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Top Five Madonna Identities in “Borderline”

I know you’ve been thinking, “Hey, Gavin! VJ, that book you wrote with the original MTV hosts Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn–when does it come out? Can I preorder it? Are you going to do any fun MTV stuff before its publication?” Well, I’m glad you asked. The publication date is […]

posted 1 April 2013 in Buy My Stuff. 1 comment

Top Five Songs With Outmoded Lyrical Telecommunications References

1. BeyoncĂ©, “Crazy in Love” (“Got me hoping you’ll page me right now”) 2. R.E.M., “Star 69” (“I know you called, I know you hung up my line”) 3. The Kinks, “Party Line” (“Wish I had a more direct connection”) 4. The Mekons, “Authority” (“Fax me in the morning”) 5. Blondie, “Hanging on the Telephone” […]

posted 1 October 2012 in Tasty Bits. 2 comments

Top Five Songs About Overflowing Rivers

Not all of them in New Orleans. 1. The Clash, “London Calling” 2. Randy Newman, “Lousiana 1927” 3. Led Zeppelin, “When the Levee Breaks” 4. Johnny Cash, “Five Feet High and Rising” 5. Bob Dylan, “Down in the Flood” Stay dry, Brooklyn.

posted 15 August 2012 in Tasty Bits. 2 comments

Five Perspectives on “Fight For Your Right”

The Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (to Party!)” isn’t just the rare song with two parentheses in the title, or the MTV debut of Tabitha Soren. Even after a three-decade Beastie career, it remains the cornerstone of their work. So five perspectives on a #7 single: 1. Public Enemy, “Party for Your […]

posted 9 May 2012 in Links, Tasty Bits. 2 comments

Top Five Songs About Chairs

1. Elvis Costello, “Blue Chair” 2. Hoagy Carmichael, “Rockin’ Chair” 3. Neil Diamond, “I Am… I Said” 4. Jeff Buckley, “Musical Chairs” 5. Terence Trent D’Arby, “Dance Little Sister” The Carmichael song has been covered by everyone from Louis Armstrong to Frank Sinatra to Richard Thompson.

posted 1 March 2011 in Tasty Bits. 4 comments

Top Five Atheist Songs

1. XTC, “Dear God” 2. John Lennon, “God” 3. The Sugarcubes, “Deus” 4. Randy Newman, “Old Man” 5. Tom Jones/John Lee Hooker, “Burning Hell” Point out the songs I missed in the comments before a vengeful Lord smites me down.

posted 5 October 2010 in Tasty Bits. 4 comments

Top Five Fictional Bears

1. Fozzie Bear 2. Winnie the Pooh 3. Paddington 4. Yogi Bear 5. The unnamed bear in The Winter’s Tale (“Exit, pursued by a bear”)

posted 13 September 2010 in Tasty Bits. 4 comments

Top Five Beatles Songs Referenced in Other Beatles Songs

1. “She Loves You” (in “All You Need Is Love”) 2. “I Am the Walrus” (in “Glass Onion”) 3. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (in “I Am the Walrus”) 4. “Strawberry Fields Forever” (in “Glass Onion”) 5. “You Never Give Me Your Money” (in “Carry That Weight”)

posted 25 August 2010 in Tasty Bits. 3 comments

Top Five Double-Career Musicians

I was thinking about musicians who have belonged to at least two major rock bands. There’s a lot of them, so let’s narrow it down: I’m interested in the sidemen, not stars like Dave Grohl or Eric Clapton. For our purposes today, spinoff projects don’t count (where two or more people from one band start […]

posted 1 March 2010 in Tasty Bits. 9 comments

Top Five “Greatest Hit” Anomalies

In my youth, when I owned only twenty or thirty albums, I’d guess that about half of them were greatest-hit collections. I was focused on value for money, but it was also an efficient crash course on recent musical history. Many of these records, however, had a song that just didn’t seem to fit. (This […]

posted 30 November 2009 in Tasty Bits. 4 comments