Snippet, Snippet Real Good!

Okay, so Wifey did this a week ago and I thought to myself, “That is an absolutely great idea! How can I steal it and make it sound like I came up with it on my own?” Well, I guess one way I could make it seem more like my own is if I don’t start out the post with where I got the idea. Good Lord! I suck at claiming credit for stuff I didn’t do. Anyway, the idea trail associated with this post started probably in time immemorial, but the furthest I will trace it back is as far as Wifey did, because I am lazy. Wifey got the post idea from here, and Kristi got it from here. Done and done. No more trail of meme to be dealt with.

Okay, now the concept. These are the 10 best song snippets that I can come up with today. These are not necessarily the best songs, although many are really good songs, the idea here is not to talk about the best songs ever, just the best snippets of songs. It is a much more daunting task than one might think. I have also decided in my benevolent wisdom that I shall not use the same band twice. Deal with it, I am benevolently wise. Similarly, I have tried to not include any songs created primarily for movie soundtracks. The reasoning behind this is: “Movie soundtrack elements are inextricably intertwined with the scenes of the movie from which they are within. Many mediocre memorable snippets of music are associated very heavily with incredibly well-done memorable movie snippets.” I don’t know who I am quoting here, (especially since I made up the quote) but it looks good. Ergo no Kenny Loggins.

Here it goes, in no particular order:

1 The end of Etta James’s At Last. Oh, my goodness golly goshness, that last “at last” that she softly belts out at the end of the song. Goosebumps everytime. Every. Single. Time.

2 REM’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)’s quintessential moment is when the song takes a grand pause and Michael Stipe drones out “Leonard Bernstein.” With a rapid fire litany of names and events that many a drunk college student cannot possibly hope to keep up with, there is a glorious pause and raucous unison of drunken voices lifting up into the night air, “Leonard Bernstein!”

3 The now defunct Soundgarden was one of the most underrated bands of the grunge era in the early to mid 90’s. At the beginning of, Searching with my Good Eye Closed, prior to the beginning of the song proper, a see and say says, “A cow says: ‘Moo.’ The Devils says: ‘ooooooooooOOOOOOOOOHHH….” and then the actual song starts Absolutely gorgeous beginning to a pretty good song.

4 Georg Friedrich Händel’s Halleluiah Chorus from The Messiah. I like it when they sing Halleluiah.

5 Pearl Jam is a favorite band of mine. Not as much of a fan as Wifey, but a fan nonetheless. Ten is their most recognized album and it was their first. Many people feel that they were never able to recapture the magic of Ten and honestly, they are correct. One cannot trap lightning in a bottle twice. One their songs that could never be on the radio due to the F-bomb being dropped as word number 3, Porch starts out with a primal noise that only Eddie Vedder (for Wifey) can deliver. That is the snippet I am talking about.

6 Tool’s sophomore effort Undertow had a “hidden” track on it. Track 69 is the song Disgustapated. Buried within this song is an odd percussion instrument, a .357 magnum. Listening to the rhythmic firing of the handgun in a song is quite a moving experience. There are some really powerful lyrics that Tool has generated. There is a primal-ness in their music that is intoxicating and unrelenting. The hidden track’s atypical percussion epitomizes this primality.

7 The Police’s beginning and ending of King of Pain.

There’s a little black spot on the sun today,
It’s the same old spot as yesterday

Symmetry

8 LL Cool J’s Mamma Said Knock You Out when he growls out “I’m gonna knock you out!” Makes me happy every time I hear it.

9 Les Claypool’s (he did the South Park theme song) concept band, Primus, really “made it” when Tommy the Cat got some airtime on commercial radio in 1991. The album was Sailing the Seas of Cheese, but Tommy the Cat is not the song I am talking about. I am focusing on the title track Sailing the Seas of Cheese. For this super short song (a snippet in its own right), as far as I know and as legend has it, Les plays his bass with a bow. Badass

10 Cake is an underrated band. They are quite possibly my favorite band. They are who I turn to when I am not craving listening to anything specific. There are a couple of snippets that I would select, but I have decided to go with the spoken word beginning of Never There. It is just a great song beginning. Just great. Amazing even.

I need your arms around me,
I need to feel your touch,
I need you understanding,
I need your love… So much.

There you have it 10 snippets worth mentioning, and my favorites for today.

To recap:
At home today with a sick Little Man
He isn't real sick, but sick enough to need to miss pre-school and stay away from caregivers with comprimised immune ystems
I have consciously omitted Rage Against the Machine
There was no one RATM moment that out-weighed the tastiness of the entire rest of the RATM catalogue
Also I have refrained from U2 for similar reasons
Except with U2 there were some real duds
I think I am partial to song beginnings
If i did a list again tomorrow, it would be a different 10
Wifey is going out of town this weekend
Little Man and I are going to par-té!
Not really
I will be a mess when she gets back on Tuesday
I am sure that Monday and Tuesday’s post ill be rather scattered
Have a great weekend
Save us…