Category: SignPosts
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Billy Joel Redux
I wrote a much longer post the last time I pulled a lyric from “We Didn’t Start the Fire” which does a much better job of telling the story of why this song will forever be stuck with me. A fun thing I’ve noticed is that if you use the opening lyric of a song,…
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To Rock a Rhyme that’s right on time
“It’s Tricky” by Run D.M.C. from their 4th album, Raising Hell. A hip hop standard now, it cribbed a large amount of influence both musically and lyrically from “My Sharona” by the Knack. The Music Video features an excellent cameo by Penn and Teller.
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Sometimes the live version is better.
“Night Train”, from Guns ‘N’ Roses debut album Appetite For Destruction. Still the best selling debut album of all time and always a top-10 candidate in Rock and Roll albums. I prefer the live versions of this song, which pick up the tempo ever so slightly from the album version. The song has this great…
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Don’t mess with the bull young man.
The Breakfast Club (1985) John Hughes movies hold a special place with Chicago People of a certain age. His run of movies from Sixteen Candles to Home Alone exposed the world to a certain segment of life, teenage angst, and what it was to grow up in this world. The fictional town of “Shermer, Illinois”…
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There is another matter…
The Hunt for Red October (1990). Having seen the movie hundreds of times, I finally read the book. The book as-is would have made a terrible movie, but used the extra space to really dig into some of the details of the end of the Cold War. It gives a bit more context to this…
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Shouldn’t you be the Three Rangers?
Airheads (1994). It’s a classic, probably a cult classic. Joe Mantanga’s portrayal of the jaded radio DJ perfectly captures the essence of everything right and wrong with the commercialization of rock and roll.
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This one’s for my Mom
The sign above is from “Come Sail Away”, off the 1977 “Grand Illusion” album. My mom passed away in early July, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. One of her favorite bands was Styx, a byproduct of growing up in Chicago in the early 70’s. She would claim her whole life she saw…
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The B-Side was titled My Clone Sleeps Alone
“Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar, from the 1979 album In the Heat of the Night. It has been wonderfully covered by quite a list of people. Even Dolly Parton. (yes, really).