The Seven Song Meme Strikes Again

      I'm not sure being "tagged" qualifies as some sort of existential proof of being, but if so, I have been tagged, therefore I am. Cindy Morefield has tagged me with the "seven song meme," the rules of which are simple:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to. If you want.

      I don't really know seven other people with blogs who haven't yet been tagged. Fortunately there was no mention made of how the last person who failed to pass on the meme was killed by a falling piano, so I'm assuming this is safer than a chain letter. Anyway, here's my list.

• "The Side With the Seeds" by Wilco, from Sky Blue Sky. I never understood the critical acclaim that Wilco has always enjoyed until my brother recommended "Sky Blue Sky." There's not a single track I don't like, but "The Side With the Seeds" has been getting the heaviest rotation in my CD spinner lately. You have to love a song that has not one, but two excellent guitar solos.
• "Rag and Bone" by The White Stripes from Icky Thump. I've always had a soft spot for stripped down outfits like Morphine, early Rush, and The White Stripes. Every so often, just when music seems to be stuck in a death-spiral of mediocrity, someone comes along to renew my faith in rock and roll. Right now it's Jack and Meg.
• "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave from Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. There's nothing new about this one, but I've been going back to it again and again lately. I have a half-baked notion that the old Japanese "Zatoichi" movies about the lonely, blind, roaming, reluctant sword master would make an excellent American Western if Ichi were turned into a lonely, blind, roaming, reluctant gunfighter. "Red Right Hand" is the song I imagine would run over the opening credits, just after the first shootout. "You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his red right hand."
• "Just Before You Leave" by Del Amitri from Can You Do Me Good? Perhaps no other pop band has produced more songs about love gone bad than Del Amitri. Love gone really, really bad. But they're great songs. For the best representation of their stuff, check out the album Waking Hours.
• "Ships" by Big Country from No Place Like Home. Big Country was huge in the UK, but never really broke over here except for their one eponymous hit. They wrote a lot of good stuff about tough times in Thatcher's Britain; maybe that's why they didn't resonate with Americans. Think Springsteen with guitars that sound like bagpipes. Or something.
• "Blue" by the Jayhawks from Tomorrow the Green Grass. Arthur Clarke wrote a short story called--I think--"The Ultimate Melody" about a scientist who sought to precisely quantify what sonic characteristics make up those songs that stick in your head and go round and round all day. The scientist was so successful at creating his "ultimate melody" that he turned himself into a drooling idiot, unable to hold any thought in his head other than the perfect melody, going endlessly round and round. "Blue" would probably have served as an excellent starting point for his research.
• "Heartless" by John Doe from Forever Hasn't Happened Yet. John Doe is a former member of the famous punk band "X" but has since transformed himself into a genre-busting singer/songwriter whose music sometimes falls into alt-country or roots rock and sometimes defies classification altogether. Anyway, he's really good, and another track on the same album, "Twin Brother" dukes it out with Kelly Joe Phelps's "Tommy" for the title of Most Depressing Song Ever Written.