Five Best...'Wonderful' Songs

#5. “Wonderful” by Everclear

I want the things that I had before
Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again

#4. “Wonderful Wino” by the Mothers of Invention

L.A. in the summer of '69
I went downtown and bought some wine
I wasted my head on 3 quarts of juice
And now the grapes won't cut me loose

#3. “Wonderful Life” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Speak our secret into your hands
And hold it in between
Plunge your hands into the water
And drown it in the sea
There will be nothing between us, baby
But the air that we breathe

#2. “Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke

Don't know much about history,
Don't know much biology.
Don't know much about a science book,
Don't know much about the French I took.
But I do know that I love you,
And I know that if you love me too,
What a wonderful world this would be

#1. “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
Bright sunny days, dark sacred nights
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world

Five Best...Songs with "200" In It

#5. "200 Years" by Frank Zappa

She's two hundred years old
So mean she couldn't grow no lips
Boy, she'd be in trouble if she
Tried to grow a mustache

#4. "Batdance" by Prince

Who's gonna stop 200 balloons?
Nobody!
Batman.
Stop!

#3. "The Singer" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

All the truths I tried to tell you
Were as distant to you as the moon
Born 200 years too late
And 200 years too soon

#2. "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" by Ben Folds Five

Jane, remember second grade
Said you couldn't stand my face
Rather than kiss me,
You said you'd rather die
Now I'm big and important
One angry dwarf
And 200 solemn faces

#1. "Road to Peace" by Tom Waits

There was a tall, thin boy with a whispy moustache disguised as an orthodox Jew
On a crowded bus in Jerusalem, some had survived World War Two
And the thunderous explosion blew out windows 200 yards away
With more retribution and seventeen dead along the road to peace

Bob and Nick

This quote comes from Nick Cave:

"I was standing in the mud backstage, and I looked up and there was this old guy making a beeline across the muddy field, and I thought 'Ok, here we go.' And when he reached me he said, 'I just wanted to say, I really like what you do.' And it dawned on me that it was Bob Dylan. And then we stood there in the mud saying nothing, and I thought, 'Ok, one of us should really go now."

I'm not sure what's funnier: Nick Cave and Bob Dylan being in the same room or that they have nothing to say to one another.

Five Best...Bob Dylan Songs that Nick Cave Would Sound Good Covering

#5. "Cold Irons Bound"

#4. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"

#3. "If You See Her, Say Hello"

#2. "Every Grain of Sand"

#1. "Desolation Row"

Music and Work

As I work on completing my final papers for two classes tonight, my only companionship (intentionally so, because these things need to get done) at the UCC is my always faithful iPod. So far, I've listened to:

Siren by Roxy Music
The Heart of Saturday Night by Tom Waits
Hedwig and the Angry Inch soundtrack

Considering how much work still needs to be finished, this list will be updated many a-time tonight.

Update:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Part of The Definitive Anthology of the Small Faces
Let Love In by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Hey, Hey, It's Your Birthday

This post goes out to someone who has their birthday today. And I'm not talking about Jennifer Garner. Here's the list:

Five Best...Birthday Songs

#5. "Lisa, It's Your Birthday" by Leon Komposki and Bart Simpson

-If memory serves, I actually "recorded" my own version of this song when I was younger. Thank God that doesn't exist anymore...But this version sung by Leon (Michael Jackson?) and Bart is very touching.

#4. "Happy Birthday" by Weird Al Yankovic

Sample lyric:

"Well there's a punk in the alley and he's looking for a fight
There's an Arab on the corner buying everything in sight
There's a mother in the ghetto with another mouth to feed
Seems that everywhere you look today there's misery and greed

I guess you know the Earth is gonna crash into the sun
But that's no reason why we shouldn't have a little fun
So if you think it's scary, if it's more than you can take
Just blow out the candles and have a piece of cake."

Oh, Weird Al.

#3. "New Happy Birthday Song" by NOFX

For whenever you're wishing a happy birthday to someone you don't care about, think of this song and it's refrain of "you're not special."

#2. "Happy Birthday" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Cave tells of a birthday where the best present is a "wonderful dog chair" which can count "right up to eleven." I guess it's better than lame socks or, even worse, a certificate saying that there's a star named after you.

#1. "Birthday" by The Beatles

I can still remember my father playing this for me on my birthday during the summer I spent living with him and his wife, Sylvia, in Saratoga Springs, New York. This song is so much better than the standard "happy birthday to you" that everyone sings. I think it should be changed to The Beatles song--sort of like how if it were up to me, we'd change the National Anthem to something catchier.