#6: She's Got Everything -- The Kinks (1968)

The Kinks -- She's Got Everything


This was originally the B-Side of the single "Days" released in 1968, and appears on the album The Kinks--Kronikles. This was the first place that I ran into it, after buying the cassette tape of Kronikles when in my freshman year of high school. I bought it originally for a song that will appear later in the Top 40 list, "Apeman".

This song, however, jumped up and grabbed my ass and never let go. It is perhaps the most catchy song ever written, which is saying something, even for The Kinks. The guitar solo at the bridge is audio diamonds that cut through the usual FM bullshit. Tell me that Ritchie Blackmore didn't steal the lick for "My Woman From Tokyo" from this song.

The Kinks are the most underrated of the British Invasion bands in large part because of an onstage brawl that got them banned from performing in the United States between 1965 and 1969. This coincided with what their Wikipedia entry calls "The Golden Age" and I have to agree. For instance

1. The Album The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society released in 1968 was perhaps the best of this great band's catalogue, but had no "single". This is unfortunate, as "Village Green Preservation Society" is one of the great songs of the 1960s. "She's Got Everything" was a song originally intended as the opening track of a US only release called Four More Respected Gentlemen.
2. The song "Sunny Afternoon", released in 1966, is one of the best 10 songs ever written by anyone anywhere. It, as well as The Beatles "Taxman", takes the UK to task for taxes. However, it goes on to have the great lyric "My girlfriend's gone off with my car/And gone back to her ma and pa/Telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty". Ray Davies was at his songwriting height between 1965 and 1969, and the biggest market in the world was not available as a live audience. 
3. The single "Waterloo Sunset" was released in 1967. This could be a 'Nuff Said moment, excepting the brilliant lyrics, references to Terrence Stamp and Julie Christie and the performance of this song at the end of the 2012 Summer Olympics. 
1. Dirty old river, must you keep rolling

But, I digress. This song is just catchy, exuberant and joyful. This is how love is for anyone, and it is about how love is at the beginning of any relationship:


I've got a girl who's oh, so good,
She's got everything.
I've got a girl and she is mine,
She's got everything.
Nothing is wrong, everything is brilliant in every color and every shade. Nothing is dulled, everything is heightened and makes the soul jump in 4/4 time

All other guys just stand and stare,
She's got everything.
I ain't got a dime but she don't care,
I got everything.
This is how I am in those moments when the sun catches Rachel's hair just right. When I do something that I know makes her happy, when she laughs at my jokes and can't stop, which is when she gets that crink in her nose and covers up her mouth just so

And I can't live without her love,
And I can't live without her kisses.

Joy is infectious, as is love. This song is such that I want to listen to it about 400 times in a row. Just like I want Rachel to keep laughing at my jokes and giving me kisses. Ohhhhhhh yeah, I got everything! Thanks, Rachel!

Top 40 #5: Mah Na Mah Na by Piero Umiliani (1968)

Muppets 1969 (!)


I really had no idea that this originally aired on the Ed Sullivan Show, or indeed that the Muppets themselves were on that show. People my age probably found this song through Sesame Street instead of the Muppets.

Why this? because I just plain like silly shit. That's what is the best thing about this song. I could be in a parachute that does not open carrying the severed heads of my pets falling toward a Hello Kitty inflatable kids pool filled with waste from a cattle yard and if The Universe whispered  "Doo Doo-do-do-do" I would respond by giggling and yelling "MAH NA MAH NA". It's perfect in its simple silliness. In this day and age where everything silly is deemed important and everything important degenerates into name calling silliness, this song is simply silly.

I am writing this post on the day that DOMA was struck down by the Supreme Court, a day after the same Justices "gutted" the Voting Rights Act. Let's look at the scorecards:

Voting Rights Act Case 5-4

1. John Roberts
2. Antonin Scalia
3. Anthony Kennedy
4. Clarence Thomas
5. Samuel Alito

The 9 states in question no longer need to send in their proposed electoral law changes to the Justice Department. It does NOT remove the ability for people who have been discriminated against in voting because of race to sue the state over the discriminatory act. This is purely a state's rights issue, NOT an issue about individual rights. If, for instance, Alabama wants to change portions of its electoral code, it must seek permission from the DoJ. If Tennessee, a neighboring and former Confederate state with a Jim Crow tradition also wants to enact voting laws, it does not have to seek permission from the DoJ. In effect, the five justices in the majority concluded that this creates a second class tier of states which is antithetical to the 10th  Amendment.

Do-doo-do-do-do

Robert's opinion notes that "The purpose of section 5 is to not punish the past but to produce a better future" and that this treatment of these states does "not satisfy constitutional requirements." I absolutely agree with this. It singles out states for past digressions while overlooking others (indeed, the VRA goes down to the county level in North Carolina, California, South Dakota and in New York City).

Mnah-Mnah

DOMA 5-4

1. Anthony Kennedy
2. Ruth Bader-Ginsberg
3. Stephen Breyer
4. Sonya Sotomayor
5. Elena Kagan

The only constant on both sides is Kennedy, even if both cases involve the role of the Federal Government and its relationship to state power. Which, in effect, the ruling here is that the Federal Government cannot make laws that create a class of second class citizens which DOMA accomplished by not allowing same-sex couples to receive economic benefits that hetero couples enjoy. This is not about rights, it is about economics. In that sense, Kennedy shows remarkable consistency in looking for the creation of second class status for states or citizens which goes against any sort of constitutionality.

Do-do-do-do

This was first and foremost a TAX issue. The plaintiff in the case demanded a refund of estate taxes levied on her after her partner died. This is why they dodged on the Prop 8 case, because that was a majority vote in a state. If they struck that down, it would overturn an enacted state proposition. Civil Unions can now be recognized in California and these people will receive partner benefits, which is what the DOMA case was about. The decision explicitly states that the problem is the creation of a "subset of second class marriages." Sounds like a creation of a subset of second class states.

Mnah-Mnah

So, are Justices Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts hypocrites? No. The look upon this as two very different issues dealing with state sovereignty. States are sovereign over their own citizens and if legislatures enact laws over their own citizens, it is up to the citizens themselves to challenge the constitutional legality of them. If the Federal Legislature passes a law, it is up to the states to challenge the constitutional legality of those laws. Emotions have no place in law; if you do not like something, use a logical argument to get it overturned. Alito and the rest are not "reactionary" or "asses" any more than Ginsberg is a "pinko down to her underpants". Those categorizations may be correct, but drop 'em.

Do-doo-do-do-do

In either case, the Supreme Court should strike down any law that creates a second class tier of anything, states or citizens. While on the outside it may look like the Conservatives on the court found one way for states and another way for states, it is more about the legal entities of citizens and states. I still think Scalia is a pompous windbag (a very bright windbag) but at least he grinds his ideological axes on the bench.  I found his dissent which focused on "homosexual sodomy" repellent. I guess heterosexual sodomy is just fine with him. If that's your thing, do what you want to do.

Mnah-Mnah

#4: Head over Heels by Tears for Fears

Released: 1985 on the album Songs from the Big Chair

Written by: Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith (AKA the two vocalists for Tears for Fears with the awesome 1980s feathered locks that we all wanted. Don't lie, you wanted it as much as I did)

Head over Heels Video

     I always think of one thing when I hear this song. It is not Donnie Darko, the fantastic film that most people think of while wishing Drew Barrymore was their English teacher. No, it is a flea market in Rogers, Arkansas in the late summer of 1985. The summer before seventh grade, before the bad unwashed times, the beatings and the Members Only jacket that might have well been stapled to my torso and the Tennessee hat that was stapled to my greasy head. Jesus, no wonder I could never get a girlfriend.

     This flea market saw the purchase of my first two cassette tapes, which not only provide a nice statement about the 1980s but also about my musical tastes. I picked up from a cardboard display the following:

1. Songs from the Big Chair: I knew the song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and liked it. I had heard "Shout" also but thought it sucked. Thus, when I saw "Head over Heels" on the track list the Meatloaf Requirements were fulfilled: Two out of Three Ain't bad so I ponied up my $3.95 and bought it.

2. Pyromania by Def Leppard. Yes, yes. Def Leppard was awful.

    These two albums represent one of the following three things:

1. The 1980s were a time of incredible musical variety. Just add in Elvis Costello, Metallica, The English Beat.....the list goes on!
2. I had absolutely no musical taste whatsoever. Give me a fuckin' break. I was 12 and it was on the radio. 
3. This was a signal of my as-of-then undiagnosed bipolar disorder. You be the judge:
1. Head over Heels: I wanted to be with you alone/to talk about the weather
2. Photograph: Got a photograph picture of a passion killer/It's too much/You're the only one I wanna touch
3. Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure/Nothing ever lasts forever
4. Rock of Ages: I know for sure there ain't no cure/So feel it don't fight it/go with the flow/Gimme gimmie gimmie one more for the road

Personally I think it is #3. Most people would point to the Everest sized mountain of evidence for #2. Haters gonna hate. 

     Songs From the Big Chair was a white cassette with a rose colored label; of I remember correctly this was the same color layout of my cassette of the coke fueled awesomeness that was Black Sabbath Vol 4. What is important for me in the scope of this song is the video. This is perhaps the only song that I did not hear before I saw the video. Thus, the video runs along with the song when I hear it. It involves a guy trying to impress a librarian, a chimp wearing a Red Sox jersey, an Orthodox Jew and an awesome cut in which the keyboard flies in from the right

     Not only did this leave me utterly confused and laughing, it left me with one of my three fetishes. No, not for keyboards, but for librarians who wear glasses. Ah hell, that could have been Velma from Scooby Doo. I have always been partial to this song because of the opening notes (the 1980s version of Beethoven's Fifth) and the slow build to the drum fill at the end of the first verse. The video is completely meaningless but quite funny, a showcase for guys lip syncing with all their might in the oddest places.

     This song has staying power because of 1984 and 1985. It was quite possibly the last time I felt truly at ease with myself. In seventh grade something broke in me; in sixth grade I was happy with my lot even if dad randomly punched me from his chair and mom looked the other way. The refrain of "Don't take my heart/don't break my heart/Don't throw it away" mirrored what my parents were doing and quite possibly touched a part of me that threatened to vanish during seventh grade. When I hear this song it is pure nostalgia for a time that my family was not unalterably fractured. I was twelve, not failing classes, still bathing regularly, not getting yelled at or beaten every other day, still had a reasonable dad who once in a while got angry and then spent the next three days apologizing.

     By December of 1985 things were completely different. I was indifferent to grades, football and being alive. I was in trouble at school and routinely detained. I did this because I did not want to go home. If one looked at my behavioral record (you know, that Permanent One that I threaten kids with even though I know it does not exist) I would bet that the majority of my detentions occurred on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These were the days I was sure that dad would be home and I would be stuck alone with him. Threats would be made and fists would be thrown. Every so often I fought back and this would make him angry. Dad was a dirty fighter, so at least my face was spared. While I can say he never gave me a black eye he did cut my scalp in several places, bruised my kidneys, hit me once in the liver which kept me at home "sick" for two days, kicked me in the knee to get me on the ground.

     In a sense, though, the worst part was the yelling. Voices raised everywhere around me. At school (Where is your book cover? Take that hat off! You are a student here not a guest! Again no homework? Why don't you try?) at home (Where the fuck have you been? It's none of your God damn business you drunk bastard. Let me in! If you tell your mother about this I'll fucking kill you, understand?). Nowhere was quiet, nowhere was easy. So while the lyrics of this song make little to no sense, they provide a small sense of comfort and hope.

Top 40 #3: Turn the Page by Bob Seger

Released: Originally in 1972; preferred is the version on Live Bullet recorded in 1975 and released in 1976.

Turn the Page "Live Bullet"

Written by: Bob Seger

      There is cheese, then there is cheese for special occasions. Then there is cheese made from goats milk from goats who graze on King Agamemnon's grave every full moon that sells for $750 an ounce. Such is Bob Seger's epic ballad "Turn the Page."

      I heard this first, as with many things, on KRNA in Iowa City. I probably then listened to this song roughly 16,000 times on the two copies of Live Bullet I owned. I loved this song, warbling along with it while the Panasonic tape recorder that my Dad stole from the University of Iowa Hospitals wore out each tape. Indeed, I taped this song from the radio several times. Once I misjudged the length of the tape remaining and listened with horror as side 1 dropped out just before the climactic sax notes that end up the song.

     As Bob sings "There I GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and the sax comes in with more cheese than a Wisconsin dairy, there is my 9 year old voice saying "DAMNIT!" loudly enough for the Panasonic to hear but not loud enough for the parents. Regardless of the tragedy of failing to capture Bob in his Cobo Hall glory, it would have meant a shot to the mouth. I cussed in solemn quiet, only to be rewarded for about a year by my giggling. I still hear that "DAMNIT" the few times per year that I manage to listen to the entire song.

    Before you think that I am mocking Bob Seger, I am not. I credit him for finding one of my favorite duos, Ike and Tina Turner. Live Bullet opens with "Nutbush City Limits", a great song but better when belted out by Tina. I sought out that version in the times before YouTube in the only way I could, by buying a cassette of "Ike and Tina's Greatest". Needless when I listened to "Proud Mary", "Come Together" and "A Fool in Love" I was hooked. In a sense, Seger was a gateway artist, and for that I owe him big.

     You see, I hate this song now. One of many things I cannot stand from my childhood, it is a solemn monument to the God of changing taste. I loved the idea of some "long Haired Freak" wandering into some Diner filled with local yokels not unlike my parents and family. I was the Freak, and the family were the people passing judgment. Everyone does this. We identify with those who are not understood when we are teenagers or 12 year olds. When we are abused, we identify with those who have the fortitude to basically tell the world to suck a bag of dicks while taking a fist to the ribs. Such it was with Seger; I knew I was worthwhile even when people treated me like shit.

     You turn the page and move on to the next chapter. If people do not like it or "don't understand" they have to meet you in a place of commonality. If they refuse, you Turn the Page on them, family or not. While this may be shortsighted, I would answer life is too short to sweat the small bull shit. Hair too long? People bitching about your beard? Cut both when you want to, then do what as in the old Hebrew tale concerning Joshua. Joshua was invited to a feast, but showed up in rough homespun robes. He was turned away at the door despite his protestations. He returned in new robes and was ushered in with great pomp and circumstance. He responded by saying "Since it is my robes you invited, it is my robes which will stay." He then cast aside his robes and left the feast.

     I may dislike this song because it is more full of cheese than a sandwich, but I cannot turn away from its message. Don't like me or what I look like? Tough. Get to know me before you make a judgment. I make stupid mistakes, just like everyone does. How do we forgive ourselves when others do not? Mistakes ascribed to how you look should never enter into the equation, as they are not mistakes. Mistakes are made through our own choices, not the decisions of small minded others. And I mean small minded. Don't like that waiter or waitress because of their tats? Go somewhere that would not hire them to match yourself.

     Does this drive us apart? Of course it does but this is the penalty for having a free society. If you cannot accept the bulk of humanity who talk to much on cell phones or have tramp stamps you are not part of the world. I hate both of those things. Loathe them with every fiber of my fat assed being. I do not expect them to change because I want them to do so. They have to come to that point. The question as to whether or not it is a "good" thing to have or not have a tramp stamp is immaterial beside the action. We produce meaning and we can produce change. To think otherwise removes us from agency and power. I would say "Fuck that. I decide." Don't like my hair?

There I go
Playin' star again
There I go
Turn the Page

     We are all the stars in our own lives and we decide our co-stars. Don't want to be in the play? You are whether you like it or not. It's your choice to be a villain or a hero. I want to be a hero in everyone's play. We should never want to be less.