Song Roulette

I’ve been trying to find a way to incorporate more music into my blog, since it’s what I listen to every time I write a post. I think I found the solution. Please give this a chance.

With every song I hear, there are thoughts that come to mind. Maybe I remember the first time I heard it. Maybe it brings up a certain time in my life. Maybe it reminds me of a memory, person, place, thing, food, funny story, or a Blockbuster Video.

Regardless, I feel like sharing those thoughts.

So this is what I’m going to do. My list of songs has been put on shuffle. I’m going to hit next, write down the name of the song, and share with you the thoughts that come to mind.

I have no clue how many songs I’ll do, so I’ll stop when I feel like it. Keep track of how many songs you recognize and let me know in the comments section. The person with the most is my honorary best friend for the day.

1. A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton

What a gem to start off with. This song always seemed to come on the radio as I was going home from a softball game when I was a kid. I remember one night, in particular, it was raining and for the duration of the song I watched the raindrops on the window race each other to the bottom. Raise your hand if you used to do that.

2. Black & Blue – CFO$

I’m willing to bet that fewer than two people will know what this song is. This is the old theme song to Friday Night Smackdown. If you don’t follow wrestling, you’ve probably skipped to #3 by now.

3. Not Ready To Make Nice – Dixie Chicks

Should I be embarrassed to have this song? I’ve always been self-conscience about admitting to like certain songs for some reason. Regardless, I first heard this song on American Idol when I was a young lad and really liked how the contestant sang it. Fight me.

4. If It Means A Lot To You – A Day To Remember

I can probably credit blogger Meghan for me finding this song. I remember she mentioned this band on her blog, so I looked it up and came across this one.

5. Shut Up And Dance – Walk The Moon

This was big in 2014. I don’t know many people who didn’t like this song.

6. Making Due – Arkells

I think I heard this song in some sort of sports montage video in 2016. But I remember it coming on my iPod as I walked 40 minutes in downtown Toronto to a charity softball tournament last summer. My calves were screaming.

7. Hate Me – Blue October

First heard this song in high school. Over the last few weeks I’ve been listening to this song quite a bit. I finally took the time to read the lyrics and figure out what it means. Plus the live versions on YouTube are fantastic.

8. A New Game – Tom Hedden

First heard this song in Madden 2004. It was menu music. It always got me pumped up. Or as pumped up as a 12 year old can get while sitting down.

9. 0 to 100 – Drake

As someone who “hails from the six”, you’d think I’d be a big fan of Drake. I’m not. This song, though, I heard at a hockey game during pre-game warmups. It got me going. But beyond this, I couldn’t care less about his music. And I hate how Toronto is called “The Six”.

10. The Maple Leaf Forever – Anne Murray

Anne Murray sang this song during the closing ceremony of Maple Leaf Gardens in 1999 when I was 8, why wouldn’t I have this song? It’s a good song. It could probably be our second national anthem.

11. Bright – Echosmith

I listened to this song on repeat while reading Ronda Rousey’s book at the end of 2015. I don’t know why. It just worked. Like butter and bread.

12. Handwritten – The Gaslight Anthem

This was definitely recommended to me by my best friend Chris. A lot of my poetry comes from listening to this band. I like songs with many different words. This is one of those.

My favourite line is: “Here in the dark I cherish the moonlight, I’m in love with the way you’re in love with the night.” I used a variation of that line in one of my older poems.

13. Bat out of Hell – Meatloaf

Every time a Meatloaf song comes on, I say to myself, “Meatloaf smells like feet loaf” which I stole from a movie or television show. When I was a kid, my dad only had one CD in the car – Meatloaf. So when I got tired of the radio, he would put the CD in and this 10-minute juggernaut of a song would come on.

14. Broken – Seether

This screams high school to me, for no other reason than that’s probably when I heard it first. I like how the female vocals overlay the male vocals in the song at certain points. Who doesn’t?

15. 3AM – Matchbox Twenty

This song made me feel like it was okay to pull all-nighters in university to complete assignments because if a song could be named “3AM” then I could do work at 3AM. The reasoning makes no sense, but have you met me? I don’t make sense.

16. Right Now – Van Halen

Found this song while doing a Grade 11 Media Studies project. We had to analyze a recent song, but I had leeway with the teacher and figured I’d dig up an old song and ask if I could analyze that instead. My teacher read the lyrics and said, “I like it. It has a ‘seize the day’ theme to it”. I said, “Yup. That’s what I was going for.” I really had no clue, but when the teacher does your work for you, you go with it.

17. Stray Paper – The Gaslight Anthem

Again, wouldn’t have found this one if Chris hadn’t kept mentioning this band for years and years. I listen to this song when I’m writing poetry, sometimes. I like the structuring of the second half of the song.

18. Landslide – Fleetwood Mac

This song played in an episode of One Tree Hill, I think, which I was binge watching a couple of months ago.

19. From Where You Are – Lifehouse

Man, what a sad song. I had to check when I added it, and it was exactly when I thought it was. It was a couple of weeks after I started this blog in the summer of 2013. I had graduated from school and found myself missing everything and everyone. That eventually lead me to write my first featured post: I Miss School, Already, a month later.

20. Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

I can’t remember the first time I heard this song, but it was a long time ago. At one point in high school, I’m pretty sure I knew every line that started with “every now and then” which is basically the whole song. What a tune. Every now and then I fall aparrrrt. Okay, I’m done.

21. The Real Slim Shady – Eminem

This is from elementary school, when people grew their hair out and let their pants down too low. It was a weird time. If you ever try rapping Eminem songs to yourself, you’ll quickly run out of breath (trust me), which makes what he does even more impressive.

22. Undead – Hollywood Undead

If anyone knows this song, I want to ask you why and how. This is from Madden 09. A lot of songs I have are from video games.

23. Ophelia – The Lumineers

Pretty sure blogger Jess suggested this one.

24. She’s So High – Tal Bachman

I have this song for pure nostalgic reasons. It is so 1999 and that’s what I like about it.

25. Help I’m Alive – Metric 

This was in NBA 2k10. BUT the band played at my university in 2009, however, because I had no clue who they were, I didn’t go see them.

26. Fake It – Seether

This was the theme song to a WWE pay-per-view event back in 2005 or 2006. It’s amazing what I remember, isn’t it? The music video starts out with a guy in an airplane but as the camera zooms out, you see it’s a fake airplane. That sentence came out more boring than I imagined it would.

27. Red Heart – Hey Rosetta

This was the song used in the closing video montage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. I liked it then. I like it now. You should like it too. Just one of those homey songs.

28. The Kill – 30 Seconds To Mars

I discovered this song, and this band, in April 2010 during a really bittersweet time. The best school year of my life was coming to an end and all my friends in residence were moving out and it hit me that things would never be the same. This band got me through that period, and a lot more since then.

29. The Best – Tina Turner

My mom really likes this song. I’m a good son. What more do you want to know?

30. Take A Walk – Passion Pit

Discovered this song in March 2013 and included it in the final presentation of my university career. Our theme was “Take A Walk with the Ice Dogs”. If you don’t follow junior hockey, you’ll have no clue what that means.

31. Where The Streets Have No Name – U2

If you ask me what my favourite song is, I’ll say this one is tied in first with about three others. U2 sung it at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2002 as a list of names of victims from 9/11, scrolled behind them. I also used this song in a Grade 12 Religion presentation. We had to pick a song and explain its meaning.

I’m going to stop at 31, just in case I do this again. And because it’s long enough.

If you would like to steal this idea, go for it! This is my subtle way of finding new music without straight up asking for it.