The Second Five of Twenty-five

I meant to finish these up in rapid order but I must apologize, I got sucked down the Kindle Unlimited vortex. It might have been 5 book in as little as 3 days. Oh well, what’s a girl to do?

Sabotage – The Beastie Boys

This song, at least for me, is an era defining song, a middle-finger deliverance to authority that many of us in Generation X felt. The video was nothing sort of brilliant and deserved the constant play it got on Mtv. Of course the actual inspiration of the song has nothing to do with the video. In my research it was written about a sound engineer they were annoyed with, which in a way, still seems to be an anti-authority message.

While i wasn’t exactly out there screaming at cops or getting in arguments with my parents or punching teachers, I don’t like to be told what to do. Pig-headedly I’ll often do the exact opposite of what I’m told or what I know I should do.

Thunder Kiss ’65 – White Zombie

I have no clue what this song is about. I’m not convinced it’s really about anything at all. I can only guess the ’65 is for the year 1965, the year Rob Zombie was born. Other than that it seems like the lyrics are just a bunch of fun but very disconnected phrases that Rob Zombie strung together. I don’t care one bit though. This song has always rocked and Rob Zombie is a freakin’ genius.

If I had another life to live, I’d give it over to music. I’ve always somewhat secretly wanted to learn the bass, play like Sean Yseult and travel the world. I don’t think I ever stop desiring that but I know that’s was never going to happen considering my lack of talent.

Fairweather Friend – To Have Heroes

I first hear this song when the band Midwest Kings opened for Caroline’s Spine in the early 2000’s. MWK hailed from Tulsa, like Spine. At the time a few of the members were still in high school, which given the sophistication of their music floored me. Years later, after member David Cook, appeared and won on American idol, lead singer Andy Skib began working on a new project, To Have Heroes. On the two albums he collaborated with many musician friends. All of the songs were new collaborations except Fairweather Friend. He however rewrote the some of the lyrics.

I think this both versions of this song are about the end of a friendship. The song does not take an angry approach, but rather sad and thoughtful. There are times when I’ve felt like a crappy friend, the fairweather friend. Sometimes I’ve had to pull away for my own sanity and sometimes I was just a big dummy. But like with this song, I am grateful for the time I friendship we shared, even if it was flawed, uneven and ragged.

Hurry Up And Wait – Stereophonics

I don’t know much about the Stereophonics other than they are a UK based band and that the lead singer has a whiskey colored voice that makes me melt. For me, the message of this song is that one must simply find satisfaction in life’s journey. Enjoy the little things in life, not just waiting for the big “important” moments in life to come along.

I Am The Highway – Audioslave

Lyrically I think this might be one of Chris Cornell’s greatest lyrics and that’s saying a lot. The slow mellowness of the song fits the lyrics and even without the words I feel like you could know what this song is about. It has a feeling of being overlooked or mistreated by the people you care about; your friends, your family or significant other. It’s a feeling that the person(s) means much more to you than you do to them.

Pearls of swine bereft of me
Long and weary my road has been
I was lost in the cities
Alone in the hills
No sorrow or pity for the leaving I feel

I am not your rolling wheels
I am the highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky

Friends and liars don’t wait for me
I’ll get on all by myself
I put millions of miles
Under my heels
And still too close to you
I feel

As for how this song relates to me and my life I sometimes feel this way when I’m down or I’ve gotten into an argument with a friend, but often there is one person who comes to mind when I hear this song. It was long ago and I’ve mostly left the whole yucky mess behind me there’s no denying that what happened and how it made me feel about myself colored much of my life afterwards.