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Yes, It's Another Day, Another Meme

I got another meme from SteveAudio, who got it from 12thHarmonic, where I believe it originated. This one is pretty fun, it's a High Fidelity music meme:

Top Five Lyrics that Move Your Heart

1. "I don't fuck much with the past but I fuck plenty with the future" - Patti Smith, Rock'n'Roll Nigger

2. "No mom, I'm not on drugs, I'm ok, I'm just thinking, you know, why don't you get me a Pepsi?" - Suicidal Tendencies, Institutionalized

3. "What the world needs now is a new kind of tension, cause the old one just bores me to death." - Cracker, Teen Angst

4. And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder -- Leonard Cohen, The Future

5. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop. - Billie Holliday, Strange Fruit (Lewis Allen)

Okay we can all see what direction this is taking. I'm really not that much of a hard-ass, most lyrics just look dumb to me when they're written down.

Top Five Instrumentals

1. Andres Segovia - Asturias from Suite Espanola, Op. 47

2. Ornette Coleman --Free Jazz

3. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown

4. Charlie Parker - Embraceable You

5. Joy Division - Incubation


Top 5 Live Musical Experiences

1. 1995 - Spiritualized at the Whiskey

2. 1979 - the Dils, the Dead Kennedys, Gang of Four and Buzzcocks at the Geary Temple (where I smoked all of Pete Shelley's Parliaments)

3. Jane's Addiction, 1984, that run-down hotel by MacArthur Park I can never remember the name of

4. 1995 - Brian Wilson at the River Horse Restaurant in Sundance (I stood next to the piano)

5. 1979 - Avengers, X and the Zeros at 330 Grove, San Francisco.

Runners up - L7 at the Whiskey, 1994; Bob Marley with Ron Woods at the Oakland Coliseum, 1979; Lou Reed at the Old Waldorf, 1979; the Kinks at the Paramount in Seattle in 1978; Bauhaus at the Rock Garden in 1980; Johnny Thunders at the Whiskey in 1981, and James Blood Ulmer somewhere in London in 1980, Tenacious D at the House of Blues, 1999, and the Bongos 1980, some club (Club Foot?) in Silverlake; Elvis Costello, Berkley Auditorium, 1978, the Clash, some place in SF they converted for the gig, 1978; Patti Smith, Winterland, 1977; Jimmy Martin, a high school gym in Robertson County, Tennessee, 2002, and Flipper in some fucking dirty warehouse in 1979.

Top Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To:

1. Spiritualized - One day Jason Pierce is going to die and everyone is going to realize what a complete frigging genius he was and there will be a Jeff Buckley-ish cult surrounding him, that's just the kind of luck he has.

2. Rank and File (or the Dils or Cowboy Nation or any band with Chip & Tony Kinman in it)

3. Vitold Lutoslawski

4. Harry Partch

5. Z'ev

(I would've said Richard Thompson, but Steve did)

Top Five Albums You Must Hear From Start to Finish

1. Dwight Yoakam - Hillbilly Deluxe
-- from 1987, it has Johnson's Love, which may be the best song he ever wrote

2. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew, just because Ken Burns hates it

3. Velvet Underground - VU - I'm one of those sad souls who thinks it's their very best album

4. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend

5. Flipper - Generic Flipper

Top Five Musical Heroes

1. Donita Sparks, L7 (pictured above)

2. Joan Jett

3. Kim Gordon

4. The Slits

5. Jessye Norman

I'm handing it off to Dan at Mental Sword Fighting, Geoff at Blog Sothoth and Jim at Vinyl Mine, who will probably blow everyone out of the water with his vast knowledge. Tag, you're it!

And feel free to chime in with comments on everything I missed. I just know I'm going to be remembering things for days.

Update: Geoff has finished his list which swings from King Crimson to Charles Mingus to Slayer and back to Paul's Boutique. Inspired choices all.

Jim's list is here -- Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Lisa Suckdog and Jesus Christ Superstar -- he does not disappoint.

And Dan's list is now up too -- a most excellent selection of songs -- including Rage, DJ Shadow, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and Slayer (seems to be a big live favorite).

Update II: TBogg's choices are now up which include Ry Cooder, Chet Baker, Beth Orton and the Flamingn Lips, as well as the original High Fidelity quote that inspired the whole thing:

A while back, Dick, Barry and I agreed that what really matters is WHAT you like, not what you ARE like. Books, records, films – these things matter! Call me shallow, it’s the fucking truth.

Yes it is.

posted by Jane Hamsher @ 5/05/2005 01:48:00 AM