Guest Blog: 100/100 by Djandor

Hello, everyone. My name is Jacqui, and I am a musician and sibling to Randor. My boyfriend calls me ‘Djandor’, so we’ll go with that. Why not.

This may be a little longer than some of the broski’s posts, but it’s cuz I have a serious complaint. In honor of WTF’s 100th music post, I will guest blog about TIME Magazine’s 100 Best Songs of All Time that they put out on October 24th.

I wish you could have heard my sigh.

Originally I was going to go through it and replace all of the songs I thought should be replaced, then replace the musicians with musicians I would have put in instead. I realized before I even started this task that that would be ridiculously impossible because I disagree with a majority of their list.

I don’t know which hipster they asked to write this, but it was NOT someone who actually knew (good) music (okay it looks like it was a staff-contributed thing). To be fair, Rolling Stone’s list already came out, and it is way better (even some of THOSE songs I disagree with), and maybe they just wanted to be different… Here is a link to Rolling Stone’s list

The only song from the 2010s on TIME’s list is a song and artist I’ve never even heard of. Probably because I don’t listen to a lot of popular music these days because a lot of it is sincerely crap. Okay so I just YouTubed it… yeah, awful. I mean not awful, she’s a good dancer and whatever, but… not so much top 100 songs of ALL TIME material. I mean, I would have picked Amy Winehouse over Janelle Monae any day of the week. Songs also on the list that I have complete disagreements with include (but are not limited to): Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Kanye West’s Gold Digger, Richard Thompson’s Black Lightning, Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road, I GOT RHYTHM (the most annoying jazz standard of all time)… I mean with names like this I’m surprised we don’t find Justin Bieber and Jimmy Buffet on here.

Just so you know, there are definitely some songs on here I totally agree with. For example, Dolly Parton’s Jolene is a mournful tune about lost love, and heck we all like some good old-style country, amiright? Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is a given, obviously. That whole album is on my desert island top 5. I can’t even believe Funkadelic and Mahalia Jackson made it on here, but yes, they should totally be on here. The Beach Boys’ God Only Knows is easily one of my favorites (topped only by Surfer Girl, my absolute favorite guilty pleasure song of all time). Lena Horne’s Stormy Weather? Delightful. Louis Armstrong’s Stardust is very in the time, for sure, though I probably would have picked a different tune for him… That’s a hard one since he did so much for music (well, another blog for another day). ANYWAY.

Without further ado (and after the break), I pick apart the list vaguely but definitely, by taking artists I agree should be on the list but making suggestions as to which songs I would have chosen instead (TIME, are you listening?!). For the full list, see the very bottom of this blog entry or go to the source itself

Ya Can't Call It a Song of the Week if There's No Weekly Song {Part 1}

    At this point, I imagine any potential readers figure my blog writing days lay behind me. Almost a third of the year in and not a single featured song- even though I'd claimed earlier to get back in the habit. Well, I come with no excuses. I'd honestly written off the blog. Various reasons... Don't need to get into it. There doesn't seem to have been any public outcry over it anyhow. Nonetheless, I've been keeping a list of potential songs to feature all the while. With each passing week, the urge to post grows, and at long last decided to update the yearly playlist regardless of who's keeping track. In my absence, Archie has been trying to pull up the slack, and I give him the proper credit for his efforts. His new ideas, such as the guest writers, have breathed some life into the all-but-abandoned blog. Perhaps with my lackluster consistency, he can build something with it.
    For now though, I shall list basically the first third of the 2011 song-of-the-week playlist, minus a few yet-to-come songs. Those who don't remember, the list is whole list is broken up into three mini-playlists, and once the next few weeks pass and the corresponding tunes get their spotlight, mini numero uno shall be completed. 'Til then, it's catch-up once again. I'll try not to comment on 'em too much so you can form your own opinions. Oh, and there's so many, I had to break the post into two parts... be sure to check out both!

Randor's Song of the Week: 06.06.10

"Talkin' World War III Blues" by Bob Dylan from the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. 1963.

Poll Results, Apr2010

    Again, the other writers are bound to comment on the results later. For now you get my thoughts.

Shuffled Silly, part 1

    Hey there all, I'm starting up a new feature here (clearly) called 'Shuffled Silly.' This one goes out to all you shufflebugs who enjoy putting your music player on random, and occasionally find the oddest background music to your activities. Sometimes ironic, sometimes embarrassing, but ALWAYS comical! For now, I'll be shooting out examples from my own memories, but if you have any of your own, be sure to send 'em in via comment or e-mail, and you may be featured yourself someday!