(what else?) Pac-DAN's response to Pac-Man's I-Pod.

The 80's: nuclear war, girls, science fiction, high school, and MTV. Certainly not in that order. Girls, certainly. Nuclear war not for a second. Science fiction? Not really so much, either. High school and MTV? Perhaps, but only to the extent girls were viewable in either medium. Yup, it was pretty much girls that consumed my every thought - and what a remarkable little I had to show for it at the end of my four years! But on to the music.

1. Cheers: In case anyone didn't read my comments to a later post - I think, mathematically, I could only be tied in the amount of Cheers (or Cosby Show, or Family Ties, or Night Court...or Challenge of the Superfriends, for that matter) I watched (in those years at least), not surpassed. And count me among the legions that bought into the Woody Harrelson myth. Who knows, perhaps I started it. Perhaps it was started by my prolifically lying brother. In any event, I feel cleaner now, knowing the truth. The song, itself, was always well-regarded as a solid work of music, relative to other theme songs. The poignant concept of "...where everyone knows your name," indeed, became the unofficial motto for the show. And it's OK as a song, I guess. I find it really hard to separate the song from the show and judge it as purely on its own merits. And perhaps it's not intended that I should. I liike the "aahs" quite a bit. They're used to good effect.

2. You Make Loving Fun: Not one of my favorites of their collection - but definitely one of the coolest. It just kind of slides and funks along with bass/synthesizer action. The searing guitar - the little flourishes you speak of around 1:25 - not bad. My favorite part of this song is and has always been the fast little "chicka"-guitar right after "you - you make loving fun" at 2:40. Awesome. Doesn't sound pissed off to me - none of it - as it does to Meth Mix.

3. Bette Davis Eyes: I echo Gibbs in saying "Only Cory. Wow." She's pre-CO-cious! She's fe-RO-cious! I'd love to hear this song sung by Nico. Many, many years after the fact, I can realize that, purely on its musical & lyrical merits - not a bad song. I did hate it at the time. And MAN - but it SOOO screams "80!" The synths. The crazy "clap" effect. The starkness. The bizarreness. I can't separate it from the times and I could never. And Kim Carnes.: You're no Bonnie Tyler.

4. 99 Luft Balloons: Wow. Did I just say that the last song screamed "80s?" Did I just suggest that the last song used synths, crazy "clap" effects, and starkness? The only song that could top this neon, 200 foot, flashing sign of the times is, perhaps, Electric Avenue. Interesting musical occurrence here: I can recognize the catchiness of the song, and yet I hate it. Is it 'cause of the unwarranted pot-shot at Captain Kirk? Is it my aesthetic distaste for the German accent? Is it the stirring up of memories from my least-favorite decade of my life? Probably a bit of all. It just doesn't give me a good feeling when I hear it.

5. Walk of Life: Allow me to be the third to mention Mixdorf's fascination with "Brothers in Arms." I remember him mentioning that, if he put the cassette into his Walkman (which my mom pronounced "Walk Man") for a run, he felt like he could run forever. But I digress. My own memories & understanding of Brothers in Arms, at the time, was limited to (like most folks) this song & "Money for Nothing." How many grits, after buying BiA because of the Money for Nothing guitar solo and/or the fact he says "That little faggot, he's a millionare" were disappointed to no end upon hearing the rest of the album? Plenty. What do you think about this: "Walk of Life" is to Dire Straits what "Centerfield" is to John Fogerty? To Cory, anyway. I never loved the song, particularly. I remember being struck by the somewhat underwhelming nature of the"woo-hoo"s that kick off the vocals. Listening now - I can see how the structure & arrangement are there, but they don't do a whole lot for me. I really don't like the keyboards much at all. They remind me of some sort of "4th Street Cruise"-oriented music; intended for and appreciated by guys who roll their t-shirt sleeves up a couple of inches and have calendars with ladies wearing hot pants leaning over classic hot-rods. The whole thing kind of exudes a "50s rockabilly" sort of vibe - the echo, the timbre(?) of the guitars, the keyboards. I love what Gibbs says about "the boy can play." Knofler making a plea? Is it possible he is yet another troll? Too successful as a result of this album, perhaps...Perhaps half-troll.

6. Magic: Wow - now this is one song where it is almost impossible for me to separate myself from my history with the song - an intimate familiarity with it stemming from the fact that Cars: Greatest Hits was the 2nd album in my CD collection. I love Mixx's "one of those bands almost everyone had the greatest hits of and no actual albums, no matter how popular they were" (a possible wonderful topic for a freelance music magazine essay!), as well as Gibbs' "fangless vampire." Who needs fangs with an Adam's Apple that pointy? Anyway, asked before the arrival of PacMan's i-Pod, I would have said that it was one of my least favorite Cars songs, and one of which I don't have particularly endearing memories. Listening now, however, I have to say that (once one gets past the very 80s "drumming in an all metal room" sound, as well as the 80s keyboards for which I - like Mixdorf - have no particular love) it's a pretty solid song. Words not paving any new ground, though I get a kick out of hearing Ric say "all shackles and balls." T-Clog - so glad to hear that you are a "newbee fan of the guitar." I think there's some interesting little flourishes throughout in this song, and I look forward to your further discoveries in this world.

7. Small Town: I echo what the Pat's have both said in terms of my growing admiration & respect for the man & his work and will go so far as to say I recall the three of us (Dan, Pat, Pat) having a particular conversation - perhaps on a February Freeze Off - about this mutual newfound apprecations. Gibbs-yes! D, A, E! This song is no exception. Having not read anything about Bob Seger at this point of my comments, and purely out of gut feeling; I would put Mellencamp's "singing for the little guy" credibility over Bob Seger's any day of the week. Perhaps it has something to do with my hatred of B.S. (funny, huh, his initials - especially in light of what I'm about to say), but when I hear John Mellencamp sing any one of a number of songs about youth, struggles, small towns, "the establishment" etc.etc. I just hear sincerity (akin to John Denver singing about Rocky Mountains), whereas when I hear (usually only very briefly) Seger sing about similar topics, I hear a guy who's creating an image and targeting it to a very specific audience (more like Color Me Bad singing about "the street"). Icon vs. image, here, in my mind. Mellencamp would never shop at a WalMart. Seger NEEDS WalMart to in order to sell his shitty albums. Mellencamp, as I understand, is very concerned about migration of rural youth into major metros; though, as far as I can see, he's been unable to do very damned much about it. Oh, the song? Very straightforward, but in a good way. I agree with Gibbs in that there is more than meets the eye with his lyrics. Using simple words to convey meaningful sentiments (as opposed to another way of writing great lyrics: Sting's approach) is actually a challenging endeavor and one in which I think JM succeeds like few do. Early solo Paul Simon also great at this. I think the "power acoustic" chords and hard-hitting drums (his drums are always hard-hitting) are a nice, visceral underscoring of the sentiment, which is impossible to miss and very effectively conveyed.

8. Every Breath You Take: Can't add a ton more to the likeable elements of the song than did the Pats & can't add much more to the backdrop that is the career of The Police than has been covered so far on "Undercover." I, too, like it - but it is yet another song for which I have a very difficult time separating my ears & psyche from how many times I've heard it and how sick of it I may be. Gibbsy Cottontail, I did know that The Police are getting back together for a tour, and I also know that Best Buy drove six dump trucks loaded with money right up Sting's ass and that both entities have since taken a great deal about huge blocks of front-of-stadium tickets that were only available to 10,000+ point "achievers" in Best Buy's "Reward Zone" frequent buyer program. Mixdorf likes to say the concept of "selling out" does not truly exist, but perhaps we can all agree that some artists seem to like money a lot more than others. I personally think Sting ranks somewhere between 50 Cent and R-Kelly. You can't take anything away from this particular single, however, with its already-discussed relentless, guitar-driven rhythm section, and singular vocals (which Sting could, perhaps, be "persuaded" to rename Cingular vocals). Gibbs - on your favorite line, is it possible he sometimes says, "How my fool heart aches?" I almost like that better. OK, everyone - here's a 80s flashback for you: Who's bigger, Sting or me?????

9. Against the Wind: Well, after my comments in song #7, you're probably holding your breath. But rest assured, I fall a lot closer to the Mixdorf camp of "Overcoming extreme distaste for 'Like a Rock,' listening with fresh ears, and finding something quite pleasant" than I do Gibbs' "sorry, dude" opinion. I will take Mixdorf's thoughts regarding the romantic notion of the cowboy" another step and suggest that there is a large segment of society out there - we'll call them "the good ol' boys"- that are living under some sort of constant illusion that their neverending rage against some faceless, uppity, college-types from New England is allowing them to somehow live life on their own terms. Their rage is completely misdirected, however, and only effectual in that it wins elections for who should truly be the target of their ire: the billionares who sell them trucks and Miller High Life and pull all the strings that keep them downtrodden. I offer up this brief rant as background as to why I find the "against the wind" sentiment in the song quite frustrating. In the same way I find, "Take This Job and Shove It" frustrating. Songs that become rallying cries for some sort of hopeless, false movement that really only serves to diffuse the focus of the rage. In spite of the emotions that brought forth this rant, I will say that the emotions stem purely from an intellectual evaluation of the song. In my heart, I appreciate and enjoy the playfully wistful words and piano that work together nicely. This song also falls into a crazy sort of subgenre of music from my own personal memories collection (along with the Beatles' "Something" and, of all things, "Rhinestone Cowboy," that were songs I heard over, and over, and over during multiple car trips per year across this great nation of ours (to destinations as far as Oregon, New Mexico, and Florida), nestled in the back of a giant Chevy Station wagon, amidst the luggage. Pleasant, safe memories.

10. I Won't Back Down: Huge MTV-era memories of this one, which I didn't care for all that much at the time; but to which I have come around in the past few years. Love it now - for the simple, fist in the face of authority message others have pointed out. Love it, in fact, to the point that I performed it in my DanSolo acoustic guitar show last May. Very Petty-ish guitar, and OK harmonies, but nothing extraordinary. Other instrumentation is surprisingly straightforward, when I listen to it closely. Definite case, for me, of a "whole is greater than the sum of its parts," I guess. Which, in my estimation, makes it a complete opposite of Peter Gabriel's "Steam."

11. Take On Me: What 12 year old kid - hormones just emerging (our own Mighty Tom excepting), yet confused, didn't imagine himself AS the sweaty, T-Shirt-wearing Austrian being chased by pencil-drawn SS officers, and flung back and forth down a hallway in a trial of devotion, pursuing that feathered-hair 80s beauty in the diner? Count me, certainly, as among those who did. Perhaps coming to terms with this, 20-some odd years after the fact, I recently re-enacted the scene - adorning myself in a plain white t (tucked into tight-fitting jeans), dousing myself with water, and flinging myself back and forth between a set of doorjams while Sharon looked on, mouth agape (with wonder and desire, I imagine), all the while the synth-accompanied crooning of "Take On Me" blasted from the kitchen boom-box. Hard for me not to like this song. I love Mixdorf saying comprehension of the (ESL-challenged, perhaps) lyrics "always seem to be one or two syllables away." Certainly, a serious student of composition (or a Poet Laureate) might label a song like this a pop throwaway - but if it is, it is the best kind, in my opinion. Much in the way of "500 Miles" by the Proclaimers. Not paving any new ground, but irresistable. Perhaps a bit too much synth, however. This becomes particularly evident during the "synth solo."

12. Cheers Theme (full version): I sort of agree with everything Mixdorf says on this; the song going psychologically where the TV theme didn't, and in that I'm not sure I needed to hear that version. I join Gibbons in asking, "what the heck is that sound after two seconds? There's something prose-y about the words and how they are presented, relative to the backing music in this version, that seem awkward - or stark & slightly embarassing (for the singer/songwriter). Reminds me of Joe Jackson.

Executive Summary: No one in this group resists a little trip down memory lane! Thanks!

B.S.: Every Breath You Take; however, probably not the one I enjoy hearing the most at this point.
S.I.W.H.I.: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun