And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here's part 3 of 4 in my ongoing-but-almost-done miniseries featuring "Known" and "Unknown" songs. With this post, we enter the realm of the "Unknown." Enjoy! ~ JH
This latest music miniseries was suggested by my friend, Daniel Entzminger – and a great idea it was, too. Each song in this series features a nationality (or demonym, if you will) in its title. First up, we have a collection of "Canadian," "Mexican," "Irish," "English," "Greek," and "Spanish" songs. Some really good stuff here, both newer and older – I'm sure you will enjoy! ~ JH
1) Blues Traveler ~ "Canadian Rose"
2) Gordon Lightfoot ~ "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"
3) Andy Williams ~ "Canadian Sunset"
4) Jim Reeves ~ "Blue Canadian Rockies"
5) Smokie ~ "Mexican Girl"
6) Concrete Blonde ~ "Mexican Moon"
7) Wall Of Voodoo ~ "Mexican Radio"
8) Van Morrison ~ "One Irish Rover"
9) Morrissey ~ "Irish Blood, English Heart"
10) The Pogues ft. The Dubliners ~ "The Irish Rover"
11) Adam Lambert ~ "Broken English"
12) Vampire Weekend ~ "California English"
13) Matchbox 20 ~ "English Town"
14) Sting ft. Branford Marsalis ~ "Englishman In New York"
15) The Wombats ~ "Greek Tragedy"
16) Rufus Wainwright ~ "Greek Song"
17) Toni Braxton ~ "Spanish Guitar"
18) The Clash ~ "Spanish Bombs"
19) The Doors ~ "Spanish Caravan"
20) Elton John ~ "A Word In Spanish"
21) Chris Isaak ~ "Blue Spanish Sky"
22) Jimi Hendrix ~ "Spanish Castle Magic"
23) Willie Nelson & Ray Charles ~ "Seven Spanish Angels"
Just when you think I've exhausted every possible combination of "Opposites" to make music posts out of, I come up with another one. Here's a collection of songs with "Strange" in their titles. Next time, "Normal" songs. Enjoy! ~ JH
1) The Doors ~ "People Are Strange"
2) Reba McEntire ~ "Strange"
3) Animal Kingdom ~ "Strange Attractor"
4) The Black Keys ~ "Strange Times"
5) Cameo ~ "She's Strange"
6) Matthew Good Band ~ "Strange Days"
7) Iron Maiden ~ "Stranger In A Strange Land"
8) The Feeling ~ "Strange"
9) Pete Yorn ~ "Strange Condition"
10) Paul Federici ~ "Strange Disease"
11) Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa ~ "Strange Fruit"
12) School Of Fish ~ "3 Strange Days"
13) The Airborne Toxic Event ~ "Strange Girl"
14) Monkey To Millionaire ft. Marsha Suryawinata ~ "Strange Is The Song In Our Conversation"
15) Tori Amos ~ "Strange Little Girl"
16) Homeboy Sandman ~ "Strange Planet"
17) The Zolas ~ "Strange Girl"
18) R.E.M. ~ "Strange Currencies"
19) Michael Learns To Rock ~ "Strange Foreign Beauty"
20) Pete Roe ~ "A Strange Kind Of Mystery In The Air"
This post is a postscript to this week's related-but-not-really-related series of posts featuring Songs About Crying, Flying, Lying, Trying, and Dying. I never planned to do one on Songs About Spying, but I sort of randomly looked it up to see if there were any songs that would qualify, and as it turns out there were. I had to dig a little deeper to find the same number of songs for this one that I'd done for the others, but I was ultimately successful in doing so. Oh yeah, and for those of you who like commentary, you'll probably like this one. Enjoy! ~ JH
1) Super Junior ~ "Spy" (I have no idea what they're singing about, aside from the fact that they spell out "S-P-Y" a few times – but the song's got a nice beat and you can dance to it, so whatevs.)
2) Erica Baxter ~ "I Spy" (I've never heard of her, but apparently this lady's song was co-written by Natasha Bedingfield, whom I like a lot.)
3) "Weird Al" Yankovic ~ "Spy Hard" (Ya gotta love "Weird Al." Even if you try not to. Ya just gotta.)
4) Was (Not Was) ~ "Spy In The House Of Love" (Über-stylish hairdos and headwear abound in this video. No, not really.)
5) Paul McCartney ~ "Spies Like Us" (I never saw the '80s movie of which this is theme song. Was it any good?)
6) Mikhael Paskalev ~ "I Spy" (This guy takes the whole Risky Business underwear dance to a whole 'nother level. Not that that's a good thing. The song's good, though.)
7) Never Land Pirate Band ~ "Spy Glass" (I must be losing my mind for including this song! Not that it's horrible or anything. I've just seen way too many episodes of this show to be viewing videos of songs from it in my spare time.)
8) Project 86 ~ "Spy Hunter" (I don't blame them for knocking that guy out with the guitar. The cannon might've been a bit much, though.)
9) Let's Go Bowling ~ "Spy Market" (Video quality is poor, but the song is pretty good. So I guess it evens out.)
10) Bauhaus ~ "Spy In The Cab" (Raise your hand if you thought the singer was a sketchy-looking girl until he started singing horribly.)
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11) Steve Winwood ~ "Spy In The House Of Love" (Winwood's music seems to sound the same yet still fresh over the years. This one was a minor success some ten years after his most well-known hits, but sounds like it could've come from the same albums as those.)
12) The Doors ~ "The Spy" (No video here – just good music. So don't complain!)
13) Animal Logic ~ "There's A Spy (In The House Of Love)" (I'm not at all familiar with this band or this song, but it appears to be somewhat of a "lost gem.")
14) Coldplay ~ "Spies" (Okay, so maybe they're a pretty good band after all.)
15) Feral Children ~ "Spy/Glass House" (The good: This guy can play drums and sing simultaneously. The bad: He's not that great of a singer. The ugly: Archery with ballpoint pen ink reservoirs.)
16) The Moffatts ~ "Spy" (Sound quality isn't the best – neither is the video quality for that matter – but these guys can hold their own among most middle-of-the-road live bands. Which is saying…something.)
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17) INXS ~ "Spy Of Love" (He dances weirdly – all girlish-like. And his shirt is too shirt. But that's probably the point.)
18) Guster ~ "I Spy" (Never heard of these guys before, either. While some of the song's lyrics leave much to be desired, the band's incredible talent does not.)
19) Riccardo Gioggi ~ "The Spy Song" (WOW! That is all I have to say.)
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20) Painted Air ~ "Spies" (Finally…we've reached the end of this post. I should probably say something about the song, huh? It's kind of…well, it's…it's 4 minutes long, that's what it is.)
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