Was just listening to Janelle Monae's version of Smile and thought of this playlist:

Janelle Monae, "Smile"
Amanda Palmer, "Smile (Pictures or It Didn't Happen)"
Dick van Dyke, "Put On a Happy Face"
Lauren Marcus, "Lydia's Song"

As long as I've known this song, I've thought about it as about [a breakup and the metaphor of] some kind of demon, but it just sort of occurred to me that if you squint it could also be about a stray cat, and that reminded me of another song, so. I don't know if there are more that could fit in this playlist of... songs that could be about ( Read more... )

I just like parallels. The first two have been sitting in my drafts but I haven't had more.

Frank Ocean, "Chanel"
Joni Mitchell, "Both Sides Now"
Ani DiFranco, "In or Out"

Indigo Girls, "Southern California Is Your Girlfriend"
Dar Williams, "Southern California Wants To Be Western New York"

Amanda Palmer, "Lost"
Frank Ocean, "Lost"
Camp Cope, "Lost ( ( Read more... )

 This is a work in progress and I haven't strategized an order, but here:

Jonathan Coulton, "All This Time"
Joe Iconis & Family, "I Was Born This Morning (The Cicada Song)"
Amanda Palmer, "Another Year"
Amory Sivertson, "Hickory Hill"
Sheryl Crow, "If It Makes You Happy"
Pink Floyd, "Time"
Jim Croce, "Time in a Bottle"
Joe Iconis & Family, "The Bar Song"
We ( Read more... )

 I was just thinking about how people like to get offended by religious metaphors/references in secular pop music so here's a playlist. Literally just what I came up with in the shower and while typing this, so not complete or deep.

Ariana Grande, "God Is A Woman"
King Princess, "Holy" -- probably no one's getting offended by this unless they're ( Read more... )

 Girlyman, "Soul of You" presents the full feeling with resignation, and focuses on the the "you"'s failure; you should feel it all the way, you could feel it all the way, but you didn't and you don't and damnit, that sucks.

Carly Rae Jepsen, "Cut to the Feeling" has a sense of impatience, not just wanting to get the full feeling, but to "cut to" it ( Read more... )

 David Bowie, "I'm Afraid of Americans"

Janelle Monae, "Americans"

Ty Greenstein, "American Pie"

Don McLean, "American Pie"

 "What I Did For Love" (A Chorus Line)

"What I Wouldn't Do For You" (Alive at 10)

"Unworthy of Your Love" (Assassins)

I just had some thoughts and conversation about context in musicals and my weird subconscious confusion between the first and the second (which does involve murder). To me the one of these "doing things for love" songs that sounds the ( Read more... )

 Enya, "Boadicea"

Dresden Dolls, "First Orgasm"

Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna" (it drive me slightly crazy that the normal version isn't on Youtube, but I guess this is close enough for government work)

Cat Power, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (cover)

The Weepies, "Antarctica"

Juliana Hatfield, "I Want to Want You"

Ani Difranco, "Half-Assed"

Grimes, " ( Read more... )

 I've been wanting to do something about songs' intertextuality for a while, and this is maybe the least pretentious approach to that? There are articles written about this so it's not like it's anything new but I think it's interesting.

Maybe I can make some conclusions? It's My Party is really about agency, but it has the advantage of rooting that ( Read more... )