Tag Archives for ARE

Only Good For Conversation – Rodriguez

Artist as Rock & Roll Enthusiast (aka ARE) Post: 38

RIP Sixto Rodriguez!

I discovered Rodriguez in 2010 when researching music for a Detroit-based episode of my former radio gig, the Fuzz Factory. Never heard of him before and his songs were good. At the time, I had no clue about his incredible life story. Turns out Rodriguez had a cult following in a few locations around the world. Unbeknownst to him, his music fueled the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa as well. In 2012, his incredible story was made into the Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man.” It’s a fantastic movie. If you’ve not seen it yet, check it out.

Check out his music too. He has many really good songs, most notably, The Establishment Blues and Climb Up On My Music. I thought about featuring one of those.but ultimately decided on Only Good For Conversation, probably my favorite song of his. This song has a harder edge and a more viscerally bitter tone than any of his other songs. It also has an unforgettably badass fat guitar riff.

Unfortunately, I was not able to link up the studio version of the song. At least I was able to link up a few live versions. Here they are below.

So Good To See You – Cheap Trick

Artist as Rock & Roll Enthusiast (aka ARE) Post: 37

Hey all. Yeah, it’s been a long while (like a year) since I posted about a song. I’ve meant to many times but you know how it goes. Thirty years ago, I would’ve posted about a different song every day. These days, I mostly just think about it. The soundtrack of life continues regardless. 

Today I am posting about my current ear worm, So Good To See You by Cheap Trick. It’s been stuck in my head for days and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s such a great tune. Quite often, an ear worm is a song you enjoy at first that eventually becomes annoying. For example, Don’t Take Me Alive by Steely Dan was a common ear worm during my divorce. I really liked it at first, even seemed appropriate. However, it eventually it became a bit tedious. Sometimes an ear worm is a song you never liked. Therefore, it’s annoying from the get go. That type of ear worm occurred when I was in California last month. I heard We Built This City by Starship. Needless to say, I wanted that out of my head ASAP. Sometimes it all works well and stays that way. Like it does with this song, one of many underrated power pop gems from Cheap Trick. Been humming it for days on end.

Ooh, it’s so good to see you
I couldn’t wait another day
Ooh, I hope everyone missed you
You know they want you to stay

Artist as Rock & Roll Enthusiast (ARE)

I plan to make more Artist as Rock & Roll Enthusiast (ARE) posts here on this blog and more posts about other topics in general. Things I might normally post to Facebook. Hopefully I will live up to this proclamation. My mixed feelings about Facebook have helped me come to this conclusion. Post more of what I want on my own blog and post the links to that on Facebook instead of directly posting there.

My next post will be the first of many “song of the day” type of posts. There’s no agenda to these songs, just things I encounter within the soundtrack of my daily life.