I'm Not Harmonix, But...

I was asked to compile a ten-song list a week or two ago by my friend Jess (Hi Jess!), which would convince someone of the Goos' greatness. Surprisingly enough, when I was asked, it didn't take very long to make my list since I figured that the best way to go on about this was to show the different facets of their musical repetoire. My list ranges from Hold Me Up to Gutterflower (sorry Let Love In, I like you but you're not groundbreaking) and has every record in between. Now before you shoot me for omitting their most famous song, I left it out because I figured that the would-be person I'm trying to heckle will already know it.

So without further adieu, this is my list in the order I thought of my songs (which may not necessarily mean any kind of preference).

Oh, and if you're wondering about my title to this entry, the creators of Rock Band 1 & 2 have been known to pick songs from artist's catalogues which may not be their most popular/known ones but are probably more fun to play and better to get you into that artist if you dig the music. Now if only we could get Goo as Rock Band downloadable content...oh god, I think I'd die happy.

Anyway, back on to the topic at hand...

Kevin's Song: It's an instrumental but a fairly good one, so that's why I added it. It's to show that they have musical chops and don't have to neccessarily rely on lyrics to craft a solid song.

Laughing: It's a short little Robby song with a wicked bassline and fun lyrics. I picked it to demonstrate Rob's bass-playing abilities.

I Don't Want To Know: Ok, technically this is a Fleetwood Mac song but, if you were to listen to both they sound nothing like and I mean that in a literal sense because the only thing that's the same is the lyrics. The Dolls have totally arranged a cheesy-sounding song into a driving and catchy alternative rock song with more hooks than a coat rack. Seriously, it's gotta mean something if they can make a cover entirely their own and make it a million times better. Speaking of which...

Slave Girl: I Don't Want To Know is to Rzeznik as Slave Girl is to Takac. While they haven't changed as many things from the original, the changes they have made improve the song and its energy thanks to a more prominent bassline and a fiesty vocal delivery. Seriously, I keep on forgeting that it's a cover because I mentally place it as a Robby song, not a Robby-covered song.

Hey: While they haven't done a song with duet singing since the days of Superstar Car Wash, I put in Hey because it's not too often where you can have a song where the vocals work with this call-and-response style where they alternate lines and have it work so well. Honorable mentions go to SSCW's Domino and String of Lies, but I picked Hey because it's split 50-50 and not have one of the guys take a more precendence in the other (Domino - Takac, String of Lies - Rzeznik). It's just raw and energetic duet singing at its finest.

Slide: Now, I know that I omitted Iris because it's so popular, but I didn't omit Slide because of the underlying behind-the-scene qualities at work here in this song. I think the charm behind this one is the contradictions between the lyrics and the music. While the music leaves you with the impression that this is a happy and peppy little song, the lyrics go in the completely opposite direction like as if they're trying to balance one another. And speaking of the lyrics, I think it speaks volumes for John as a songwriter to make a kick-ass song out of the most random subject matter ever. I mean, who'd ever think that they'd have a number one hit from a peppy-sounding song about abortion? Yeah, I bet if you told someone that they'd be totally amazed. Haha.

Here Is Gone: I felt kind of guilty adding this one because it's actually my favorite song by them but, there's a good reason for adding this one onto my list, I swear. If you've ever heard this song, you'll know that the build-up to and the chorus itself is epic music and vocal-wise. I mean, from the starting lines, to the pained '...yeah's and the refrain, it takes you hold and never lets go with it's never-ending barrage of driven and genuine emotion. And if music can make you feel something like that then, there's definitely something there.

Lucky Star: Shifting gears again, I picked this Takac song because of its witty lyrics. Now my favourite at the moment by Rob is Impersonality, but I don't think that I could win people over with cute lyrics, this here, is one of Robby's better songs lyrically and I wanted to show that off as a contrast to John's songs. I mean, if you can write a line like, 'And if I had an hourglass, I'd save the grains of time I spent with you,' that's just awesome.

Naked: Kick-ass solo is what I'm going to list as my reason for this one. I wanted to show John's ability as a guitarist even though he's so fucking self-depreciating about his guitar-playing skills. John, I know that you're no Slash or Kirk Hammett, but can you just take credit for what you can do for one time in your life?

Big Machine: I consider this one as the most recent 'rock song' they've done and if it just so happens that it's their last (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be), then they went out on a good note as far as I'm concerned. Big Machine is powerhouse musically and vocally and I think the fact that they didn't need to add a guitar solo to bring that point home proves that they're just that good. Oh, and there's the word 'sex' in it too. That's just plain rock 'n roll people. ;)

I'm blind and waiting for you...