1. Hans Zimmer, "Fighting 17th." From the soundtrack to a movie (Backdraft) by one of Hollywood's most overrated directors, Ron Howard. Not being a fan of either the film or of soundtracks in general, I don't have a lot of music like this in my collection. But the Backdraft score served as much of the theme music for one of the great television shows of the time, the original Japanese version of Iron Chef, a favorite in our house from back in the day when it was shown on the local "international" channel, first with subtitles and then with nothing at all to help us Anglos (Food Network later showed dubbed versions, of course).
2. Bonnie Raitt, "I Can't Make You Love Me." Luck of the Draw, her first album after her comeback/breakthrough, was as good as everyone thought Nick of Time was. NPR-via-Wikipedia tells us that this song is hard for Raitt to sing: "I love that song, so does the audience. So it's almost a sacred moment when you share that, that depth of pain with your audience. Because they get really quiet, and I have to summon ... some other place in order to honor that space."
3. Massive Attack, "Unfinished Sympathy." And suddenly, there was trip-hop. Seems like a flaw in the old shuffle play, going from Bonnie Raitt to this, but the lyrics of the two songs make a nice segue. Shara Nelson on vocals.
4. Geto Boys, "Mind Playing Tricks on Me." As surprising as any recording ever made, as if GG Allin had recorded "Afternoon Delight." The band known for songs like "Read These Nikes" ("When I dispose of your ass like waste, and nothin' but my shoe is in your muthafuckin face, you're readin these Nikes") and "Mind of a Lunatic" (which forced them to change labels, as Wikipedia puts it, "because of controversy over the graphic portrayal of rape, necrophilia, and murder in the song") comes up with one of the most haunting tracks in gangsta rap. The album from which it came gave no hint … bandmember Bushwick Bill had been shot in the eye, and the cover of the album showed Bushwick in the hospital with his fellow Geto Boys (title of the album? We Can't Be Stopped). But "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" gives the lie to any blanket stereotype about representations of violence in hip-hop. When Bushwick closes out the song, in a deluded state, punching the concrete streets, and whispers "God DAMN, homie, my mind is playing tricks on me," it's scary on a far different level from the cartoonish material the Geto Boys usually dish out.
5. Naughty By Nature, "O.P.P." You down with OPP?
6. The KLF, "Justified and Ancient." Nowadays, people do mash-ups of oddball whodathunkit pairings. The KLF did the real thing. As the lyrics note, the acid house band KLF "called me up in Tennessee. They said 'Tammy, stand by the jams,' Tammy being Tammy Wynette. Wynette gives a fine rendition, and in the video, she acts with a literalness that suggests she might actually believe in Mu Mu Land. "Mu Mu Land looks a lot more interesting than Tennessee," Tammy noted, "but I wouldn't want to live there."
7. Michael Jackson, "Black and White." I think I might have mentioned this in an earlier Random Ten … what we know or think we know about Michael Jackson now seems to have made his past disappear, as if the MJ of today could never have been so popular or so great a musician. I'd point out that Dangerous, which came out nine years after the career-defining Thriller, sold 30 million copies. "Black or White" is another Michael Jackson song that borrows a rock guitarist to great effect … Slash's riff here is irresistible. It's also impossible to pick just one video to link to here. Jackson is such a vital live performer that it's always tempting to link to a concert video … if that's your style, go here to see Slash join MJ on stage (and listen to Slash take the Eddie Van Halen part in "Beat It" as well). In the meantime, there's the original video, one of the most famous ever by any artist. It stars cute little Macaulay Culkin, Norm from Cheers, and Peggy Lipton, and features the morphing technique to make a point about the commonality behind the races. As if that wasn't enough, once the video was "over," Jackson gave us an extra four minutes of him tap dancing, screaming, and destroying shit. It made little sense, but it pissed people off, and so the long version of the video is rarely shown now, most versions just ending before the oddball coda. If you want to watch the long version, go here, but note that the link doesn't always work.
8. The Divinyls, "I Touch Myself." Shuffle play has a joke … one reason people were disturbed by the "Black and White" video coda was that Jackson kept grabbing his crotch. This song, meanwhile, led to the following dialogue, beloved of Buffy fans, from back before Willow became so worldly:
Willow: So, you two were sweeties in fifth grade?
Buffy: Not even. Ford wouldn't give me the time of day.
Ford: Well, I was a manly sixth-grader. I couldn't bother with someone that young.
Buffy: It was terrible. I moped over you for months. Sitting in my room listening to that Divinyls song 'I Touch Myself'. [pause] Of course, I had no idea what it was about. [pause] Hey, are you busy tonight? We're going to the Bronze, it's the local club, and you have to come.
Ford: I'd love to! But if you guys already had plans... Would I be imposing?
Xander: No, only in the literal sense.
Ford: Okay, then! I gotta find the admissions office, get my papers in order.
Buffy: Well, you know what, I'll take you there, and I'll see you guys in French!
Ford: It was good to meet you. [they leave]
Xander: 'This is Ford, my bestest friend of all my friends!' Jeez, doesn't she know any fat guys?
Willow: Oh, that's what that song is about?!
9. Boyz II Men, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday." A gorgeous New Jack ballad, a cover of a song from Cooley High, this song is the go-to song at funerals, a connection the video makes explicit.
10. John Prine, "Everything Is Cool."
Everything is cool
Everything's okay
Why just before last Christmas
My baby went away
And I find it real surprising
For myself to hear me say
That everything is cool
Everything's okay
Everything is cool
Everything's okay
Why it was just before last Christmas
My baby went away
My Trusted MOGs
Persuasive as you are, I just can't bring myself to engage with Michael Jackson revisionism. Maybe because I didn't feel him (sorry, poor word choice) back then. On the other hand, your efforts to return the Geto Boys to our collective consciousness are laudable. And yes, I am down with OPP - you know me. Newark represent!
My Trusted MOGs
Awesome compendium as usual. Killer Ike Hayes sample (Hung up on my baby from the 3 Tough Guys Soundtrack) on that Geto Boys tune,too.
My Trusted MOGs
It's interesting that you mention Michael Jackson revisionism ... I don't think that's what I'm doing, I'm trying to counteract it. My sense is that people have forgotten the great stuff he did because they can't see his past without thinking about what's happened in more recent years. OTOH, much as I love MJ's best work, I'm a Prince guy in the Prince-vs.MJ debate.
My Trusted MOGs
Funny the way these things work. I've been hearing so much "I never thought Michael Jackson was all that great" for the past couple of years now, ever since his troubles started, that I've started to take that as the conventional wisdom. But you're right - in actuality, it's the revisionist view. I guess what I'm actually reacting to the potential revising of the revisionist view and the return to something close to the original view. (If that's not confusing enough.) But I've never shared the original view. A lot of "Thriller" and "Bad" can be admired from a professional standpoint, but it seemed kind of showbizzy and second-hand to me. Chacun a son gout, and all that....
My Trusted MOGs
We're entering Abbott and Costello range, now :-).
I don't mind showbizzy. I also think "I Want You Back" is the greatest Motown single of all time, so I'm a little suspect in this area.
My Trusted MOGs
The best? It's in the Top Twenty, mebbe, but it's hard for me to rank it ahead of "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "The Love I Saw In You Was Just a Mirage," or "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game." Then again, I think Lou Reed's first solo album is still his best, so I too am perhaps not to be trusted....