Phil’s Faves: Songs, September 4, 2011

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best songs that I listened to the previous week. Most songs will be current, but there are no boundaries. I’ve already stated on this web site that I am obsessed with music. I am constantly hunting it down whether it’s online, on CD, from my personal collection, from a library (Yes, I think the library is a great source of music–especially for music that you aren’t sure about.), TV, or radio. Since most of these sources mostly emphasize new music, the odds are pretty good that most of the songs on this list will be new. But in my search, I don’t use any boundaries for the other sources. I am just looking for good music that I haven’t heard, or happened to forget about. Everyone, including myself, has forgotten way more great music than they can ever remember-even if they are also music fanatics.
Also, there will be no rules concerning songs on this list. A song can show up or drop off a number of times. This will be the most volatile of my lists. It all depends on how much music I am exposed to during the week and what I find interesting. On really obscure stuff, I will try to include the source, if I know it.

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So, the same thing happened to my favorite songs category: There was a fire sale and more songs fell off this list than my favorite videos list. Well, I guess that means I have more space for Labor Day type of favorites including a pleasant double dose of one artist. Also, this is the first time that the same song tops both my favorite video and favorite song lists. Let’s hear it for Wally Pleasant!!!!

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Top Ten songs for the week of September 4, 2011

1. Stupid Day Job-Wally Pleasant
2. Brighter Than the Sun-Colbie Caillat
3. Industrial Disease-Dire Straits
4. I Wanna Go-Britney Spears
5. Lord Have Mercy on the Working Man-Travis Tritt
6. Long Way to Go-Alan Jackson
7. Post Graduate Overeducated Out of Work Blues-Wally Pleasant
8. Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall-Coldplay
9. Sparks Fly-Taylor Swift
10. Down at the Plaza-Pat Bergeson featuring Dan Anderson, Tom Roady, and Steve Shapiro

1) “Stupid Day Job”—You can’t help but laugh, smile, chuckle, or guffaw at a song that has “stupid” in it fifty-three times! It has a comfortable folk feel reminiscent of early Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers. It is the perfect Labor Day song and one that should be kept in a glass container on the wall to be broken open on any awful work day!
2) “Brighter Than the Sun”–-As summer starts to fade, this one tries to keep it going!
3) “Industrial Disease”—This might be Mark Knopfler’s sharpest and funniest song with many memorable lines: “Two men say they’re Jesus/One of them must be wrong,” or “How come Jesus gets industrial disease?” The farfisa organ keeps everything sounding happy as things appear to be going terribly wrong. This is a masterpiece!
4) “I Wanna Go” —This one will remind me of last summer.
5) “Lord Have Mercy on the Working Man”—This is a seemingly unforgotten song with a lot of great observations! My favorite is “Why’s the fat man busy dancin’/While the thin man pays the band. Oh, they’re billin’ me/For killin’ me!” Unfortunately, things haven’t changed since this song came out and should at least be remembered on Labor Day! His best song as far as I’m concerned because it’s his most real song!
6) “Long Way Home”—Alan Jackson usually isn’t big on good melodies, but the chorus on this one is very catchy!
7) “Post Graduate Overeducated Out of Work Blues”—This was my favorite Wally Pleasant song until I stumbled upon until I heard “Stupid Day Job!” Set against a “Mystery Train” background, Wally lays it on really thick with a tremendous amount of great lines. My favorite line is so long that I don’t feel like copying it, but it has to do with a thirty-five page paper he wrote analyzing a business situation and now he’s out of work anyway. Probably the best unemployment song ever!
8) “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” —Fading fast. Not one of their best.
9) “Sparks Fly”—I’m liking it more, but it hasn’t really grabbed me yet.
10) “Down at the Plaza”—A song from an all instrumental album called “Hippy Dance” by Pat Bergeson that starts out slow in one direction and then makes a complete peppy U-turn, sort of like a New Orleans funeral! It has nice guitar and harmonica (by Pat), vibraphone (a nice touch by Steve Shapiro), and tuba, (Yes, tuba, done surprisingly in a melodic manner by Dan Anderson!) all thrown together in a kind of latin shuffle that’s kept on track by the understated steady drumming of Tom Roady! There are also plenty of cymbal splashes, that absolutely make me lose my mind! This is one of the happiest songs I’ve heard in a while! Check it out at www.patbergeson.com!

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