116. Eat Your Dirty Laundry

116. "Headlong" by Queen

When Apple introduced the world to the iPod and iTunes, I immediately bought a magical white music box and set out on a quest to create the ultimate playlist for jogging. I wanted to get in shape to run a marathon again, and I knew the key to my sticking with daily workouts would be a massive collection of songs that could ratchet up my energy level when I felt like giving up but knew I still needed to keep running for another mile or three. "Headlong" is that kind of song. With this song cranking in my ears, I could not only continue to run when I got tired, but I could even pour on the speed to see if I could get three laps around the track in before the song ended.

Although the song came out on their second-to-last album, it hearkens back to their early albums that featured some tasty hard-rockin' jams. This song showed that after all the years of eclectic music-making, they still had the chops to make good on their promise that "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!"

Besides the adrenaline pumping guitar music, this song also has some really fun lyrics to sing. Who can resist singing along with lines like these?

He used to be a man with a stick in his hand.
Hoop diddy diddy - Hoop diddy do.
She used to be a woman with a hot dog stand.
Hoop diddy diddy - Hoop diddy do.
Now you've got soup in the laundry bag.
Now you've got strings, you're gonna lose your rag.
You're gettin' in a fight.
Then it ain't so groovy
When you're screaming in the night
"Let me out of this cheap B-movie!"

Oh, yeah! That's Queen at its best--songs that rock while still maintaining a sense of humor and fun. And that humor comes in real handy around mile 18 of a marathon when iPod-less old grannies twice your age start passing you on the route and there's nothin' you can do about it, nothin' you can do, no, there's nothin' you can do about it, no, there's nothing you can, nothin' you can, nothin' you can DO about it!