Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas and a song list

I've been taking it pretty easy since last Friday.

I taught skiing on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday and took a rest day on Christmas Day. This morning, I went back to the gym and finished my last workout in the NROL Hypertrophy 1 program. Next, I'm going to make some changes to the Fat Loss workouts and go back to them for a while.

Christmas was fairly relaxed at our house. I got a new pair of Dion Snowshoes, and mostly some gift certificates after that. I may end up buying a higher capacity MP3 player for long trail days, or perhaps just some running gear. My wife is going to get a tattoo, although she has to choose its location carefully, because they may not be visible here at work.

On Christmas Eve, my wife and I were up late, playing Santa Claus and drinking Champagne. Perhaps it was a bit too much Champagne, but we got started talking about classic rock songs. We tried to come up with a list of five songs that fit the following criteria:
  1. Everyone knows the song
  2. Everyone likes to sing along
  3. Everyone reaches for the volume dial to turn up the song.

After thinking about it for a while, we came up with this list:

  1. Stairway to Heaven (too easy)
  2. Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meat Loaf
  3. American Pie by Don McLean
  4. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

We were a bit stuck for our final song. We both thought that the Cult's song "She Sells Sanctuary" fit #3 above, and #2 for people who know it, but decided it was perhaps not well enough known. Smells Like Teen Spirit was another option. Well, the truth is, there were many, many options. Our son recommended "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" the next day, but we decided against that song as well.

Finally, we settled on Billy Joel's Piano Man for our 5th song.

This meant no Stones, no Who, no Dylan, no Jimmy, no Beatles, no U2, and a number of other bands that could claim a spot in the list. I can think of so many other candidates.

So, what do readers (if I have any) think? What would your list be?

3 comments:

Harriet said...

Hey Jude by the Beatles.

it is very easy to sing to and most everyone knows it. :-)

Dr. Andy said...

Shoulnd't you be running?

I guess it wouldn't occur to a Yankee like you, but #1 on my list would be
"Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynryd.

I like Knocking on Heavens door as well.

Other considerations would be I Can't Get No Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones, Born to Run and Born in the USA by Springsteen, Take it Easy by the Eagles (maybe women don't like this?) and Heart of Gold by Neil Young.

My idiosyncratic choices would be Atlantic City (Springsteen or the Band) and Powderfinger by Mr. Young.

Dr. Andy

Damon said...

Ollie, yours is a good choice, but I guess that my wife and I aren't huge Beatles fans, and we were the only ones working on the list.

Andy, I love Freebird, but my wife doesn't like it so much. Born to Run is probably a great choice to be there. I'm not a big Eagles fan and probably would have vetoed any of their songs. Well, I would have considered Hotel California, but vetoed just about everything else. Heart of Gold would be a great choice as well, although my personal choices for Neil would have been Rockin' in the Free World or maybe Down by the River or even Cowgirl.

My son intensely dislikes Neil Young and he's not a Skynyrd fan either. If we'd put both of them in the list, he would have freaked out.

And, speaking of The Band, The Weight would have been a good option as well.

If we picked Knockin' on Heaven's Door, we probably could have chosen from about 50 different artists. My very favorite version of that song was done by the Dead on one of Jerry's better days, but Bob has some great versions as well.