10 Songs That Inspire...

[Thelemech]

Great to see some love for Bob Marley 😀
And I can understand why some you are not fans

[Zzzptm]

Everyday by Buddy Holly is a song that is part of some of my first memories and really grounds my emotions
It is an amazing song IMHO

That's another bit of pure hope and joy. Buddy Holly truly was a genius with music.

[Vyn]

Not to pick fates, but I'd rather Holly had skipped that plane ride and Waylon would have took it.

A long time ago, I dated a woman for about a year whose mom was Waylon Jennings' very first wife. I was kind of stunned when she told me and showed me some stuff. Then at some point I met her mom. It all made sense, both her and her mom were nucking futz. The woman I was dating was not Waylons kid, they didn't have any, just for the record. From what she told me, the famous singer and her mom had zero contact once they divorced. This was before he was a name, just trying to make it, and even then I guess he was all about the alcohol and substances.

[Charger]

For my 6th I'll go with BLAZE BAYLEY who has a ton of inspiring lyrics. The man's great at writing stuff like that.

Here's probably my favourite one, it's from the 10th Dimension album and it's called NOTHING WILL STOP ME!

[Zzzptm]

Deep Purple - "No One Came"

A song for trying and realizing success is not just in working hard, there's a good deal of luck involved, as well. And if you don't get that luck, or it turns the other way, well... you're still there and you've got some stories to tell.

[Charger]

For my 7th pick I'll go with ROB ZOMBIE

This one from the Hellbilly Deluxe II and it's a great mood lifter song.

SICK BUBBLE GUM:

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Forgot to post yesterday...

Pick 6 - and a gothic homage to the golden age of horror actors.

The Damned - The Beauty of the Beast

[Zzzptm]

Gabriel's - "Great Wind"

This one came out just a few years ago, and became an instant favorite of mine. It is such an emotionally-packed lyric and I broke down crying listening to it again just now. It was a good cry, the kind Ozzy asks about in "Looking for Today". And although I've been doing my best to avoid crises and tough times since it came out in 2023, this song has been there for me. Even when I'm not having a tough time, it reminds me of what I've been through and what I've yet to endure, and how love is gonna be the duct tape of life that binds us all together, but not in a hippy-drippy way, it's a real confrontation of losses, conclusions, and departures and why you tell someone you love them every day.

[Thelemech]

Looking For Today is my absolute favorite Black Sabbath song

 

[Charger]

8th pick I'm going with DIO.

KDC stole my original pick so gotta change up.

This can be thought of being about how to make the best of things when being down on your luck...there is a deeper metaphor here but that's kind of always the way I've seen the lyrics.

BETTER IN THE DARK this one!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Pick 7

New Model Army - Eleven Years

A feel good song from the guys who are usually complaining about something!

[Charger]

For my 9th pick I'm gonna go with some YEAH YEAH YEAHS!!

This from my favourite album Show Your Bones and it's an inspiring tune called WARRIOR!!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Pick Number 8

Iced Earth - Ten Thousand Strong

[Zzzptm]

I love my mom and my mom loves me. When I left for college in 1986, she started to volunteer down at the local community radio station, KNON. It wasn't long and she had a radio show, The Texas Folk Music Review. This is a photo of her back around 1988-1990 or thereabouts:



When I came back from college, she asked if I'd want to help answer phones on her show and be on the air a bit as a co-host. I was totally down with that. Now, she was Ranger Rita on the air and she told me I needed a radio name. Well, I was way more metal than country then, so I decided to be a dude always trying to get Rita to play stuff that rocked a good deal harder than the folk music she was spinning. A cockroach would do something like that. She agreed. "What's the name of this cockroach?"

"Steve." I said, "Steve the Cockroach." We laughed and it stuck. It later became Steve T. Cockroach and, when pressed, the schtick was to say the T was for "the". Good times. This is me proving my cockroach bona fides, around 1989:



Thing was, though, I really liked the Texas Outlaw stuff we were spinning on that show. I had no problem demanding that she play some heavy metal and then she would put on "Heavy Metal" by Guy Clark, a song about running a Caterpillar D10. A roach can respect gear like that. We had a great time, but I eventually had to get a job and couldn't be on a Monday morning radio show on the regular, so I left that world a while. I came back a few years later when she started The Magic Time Warp Show and that had a Wednesday evening slot. That's the 50s rock and roll show that I do today. Yep, I inherited it when she couldn't make it into the studio like she could. That was around 2019, and she was 75 that year.

I was thinking about those memories and that got me to remember a pair of songs my mom turned me on to when I was in my late teens and I love 'em. First one is the folksy one, Guy Clark singing "LA Freeway", a song about getting a new start by leaving behind the old start.

Then there's Rusty Wier and his "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance", all about dancin' and havin' a good time and what-not, I tell you what!

When I was in college, I got to interview these guys and see 'em performing live around Austin. I worked at The Daily Texan as an entertainment writer. Everyone else wanted to do the rock beats and Country was wide open. I was kinda glad for that, since I actually *liked* these guys. I'd see the show and come up at the end and tell 'em I was Ranger Rita's kid and they'd light up and thank me for having a mom that played their records and got the word out. I felt honored to have a mom like that, I truly did. Even today, people from those days will turn up and ask if I'm Rita's boy and then say something nice about her after I let them know she's still kickin' around and doing all right, considering she's 82 and all.

Back in those days in the 80s, there was another young kid trying to find his way and we all thought his music was great and if he kept his nose clean and his manager honest, he'd make it all right. That young kid was Robert Earl Keen, and he was damn glad that Ranger Rita played his records before anybody else would. He was fun to hang out with after a show down at the UT Austin Student Union bar. I got this album from him as a gift and then I had him sign in "Promo copy ONLY" because them promo copies is worth more! We had a good laugh at that, like I would ever trade away such a thing as the gift of music.

Rober Earl Keen - "The Front Porch Song"

KNON still does its DJ meetings at the Sons of Herman Hall and lots of benefits there. Every time I go there, I remember ol' Robert Earl Keen and him givin the Presbyterians something to talk about on their way to Luby's.

Yes, thesse songs lift me up. They sure do. They did when I first heard them, and they still do, decades later. Evergreens, these songs, resilient as a windswept live oak.

[Vyn]

That right there is a slice of pure Texas, Z. I can - smell - it.