89. Say Cheese

89. "Red Barchetta" by Rush

When I came to this song, I thought, "Why do I think of Randy riding in a red sports car when I hear it? And why do I imagine the drummer sitting behind a huge drum set? And why does the title of this song make me think of cheese?"

Then the memories began to flood back.

I remembered that along with the Van Halen, Pink Floyd, and Ten Nugent albums, at some point while he lived with us, Randy bought the Moving Pictures album by Rush.

"Tom Sawyer" was the song on this album that got me into Rush, what with the very enjoyable sing-a-long line "Catch the spirit, catch the spit." However, it's been so overplayed throughout the years that it's fallen out of favor with my ears and been replaced by "Red Barchetta."

Then I also remembered that when I was introduced to the Freaks and Geeks television show, I got a big kick out of the Rush references by the kid that idolized Neil Peart and bragged to Linda Cardellini that his 29-piece drum set was only six pieces away from being a bigger set than Neil's.



But then Linda Cardellini's TV dad tried to crush the kid's hero-worshipping of Neil with a little jazz drumming.



Granted, those jazz drummers really know how to make the sticks fly. Still, there's a part of me that understands the kid's awe of Neil's drum set. Behold the drum set in all its glory!



A slightly smaller drum set is featured in this 80s performance of "Red Barchetta."



So that's why this song makes me imagine Randy riding in a red sports car while somewhere in the Great White North a drummer is banging away on a gigantic drum set. However, I still have no idea why I think Barchetta is a type of cheese. Could it be because it really is a cheese? Well, there's only one way to find out--check the most comprehensive list of cheeses available on the interwebs.



Mmmmmmm...Rogue Cheddar.... A snack that is a winner, but yet won't spoil my dinner!

Well, I guess Barchetta isn't a cheese then. And I have no idea why I think of cheese when I hear the song. But you have to admit that Barchetta would make a damn fine name for a cheese!

And so would Cardellini.

90. All she wanted was the sax

90. "Goodbye Stranger" by Supertramp

The Marsh Valley High School student newspaper often featured an interview with one or two students. I don't ever recall being interviewed for the paper, nor do I recall anything that was written about any of my classmates in these interviews, except for one--Piney Votezal Votesel Votzul -- okay, I give up. Let's just call her Piney, shall we? There was only one Piney in all of Marsh Valley, so there's little chance of confusion.

Anyway, I remember Piney's interview because in it they asked her what her favorite band was, and she said "Supertramp." And I remember thinking, "Hey, I like Supertramp too! I've got something in common with Piney!" And then I remember thinking, "I've got something in common with Piney?!"

What's the difference between real tramps and supertramps? The sax?

I saw Piney twice after high school. The first time was right after my mission when I went to the grocery store in Downey to get a root beer. She was the clerk at the register. As I bought my sodey-pop, she asked me what I was doing with my life, and I told her that I just got back from Sweden, and that the family was moving to Twin Falls. I asked what she was up to, and she said she was married and working there at the store. Then somebody else came up behind me, so I said goodbye and left so she could keep doing her job.

The second time was at our class reunion--the only one I've attended. I remember she got up and gave this hilarious speech where she said that she was really sorry for what she had done in high school--and she said, "Yes...THAT too!"--after which a lot of people laughed. I had no idea what exactly THAT was. But I wondered if THAT is why the lady is a Supertramp fan.

Now some they do and some they don't,
And some you just can't tell.
And some they will and some they won't.
With some it's just as well.

91. Why not whistle?

91. "Strangers in the Night" by Mrs. Miller

While I find all of Mrs. Miller's songs both supremely entertaining and strangely inspiring, this one has a certain special something....



Do-be-do indeed! ('Nuff sung!)

92. Sulsul! Plerg majah bliff?

92. "SIM Hagar" by Jerry Martin

One of the things I tried to specialize in during grad school was the design of instructional simulations. Consequently, I felt compelled to purchase "The Sims" computer game when it first came out and do a post-mortem on the game to figure out how it was designed. I probably learned more about designing simulations from that game than anything else I studied, and every time we discussed simulations in class, I could always relate everything back to the game. So all those hours and days and months I spent playing the game were NOT completely wasted.

One of the cleverest things about the game design was that the Sims--the little virtual people you controlled in the game--spoke a made-up language called "Simlish." It's a combination of made-up words along with a few actual words in various languages (including English) thrown in from time to time just to screw with your mind. (It's jarring to hear an English word or phrase, because your brain says, "Hold on a second! That made sense...didn't it?") Anytime the Sims talked, you would see a bubble with the text in English, but you'd hear them say something in Simlish. Even more clever, the game featured a radio you could purchase for your Sims, and you could turn it to stations that played various music genres--country, jazz, rock, etc.--with all the song lyrics in Simlish.



Since that first game, they've had some well-known professional musicians record new music (Mike Mothersbaugh from Devo did the music to Sims 2) or record their own songs in Simlish.

Here's Katy Perry recording the Simlish version of her song "Last Friday Night."



I'm not a Katy Perry fan, but I think I could listen to a little more of her singing in Simlish.



Shortly after the game came out, Apple introduced its first iPod, which let me put one thousand songs on a little magical white brick and listen to them in random order wherever I went. One day, I got the bright idea to download all of The Sims music onto my iPod and listen to it while I went shopping. Now, the game had some lame shopping music it would play while you were "shopping" in the game, so listening to that same music as I searched for real items to purchase was more than a little surreal. I felt like I was one of the little cartoon people inside the game!

My favorite song in that first game was one of the five rock station songs that played when you turned on the radio within the game. There was one song in particular that actually rocked pretty hard. They call it "SIM Hagar" now, but it was always song #4 to me. It is especially fun to lip-sync the lyrics in Simlish--if you can figure out what they are.

93. It shouldn't take much pressure to keep them there

93. "Taki Rari" by Yma Sumac

"Taki Rari" is another rip-roaring mood-lifter from my interwebing days at Utah State.

Hey, kids! Do you like bongos? Yeah, I thought so!

Would you like to play bongos while Yma sings "Taki Rari?" Of course you do!

What?! You say you don't know how to bongo?!

Well, you're in luck, because Jack Costanzo can teach you everything you need to know to bongo your brains out! Click and learn, my young friends! Click and learn!



Now that you know how to hold the instrument correctly, it's time to bang those bongos to make a fresh batch of piping hot mambo! Also, while you're bongoing, try to lip-sync the lyrics, and make sure you look like you're really straining to reach those high notes.

Cha-cha-cha!

94. How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?

94. "Enchanted Farm" by The Forbidden Five

During my first three years of grad school at Utah State, I worked as an instructional designer/web page developer (see song #109). Much of my day was spent copying and pasting HTML code into web pages and testing them out to see what was and wasn't working. As part of my coping strategy for the mind-numbing boredom involved in this work, I got a set of headphones and listened to music that I thought would lift my mood. One woman that I worked with had all these weird Ultra-Lounge CD sets with some damn good mood lifters in them. She loaned them to me, and I put the best ones on my iPod. In exchange, I got her and her friend tickets to see Billy Joel and Elton John with my family, and she ended up getting to stand right next to the stage with my wife and kid.

I think it was more than a fair swap.

And I think you'll agree with me when you hear my favorite organ song that I pilfered from her Ultra-Lounge collection--"Enchanted Farm." Having grown up on a farm for fifteen years, I can almost identify every sound.

Almost.

95. Evil Zzzquil Cominagetcha!

95. "Enter the Sandman" by Metallica

There's only one way to listen to this song. Crank up the volume, nod your head to the beat, and end every sing-a-long verse with "--Ahhh!" (e.g. "We're off to Never-Neverland--Ahhh!")

I don't have any particularly interesting memory with this song. I remember listening to it late one night while driving through Marsh Valley. That's it.

Why do I like it? It rocks. Hard. Especially the intro to the song. Of all the thrash metal songs I've heard, it does the best job of building up to an irresistible head-banging beat.

What I don't like is the video for this song. It is absolutely...um...how do I put this?

Terrifying.

Yep. That's the word. Terrifying.

And I'm pretty sure it can actually cause seizures.

And nausea.

And horrific nightmares.

I really don't like this video at all. I'm not a fan of horror movies in general. But horror movies in which children are scared out of their minds are off my list of the best things in life.

So why would I include such a video in my list? Because one of the things I'm trying to do with this Top 200 is share my thoughts and feelings through writing about music. And this video precisely captures what I felt as I laid me down to sleep on November 8, 2016, only multiplied by ten--Ahhh!.