Song #218: "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones

Date: Aug 23, 1969
Weeks: 4

Now here is some classic rock and roll. Guitar-driven rock, percussion, a little sax way in the background, and bold vocals. That's the way rock music should be.

The sound here seems particularly southern, mostly because of the percussion. In addition to drums, it sounds like they're playing pots, pans, and various other found objects, in classic skiffle style. Skiffle, if you don't know (and I didn't until recently) is that type of music where the instruments are found objects such as washboards, jugs, etc. I'm not sure I actually hear a washboard, but one wouldn't be out of place. This is a great sound that invokes the origins of rock and blues, and so the music winds up feeling classic and kind of timeless.

The lyrics are pretty minimal. There are two verses that seem to tell unrelated stories of being set upon by sexually aggressive women. The rest of the song is the chorus "Honky tonk women give me the honkty tonk blues." I guess "honky tonk" is intended as a synonym for "country," given the rest of the context. But "country" didn't fit the meter and isn't as much fun to sing as "honky tonk." Ultimately, it's a bit of a nonsense lyric song. But that's okay, because it's fun anyway.

Mick Jagger's voice is really entertaining. So many other acts on the charts seem to include a lead singer who is over-emoting in a fake way, or underemoting in an unmotivating way. Jagger gets it just right, and the music is much more fun to listen to because of it. He's a classic example of a singer who may not have raw vocal talent, but makes up for it by being fun to listen to.

My verdict: Like it. I've never gotten into the Rolling Stones, but I'm starting to think I need to.

Song #587: "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie

Date: Dec 21, 1985
Weeks: 4

I guess my random generator decided to start me off in the deep end of 80s soft synth-cheese. This song makes no apologies for the synthesized sounds. "Boing boing boing", it says, "I sound nothing like an acoustic guitar and it's the 80s so you love it!"

I can't say I've followed Lionel Richie much. He sings okay, but his generally soft style is hard to maintain interest in. And I don't know what he's singing about here. "Say you, say me. Say it together. Naturally." Does Lionel Richie want "you" and "me" to be "together"? Naturally? I guess the gist is that everybody's lonely and looking for a friend, but like a lot of pop songs, you really have to dig through some silly lyrics to glean the meaning.

Then there's a climax of overly poundy 80s drums which leads to... nothing. The bland chorus starts over. Those drums promised a crescendo and failed to deliver. And we nap through verse 2 which just says the same thing. Everybody's lonely and it sucks.

Then the bridge happens, and it suddenly gets awesome. The synth falls away and a rock guitar and drums pick up. The tempo picks up and Lionel gets excited. "The whole world's got you dancin'." I'm not sure about the whole world, but these 20 seconds have me dancing. "Believe in who you are, you are a shining star!" Forget the thing about being lonely, we're all awesome as we are! Woo!

Then the bridge ends, and we're back in slow synth lonesome land. What the heck was that? It's like the song got bored of itself and decided to switch to a different song both by and about people that are way more fun. Fortunately, it ends soon after that, but not before the boring part can sap away all the goodwill the good part generated.

I wish they'd thrown out the rest of the song and just expanded that bridge to 4 minutes. I only vaguely remember hearing this song in the past, and I don't remember that bridge at all. I must have tuned out during the boring parts and completely overlooked the part that actually rocked.

Watching the video, this song must be from a movie based on the all the clips used, but I don't remember this movie, and the only person I recognize is Gregory Hines. I'm going to feel bad about forgetting this piece of 80s pop culture after I look it up...

White Nights, starring Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov. I didn't know Baryshnikov made a movie. I don't remember this movie at all. What else...

Oh geez.

This song won the Oscar for Best Song.

Are you crazy, 1985? Most years, I would have let that slide. But 1985 brought us Back to the Future, which contained "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis (#576 on the Number Ones list). That song was everywhere and it was awesome. At least "The Power of Love" was nominated. But people actually sat down to compare these two songs and somehow concluded that "Say You, Say Me" was better.

Then again, that 20 seconds of bridge was pretty awesome.

My Verdict: Don't like it. 20 good seconds doesn't make up for the rest.