More Filler

It occurs to me that I missed a good deal of good music in my previous post about how I intend to defuse the BFS/death metal thermonuclear reaction likely to destroy my iPod and wipe out all life on earth. Here's some more filler:

Thomas Dolby. I'm not universally in favor of Thomas Dolby and a little generally lasts me a long time, but as long as "a little" includes the songs Blinded Me With Science (because it's just good fun) and One Of Our Submarines (because it's mournfully strange), I'm good.

Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Rocketman, among others. Elton John is one of those anomalous guys where at first I say "No, I don't care for him very much." But then people start to list his songs, and I say "Yeah, that was good. And so was that one. So maybe I like him more than I think." The same effect is generally true of Tom Petty, now that I think about it.

Tesla, Modern Day Cowboy. Though it's sung in a modestly aggravating 80s warble, it still manages to kick some fairly extensive ass. Plus it fits into my general preference for rock and roll songs about cowboys, which makes no sense at all, does it?

Bon Jovi, Livin' On A Prayer. Uh-uh-uh-oh-wah-oh indeed.

Rush. Rush is easy to overdo because there's only so much Geddy Lee one can take, and it seems to me that everything since Grace Under Pressure suffers from serious overproduction, but they're rich as Croesus and they need my advice like a frog needs a reading lamp. But still, there is some good Rush: Countdown, Natural Science, Distant Early Warning, Circumstances, and chunks of the album 2112.

Talking Heads, Take Me To The River. It's such an odd-sounding thing and it reminds me very strongly of a specific time and place, when I was rebuilding a KTM engine from a Penton motorcycle and KDKB played this song every eleven minutes whether I wanted to hear it or not. I also like Burning Down The House, and I can't get enough of the same-as-it-ever-was arm action.

Da Scorpions! How could one not like a group with a guitarist named Mattias Jabs? I mean really! Winds of Change is very good, and who better than German group to sing it? No One Like You because of the groovy guitar harmony, and Blackout because it stones. Err, I mean, rocks. I can, however, do without Rock You Like a Hurricane.

Al Stewart, On The Border. Not much else is required of him, though I can listen to Year of the Cat and Roads to Moscow without feeling any pain.

Blue Oyster Cult, Cultosaurus Erectus. I have a genuine fondness for this entire album. I like some of the songs more than others (Black Blade, Lips in the Hills, Divine Wind and Marshall Plan being particularly good) but the whole album is good. Lips in the Hills never fails to remind me of playing the wargame Mechwar '77, and in particular the last-ditch defense of a hilltop complex by a British battalion task force against a Soviet armored juggernaut. Them Chieftains is buggers!