Soundtrack of My Life

Song: Dear Mr. President
Artist: P!nk
Album: I'm Not Dead (2006)

It's no secret that I love P!nk. Love her. Insanely. She's forever awesome in my eyes.

Songs like this are a big reason why.

While mainstream radio blares catchy, funny tracks like "Stupid Girls" and "So What?" - both songs I find entertaining but tire of fairly quickly - not many people seem to realize that the spunky girl with the sometimes pink hair has some very important things to say in her songs from time to time.

While this track is pointed straight for George W. Bush, there are aspects of it that can use questions that should resonate with all of us. Though most of us haven't "come a long way from whiskey and cocaine," there are loads of issues brought up in this song that each and every one of us can spend a little time thinking about.

War, homosexuality, abortion / reproductive rights and homelessness all come up in the song, all with thought-provoking questions attached to them.

Part of why I chose this song today stems from a link my man Deuce sent me yesterday. It was of Jon Stewart interviewing former Arkansas Governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee and discussing same sex marriages.

My feelings on this issue have been stated a couple times in the past here at iBlog, so without getting to far into it, it just baffles me that there are still people who have these cast-iron beliefs and views about poignant issues like this and the ones P!nk addresses in this song.

I'm not saying we all have to have the same views and they have to be the ones that I believe, but I think we're at a stage in our existence as a people that being close-minded and so stringently opposed to issues like these is ridiculous.

Now that I'm off my soapbox, click the link, listen to the song and enjoy.

I promise, next week will be some harmlessly fun Hip Hop track with very little soapbox preaching from me...

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Soundtrack of My Life

Song: Interstate Love Song

Artist: Stone Temple Pilots
Album: Purple (1994)

Easily in my All-Time Top Ten.

The first riff of this track comes on and I'm instantly teleported back to Grade Ten when I had no idea of who the hell I was and tried desperately to be able to be a grunge rock guy with STP as my flagship band.

Thankfully, I grew up and out of that stage, figured out who the hell I was and maintained my musical sensibilities because no matter what kind of music you listen to most and what your opinions of Scott Weiland and STP, this song kicks massive ass.

I honestly don't know anyone who doesn't like this song. It is a lot more accessible than "Vasoline" which preceeded it both in release and atop the Billboard charts and also the singles that came from Core a few years before. I wouldn't call it a ballad because, well, it isn't, but it is just a bad ass rock tune everyone who has ever had a crappy relationship sees parallels to themselves in.

And really, isn't that what music is all about?

Unfortunately, as was the case with countless bands both of this era and genre as well as in the past, present and future, drugs kicked the bejesus out of Stone Temple Pilots. More specifically, heroin became Scott Weiland's best friend and newfound muse and the music suffered... immeasurably.

Thankfully, I still have both Core and Purple kicking around the house somewhere to remind me of a time when Scott Weiland was awesome and Stone Temple Pilots made music that I loved.

There isn't a song I love more than this one.

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