30 Day Song Challenge - Day Fifteen ... A song you liked in high school

I'd say all of the songs I liked in high school I still like. I might have gone off the boil for some of them but I still like them.

When I were but a teenage bimbet I was listening to Mike Oldfield, Sky, Queen and Long John Baldry. Probably not the usual teenage taste of the time. However, I wasn't above a bit of rampant musical commercialism either (anyone who thinks or says they are is a liar who is trying too hard to be cool or interesting, in my experience) and I remember really liking Billy Idol's version of "Mony Mony". And I still do. He may be a bit of a prick now and then but he done some good'uns and you can't argue with his sales figures. Particularly, IMHO, the live version of this, a big hit in 1987 when I was fifteen. This is the official video which doesn't feature the audience participation that has become a tradition at Billy's concerts. ;)

30 Day Song Challenge - Day Fourteen ... A song from the year you were born

When I looked this year up I found that some of my favourite tracks come from this year and I didn't even know it. When I was born (13th October 1972) a song called "Mouldy Old Dough" was at number one in the UK charts apparently. I've never heard it and something tells me that might be a good thing. The charts that year had Alice Cooper, Chicory Tip, America and Gilbert O' Sullivan. And Led Zep's "Rock and Roll" was released as a single. It also had weird floaty prog rock oddness in the form of "Lady Eleanor" by Lindisfarne, which I have always really liked. I like my weird floaty oddness. So there it is - my chosen track from 1972.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day Thirteen ... A song that you sing in the shower

This could be anything. Anything I have either heard, or am learning or experimenting with, or like, or sometimes don't like and can't get rid of the earworm. So I guess for a singer this question isn't quite as revealing - I'm guessing most people don't sing on a daily basis so if they sing in the shower or car it's because they don't wish to be observed whilst singing. I don't have that, so I can't show a revealing part of me with the answer to day thirteen's question. So should I pick a song that I sing in the shower that I have never sung in public or would be unlikely to sing in public ? Or would be embarrassed to sing in public ? I'm not sure there is a song I would be embarrassed to sing in public as I have no shame (or at least no shame that would actually stop me from singing, anyway ;) )

I think the nearest I can get to the point of the original question is a song I have never sung in public (though I would like to) because I sing this one when nobody is watching. I grew up with songs like this thanks to my grandfather who was a major fan of the goddess that is Dame Shirley Bassey (all hail the sequined diva !) I've never had the opportunity to sing anything like this in public (not sure this is the Secondhand Band's sort of thing, lol) but would love to get all dolled up in something very glam with feathers and sequins and make like the Shirlster. If I look that good at that age I will count myself as extremely fortunate ! But so far the shower is the only place I've ever sung this. Hey, Big Spender ! :)

30 Day Song Challenge - Day Twelve ... A song that make you want to have sex ...

Fuck, I'm so far behind ! Ah well.

See, here's the thing. Let's not be bashful about it - for a lot of us, music and sex are wrapped up all together. You can bet your house that the first songs ever grunted by cave men were about two things - their prowess as a hunter and that sweet little bit of cave girl tush they wanted to drag off by the hair. All my big crushes as a teenager were on musicians (and none you'd likely expect either.) My first two boyfriends I met at school because we were into music and involved in musical projects at school. First long relationship was with a dj. My fiance is a guitar player. All of my important relationships have been with people who were musical in some way (or who wanted to be). So you see where I'm coming from - attraction is fairly entwined with a shared love of music for me. I don't think I could get it on with someone who didn't love music. So it follows that music, being linked to attraction for me, is also going to be linked with sex.

I can totally see the attraction groupies (of either sex) have for musicians - I know some of them are in it to get bragging rights and further their own careers, but in the sense of the word "groupie" meaning "person who loves the music of an artist and wishes to encounter them sexually", I totally see why. Just as well I a) wasn't born in the sixties, when groupies really got serious and were more often than not actively encouraged by bands because I'd have probably been a total slut and b) happen to be musical myself, so I don't need to hang around with bands as a groupie to get close to musicians. And of course most importantly c) already have a musician of my own to encounter sexually, ta very much. ;)

So, back to the plot. I could pick most anything from my mp3 collection and say it would likely make me want to have sex should the opportunity be presented and my man be around (and sometimes even if those two criteria are not met ---- I can always wait until they are. ;) ). I think as far as genres go, ballady country music, oompah bands and happy hardcore are big turn off for me, but I don't own any tracks featuring the last two genres (but I do have a bit o' country hanging about). So - what to pick ? I could pick a hundred blues standards. They certainly seem to do it for me. But that would be boring because anyone reading any of these entries will know I like the blues. Or pretty much anything by Jeff Healey or Gary Moore (thought a fair bit of that would be blues standards). So I am going to pick something in a different style from a band who I'm not a big fan of otherwise and I wouldn't even know in the street if they slapped me - but it is mostly the guitar that does it for me on this track (the feedback squeal at the end of the first verse in particular - dirty !) so maybe I've not made such a different choice at all.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day Nine ... a song that reminds you of an ex

Ah well, what a cornucopia of tracks I would have to choose from here. Fortunately, bad exes (I've had a few) don't necessarily means bad songs associated with them. And I can hardly refer to "good" exes, for two reasons - one, I don't actually have more than one or two (those that I would count as good exes - i.e. people I wouldn't want to hit with a brick - hark from many years ago when I was in my early teens) and two, the smart woman does not speak too highly of her past beaus in front of her new man if she knows what's good for her .... and I certainly know that my man these days is about the best thing ever for me.

Most of my exes don't feature in my thoughts on a daily basis - except for the most annoying and tiresome one, my soon-to-be-ex husband, who I unfortunately have to consider now and again due to still being embroiled legally with the ratbag. I have been trying to divorce him for two and a half years (third time of trying), after he walked out on me over eight years ago. Somehow I must be more important to him still than he is to me however as he insists on making the divorce about as hard as it can be and generally has the morals of a bout of amoebic dysentery. However amoebic dysentery it easier to get shot of and would likely have disappeared by now !

So here it is, a song that could have been written about my feelings for him, such as they are. I'm sure there is a song out there somewhere called "Sign The Papers And Just Fuck Off" or "Ode to a Scumbag", but I don't know such tunes so this will have to do. Ugly Kid Joe's "Everything About You."

30 Day Song Challenge - Day Eight ... A band the popularity of which you will never understand.

This has got to be the easiest one for me so far, and I imagine my choice will get me chased up a tree and shot down in some circles, but there it is. I have never understood the appeal of the Rolling Stones. Granted, they have some good tunes but that's not hard. Granted, they have been going for years, but that's not hard when people will keep paying to see the same old same old. But personally I find that they often were absolute shite live in the early days (IMHO) and Mick Jagger is someone who minces about in such a way that I want to punch him not shag him. I just don't get the appeal.
Rolling Stones songs are, in my opinion, best done by bands and artists other than the Rolling Stones.
I'm not going to bother with any YouTube links (I'm tired) but if you really want to you could go and find some of your own, anything by them will do. I could pretty much say that I don't like it very much.
I'll get me coat ....

30 Day Song Challenge - Day Seven ... One band or singer you are ashamed to admit you like.

Well, I'm not ashamed of any of my musical likes. I was a dj for many years and this gives me a free pass with regards to being allowed to have crap in my collection. When you've done children's parties, weddings and village hall Christmas discos as well as club work it is acceptable to have stuff by Black Lace and Jive Bunny. :) Whether it is publicly acceptable to like (or at least be able to tolerate) that shite is another thing, but I don't care anyway.

So you can imagine - there's lots of stuff in my mp3 folder that many people would look at me oddly for. I'm not ashamed of any of them so I'll have to settle for the thing I think people would most give me ribbing for. I did hover on a little known album release from Bruce Willis (yes, the actor) called "The Return of Bruno" which has gotten me some raised eyebrows in the past, but although I really like it most people don't even know it exists. So public shame isn't really a possibility there.

In the end I've gone for a track that anyone dj'ing the chicken in a basket circuit at the time seems to universally hate, but I still like. It was at number one in the singles charts for sixteen weeks. I must have had it requested a similar amount of times every gig I did. It was guaranteed to get the Erection Section off to a drunken stumbling start and is unquestionably the artist's biggest hit (and he's had some bigguns). From the film "Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves", I give you "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" by Bryan Adams. You'll have to take your own sick bucket over to youtube because the artist has declined to allow embedding of this video. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGoWtY_h4xo