I admit it; I've been pretty useless today. I started making a list of music for a friend who is entirely ignorant of popular music (How fun is that? Answer: a ton.) and it took me away to the far reaches. I realized that I had to 1) acclimate him to popular music (in a non-threatening, non-sinful way) of the last 30 years, and 2) keep it quality enough that he won't despise me. I knew he needed to hear "The Big Three"--Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion--so I've made a list for each of the first two, and Celine's will come. I'm not a huge Celine fan, so I'll have to judge the importance of each song quite apart from what I think of it personally. Each of them has a legitimate argument for being the best female pop vocalist in my lifetime, or even currently (Celine, call your office!). The first two lists were easy--you can capture Whitney in fewer than 20 songs without missing a landmark--and Mariah has been so dominant on the charts that hers was much bigger. I skipped her Late Period (2005-present) nearly, because it's just not very good. Some of the songs are better--they should have always let her be more the black woman she is--but the singing is worse.
Jeff Ryan called; he asked me to do another project that will cause inordinate mental anguish in its accomplishing. But no matter. I guess I bring it on myself.
I Facebook chatted with Deborah Lee until 4:30 in the morning last night; that was awesome. She and her husband are both musicians, but she isn't too good for pop. She saw me listening to my Whitney list, and we had lots of funny conversations about artists and songwriters. Deb hears all the time that she should write songs again, and I agree. One of the knocks on Whitney's catalog was the bad lyrics of many songs. Someone with that much talent should have gotten better tunes in her prime (1987-1992). The songs got better around then--she got some help from Babyface--but the singing got worse. Her personal issues made her both less productive and easier to summarize.
In another part of the conversation, Deb said, "Did you and [name withheld] ever date?" "No," I said, "Why?" She said, "There's an energy between the two of you." She added, "I'm not trying to define the energy, I'm just saying." "Well," I said, "everyone says that."
I pointed out to Deb that I had a fondness for someone else close to the lady in question back when. That may account for the...familiarity we have. To me, it still seems like a bad idea. But it didn't stop me from thinking about it.
Jeff Ryan called; he asked me to do another project that will cause inordinate mental anguish in its accomplishing. But no matter. I guess I bring it on myself.
I Facebook chatted with Deborah Lee until 4:30 in the morning last night; that was awesome. She and her husband are both musicians, but she isn't too good for pop. She saw me listening to my Whitney list, and we had lots of funny conversations about artists and songwriters. Deb hears all the time that she should write songs again, and I agree. One of the knocks on Whitney's catalog was the bad lyrics of many songs. Someone with that much talent should have gotten better tunes in her prime (1987-1992). The songs got better around then--she got some help from Babyface--but the singing got worse. Her personal issues made her both less productive and easier to summarize.
In another part of the conversation, Deb said, "Did you and [name withheld] ever date?" "No," I said, "Why?" She said, "There's an energy between the two of you." She added, "I'm not trying to define the energy, I'm just saying." "Well," I said, "everyone says that."
I pointed out to Deb that I had a fondness for someone else close to the lady in question back when. That may account for the...familiarity we have. To me, it still seems like a bad idea. But it didn't stop me from thinking about it.
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