hear any song from Falsettos, I think of him, but “What More Can I Say?” is the one he would sing to me. While he was on stage. Acting, schmacting: His boyfriend was in the audience, and that was a love song, and that boyfriend turned to a quivering mess of Jell-O when being sung to. Ah, young love. Ah, stupid, stupid, stupid young love. Anyway, here’s a grainy video of the original Marvin, Michael Rupert, singing the song. The photo here is from a clearly much sexier version of the show that ran in San Francisco a few years ago.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 4: A Song That Makes Me Sad

This song. Jesus! It’s the last track on Prince’s probably most underrated album, Parade, which is my favorite after Purple Rain. It’s an absolutely gorgeous song that perfectly encapsulates, in both lyrics and notes, grief and understanding. I used to be unable to listen to it; I’d stop the tape at the first note. And when it was played, only on piano and without singing, at my friend Gabriel’s memorial service, I couldn’t stand it and had to leave the auditorium until the song was done. The first video is the song as recorded, and the second is Prince doing it live.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 3: A Song That Makes Me Happy

The first time I heard Madonna’s “Express Yourself” — or really heard it, as opposed to passively listening to it on the radio — was when I visited my friends Rachel and Laura at Indiana University when I was still a senior in high school. I was thisclose to coming out, and they had cultivated a group of sassy ladies and gay boyfriends, and when they all walked towards whatever party they were attending they sang “Express Yourself.” It was years before Sex and the City and it was so, so Sex and the City. Or Party Girl. Or Will & Grace. Anyway, it changed my life. Not only did I see what kind of fun I could be having in college as an out homo with sassy lady friends, but the lyrics… they spoke to me. It gets better.

Now, whenever I hear “Express Yourself,” I get so damn happy.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 2: My Least Favorite Song

Well, this is confusing. Is this the song that I hate the most or is the song lowest on the hierarchical list of my favorite songs. I’m betting it’s the former, but you can never know for certain with these things. So, I’m going with a song I hate. There are a lot of songs that I think are lame or boring, but for me to hate it, it’s got to be some combination of cynical, unoriginal, and badly performed.

Normally, I’d go with a Puff Daddy/P. Diddy thing, because he’s not just a bad rapper but he’s also the grossest abuser of the sample, ever. He just raps over other artist’s songs, and he usually raps about how awesome and rich he and his friends are. (See, for example, “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” and “I’ll Be Missing You.”) But then came Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long.” He’s not only just rapping — or “rapping” — over a better song, but that song is “Sweet Home Alabama,” which is like a dog whistle for arrogant, South-will-rise-again Southerners. It’s a song written to defend the South against Neil Young’s “Southern Man” and “Alabama.” Kid Rock’s career was waning, his own songs weren’t doing much, he needed a new audience, so he covered a song that would suck in country fans. He succeeded. Gross.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 1: My Favorite Song

The 30 Day Song Challenge is a Facebook meme in which you post a song — or rather, a video of a song — every day for a month, with each song falling into a set category for that day. Day 1, for example is “your favorite song.” The rules are posted here. I know that this was meant to be done on Facebook, but video posts have such limited captioning. So, I’m going to do it on my blog. This also means that my non-Facebooked family and friends can play along. (And you’re still not on Facebook? Really?)

When I posted this on Facebook yesterday, I wrote, “WTF? Who has only one favorite song? This is the one that popped into my head.” But then I realized, this is my favorite song. It’s perfect. Not only is it one of the greatest written pop songs ever, and it’s probably even the best thing Prince has written, which is really saying something, but Sinéad O’Connor’s performance of it is both gut-wrenching and beautiful. It’s gorgeous heartbreak. Also, dude, the video. It’s iconic. It’s epic. That tear. OMG.

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