Cru Jones Society

 

It’s Monday which means we pay another visit to the Confessional. This week CJS Staff and readers tackle the question: What is your one favorite song of all-time? No hedging allowed here – you’re allowed to pick one song, and one song only, a task that sounds easy enough, but considering how much music tastes change depending on mood, situation, and a raft of other factors, this question forced our readers to distill their choices into their most base elements and really get at the root of their feelings. Just like a good Confessional should. We’ve got seven responses this week, and as always, Dagger & Hart answer first followed by our readers. New question’s at the bottom.

Lee S. Hart: My favorite song of all time Is Rancid’s Journey to the End of the East Bay. The song can be found on their “…And Out Come The Wolves” record which was one of the first punk records I had, along with Dookie, Smash, and Goldfinger’s self titled. Journey to the End of the East Bay opens with one of the best bass lines I have ever heard. This bass line captivated me and that put “…And Out Come The Wolves” above the other records I listed.

In addition to this amazing bass line, the song describes a story of how great, but also tragic, growing up and pursuing a dream with your friends can be. But no matter what happens, you will always have those memories. This song also employs a running theme of loyalty, and you know when you listen to it, that through good or bad your real friends will always be there until the end.

I have listened to this song more times than I can even hyperbolize, but as soon as I hear those first 4 notes I know I’m about to hear something fantastic, and I know that for the next 3 minutes (and eleven seconds) nothing else matters and nothing will bother me. I feel like that dude Elaine dates who is completely useless when Desperado is played.

E Dagger: To those who know me, this choice will likely come as a surprise. I can listen to punk rock all day, all night, good health, poor health, headache, hangover, whatever… But my choice isn’t Strung Out, Zebrahead, the Mad Caddies, Less Than Jake or anyone else of that ilk. Nope, my favorite song is by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

 

Even more surprising, it’s not one of their funked-out, weirdo, slap bass rockers, it’s the soft, sweet ballad “Under the Bridge.” This song was the first cassette single I ever bought (remember those?) and I think it still lives in a drawer in my parents’ kitchen somewhere. I was 11 when this song came out, and I remember hearing it at the snack shack at my pool all summer, so on my next trip to Wal-Mart, I made my mom stop by the music section where I plunked down my $2 and bought my first ever single. I listened to this song probably 200 times that summer and was drawn in by Anthony Kiedis’ soft delivery, the gentle guitar strumming, the big choral finale, and the genuine heartfelt sadness and regret that seemed to radiate from the lyrics.

This was the first song that actually made me feel something on a deeper level and kicked off my love of music. I find this semi-hilarious now considering I’m pretty sure I bought the long since forgotten crappy, early 90s, “make a difference, yo!” hip hop song “Live and Learn” by Joe Public on that same trip. Little did I know as an 11 year-old that “Under the Bridge” is based on a poem written by Anthony Kiedis about trying to kick heroin and the resultant sobriety alienating him from his bandmates. I mostly just loved how pretty the song was.

Listening to it now, I still love it for all those same reasons. But what I love most is that it’s another example of my favorite type of song. It’s the sad song wearing the happy music disguise. It’s why I love “Hey Ya!,” it’s why I love Reel Big Fish, it’s why “Under the Bridge” remains my favorite song seventeen years after it came out. The opening chords are not as melancholy as the lyrics that follow them, and Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante even says as much about the song’s creation: “…my brain interpreted it as being a really sad song so I thought if the lyrics are really sad like that I should write some chords that are happier.”

I often talk about feeling like a tourist in my own city – that there’s a bond between me and this city I can’t really explain and sometimes I just fall in love with it all over again. In this song, Los Angeles understands Anthony Kiedis, and this is his love letter to it. As a grown man, I can now fully relate to this song on basically every level possible (minus the drug addiction) more than I could when I was 11. This is one of those songs that allows you to grow up with it, and over time, the way you relate to it may change, but your feelings never do.

***

And now we turn it over to our readers. Who knew CJS Readers were such big country fans?

Deuce: I think my favorite song is Western Skies by the late Chris Ledoux. For those that haven’t heard it (I know, it’s country music. Eeew), it’s a song about why, despite being a country singer, Chris wants to live out west (he actually owned a ranch in Wyoming) instead of moving to the country music capital of Nashville. Just on that level the song is great because I take a lot of pride in growing up and living west of the Mississippi. Having traveled to many places in the country, I feel there is a distinguishable difference in people’s attitudes out West versus back East. Not so much that one group of people are nice and the others aren’t, there are nice people all over this county and jerks all over the place too. But I just feel like the people in the West tend to enjoy the littler things in life more (for whatever reason) and the rest of the lyrics in the song play to that meaning as well. They talk about seeing the sunrise on a mountain morning and watching the cotton candy clouds roll by. It goes on to mention the smell of sage in bloom and the happiness of watching your kids grow up in a place where they can watch eagles fly and sit around campfires and just enjoy nature and this great land. I know all of that is pretty cheesy and you might say that you can do all those things back East, but I don’t care. This song reverberates what I feel inside and the pride I have for the part of the country I grew up in, chose to stay in and where I’ll raise my own family in.  

Flickerbock: I really had to think long and hard about this confessional. Picking one song out of a plethora of awesome choices was difficult. At first, my brain started scanning the normal collection of my favorites: Zeppelin, Floyd, Gary Allan, Flogging Molly, Cash, Europe (joking), etc. Then I decided I needed some guidelines. First, the song had to be a song I can listen to over and over again without getting tired of hearing it. Secondly, it needs to invoke a positive emotion because of a strong personal connection. After setting these criteria, the list started shrinking quickly. What song remained standing? Fum’s Song. The classic CSU song that we all know, we all love, and we all sing with all our hearts. This song sounds great, regardless of how many times I hear it. And of course this song invokes powerful emotions. Hearing this song immediately brings thoughts of college, my wife, my friends, football games, and an unhealthy hatred of a small republic in Colorado. No other song has this effect on me. In fact, I have the lyrics to the song posted outside my cube at work. Now excuse me while I break into song. . . “I’ll sing you a song of college days and tell you where to go. . .”

Augie.Maestas: So, my favorite song of all time, don’t laugh, Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart = worst song ever. But seriously, my favorite song of all time is something my dad used to listen to all the time and now when it comes on the radio we both sing along to it because we know every word – Marty Robbins “El Paso”. One of the greatest songs ever made. Flick, remember that show we watched about the top songs about cities? What a great show that was. Amarillo by Morning, Sweet Home Alabama, Telluride, etc. Back to what I was talking about, because of the past I have with this song, I must say this is one song that I can say is my favorite – thanks dad.

CassieB: “ALL NIGHT LONG” BY LIONEL RICHIE

Even just writing the title of that song makes me want to get my very pregnant butt off this chair and dance (don’t worry, I won’t)!  Many of you may be wondering, what song is this?  And how old is this woman saying that this is her favorite song?  Let me tell you first, it is a song of all generations, so do yourself a favor and download it on i-tunes.   

A recommendation: when you play it for the first time, make sure you are in a private room so you don’t embarrass yourself by shaking your air maracas and hitting your air bongos.  During the chorus, ladies, make sure you shake your ta-tas pretending you are on the way to the Caribbean beach bar to get a frozen cocktail with an umbrella in it. 

Trust me:

Once you get started you can’t sit down
Come join the fun it’s a merry go round
Everyone’s dancing their troubles away
Come join our party and see how we play!

Lady E: My favorite song of all time is “Pancho and Lefty” by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.

Their version of this song came out when I was three, and it was originally my dad’s favorite song.  We would go on road trips when we were young, to Lake Powell, Arizona or just hunting and fishing trips to Fort Collins or Bonny Lake, where my dad would play a tape of country music that had Pancho and Lefty on it, twice. I remember coming home from a goose hunting trip that my dad and I went on up near Timnath (by Fort Collins) and when this song came on he just sang it, so heartfelt, like the lyrics were his own. I don’t know how he connected with this song, but it was like it was telling part of his story.

So now, it is my favorite song. There is a connection to the loss and the grief in the song, and now, it is like it is telling part of my story too.

***

Unbeknownst to the Cru Jones Society, apparently summer begins in the first week of May. At least it does in terms of the summer movie season rendering us late to the party with this question. But fuck it, it’s still May which means, Wolverine and Star Trek be damned, we’ll tee up our next question.

 

By now you’ve probably read an absolute shitpot of summer movie previews (including one done right here last January by our very own Senor Limon) With that in mind, here’s a two-part question for next week’s Confessional: Which summer movie are you most excited for and why; and, conversely, which summer movie looks like it’s most likely to suck balls? For your reference, here’s part I and part II of the AV Club’s summer movie preview, and here’s one from Movie Moron as well.

Send in your responses to staff@crujonessociety.com and we’ll publish them next week. If you’re new to the Confessional, we can’t wait to hear from you. If you’re a Confessional regular, thanks. You’re the reason this thing works at all, and we’re always excited to add new voices to the chorus. So, check out the previews and we’ll see you back here next week.

Dagger & Hart