Throwback Tracks -- April 5, 2017
David R. Smith
How is it only April 5? If you looked at the amount of money in my bank account, you'd think it was April 29th, but here we are only at the beginning of April.
As we near the end of my semester, and I get more and more weary, I find these are getting harder to write. Not because I don't like them, but because it's hard for me to concentrate on them and I'm just exhausted nearly all the time. Classes end in a week and a half. Then, theoretically, I'll get some sleep and I'll be back to firing on all cylinders. Until then, just bear with me, friends!
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
Under Pressure - Queen with David Bowie
One of my all-time favourite songs. Period.
I thought recently that we didn't seem to feature Queen on here a lot. Turns out I was wrong. We've featured them a few times. But it's been about a year and they were such an instrumental part of my childhood that I felt like they needed another song here.
When I was young, I wasn't as familiar with David Bowie as I was with Queen. In fact, I think I was embarrassingly old when I discovered that he was the collaborator on this song. It didn't really matter to me, as I loved it already. But when I found out it was David Bowie? That just cemented this song in its place amongst my top all-time.
Here Comes The Rain Again - Eurythmics
We featured Annie Lennox on here a couple months ago, but oddly enough, we've never featured her former band. So we're changing that today.
I felt like I could have gone with the ever-popular Sweet Dreams, but I feel like we should start with something different. Besides, maybe we'll feature Marylin Manson's when we do a month of hard rock, metal and angry music!
The Eurythmics are one of those bands that you feel like you only know one of their songs until you realize that's not true. Just looking them up, there were 4 that came rushing to my head because they've been around forever and you have to know they would be putting out more than one popular song, else they wouldn't have the fame they did. (Do?)
Anyway. I like this one. It's good.
Superman (It's Not Easy) - Five For Fighting
To be honest, I was thinking about a different song here. I was looking at Brick by Ben Folds Five. Apparently I really wanted a song that had piano and a singer who sort of has a falsetto. Well it turns out Brick came out in 2003 so that one was out of the running.
This song, however, came out in 2000. Which is insane. If I was a betting man, I would have put money on the fact that this song came out after Brick. But here we are.
Five for Fighting might have the greatest band name ever. Apparently the founder is a massive, lifelong fan of the LA Kings so he named his band after the major penalty of fighting. Love it.
To me, this song and the artist are exactly halfway between Dave Matthews and Ben Folds. And that's a pretty great place to be.
Love Is A Battlefield - Pat Benetar
How have we not featured Pat before?? Seems since I'm making an effort to try and feature more female artists, Pat would have been one of the first ones on the list. But searching her name on our website yielded zero results. Which is crazy. She's so badass!!
Anyway, Hit Me With Your Best Shot is fine and all, but really, is it the best thing she's ever done?
No.
Is this song?
To be honest, I have no idea. I don't know all her stuff. But this one is definitely better than Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
We've Got It Goin' On - Backstreet Boys
That's right BSB.
I feel like there might be a month where I do 90s pop and feature (amongst others) NKOTB, Britney, Christina, N'SYNC and these guys. Because in all honesty, even though I mocked them growing up, I hear a lot of their music now and it instantly harkens me back to phys-ed class; or walking with my pal Ben on our spare, discussing Britney vs. Christina, or watching Videoflow in my basement as I was writing papers for class. There's something so insanely nostalgic about these songs that I can't help but like them.
Plus, if I'm being honest, I do really dig a lot of the Backstreet Boys songs. Hell yes they were bubblegum pop, but man were they catchy.
This was their first single and it's definitely a song that makes you want to dance. I hear it and it just delivers nothing but happy emotions that it's worth putting it on this list because, well, it's fun and sometimes we all need a bit of fun in our lives.
Right?
Right.
Things are a bit... awry here at The Guys From, for... reasons. Between me being throttled at work and Shaun being preoccupied, there's been no time to get playlists ready. So again, bear with me. If you really, really want a playlist from the past two months, you can find the songs on Spotify and make your own! (Then send it to me if you really want) but if you're content to wait until I have some time in my life, do that and we'll make it work for you when we can. But until then, there's always the ones that are available for you:
2018
January 2018 TBT Playlist (or the January 2018 Spotify)
2017
December 2017 TBT Playlist (or the December 2017 Spotify), November 2017 TBT Playlist (and the November 2017 Spotify), October 2017 TBT Playlist (and the October 2017 Spotify), September 2017 TBT Playlist (and the September 2017 Spotify), August 2017 TBT Playlist (and the August Spotify list), July 2017 TBT Playlist (and the July Spotify List), June 2017 TBT Playlist (and the June Spotify List), May 2017 TBT Playlist, April 2017 TBT Playlist, March 2017 TBT Playlist , February 2017 TBT Playlist
2016
Throwback Playlist for Dec 16/Jan 17, October 2016 Throwback Playlist, September 2016 Throwback Playlist, August 2016 Throwback Playlist, July 2016 Throwback Playlist, June 2016 Throwback Playlist, May 2016 Throwback Playlist, April 2016 Throwback Playlist
-D (@davidronn)