Jana Says

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Favorite forgotten hairband songs: A playlist

by Jana 29 Comments

This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Playlists

Jana of JanaSays.com is in her late 30s, and Erin of TexErin-in-SydneyLand is in her early 40s.  #noshame #oldladieswin 

 Aquanet … Spandex … Blue eyeshadow … MTV … BIG HAIR … all of these things were part of our childhood and teen years.  So was the genre of music that gets a lot of teasing (pun intended) and ridicule known as Glam Metal, Hair Bands, Cock Rock….but these bands and songs are beloved by the two of us.  In fact, as we got to know each other, we instantly connected with our mutual love of books and hair bands. This is not the list of songs that are played in sports stadiums or classic rock stations.  C’mon.  Admit it.  You guys know Welcome to the Jungle, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and Livin’ on a Prayer.  You probably even know Pour Some Sugar on Me, Cherry Pie, and Here I Go Again. (You’re probably singing one of them in your head right now. You’re welcome.)

These are the songs that you have to turn to a specialty station like SiriusXM’s Hair Nation (in the U.S.) for a chance to hear them. Or be an avid fan of this music from days gone by.  This list is a combined effort of our favorite forgotten hair band songs.

1. Wait for You by Bonham – 1989 – Do you recognize this name?  John Bonham, the drummer of a little band called Led Zeppelin, who died in 1980…he had a son named Jason Bonham.  He can play drums too.  He had a band that had a song, and this is it.

2.  Call to Your Heart by Guiffria – 1984 – Honestly don’t remember anything about Guiffria except this song.  And, this is a good song.

3.  Edge of a Broken Heart by Bon Jovi – 1987 – Back in the day, pop radio had djs and you could actually call and request to hear your favorite songs.  The local Houston station (104 KRBE) had a “Top 8 at 8:00” most requested program.  From Erin: “I’d wait for this song to play, so I could record it on my cassette tape each night, so I could have an entire cassette of just this song playing over and over.”  The work and commitment we had to give for our favorites…..

4.  Burning Like a Flame by Dokken – 1987 – To be honest, we could give you a whole list of Dokken songs of fantastic songs from Dokken, but this is a fave.  From Erin: “Is this the time that I tell you about getting my picture taken with Don Dokken when my friend was getting beers or going to the bathroom, and she’s the one that really loved Dokken and she missed the photo opportunity??”

5.  Tell Me by White Lion – 1987 – Don’t know many girls
that didn’t find Mike Tramp (the lead singer) pretty dreamy back in the
day.  The last time I (Erin) saw him was 2008, and he was still pretty dreamy.

6.  Coming of Age by Damn Yankees – 1990 – Once upon a time, a supergroup was formed with a member of Night Ranger, a member of Styx, and Ted Nugent.  Fun fact from Erin: “I saw them open for Poison in Fargo, ND.”

7.  Bang Bang by Danger Danger – 1989 – From Jana: “They were my
favorite and I was obsessed. Meeting Ted Poley and Andy Timmons was the
highlight of 8th grade.”  No other words are needed.

8.  Love Song by Tesla – 1989 – Serious now.  If you aren’t going to listen to any other of the songs on this list, listen to this one.  It truly is one of the greatest anthemic love songs ever created.  Yes, we are biased about this list, but we speak the truth about this song.

9.  Dirty Love by Thunder – 1990 – This British band has 9 studio albums, 7 live albums, and 22 singles released.  Sure, they’ve had a lot of band members in and out during that time…but that’s more albums produced than Taylor Swift or Rhianna or One Direction or many of the other big sellers of popular music.

10.  Big Talk by Warrant – 1989 – Awww Warrant.  The band known for Cherry Pie.  In fact, that song was part of the demise of lead singer, Jani Lane, who died a few years ago from an alcohol fueled death.  They really were a talented band.  (Feel free to fast forward the first minute of this film clip.)  R.I.P Jani

11.  One in a Million by Trixter – 1991 –  This song hit radio airwaves the same year as Nirvana and Pearl Jam.  Poor Trixter was just a little too late for any serious music people to listen to them.  Wait.  We ain’t about those music snobs anyway.

12.  Mad About You by Slaughter – 1991 – Not sure this song made it to the music charts.  There were actually some songs on this album that got more airplay.  But, we’re rebelling and going with this lesser known gem for our list.

13.  Tainted Angel by Southgang – 1991 – We knew this one was a given.  Erin loves Butch Walker (he’s the hunk of a brunette guitarist in this video clip).  Admittedly, most of the love is for the artist that Butch is now.  (No joke.  He is a hugely talented singer-songwriter-producer-and yes, guitarist.)  Jana saw Southgang in concert New Year’s Eve 1991.  Jana frickin’ wins!

14.  I’ll Never Let You Go by Steelheart – 1990 – This is Jana’s favorite power ballad, and it was going to be left off the list “because his voice may hurt the ears of others” (that’s actually verbatim), but Erin said “Hell no!  I’m totally including Steelheart!”, and here you have it.  (Get to the chorus – the vocals are seriously insane!)

You really have no idea how difficult it was for us to narrow down this list.  It was like selecting our favorite child or something (even though Erin doesn’t have a child, but she does have step-children, and Jana has one, so obviously, that one is the favorite).   So, really, this was more difficult than picking our favorite child.  We’re still questioning how
Ratt, Cinderella, Mr. Big, Skid Row, Firehouse, Whitesnake, and others didn’t make this list.  But, we wanted to  keep it short enough that you may stay with us.

 

If you’re actually still with us, tell us some of your favorite songs from big hair bands.

 

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A not at all complete list of songs that make me happy

by Jana 34 Comments

bob marleyIt’s no secret that the last month has been particularly hard on me. I’m desperately trying hard not to fall back into depression which is more difficult than it sounds. Some days I’m more successful than others and one thing I’ve learned battling this for so many years, it’s that the busier and more distracted I am, the easier it is to stave off the inevitable. I also use different methods for escape and coping. Books are definitely the main one. TV shows, projects, and playing with my dogs are other ones. So is music.

Music is as important to me as books but for different reasons. Books immerse me in someone else’s life. Music is what feelings sound like (I forget where I first heard that quote but it’s essentially perfect). And the best part about music is that just the simple act of listening to one song can have an immediate impact on how I feel. And lately, I’ve been needing songs that make me feel happy because even that 4 minutes of happiness makes it easier to get through the day (I also have song lists for other emotions but that’s another discussion).

So I comprised a list of songs that, once I hear the first few notes, instantly lift my mood:

  • “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon
  • “Love and Memories” by O.A.R.
  • “On the Dark Side” from the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack
  • “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins
  • “It’s All Been Done” by The Barenaked Ladies
  • “Paradise by the Dashboard” Light by Meatloaf
  • “Subdivisions” by Rush
  • “Jesus of Suburbia”, “Longview”, “Minority”, and “Warning” by Green Day
  • “Maybe” by Sick Puppies
  • “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard
  • “Lola Montez” by Volbeat
  • “For the Movies” by Buckcherry
  • “Do Right” by Jimmie’s Chicken Shack
  • “All Mixed Up” by 311
  • “Sometimes a Fantasy” by Billy Joel
  • “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon

This is by no means an exhaustive list. These are just the ones that pop into my head first when I think about the songs that make me happy. I probably should get around to making this a full Spotify playlist sometime because some days are bound to be so bad I’ll need it.

I tried to come up with some profound way to end this post but instead, I’ll let this quote do it for me.

power of music

What songs are on your list? Which ones would you recommend I add?

 

 

 

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31 Steps for Feeling Happier, Step 7: Create a motivational playlist

by Jana 3 Comments

happier blog buttonHow’d it feel to spend a day doing nothing? Or at the very least, less than you normally do on a Sunday? Full confession from me: I didn’t actually do nothing. I had to do some laundry and pick up groceries for the week. I also had to cook dinner since our restaurant budget is completely blown (already) for this pay period. Had my husband been home, I would have asked him to do that stuff and continued to keep my couch company while I watched Friday Night Lights and did my nails (full disclosure: I am terrible at painting my own toes) but he had to leave for a week to take some extremely important to his career test. So really, the fact that I couldn’t completely do nothing is entirely his fault.

Or mine. Maybe I could have managed the restaurant budget better and gotten the other stuff done on Friday or Saturday. But blaming my husband is more fun so we’ll continue doing that while we work on today’s task.

I figured that a great way to start off our week and to keep the momentum going for this 31 day challenge is to create a motivational playlist. It’s no secret around here that music is extremely important to me. Music gives words to my emotions, provides a soundtrack for my life (seriously. There is a song attached to pretty much every important and not so important moment I can remember), and can keep me going when I don’t want to. It is as necessary to my life as food and water. I’d give up television before I give up music because I can’t imagine living in a world without it.

But the part we’re going to focus on today is the emotions that music elicits from us. I mean, I could go on a soapbox about how music is crucial to making us well rounded people and how it fuels creativity and creative thinking and even helps with math and following directions and improves self-esteem when you learn to play an instrument or finally figure out the lyrics to a song and how for some kids, music is the only part of school that keeps them going back every day.music 2

I could do that.

But I won’t. Because there are plenty of other places and times to discuss that and for the sake of brevity, we’re just going to focus on how music makes us feel and we can use that to keep us motivated or happy even when we don’t feel like it. That’s the power of music. It can change your mood with one 4 minute song. It can inspire you. It can empower you. It can console you. It can make you smile. It can alleviate some aggression. It can give you permission to feel sadness. Sometimes, it can do all of those at once.

Those kinds of songs are my favorite.

Which is why, today, we’re going to tap into the power of music and create a motivational playlist. I have several–one for when I’m working, one for when I’m working out and not at a class, one for when I’m doing housework, and a bunch more for general listening pleasure. But my favorite one is my motivational for life in general playlist. I use it more often that I care to admit, usually daily, because I like that constant reminder that the songs give me. It’s hard to explain so let me give you a sample of what’s on my playlist. Then maybe it’ll make more sense (warning: it’s very eclectic):

Jana’s Motivational for Life in General Playlist

  1. Maybe–Sick Puppies (this is one of 3 Sick Puppies songs on my list)
  2. Meant to Live–Switchfoot
  3. Freak Like Me–Halestorm
  4. I Don’t Wanna Be–Gavin DeGraw
  5. Troublemaker–Weezer
  6. My Life–Billy Joel
  7. Heaven–O.A.R
  8. Learning to Live–Beth Hart
  9. The Middle–Jimmy Eat World
  10. Awake and Alive–Skillet
  11. Be Good to Yourself–Journey
  12. Reach for the Sky–Social Distortion

music 3There are several that I didn’t include but it’s not necessary to mention them to make the point that these songs, for me, serve a much bigger purpose than entertainment. Which is why, for today, I want you to assemble a playlist of songs that do that for you. Your list doesn’t have to be as extensive as mine, contain the same songs as mine, or even use the same genre of music. What moves you, what motivates you is different that what does that for me.

That’s another amazing thing about music. There’s something for everyone. So take what’s for you and use it. Use it for all its power and use it to empower you.

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