Dear friend Pepa Katharine asked what my Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown list is. Since I only discovered it by reading between the lines of my own MP3 player, and removing the service music, podcasts and generally goofy stuff (like theme music from various Gerry Anderson TV series) I can’t promise there’s that much thematic cohesion. Or perhaps I’m underestimating your capacity for irony.
Normally, I stick pretty close to churchy posts, but this is post #850, which I hoped to reach before this blog’s second anniversary in four days. So a moment for jolity. (Which reminds me, Holst’s “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jolity” is also on the MP3 player.)
So here’s the list:
- B-52s. “Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland” and “Wig”
- Shirley Bassey. “This Is My Life” and “I (Who Have Nothing)”
- Blondie. “Rip Her to Shreds”
- Stockard Channing. “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” [Grease]
- The Carpenters. “Superstar” and “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)” (Possibly the most pop-UU song ever recorded.)
- Eartha Kitt. “I Wanna Be Evil” and “Old Fashioned Girl”
- Erasure. “Drama” and “Who Needs Love Like That?”
- Indigo Girls. “Land of Caanan” and “Kid Fears”
- Olivia Newton-John. “Have You Never Been Mellow?”
- Dolly Parton. “Jolene.”
- The Smiths. “Girlfriend in a Coma”
- Dusty Springfield. “I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten” and “The Windmills of Your Mind”
- Dionne Warwick (singing Burt Bacharach). “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” (don’t let the tempo fool you) “Walk on By” and “Anyone Who Ever Loved”
I think that’s a fantastic list (no big surprise, there). Of course, now I’m going to be humming and muttering “Wig’s on fire!” to myself all day. :) Thank you for posting that — I think I might have to rummage through my collection just to listen to some of these.
Oh! If you’ve never heard the Langley School Music Project’s rendition of “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” it’s . . . an unusual experience. :)
Scott,
That’s a great playlist. Doesn’t Michael Stipe’s little part on “Kid Fears” just make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up?
By the way, I saw your Twin Peaks post the other day and thought if we ever meet up, perhaps we should grab a piece of pie. So I really enjoyed the quiz. Believe it or not, in my high school days we had Twin Peaks parties to watch the show and eat pie. It was a hoot.
More small church stuff brewing in my head, coming soon…
Anna
Yes, it does, Anna.Made me feel less guilty for not putting an R.E.M. standard on the list. R.E.M. when they were still with the I.R.S.
Oh, ages ago I took a (female) date to an Indigo Girls concert at the famed Uptown Lounge in Athens G-A, but didn’t leave with her. She ditched me for a young Martina Navratilova lookalike.
Go figure.
Not sure I’d describe the Shirley Bassey songs mentioned as self indulgent, but they are certainly great listening material! Mary :)
Naw, it was the posting — not the songs — that was self-indulgent. I try to stick broadly to theology here.