For "anonymous"

Tori Amos

This link is for "anonymous" (alias "mom") who wanted to be introduced to Tori Amos' music. Just click on the blue "Tori Amos" above and you'll be connected with Tori's first ever performance on David Letterman back in 1992. I went through a number of possible attachments but settled on this version of "Crucify" since it's likely the first Tori song I fell in love with back in the early 1990's. It was probably during that same "angry" music era as Alanis Morissette - so this is the perfect introduction - the same intro I had :)

I will warn "anonymous" that you will probably not enjoy the music of Tori Amos. It has no similarity to Peter, Paul, Mary or Johnny Mathis!

Here is the chorus that fits with my 28 year old, depressed about the thought of turning 30, self back in 1992:

"Why do we crucify ourselves
Everyday I crucify myself
Nothing I do is good enough for you
Crucify myself
Everyday I crucify myself
And my heart is sick of being in chains"

Stay Big!

Don't make yourself (read "myself") small...nuf said...

"Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
and I'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
'cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said..."

Ani DiFranco, 32 Flavors

Addendum for Mom 9/14/07:
This is about not caving under pressure. It's easy to make oneself small in response to various stresses - so this is a reminder to be big! It's really about trying to just be oneself while letting others just be themselves. Choosing to include those last four good lines does add a "little jab" to the whole philosophy - but that would be me just being me :)

Don't Stop Believin'

"Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere"

Journey, Don't Stop Believin'

Whenever possible, I try to match my "one good line" blog to what's going on in the "Blue Mailbox". Today is no exception. This afternoon I heard the above song blasting from the earphones, yes, I said earphones, of a thug on MARTA. All I could do was smile in that this song, and this group, was SO awesome when I was graduating from high school in 1982. And here's this guy, with a grill a sparklin', just jammin' to Journey. If anything, I was expecting Tupac or 50 Cent to be coming from his headphones.

And even funnier is that I went to my first Karaoke bar last month and this was one of the massacred songs. Actually, the young girl did quite well considering she was probably born the year the song came out. Don't tell Doc. B. but I went to the bar during a business trip to Nashville and I'm not supposed to have fun on work-related trips :)

Anyway, is there really such a place as "South Detroit"? I'll have to ask baby sis, but isn't that just called "downriver"?

I just love 80's music and always will (knod to KO). Perhaps that's why I can't help but watching American Idol (and forcing Doc. B. to join me)? There's Randy Jackson, formerly of the band Journey, and then add Paula Abdul herself...that's about all I need.

Before He Cheats

Some lyrics just speak for themselves - I don't know why, but I just smile whenever I hear this one. Plus, don't you think she looks just like me? Oh wait, I mean, don't you think her name is very similar to mine?

"'Cause I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats."

Carrie Underwood, Before He Cheats

"Don't you let your fantasies be blinded by the light

You don't have to save your wildest dreams for the night

Don't hold back, don't hold back, don't hold back, reach out

Touch the sky with your mind's eye, don't be afraid to reach out"

Alan Parsons Project, "Don't Hold Back", from the "Eve" album, 1979

I remember when I bought this album as a teenager. At first glance, it looks like the women's veils have little decorative marks on them. But if you zoom in closely, you'll notice that both women have moles on their faces. I guess all that mole talk, as mentioned on the blue mailbox, brought back this memory.

Cornflake Girl

"Never was a cornflake girl
Thought that was a good solution
Hangin' with the raisin girls
She's gone to the other side
Givin' us a yo heave ho"

Tori Amos, "Cornflake Girl" from the album, "Under the Pink"

I have no idea what those lyrics mean. But I'll call it a synchronicity that it popped up on my iPod random play list as I waited for my MARTA train at the Candler Park Station. Why would that be synchronicitous? Because most days one can smell the aroma of the Edwards Baking Company just across the tracks from the station. Smells exactly like the entire city of Battle Creek, Michigan, home of the Kellogg's Company, oh, and my birthplace.

Lush Life

"I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life...
From jazz and cocktails."

Billy Strayhorn "Lush Life", 1949

I have the Queen Latifah and the Ella Fitzgerald versions of this song but I'll listen to just about anyone's version. A little scat never hurt anyone! Everyone's done a remake of this song so check em' all out from John Coultrane and Johnny Hartman to Sarah Vaughn. What's not to love?