If it gives you any indication of how well my brain is not<\/i> functioning…<\/p>\n
Time stamps tell me I created this draft July 12, 2025.<\/p>\n
Only took a full year.<\/p>\n
There are also, for some reason, more than 200 revisions. (Can’t leave well enough alone.)<\/p>\n
It’s not the most<\/i> revisions a post has ever had. That…honor? embarrassment?…still goes to the three-thousand-some-odd-word…review? word salad?…I did for Panic’s<\/i> final album<\/a><\/b>. (Which has gone up<\/i> since it was first posted. Because why not?)<\/p>\n So. Yeah.<\/p>\n Right then.<\/p>\n I miss the old days of blogging (livejournaling?), before MEMEs were just low-quality jpegs of unfunny jokes<\/i>. Instead they were surveys like The Friday Five<\/a><\/b><\/i> or 20 Questions<\/i> or A to Z<\/i> or any number of questions that were All About ME<\/i>.<\/p>\n Hence MeMe<\/i>.<\/p>\n Thirty Day Song Challenge<\/b>…<\/p>\n I’ve done the whole 30 posts in 30 days<\/a><\/i><\/b> thing before. Twice<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n It was excessive. We don’t need to do that again.<\/p>\n This is just a list of thirty songs. Or thirty-one.<\/p>\n I’ve seen a few different versions of the list make the rounds, so I Frankenstein-ed my own, picking and choosing which prompts I liked (cutting out the ones geared toward middle-schoolers), and one version had a thirty-first prompt, so I stole the idea.<\/p>\n I could have renamed it to the Thirty-One Day Song Challenge<\/i>, but bonuses are more fun.<\/p>\n Or something.<\/p>\n 1.) A song you like with a color in the title.<\/b><\/p>\n Your Every Color<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Train<\/p>\n Why pick one color when you can have them all? Train is still one of my very favorite bands of all time, even if their albums have fallen a little flat for me since Jimmy Stafford left, leaving Pat Monahan as the last original member. Pat could still sing the phone book, and I’d listen the shit out of it though.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Electric Blue<\/a><\/i><\/b> by The Killers, originally by Icehouse<\/a><\/i><\/b>. Also Green Light<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Nine Days.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 2.) A song you like with a number in the title.<\/b><\/p>\n Roll On 18 Wheeler<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Alabama<\/p>\n Listen. This song could be the story of my family and I have loved it since I was very young.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: 32 Flavors<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Ani DiFranco because the line I am 32 flavors and then some<\/i> will randomly pop into my head at strange times. Though after listening to both I think the Alana Davis version<\/a><\/b> might be the one that’s lodged in my memory after all these years.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 3.) A song connected to an inside joke.<\/b><\/p>\n Star Boy<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Panic! At the Disco<\/p>\n The original is by The Weeknd<\/a><\/b><\/i> and I had never heard it before, and then one day Youtube was all, wanna watch Panic! cover this<\/i>? And shut-up, Youtube, you don’t know me, but yes. Every time.<\/p>\n It’s the source of an inside joke pretty much just with myself, but an inside joke nonetheless, and it has given me literal DAYS<\/i> of shameless amusement, especially in the insomnia hours.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 4.) A song that reminds you of someone you\u2019d rather forget.<\/b><\/p>\n Read My Eyes<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Joey Lawrence<\/p>\n It’s not so much that I’d rather forget<\/i> him, but this song had such a heavy association with him back in the day and it still strikes me decades later. I have mixed feelings about it all.<\/p>\n You don’t know He never really did know and he never will considering it’s been over ten years since he died.<\/p>\n Time is weird.<\/p>\n Also, remember when sixteen-year-old Joey Lawrence had a music career<\/a><\/b>?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 5.) A song that needs to be played loud.<\/b><\/p>\n Why Can’t This Be Love<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Van Halen<\/p>\n I have memories of Mike blasting Van Halen’s 5150<\/i> album and that opening…vibration<\/i>…of this song rumbling through the house from the basement. My siblings had a hefty influence on the music of my youth.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 6.) A song that makes you want to dance.<\/b><\/p>\n Safe and Sound<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Capital Cities<\/p>\n I have no real emotional connection to this song, but not so long ago Youtube was like, remember this one<\/i>? And I remembered it was a good dance track.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 7.) A song to drive to.<\/b><\/p>\n Closing Time<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Semisonic<\/p>\n Well there’s an obvious answer if ever there was one. The Car Anthem of 1998<\/i>, hearing this song every single morning on the way to school for months during senior year.<\/p>\n Also, my midlife crisis started the first time I heard this song on the oldies station<\/i>, sitting in an Arby’s on a lunch date with Bob. Thanks a lot, Lee Valsvick.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 8.) A song about drugs or alcohol.<\/b><\/p>\n 20 Dollar Nosebleed<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Fall Out Boy (featuring Brendon Urie)<\/p>\n Poppy showtune about amphetamines. Because Fall Out Boy. Or Pete Wentz more specifically, I suppose. (I could do without Pete’s screaming at the end though.) <\/p>\n The first time I heard this song, I didn’t even realize it was two different people singing<\/a><\/b> until about halfway through the song. Granted that was in the early days of obsession and my brain would probably not make that same mistake now after seven years and tens of thousands (literally) of collective plays of both bands.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 9.) A song that makes you happy.<\/b><\/p>\n Anyway<\/a><\/i><\/b> by O.A.R.<\/p>\n Something always comes from the music anyway It’s also very fun to hear live<\/a><\/b>. But every O.A.R. song is magic to hear live.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 10.) A song that makes you sad.<\/b><\/p>\n Forever and Always<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Parachute<\/p>\n The first time I heard this song I WAS NOT PREPARED to find myself weeping halfway through.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Gravity<\/a><\/i><\/b>, Breathe Again<\/a><\/i><\/b>, and Poetry by Dead Men<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Sara Bareilles as they have developed a heavy association with story characters who won’t leave my brain despite not writing anything for months<\/i>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 11.) A song you never get tired of.<\/b><\/p>\n Collar Full<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Panic! At the Disco<\/p>\n Listen. I have inarticulate, irrationally intense feelings about this song and the fact that it sounds like it’s from the soundtrack to a John Hughes Brat Pack movie is only the beginning.<\/p>\n Also, LIVE<\/a><\/i><\/b>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 12.) A song from your pre-teen years.<\/b><\/p>\n That’s What Love Can Do<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Boy Krazy<\/p>\n This song has some extremely potent nostalgia feelings attached to it that catch me off guard every time I hear it. I remember Boy Krazy performing this<\/a><\/b> on the Mickey Mouse Club and hearing it on the radio all the time. 90’s pop music was an entirely different plane of existence from the stuff of later decades. (Decades<\/i>. Plural<\/i>. Am old.)<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Too Many Walls<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Cathy Dennis and Every Heartbeat<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Amy Grant for equally strong nostalgia feelings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n 13.) A song you like from the 70s.<\/b><\/p>\n Living Next Door to Alice<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Smokie<\/p>\n Joe had a compilation album (vinyl, of course) called Solid Gold Hits<\/i> or somesuch. I listened to it on repeat constantly and this was one of the songs I always went back to. I swear I have a picture of the track list somewhere, but I’ll be damned if I can find it in the black hole that is my hard drive.<\/p>\n Also, unrequited love between friends is kind of my writing M.O.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 14.) A song you like from the 80s.<\/b><\/p>\n That’s All<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Genesis<\/p>\n This is another song that has strong nostalgia attached to it that I can’t quite explain.<\/p>\n Also, I have an inexplicably desperate need to hear O.A.R. cover this, but I’m pretty sure hearing Marc Roberge sing it would short circuit my brain from the ASMR of it all.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Break My Stride<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Matthew Wilder with more inexplicably powerful nostalgia.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 15.) A song you\u2019d love to be played at your wedding.<\/b><\/p>\n The Way I Am<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Ingrid Michaelson<\/p>\n ‘Cause I love you more than I could ever promise If we had had a traditional wedding reception with a dance, I like to think this would have been our first dance song. Clocking in under three minutes would have helped too, as we are very much not<\/i> dancers nor do we like to be the center of attention at all<\/i>. Hence the eight total people at our actual wedding ceremony and a backyard picnic for the reception.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Landon Pigg. For obvious reasons.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 16.) A song you like that\u2019s a cover by another artist.<\/b><\/p>\n Million Miles Away<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Ingram Hill<\/p>\n A song off their Cold in California<\/a><\/i><\/b> album, originally by The Plimsouls<\/a><\/i><\/b>. The original is on The Drive List<\/a><\/i><\/b>. In equally shocking news, water is wet.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Hum Hallelujah<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Matt Nathanson, originally by Fall Out Boy<\/a><\/i><\/b>. It was released on Matty Nay’s Postcards From Chicago<\/a><\/i><\/b> EP, which Patrick Stump did some producing and duet-ed with him on another song from the list.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 17.) A song from your favorite movie.<\/b><\/p>\n Don’t You Forget About Me<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Simple Minds<\/p>\n The Breakfast Club<\/a><\/b><\/i> will always be one of my very favorite movies of all time. I was far too young to be watching Brat Pack<\/a><\/b><\/i> movies when they were new, but that’s neither here nor there.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Feels Like Forever<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Joe Cocker from The Cutting Edge<\/a><\/b><\/i>. Which is also one of my all-time favorites.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 18.) A song from your favorite video game.<\/b><\/p>\n 1000 Words<\/a><\/i><\/b> from Final Fantasy X-2<\/p>\n More like a favorite song from a video game<\/i> because I wouldn’t say FFX-2 is my favorite game, but FFX and FFX-2 hold a special place because FFX was the very first game Bob and I played together. And as cheesy as FFX-2 is (and is supposed to be) this song is a good one.<\/p>\n Honorable Mention: Close in the Distance<\/a><\/i><\/b> from Final Fantasy XIV<\/i>. It’s such a good song, but the way they used it in game was such a heavy impact and it was a big contributor to why I cried through the whole sequence.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 19.) A song from the year you were born.<\/b><\/p>\n Message in a Bottle<\/a><\/i><\/b> by The Police<\/p>\n The Police were another band that seeped deep into my music consciousness at a very young age because of my siblings.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 20.) A song that makes you think about life.<\/b><\/p>\n Bulletproof Picasso<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Train<\/p>\n See: I love Train. This was the last album that still felt like a Train album<\/i>.<\/p>\n Also, this one just feels like an anthem for life you sing at the top of your lungs.<\/p>\n Did you ever see the waves break 21.) A song you like with a person\u2019s name in the title.<\/b><\/p>\n Sara<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Starship<\/p>\n Listen. No one said it couldn’t be MY<\/i> name in the title. And it’s even spelled right<\/i>. Most songs have the superfluous H<\/i> in them.<\/p>\n Also, fun fact: my cousins gave me this single on a 45<\/a><\/b> back when it was new. Clearly a six-year-old could relate to the story. BUT MY NAME WAS SPELLED RIGHT. (Hearts of the World (Will Understand)<\/a><\/i><\/b> was the b-side.)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 22.) A song about sex.<\/b><\/p>\n Start a Fire<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Ryan Star<\/p>\n Ryan Star’s 11:59<\/a><\/i><\/b> album was so damn good. I wish he was still making music.<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Holding Out<\/a><\/i><\/b> by Andy Grammer. Because only AG could sing about loud, neighbor-distrupting sex and make it kind of adorable.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nI guess you’ll never know
\nWhat I feel for you but never show<\/i><\/p>\n
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\nCame into my life ripped my blues away
\nOh that stereo is my best friend every day
\nSomething always comes from the music anyway<\/i><\/p>\n
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\nAnd you take me the way I am<\/i><\/p>\n
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\nInto a million pieces
\nOr stay awake
\nWith someone who was dying
\nYou don’t need to tell me
\nAnything at all
\nI’m just glad you’re here
\nGlad you’re real
\nAre you real<\/i>
\n—
\nWe don’t need a reason
\nFor anything we feel
\nWe don’t need a reason
\nPicasso’s at the wheel
\nSo roll this top down
\nHell with this town
\nLeave our bags behind
\nWe don’t need a reason
\n‘Cause I’ve got you
\nAnd you’ve got me tonight<\/i>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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