Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey

I never understood what was so great about "Don't Stop Believin'" until I saw the ending of the Sopranos television show.



This ending was controversial because of the abrupt cut to black at the end. I’m personally a fan of how this show ended on a question mark, but this puzzled and annoyed a lot of viewers. What was more significant to me was the director, David Chase’s use of the music in this scene. I didn't know why at the time, but I instantly fell in love with "Don't Stop Believin' after watching this scene.

Throughout the six seasons of Sopranos, one of the major themes is this idea of enjoying the good times in life, cherishing the moments. Anthony, Tony’s son, mentions this in this scene after complaining about his job, “focus on the good times. . . try to remember the times that are good.” That’s what “Don’t Stop Believin’” is really all about.

It’s easy to disregard Journey. Journey’s music ranges from sappy power ballads to derivative anthem rock. This isn’t a band that pushes envelopes or challenges our ideas of popular music. However, Journey never presumed to be anything but a band that wrote and performed popular rock music for the masses.

In reaction to the progressive and artful music of the late 1970s with bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, bands like Journey became popular in the 1980s. I love listening to music that challenges my musical understanding but sometimes I simply want to rock out. As much as I love fine dining, sometimes I just want a cheeseburger. The thing is about "Don't Stop Belevin'" is that even though it isn't fine dining it is one of the best cheeseburger you will ever eat.

In 1981, Journey released Escape which featured “Don’t Stop Believin’” as one of the singles. Though it never reached #1 on the charts it’s popularity has continued to grow becoming the most downloaded song not released in the 21st century on the iTunes Music Store.

Usually the strongest part of a pop song is the chorus. More often then not artists will try to get to the chorus as quickly as possible using a short introduction and/or a shortened first verse. What’s unusual about “Don’t’ Stop Believin’” is that the chorus doesn’t occur until the last minute of the song and the lyrics “don’t stop believing” aren’t heard until the last minute of the song.

After the initial introduction and first verse, there is a short instrumental break followed by the second verse. Instead of a chorus, after the second verse is the pre-chorus section “strangers waiting. . .” which leads right into the third verse. After the third verse, we get the pre-chorus section again which leads into a instrumental break the chorus finally arrives.

The structure of the song mirrors the arc of the lyrics, which are a mosaic of blue collar life. There is the small town girls and the city boy in the first verse who take a midnight train “going anywhere,” not so much focusing on the destination but the need to get out of their surroundings. A singers sings in a smoky room tries to make some cash and “for a smile they can share the night, it goes on and on.” Even though the singer is in a rough gig there are moments of connection that make the night not so bad. The pre-chorus observes strangers in the night and “streetlight people,” prostitutes looking for something in the night, trying to find themselves and “living just to find emotion.”

The last verse reflects on the lives discussed earlier in the song. Everyone wants a thrill, they want to play the game and even though some win and some lose people still try. As “the movie never ends,” neither does hope.

“Don’t stop believing” is a call to keep that hope alive. The mosaic of stories in this song creates an image of yearning that we can all relate to and a feeling of hope that we sometimes forget. The structure of the song takes us through a "journey" inviting us to consider the challenges of life before calling us to face life with hope in our hearts.

The moments that I fell in love with “Don’t Stop Believin’” was the Sopranos finale, but the moment that this song truly meant something to me was at the end of my wife and I's wedding reception.

Inspired by the end of the sopranos, we chose "Don't Stop Believin'" as the last dance at my me and my wife’s wedding reception. As the song began all of the wedding guest formed a circle with my wife and I. It is that memory, surrounded by friends and family, rocking out to “Don’t Stop Believin’" that keeps me believin' and searching through the shadows of the night.

Sexyback by Justin Timberlake

The summer of 2006 was a challenging time in the world. Tension between Israeli and Palestinian forces resulted Israel’s first ground invasion into Gaza since it’s withdrawal a year earlier. The fighting in Darfur between government-backed militias and rebel groups which led to more than 200,000 deaths and forced 2 million from their homes, continued despite a peace agreement that was signed in May of 2006.

More tragic and dire was the fact that there was no “sexy.” No one was quite sure exactly when we lost “sexy” or how it disappeared but the fact was that somehow “sexy” was gone. When it seemed that all hope was lost, Justin Timberlake brought “sexy” back!!

Timberlake’s first single off his second album FutureSex/LoveSounds not only promised to bring “Sexyback” but was itself the “sexy” that was so lacking in our lives. This was such a powerful moment in our culture that them other boy’s simply didn’t know hot to act and as we turned around, Justin picked up the slack.

We first got to know Justin Timberlake as a member ‘N Sync. This group, a manufactured corporate boy band was releasing finely constructed but derivative pop hits like “I Want You Back”



As time when on, it became clear the member of ‘N Sync were not satisfied with swimming in the kiddie pool of popular music and decided to stretch the boundaries of popular music with more adventurous hits like “Gone.”



Now to no one’s surprise in 2002, the members of ‘N Sync went their separate ways. While my money was on a JC Chasez on having the best shot at a solo music career it was Justin Timberlake who most firmly established himself as a solo artist.

After his first album, Justified, Timberlake went into the studio with producer Timberland to try something different. Timberlake describes “Sexyback” as an “experiment gone right.” Not satisfied with how his voice sounded on the record, Timberlake decided to experiment with different ways that he could make his vocals have more a distorted rock sound.

While experimenting with different vocal effects, Timberlake tried sticking a microphone in a guitar amp and found the sound he was looking for. Most distortion and effects are done to vocals after a clean track has been recorded but Justin’s vocals were recorded distorted coming straight out of a guitar amp giving a unique an dirty distorted tone.

The distorted rock vocals against Timbaland’s hip-hop beat was an amalgamation of styles. Rarely in dance music are the vocals distorted in a dark and gravely way and rarely is rock vocals backed with a hip-hop beat. The combination of these two styles combined the driving energy of hip-hop with the intriguing darkness of hard rock music.

The words in “Sexyback” are boastful, and a little kinky. After declaring that he is bringing sexy back, Justin goes on to talk about how he’s a slave and wiling to take punishment if he “misbehaves.” With the distortion the lyrics don’t come across all that clearly and the most apparent words are encouragements to dance and party, which is really what this song is about. Justin isn’t so much bringing sexy back himself but setting up a environment to “get your sexy on.”

We all owe a great debt to Justin Timberlake for bringing the sexy back, now if someone can just bring back the “lower unemployment rate” we’ll be set.

Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson

It’s hard for me put together words about the passing of Michael Jackson. I’ve talked about what he means to me in a previous post about the Jackson 5 song, “I Want You Back.” In that post, I not only talk about the Jackson 5 but how I feel about Michael Jackson as an adult.

A lot of news stories are talking about how great music was but they aren’t saying what it is about the music that is so great, so I will try to do that here in tribute to Michael Jackson.

“Man In The Mirror” is one of Michael Jackson’s masterpieces and one of the great examples of American pop music. This remarkable song effortlessly melds together different genres of popular music to create a song that is both intimately personal and powerfully universal. Jackson doesn’t so much as sing in this song as he confesses, prays and preaches not only for himself but for all of us. When people complain about everything that is wrong about popular music, the immoral subject matter, and the lack of heart, my counter-argument is “Man In The Mirror” represents everything that is right about popular music.

When you look at the cover of Michael Jackson’s third solo album Bad, it’s a little silly. Michael dressed head to toe in leather putting on his best tough guy expression (the eyeliner really didn’t help). At the time, I remember actually believing that Jackson was tough, but really come on, Michael is the last guy you want backing you up in a bar fight.


The thing was that we bought it at the time but listening back through that album now, the “tougher” songs with the rougher edges like “Bad” and “Dirty Diana” though finely crafted pop songs seem like more of an act then a genuine expression of what was in Michael Jackson’s heart.

In Jackson’s previous two solo albums, there weren’t any songs about Jackson’s world view. It was popular music. There was interesting things that about love and relationships but nothing that truly reflective issues in our society except for “Billie Jean” which dealt a woman accusing Jackson of being the father of his child.

So when Jackson released “Man In the Mirror” as the fourth single from Bad, it was a revealing look into how Michael viewed the world. Now it’s not like we didn’t have artist who dealt with social issues. At the same time that Michael Jackson was singing about zombies with "Thriller," Springsteen was singing about joblessness and the blue-collar struggles. However, there was something different with “Man In The Mirror.”

As I turned up the collar on a favorite winter coat
This wind is blowin' my mind
I see the kids in the street with not enough to eat
Who am I to be blind pretending not to see their needs?

Michael is revealing to us his flaws. He walks by homeless people without doing anything just like most of us do. He’s dealing with feelings that we all share and are ashamed of. By expressing his own feelings he invites us to reflect on the way we interact with the world.

The song opens up in the chorus with a simple message, “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change,” that is reinforced by a gospel choir enters bringing us to church. Combining the synthesized background music with the gospel sound makes the gospel feeling less threatening and unfamiliar while adding a layer of soul that lack in many music of the time.

Jackson’s vocal delivery makes the song. He starts with a quiver in the beginning of the song like someone softly telling you a secret. His voice grows to an elated peak at the chorus and energizes with urgency towards the end of the song.

One of the most misunderstood but effective vocal techniques that Jackson utilizes are
the vocal percussion that Jackson interjects between the phrases and the way he accents certain syllables. If you just took out everything in “Man In The Mirror” except for the syllables that he accents and his interjections you would be left with an incredible rhythmic groove. This combined with his melodic delivery and his wide range of expression is why many consider Jackson one of the greatest pop singers of all time.

In the end of the song, Michael preaches to us that if we look at ourselves and make a change, it will make the world a better place. I don’t know if Michael Jackson truly did this in his life. I want to believe he did. I want to believe that he died a good man. I want to believe that what he sang about in “Man In The Mirror” came straight from his heart.

I’ll never know what kind of man Michael Jackson really was and it doesn’t matter if “Man In The Mirror” was just some attempt to make people believe that he cared about the world because I believe in this song as I believe in Michael Jackson.

Thank you Michael

I'm On A Boat by The Lonely Island

One of the things I love about my wife Diana is how she has introduced me to new experiences. Often she will suggest that we do activities that I wouldn’t necessarily think of and these experience make up some of my favorite memories. So, when Diana suggested that we go on whale watching, I didn’t think twice about it.

Too bad boat trip ended up being a puke-fest.

One of our best friends got married last weekend in Carmel, California. It’s a small city South of Monterey Bay right next to the legendary Golf Course, Pebble Beach. The wedding was on Friday, so we decided to stay for the whole weekend and spend some quality time by the ocean.

Before we left, Diana and I were in contact with our friend Bonnie, who was also coming to Morgan’s wedding. Bonnie thought up the idea of going whale watching and her and Diana found this company, “Monterey Whale Watching.” The website looked great and there were some good testimonials so we went ahead and got tickets.

On Saturday morning we checked in with Monterey Whale Watching on “Old Fisherman's Wharf” and Bonnie, with her friend Aaron met up with Diana and me. Before we got on the boat, the boat’s naturalist did a little speech to all of the passengers.

The naturalist went over some safety rules on the boat, and explained what to look for to spot a whale. Then she proceeded explain what to do if we got seasick. She explained how if you lost the “good fight” and had to throw up to do it off of the back of the boat, not the sides (because the puke would travel down the side of the boat). She went over the best place to be on the boat to go if you felt seasick and told us if we were feeling seasick, to take deep breaths and keep our eyes on the horizon. In retrospect, it wasn’t a good sign that the naturalist spent more time talking about seasickness then watching whales.

We all piled on to this boat, The Pacific Explorer a 75-foot long and 23-foot wide “wildlife observation vessel.” It had a small cabin in the center bar and space around the outside to walk around.


Diana and I started our boat ride sitting on the side of the boat and as I gazed at the 10 to 20 foot waves, I started to feel queasy. After about ten minutes, we found Bonnie and Aaron who were at the back of the boat leaning on the back railing. As Diana started talking to them, it happened, I made an a-line to the back railing and there went my breakfast.

About five minutes after my first “pukage” Aaron lost it as well, and I saw his Chai-Tea Latte and Cranberry Scone fly out into ocean. The sight of this caused a visceral reaction in my body and I lost whatever was left in my stomach. By this time, both Bonnie and Diana trying to take care of us handing us gobs of paper towels, provided by crew.

In my own haze of seasickness, I began to notice that Aaron and I were not the only people leaning over the back of the boat throwing up. This made me feel a little less embarrassed and not so emasculated. Some people didn’t quite make it over the back so there were puddles of puke around the back area which the shipmates kept cleaning up. Meanwhile people took their turns running to the back of their ship to get better acquainted with the contents of their stomachs.

A little bit more than half of the boat got sick and the various friends and family members approached the crew members about the people who were getting seasick. They did provide paper towels but they didn’t do much else. Diana and Bonnie asked them repeatedly as did many other to turn back early, but they did not. We stayed out for the 2 1/2 hours.

Now I understand that if you have one person sick on a boat ride then it’s not fair to the other paying customers to end the boat ride early. However, if half of your passengers are sick and the other half are not having a good time because there were no whales to be seen (though Bonnie did say she was an otter laughing at the people who were sick) you probably should cut the boat ride short.

As I was leaning against the back rail trying to focus my gaze on the horizon (which didn’t help AT ALL) I was desperately trying to play music in my head to help the time go faster. The only thing I could come up with was marching band music, which didn’t help at all. Later I found out that Aaron had the same idea as I did and had “I’m On A Boat” going on in his head.

We certainly were on a boat and though it wasn’t nearly as glamorous as Andy Samberg described with his “flippy-floppies,” we definitely felt the righteous anger that Samberg inexplicably directs at the good things on the boat. Our anger, however, was focused on this “wildlife observation vessel” that we could not wait to get off of.

Even though the boat ride was one of most miserable experiences of my life, I don’t blame Diana or Bonnie. It’s not their fault. The thing is, I don’t even blame the boat company for the bad weather and the fact that we didn’t see any whales. However, the fact that we didn’t turn around after so many people got seasick . . . yeah, that’s not cool.

I just thank God that I don't have to clean up puke as part of my job.

I heart Richard Simmons

When my wife, Diana was in grade school, she would often go to day camps during the summer. A wife and husband team ran summer art camps my Diana went to. The husband and wife would switch off activities and one of the activities the wife did involved the children exercising. This fairly overweight woman would put in a copy of Richard Simmon’s “Sweatin’ To The Oldies,” sit in a chair in the back of the gym and watch the kids dance around with the tape.

Now that’s physical education.



Richard Simmons in a hilarious personality. Sometimes he goes on “The Late Show With David Letterman.” David and Richard had a love/hate relationship, well more hate then love. For example in this clip when Richard to trying to promote his steamer.



The tray underneath the steamer was planted by Letterman. I love how David is poking holes in everything Richard is saying and how indignant Richard’s response is to Dave. Now this is all is in good fun. That's one of the things about Richard Simmons. He has always had a sense of humor about himself, which is evident in this classic clip from the improv show “Whose Line Is It Anyways.”



This show IS broadcasted on ABC Family network. Now, there’s a lot going on here. I’m not really going to get into. I’m going this one alone. If you don't understand what is so funny about the clip it's best that you just figure it out on their own.

I got introduced to Richard Simmons through his infomercials. I love infomercials, QVC and the Home Shopping Network. Every night as I’m getting ready to go to bed I flip on the television in our bedroom and watch some quality television advertising before I go to bed. I’ve never bought anything off of an infomercial however, I just find the internal logic and advertising techniques of these commercials hilarious. Like this commercial for the “comfort wipe.”



Now, this is actually a great idea. Many older people with limited range of motion could use a device like this. And seriously, this is the greatest innovation to toilet paper since the 1880s!! I like how “following the contours of your body” is a slight curve. If they were just selling this to people with a limited range of motion that would be one thing but they advertise this product for “someone who just doesn’t want to touch dirty toilet paper.” Wow.

One of the kings of infomercials is Richard Simmons. He’s had his workout tapes, his “Deal-A-Meal” program and his current “Food Mover” program. Yes, he is selling a product, but his message is one of the most genuine that you hear on television. Richard Simmons bases his program around the idea of cutting down caloric intake while exercising more to burn calories, resulting in losing weight.

This is how to lose weight, pure and simple and it’s amazing how many weight loss programs, diets, pills and devices don’t work off of this idea. I’m not saying that understanding the relationship between caloric intake and exercising more makes weight-loss any easier, but it does make it clear the fallacy of other weight-loss programs.

Surfing around the web for hilarious Richard Simmons moments, I came across “Richard Simmons on Capitol Hill”



Once you get over the initial shock of seeing Simmons in a suit, it’s hard to not take his personal and passionate speech seriously. I don’t know a lot about the program that he is talking about, but his message is right on. With the “No Child Left Behind” program federal funding for schools is based on tests score. If a school gets tests scores that do not meet, their “Adequate Yearly Progress” funding is reduced. These tests are in reading and math, so educators feel pressured to spend more time preparing for these tests, which often results in cutting arts and physical education classes in to spen more time on reading and math.

This combined with our fast-food culture and archaic physical education classes that focus more on sports then teaching students about their bodies has created a nation-wide health crisis. There needs to be someone waving the flag for this thing and I thank God that Richard Simmons is out there trying to make something happen.

I’ve always found Richard Simmons entertaining, but after watching his speech to congress I truly respect and admire him. Simmons has a huge heart and a beautiful message that just makes me feel happy to be alive.



Love you too Richard.

Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin

Not all lyrics are created equal.

Some lyrics are trite and are just there to serve the melody, other times lyrics play an equal importance in the song and with artist like Bob Dylan, the lyrics are the most important expressive and artistic aspect of a song.

Regardless of the level of the lyrical artistry, I like knowing the lyrics and what they are about. Often when I’m talking to friends and they a mention and I casually mention what they lyrics are about they are often shocked especially when the lyrics seems to say express something different then the words. One of the most striking examples of this is “Mack The Knife” from The Threepenny Opera

Between World War I and World War II, life for Germans was so bad that all artist could do was make jokes about life’s misfortune. This type of “black humor” was the only way people could cope with life. Two of the most important artists of this time in Germany who used dark humor to comment on life were the composer Kurt Weill and the playwright Bertolt Brecht. In 1928, these two legendary artist combined forces to compose the musical The Threepenny Opera.

The Threepenny Opera is the story of Macheath. He falls in love with a girl named Polly and wants to marry her against her father’s wishes. The father, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, who controls the beggars in London, successfully gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to death. Luckily Macheath is pardoned right before he is executed. Our hero is released and we are made to feel happy that Macheath has escaped such an unjust and cruel fate.

Before this story begins, we are told about this person, our hero, Macheath, otherwise known as “Mack the Knife.” The musical opens with a “moritat” a story of murder performed strolling musician. The moritat singer bookends the show singing about hos exploits.

Macheath is bad man even though it’s not clear what exactly he has done. The police have arrested him numerous times for crimes but Macheath always gets released because he served in the military with the Chief of Police. Even though Macheath has done some horrible things, we cheer him on in this story as he fights for his love and freedom, with the warnings of “Mack the Knife” echoing in our memory.

What people originally heard was not a big band arrangement with a swinging jazz vocalist out front, instead they heard this:



This recording of Brecht singing “Mack the Knife” in German is kind of creepy isn’t it? Listening to this song feels like I’m wearing a shirt that doesn’t quite fit right but I just can’t get it off. . ick.

That’s the original “Mack the Knife.” It’s eerie and just a tad disturbing. It’s like someone telling a group of people a joke about a girl being raped and laughing at his own joke while everyone else in the room is just sickened.

When Bobby Darin told his management that he wanted to record “Mack the Knife,” after he had just scored with the hits “Splish Splah” and “Dream Lover,” they argued against it. Darin recorded it anyways and it became his biggest hit. Many people recorded this song after Darin brought it into our cultural consciousness. My personal favorite is this Robbie William’s cover.



The song opens talking about a shark as a metaphor for Macheath. The “scarlet billows” is blood flowing while Macheath’s fancy gloves never show “a trace of red.” The next verse talks about a body “oozing life” as the singer wonders if he just saw Macheath around the corner. The singers takes us down by the river, where a cement bag is weighing someone down to the bottom of the river which the singers sees as a sign that Macheath is back in town. The last part of the song lists off people who Macheath killed. It’s kind of odd how this is the part of the song when it kicks into a joyful shout chorus.

I’ve always loved “Mack the Knife” but ever since I found out the history behind the song and what the lyrics are about, I feel a little guilty enjoying hearing about this sadistic man, Macheath. The thing is, I like the song even more knowing what it’s about, and the feeling that I shouldn’t is what makes it all the more fun.

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

I didn’t really fit in when I was in high school. I spent most of my time practicing piano and violin and composing music preparing to be a music major in college. I was perfectly happy staying in on Saturday night watching a movie or reading a book. I think I only went to one party during high school. I never had a group of friends I hung out with but I did have a couple close friends who I would hang out with.

I guess the main reason I didn't fit in with the people in high school was that I didn’t understand them. People would talk about being on sports teams or the crazy things they did on the weekend and I just didn’t get why these things were so important. This probably would not have bothered me as much if I felt that more people understood me better. Only a few people seemed to understand my love of music and how I viewed the world. For some reason, I just didn’t see things the same way that my peers did in high school.

When I graduated Mercer Island High School, there was a tradition of interspersing music performances within the graduation exercises. We had a pretty musical class with a lot of people who wanted to perform at graduation so what the administration decided was that some people would perform during graduation and others would perform during the senior assembly.

I auditioned and performed a couple times in graduation. I opened the ceremony with an arrangement that I made of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on piano (which has a story attached to it for later post), I accompanied some girls from choir singing “In My Life” by the Beatles, accompanied a flute player and I got together a band to play “Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews Band.

One of the people who auditioned was a girl I knew from orchestra. She wanted to perform “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac at graduation. When I heard this, I scoffed at the idea because it didn’t make much sense to me why that song would be appropriate for a graduation ceremony unlike the musical performances I was involved in. In retrospect, “Ants Marching” doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense in a graduation ceremony either but who knows what was really going on in my head back then. The administration did not choose her to perform at graduation but instead she performed at the senior assembly.

I’ve listened to “Landslide” periodically over the years but it’s never brought me back to that performance at the senior assembly until a couple days ago when I heard this song playing in the background at a store. The night before I heard the song at the store my wife and I were talking about our lives and it hit me how much change was in our futures. I know life isn’t really a life worth living if there is not some kind of change that is constantly happening, but knowing that doesn’t make change any less scary.

Stevie sings that she’s afraid of change because what she’s built her life around is changing as well. Though Stevie is reflective and a little sad hearing Stevie sing about her feelings is comforting. "Landslide" reminds me that there is someone out who shares my fears. This doesn’t make my feelings go away, but it makes me feel less alone.

I guess this is what she was singing about at the senior assembly. Just because I wasn’t feeling that at the time doesn’t mean that she wasn't and that our peers weren’t feeling this as well. Even though I may not have understood how what this meant to you at the time I get it now. At least in this small way I understand a little better the people I went to high school with and that means a lot.

The weird thing is, while I don’t remember any of the musical performances from the graduation ceremony but I can clearly remember how her voice sounded singing “Landslide,” vulnerable and pure, a little sad, but mostly happy, fighting back tears through a smile that shined like the stars.