What You Need for Modern Times

I hadn't been over to the Plagiarist for a while, but thank goodness I stopped by today. I found something that will keep me from having to do actual remunerative labor for the rest of the afternoon while I'm listening to tracks from the new Bob Dylan album. It's a meme--one of those lists that one blogger will complete and then tag other bloggers to complete on their own sites. This is one of the lengthiest memes I've ever seen, so I'm not going to tag anybody else with it officially (although I'd like to see what Homercat could do with it when he gets back from his current hiatus, and I'll bet Kevin at Got the Fever could have some fun with it, too). And here we go:

Favorite Beatles song: "In My Life"
Favorite Rolling Stones song: "Brown Sugar"
Favorite Doors song: "Riders on the Storm"
Favorite Bob Dylan song: either "Hurricane" or "Positively Fourth Street"
Favorite Led Zeppelin song: "Over the Hills and Far Away"
TV theme song: "Cleveland Rocks" (The Drew Carey Show)
Favorite Prince song: "Musicology"
Favorite Madonna song: "Borderline"
Favorite Michael Jackson song: "I'll Be There" (cheating; sue me)
Favorite Queen song: "You're My Best Friend"
Favorite Motorhead song: none
Favorite Ozzy song: none
Favorite Public Enemy song: none
Favorite song from a cartoon: either "Happy Happy Joy Joy" (from The Ren and Stimpy Show) or "O Tannenbaum" (from A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Favorite Bruce Springsteen song: "The Wish" (from the Tracks box)
Favorite Depeche Mode song: none
Favorite Cure song: none
Favorite song that most of your friends haven't heard: "This Is Love" by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Favorite Smiths song: none
Favorite Beastie Boys song: none
Favorite Clash song: "Hitsville UK"
Favorite Police song: "Wrapped Around Your Finger"
Favorite Eurythmics song: "Would I Lie to You"
Favorite Beach Boys song: "Sloop John B"
Favorite Cyndi Lauper song: "All Through the Night"
Favorite song from a movie: "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann (largely for the way it's featured in Magnolia)
Favorite Duran Duran song: "Union of the Snake"
Favorite Peter Tosh song: "(You Gotta Walk and) Don't Look Back"
Favorite Johnny Cash song: "Sunday Morning Comin' Down"
Favorite song from an 80s one-hit wonder: "Tragedy" by John Hunter
Favorite song from a video game: In my day, we were happy when there were bells on the pinball machine
Favorite Kinks song: "Come Dancing"
Favorite Genesis song: either "Follow You Follow Me" or "Throwing it All Away"
Favorite Thin Lizzy song: "The Boys Are Back in Town" (anybody who names anything else is a better man than I)
Favorite INXS song: "What You Need"
Favorite Weird Al song: either "One More Minute" or "Hooked on Polkas"
Favorite Peter Gabriel song: "Games Without Frontiers"
Favorite John Lennon song: "Stand by Me"
Favorite Pink Floyd song: "Comfortably Numb"
Favorite White Stripes song: none
Favorite dance song: It doesn't matter; I can dance to anything provided I'm drunk first
Favorite U2 song: "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
Favorite song from an actor turned musician: I'm still waiting for Abe Vigoda to make an album; that's gonna rock
Favorite disco song: "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" by Tavares
Favorite power ballad: "More Than a Feeling" by Boston (the first power ballad)
Favorite Guns 'n' Roses song: "Paradise City" (didn't think I'd have one, did you?)
Favorite Who song: "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Favorite Elton John song: "Rocket Man"
Favorite song, period: "(They Just Can't Stop It) Games People Play" by the Spinners

Nothing especially unique there, I know--but I am a 70s guy raised on the Top 40. If you'd like to play along at home--whether you want to tackle the whole list or just a few--use the comments.

About the Dylan: As I've written previously, I missed Dylan during his most explosive period. Although I've gone back and listened to some of his landmark albums and sampled him now and then over the last 20 years, I wouldn't call myself a fan. But anybody who cares about rock and roll has to respect Dylan's place in the pantheon, and admire his desire to keep on keepin' on at his relatively advanced age. And based on a few tracks I've downloaded from various music blogs (via the Hype Machine), Bob's sounding good on Modern Times. "The Levee's Gonna Break," which is playing as I write, is superb; "Thunder on the Mountain" is pretty good, too.