#AtoZChallenge: M — “A Soft Place to Fall” by Allison Moorer

Posted on April 16, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

I fell in love with this song when I watched one of my very favorite movies, The Horse Whisperer, which stars Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, and a young Scarlett Joahnsson. My favorite genre of poetry, music, book, movie, etc. is tortured, impossible love stories, and this movie fits that genre. This song by Allison Moorer (I’m using her last name to fit today’s letter) appears in, what is to me, one of the most impactful scenes in the whole movie. The relationship between Redford and Scott’s characters has been building and there’s so much tension built between them that the viewer is ready to explode. And they get this scene, which is actually so much more intense than they could have prepared themselves for! If you haven’t seen the movie, you may not experience this, but if you have seen the movie, then maybe you’ll agree with me that this scene is romantic, yes, but it is also where we as the viewers get to watch two people make love to each other without anyone taking their clothes off or any actual sex. This song playing in the background is so sad and romantic and wistful, it fits the mood perfectly. Every time I hear the song, it takes me back to this movie scene and I feel the tension and the poignancy of this scene in my gut. I don’t know if the song makes the scene or the scene makes the song, but I don’t care. The song is beautiful in lyrics and tone and it evokes strong feelings in me, so it’s one of my all time favorites.

Here’s the song as it is played in the movie, complete with the romantic, sexy, sensual dance scene. I hope you find the song as lovely and moving as I do.

Posted in Blogging A to Z, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

#AtoZChallenge: L — “Little Fighter” by White Lion

Posted on April 15, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

Being an ’80s girl, of course I love my hair bands! I consider myself an incredibly average fan of the band White Lion. Of course, I loved “Wait”, which was the song that really allowed them to blow up in popularity. And If I am being honest, I played along with loving “When the Children Cry” even though I really thought the song was kind of meh. But where I really found my sweet spot with White Lion was with the song I am sharing today, “Little Fighter.”

When I first heard the song, I thought it was a tribute to a really tough girl, one who had had heartbreak and hard times and just never, ever gave up despite all the odds always being stacked against her. Some lines in the song didn’t fit with that narrative — “Even when they put a price on your head,” “You were always alone out on the sea,” “Without a weapon in your hand, you came to fight a war.” I just chalked it up to White Lion using poetic license. I thought the song had a tad of a romantic feel to it, and I liked the idea of this warrior woman.

Then I learned the truth.

I read the liner notes (remember liner notes???? God, how I loved reading them!) and learned that the song wasn’t at all about a person but rather a boat. Greenpeace’s ship The Rainbow Warrior. This ship was used to go after so many people wreaking environmental havoc, all with no weapons on board the ship. At first, I thought it was a bit corny to write a song about a boat, but then I thought it was actually a beautiful tribute to the a symbol of the work done by Greenpeace and I thought it was quite poignant.

So let me know what you think — do you like the song? Does it ruin the song knowing it’s about a boat? Is it weird?

Posted in Blogging A to Z, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

#AtoZChallenge: K — “Knocks Me Off My Feet” by Stevie Wonder

Posted on April 13, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

If you consider yourself a big fan of Stevie Wonder, today’s song isn’t much of a deep cut. But if you’re a casual fan who generally enjoys Stevie Wonder’s music, then this song might be new to you. Everyone is familiar with the powerhouse album Songs in the Key of Life. But most people are probably only familiar with some of the mega hits from that album — “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,”, “Isn’t She Lovely.” Some might even have a bit of trivia, knowing that Coolio’s, “Gangsta’s Paradise” used Stevie Wonder’s song “Pasttime Paradise” as inspiration. And while I adore this album, by far, my second favorite Stevie Wonder song (my fave is “I Wish”) is also off Songs in the Key of Life: “Knocks Me Off My Feet.”

This is just a sweet love song. The adoration in Wonder’s voice when he sings this song is so obvious. I imagine the song being sung by a man to a woman in an almost imploring way, trying so hard to get across to her how much he loves her. It’s so overwhelming to him that he can’t stop thinking about his love, and he wants so much to tell her all the time how deeply he is in love, but he doesn’t want to bore her with it (I love that line from the chorus — “I don’t want to bore you with it, but I love you, I love you, I love you”).

He manages this without the song being sappy or trite. It’s just so heartfelt, it fills MY heart with love when I Hear it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Posted in Blogging A to Z, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

#AtoZChallenge: J — “Just a Fool” by Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera

Posted on April 12, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

Blake Shelton is everywhere. You can’t escape him or his music. Christina Aguilera is incredibly talented, but she probably isn’t in her prime professionally anymore. This duet by them grabs my heart, but I never hear it played anywhere. I think that on country stations, there is just too much other music available by Blake Shelton, and this song is too “country” for pop stations that play Christina Aguilera’s music.

What I love about this song is the pain in Blake Shelton’s voice. I can actually feel his sadness at losing the woman he loves. To me, he is the one who really makes this song so great. Christina Aguilera has a wonderful voice, but I feel like she over-sings a lot, and a song like this, I feel like the big, loud voice doesn’t do the pain justice. When I listen to this song, I feel the pain. There are phrases that really seem to grab me — “Just gotta get past the midnight hour/maybe tomorrow it won’t be this hard”, “I had my heart set on you”, “I’m just a fool for holding on to something that’s never ever gonna come back/
I can’t accept that it’s lost/ I should’ve let it go, held my tongue, kept my big mouth shut/
‘Cause now everything is just wrong, wrong, wrong.” I don;t know why, but these lines just make my heart break.

Listen to the song and let me know if you feel the pain as well.

Posted in Blogging A to Z | Tagged , | 1 Comment

#AtoZChallenge: I — “Cutthroat” by Imagine Dragons

Posted on April 10, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

Maybe this isn’t a deep cut, per se, but it’s not an Imagine Dragons song I hear hardly at all on the radio. I believe this is another song I stumbled upon while listening to WXRT and I immediately was drawn to the anger in it. I’ve got a few songs I really like to listen to when I’m looking for an emotional outlet for my anger — “DOA” by Foo Fighters, “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit, “Uprising” by Muse, and this one, “Cutthroat” by Imagine Dragons makes the list. Nothing feels as good as turning this song up really, really loud in the car and screaming the lyrics out at the top of my lungs. Pretty cathartic.

Take a listen.

Posted in Blogging A to Z, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

#AtoZChallenge: H — “Hard Luck Woman” by Garth Brooks

Posted on April 10, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

The song “Hard Luck Woman” by Kiss is pretty well known, but did you know that Garth Brooks did an AMAZING cover of this song? He did! And, dare I say, I think I might like it better than Kiss’s version! I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar, so this song hooked me from the moment I heard it!

A fun story about this song — it was my sneaky way of getting a friend who is completely devoted to rock music to admit to liking a country artist! I played this song for him and asked him if he liked it, and he did, and I felt triumphant in getting him to admit he liked a song by a country singer.

When artists do covers of songs, I don’t like it when they make it their own. I prefer for them to start true to the original. Yes, there are exceptions (I’ve got at least one exception coming up this month). But Garth Brooks was quite faithful to the original, and I just love it! What do you think?

Posted in Blogging A to Z | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

#AtoZChallenge: G — “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran

Posted on April 9, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

I graduated high school smack dab in the middle of the ’80s so my musical taste leans heavily in favor of all tunes from that decade. My all time favorite band in high school was Duran Duran. I bought all their albums on vinyl, and I often visited our local record store to dig through the imports section to find anything from them there. My Duran Duran collection was impressive.

Most people developed their fandom of that band after the album Rio came out. I was no different. That was the album that introduced me to Duran Duran, but I became so into them that I started listening to everything they did before Rio came out, which is how I discovered the song I am sharing today. It did pick up some popularity after Rio, but generally speaking, the only people who are strongly familiar with “Girls on Film” are Duran Duran super fans. When the video was played on MTV, it was a censored version because the original contains nudity, so that also was intriguing to me — that there were 2 versions of a video for a song I loved by a band I loved!

Here’s the video that aired on MTV — not the one with nudity! Are you familiar with this Duran Duran song? It’s probably my 2nd favorite song by them!

Posted in Blogging A to Z | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

#AtoZChallenge: F — “First Burn” by Ari Afsar, Julia Harriman, Lexi Lawson, Rachelle Ann Go, and Shoba Narayan

Posted on April 7, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

If you’re a Hamilton fan like I am, then today’s song isn’t likely to be anything new to you.

After seeing Hamilton in Chicago the first time, I immediately became obsessed with the soundtrack. I played it over and over and over again. I fell in love with all the songs, but the one song I fell in love with the first time I heard it performed on stage was “Burn.” Every word of the lyrics is masterful. And the pain and hurt and sadness in Eliza’s voice as she sings it caused an actual physical ache in my chest.

And then I learned about Hamidrops, and I came across “First Burn.” This is a first draft of the song “Burn” and while some of the lyrics in the 2 songs are the same, there are quite a few differences. But the biggest difference is the tone. While “Burn” is so sad it actually hurts to listen to it, “First Burn” is pissed off. It’s Eliza at the range stage of her pain at being so publicly betrayed by her husband. A fun fact is that the song was recorded by 5 different actresses who have played Eliza, so they were able to be in the character’s head enough to add proper emotion to the song.

If you’re unfamiliar with either song, I’m including both here for you to listen to and you can let me know if you prefer one to the other. Personally, I prefer “Burn” but “First Burn” really is so close behind it that it’s practically a tie!

Posted in Blogging A to Z | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

#AtoZChallenge: E — “Wonderful” by Everclear

Posted on April 5, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

The song I chose today is likely not much of a deep cut as I do hear it on the radio sometimes, but when I first heard it, many people were not familiar with it, so I decided to include it.

The first time I heard Everclear’s song, “Wonderful,” I was standing in line for a roller coaster at King’s Island. While in the queue, there were TV monitors playing music videos and this video came on and while I couldn’t hear all of the song because it was loud in the queue, I heard enough to be intrigued. So when I got the chance to finally listen to it on my own fully, it was love at first sight (sound? hearing? listen?) and I’ve been obsessed ever since.

The lyrics are what really got me. I remember thinking how perfectly the song encapsulates what kids must be feeling when their parents split up. This verse in particular hit me hard because I’m a teacher and it made me realize that it’s likely there are kids in my classroom who feel this way:

“I go to school and I run and play
I tell the kids that it’s all ok
I laugh a lot so my friends won’t know
When the bell rings I just don’t wanna go home”

Some years later, the song became even more impactful to me when my parents got divorced. I was an adult when it happened (in my 30s) but it still was very hard to deal with. I found myself identifying with the song in a whole new way because now I was the kid whose parents were splitting up, but I was fortunate that I didn’t have to go through things like choosing a parent to live with or having to divide my time between two homes.

I also really like the way the song builds in intensity and frustration until the lead singer almost explodes with emotion, and then the song ends quietly, after the emotional release. It’s just such a great song. Give it a listen!

Posted in Blogging A to Z, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

#AtoZChallenge: D — “Anything, Anything” by Dramarama

Posted on April 4, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

I graduated high school in 1985, so my musical taste leans very heavily toward all things ’80s! I was definitely into the whole new wave thing — my favorite band was Duran Duran (a song by them will make an appearance later in this challenge). The radio station I listened to was out of a local university — 88.1 FM WLRA (their tagline was, “We’re what’s left on the FM dial). It was on that radio station I heard bands like Trio, Wall of Voodoo, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Missing Persons, and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

But one band I never heard on WLRA was Dramarama! I actually only recently stumbled upon their song, “Anything, Anything” while listening to 1st Wave on SiriusXM (because you KNOW I love that station — it’s WLRA for the modern times). I loved the song upon hearing it because it has that definite underground ’80s club, semi-punk, screaming into the mic feel about it. It feels Plimsouls adjacent. Smidge of the Ramones maybe.

I did a little research on the song and found it came out in 1985, which surprised me a bit because it has a real early ’80s feel to it. Then when I watched the video, which is below, I thought the voice of the lead singer didn’t match his appearance and that the band actually looks to be on the later ’80s side of things, getting close to the hair band heydey, so this just makes the song all the more appealing to me! I also learned that the lead singer wrote the song about his own deteriorating marriage, so it falls right in line with the whole tortured love song thing I shared in an earlier post, and you can really hear the angst in the song.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Posted in Blogging A to Z, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments