Category Archives: Music

10 For The Playlist – Vol 2

by

0

Time for another round of tunes that I love, and would like to share with more people who may not have heard them yet. So, without further adieu.

Suzanne – Journey – Pure, unadulterated ’80’s Pop Rock. This gets off on the jump with pulsing synthesizers, and doesn’t take a moment to slow down. Journey doesn’t need any ink from me, since everyone already knows all the lyrics to a couple of their songs, and gleefully sing along in pubs across the world. But “Suzanne” is a bit lesser know than their big hits, though it’s message of pining for a lost love who may not even remember your name is a sentiment most everyone can related to.

Favorite Lyric – “I wonder if you’re really happy / And if you saw me, would you know my name / I’m the one you used to hold onto / You’re the one who used to wear my ring / Remember our last September”

For Me This Is Heaven – Jimmy Eat World – Young love by way of Emo-Rock in full effect. A song about watching the stars with someone, and counting the minutes that you have with them before having to part. The butterflies never really leave your stomach until you’re with them again.

Favorite Lyrics – “When the time we have now ends / And when the big hand goes round again / Can you still feel the butterflies? / Can you still hear the last goodnight”

Poison & Wine – The Civil Wars – A lovely duet telling you that love can be complicated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth sticking around for. Times can get tough, and the better you know someone, the better you know how to hurt them. But you still regret it every time, because the reason you know them so well, is because you’ve been with them for so long. And you’ve been with them for so long, because you love them, and can’t stand to be without them.

Favorite Lyric – “Oh, your hands can heal / Your hands can bruise / I don’t have a choice / But I’d still choose you”

Breathe In Breathe Out – Mat Kearney – Starts low, and slow, only to build up to a cathartic confirmation of love. This sounds like the greatest Coldplay song that Coldplay never recorded and, frankly, better than just about anything they have.

Favorite Lyrics – “We push and pull / And I fall down sometimes / I’m not letting go / You hold the other line / Cause there is a light in your eyes / In your eyes”

I Choose You – Sara Bareilles – A simple love song that may not have been written with a parent’s love for their child in-mind, but I first heard it after my oldest was born, so that’s where it landed for me. As the song says, it’s impossible to truly be prepared for parenthood, and that makes it really scary. But there’s nothing more rewarding in the world than overcoming your fears, and doing right by your kids.

Favorite Lyrics – “I am not scared of the elements / I am under-prepared, but I am willing / And even better / I get to be the other half of you”

The Secret Of My Success – Night Ranger – From a band best know for “Sister Christian” and a soundtrack from the most overlooked of Michael J. Fox’s peak 1980’s trilogy (the two more well-known movies being “Back To The Future” and “Teen Wolf”) this is pure ’80’s excess hair metal. I mis-heard the part of the chorus that goes “The secret of my success is that I’m living / Twenty-Five hours a day” as” “The secret of my success is that I’m doing / Twenty-Five pounds of cocaine” But, frankly, it works just as well. If not better.

Favorite Lyrics – “Worlds collide / And hearts will be broken / Over and over / It’s the same every day”

I Will Survive – Cheap Trick – No, not the disco megahit from Gloria Gaynor. And from the hit film “Gladiator”, but not the Oscar winning blockbuster starring Russell Crowe. It’s the one from 1990 about an underground boxing tournament starring the guy from Twin Peaks (not that guy), Brian Dennehy, and a young Cuba Gooding, Jr. Just trust me, if you’re feeling down and need a little pep in your step, this song should do the trick.

Favorite Lyrics – “You think you’re shaking my innocence / But you’re wasting time / ‘Cause you don’t know who I am”

Icehouse – Icehouse – An atmospheric, new wave, horror, folk tale if taken at face value. A metaphor for unrequited, or lost love to a less literal interpretation. My favorite song by Icehouse will always be the new wave adrenaline shot of “Electric Blue” but this is the song they named their band after (or vice versa) so it’s clearly important to them as well.

Favorite Lyrics – “The devil lives inside the icehouse / At least that’s what the old ones say / He came a long time ago / He came in the winter snow / Now it’s colder every day”

Stolen – Dashboard Confessional – A song about capturing that little bit of love and beauty while you can, before it fades like the seasons. A sepia-toned flashback of a song from when I was younger, and love was more fleeting. It sounds like the bittersweet end of summer captured in three minutes.

Favorite Lyrics – “We watch the season pull up its own stakes / And catch the last weekend of the last week / Before the gold and glimmer have been replaced / Another sun soaked season fades away”

Breathe – Michelle Branch – The argument you have with yourself when you can’t seem to say what you really mean to the person you love wrapped up in pop-rock with a hook that keeps pulling you back in. Michelle Branch has had bigger hits, but this one is my personal favorite.

Favorite Lyrics – “So just give me one good reason / Tell me why I should stay / ‘Cause I don’t want to waste another moment / Saying things we never meant to say”

10 For The Playlist – Volume 1

by

0

To preface: I am not a music critic. I don’t have a degree in Musicology, I can’t play any instruments, and frankly I can’t even sing unless I’m drunk in a private Karaoke room or all alone in my car.

But I like music. I’ve come across a lot of tunes that – from what I can tell – never received Top 40 level radio airplay. But I love these songs, and feel lucky to have come across them one way or another. Maybe it was in a movie or TV soundtrack. Maybe it was in a commercial. Maybe in a bar or a store. Or, maybe I just lucked out on Amazon Music or Spotify. At any rate, I’d like to share them with other people. Maybe this will help more people discover these songs, even if the artists may already well-known.

I’m thinking of doing one of these once a month, but that’s more of a notion than a plan. I may do them a little more frequently, or a little less. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll try to limit one song per artist on each list, but I expect there will be many recurring artists as this blog goes along. So, without further adieu, here is my first list of songs.

Starlight – Ingrid Michaelson – It starts like a lullaby, and plays like one for the first couple minutes. Ultimately, though, this is a song about having to be away from the people you love. But that the love you have for them never fades, because it burns a brightly as starlight. This one always gets me a bit misty, and it makes me think of my two boys more than anything else. The song closes with a lovely, cathartic release, which I’ll never not enjoy.

Favorite Lyric – “I can’t promise you the moon / I can’t even promise that I will be home soon / Just leave the light on / Like you do / ‘Cause you know I’m always coming home to you”

Lonely Town – Brandon Flowers – 100% pure glossy ’80’s pop, even though it was released in the 2015. It gives me flashbacks, the good kind, of being a kid growing up in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Sounds like sweet sugar tastes, only with a slight undertone of regret.

Favorite Lyric – “Spinning like the Gravitron when I was just a kid / I always that things would change / But they never did”

Calling It Love – Animotion – The sort of song that “Lonely Town” clearly modeled itself after. Pretty much everyone has heard “Obsession” and “Don’t You Want me” but I honestly thing this song is superior to either of them. It’s simply (or complicatedly) about being in a relationship that has run its course, but you don’t really know how to end it, or even if you honestly want to. This one has the synth backdrop that was everywhere at the time, but also a pretty ripping guitar solo in the middle. And it gives lead singer Astrid Plane the chance to sing like she’s finally releasing everything pent up inside her from the band’s two big hits.

Favorite Lyric – “I’ve been spending my life / Thinking you’re the one / Now I’m holding my lies / And the damage is done”

Wings – Birdy – This one comes in strong, and has no hesitation about rolling out the melodramatic string section at every opportunity. It’s tinged with a bit of longing, but ultimately soars with the power and hope that came effortlessly when you were younger. But, when I fire this one up, I have no trouble getting back to that place again.

Favorite Lyrics – “Oh, damn these walls / In the moment we’re ten feet tall / And how you told me after it all / We’d remember tonight / For the rest of our lives”

Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young – Fire, Inc – One of two songs written for the soundtrack to the cult classic Streets Of Fire by Jim Steinman, who wrote every Meat Loaf song you know. He also wrote “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” for Celine Dion, and “Holding Out For A Hero” for Bonnie Tyler, both of which this song shares more DNA with. I’d honestly love to hear this performed with a full cast in a Broadway show, or even in a community theater. But hey, that’s how I imagine it every time it comes up anyway. Multiple choir sections sing different parts that are sprinkled through until the big finish, when they are combine to form an overlapping mega-choir.

Favorite Lyric – “Let the revels begin / Let the fire be started / We’re dancing for the restless and the broken-hearted”

Sunday – Bloc Party – A prayer for the poor, hungover souls of the world. Okay, that’s part of it, but it’s also about embracing the freedom you have in those morning-afters where you’re still in-love, sober and head-achy as you may be. The percussion drives the song along until the end of the journey, when you are treated to one bad- ass, soaring guitar solo by the underrated Russell Lissack that snaps you out of whatever trance you may have been lulled into.

Favorite Lyric – “You see giant proclamations / Are all very well / But our love / Is louder than words”

Munich – The Fray – These guys are mostly known for “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and “How To Save A Life” but they got a really solid catalogue otherwise. “Munich” captures that feeling when you’re maybe not ready to fall in love, but you’ve found someone who you can’t describe your feelings for with any other word. It then makes the synths sing like a choir of angelic robots telling you to let go, and let yourself fall.

Favorite Lyrics – “Step to the edge / You and I / Then we fall below / Take a breath / Hold my hand / And now you’re not alone”

Love Is Only A Feeling – The Darkness – I have no idea how The Darkness’ only crossover hit was “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” because these guys deliver all the hair metal goodness missing from the past 30 years on every album. “Love Is Only A Feeling” hits those power ballad vibes, not to mention those crazy high notes. They manage to mix the acoustic, mandolin-sounding strings, and wailing electric solos in a way that tells you “Damn right, it’s cheesy. But damn right, you want to dive into that pool full of melted nacho cheese.”

Favorite Lyric – “I had touched, I had tasted, and I truly believed / That the light of my love / Would tear a hole right through each cloud / That scudded by / Just to beam on you and I”

Something Special – Randy Newman – If you’ve seen the classic(?) 1987 rom-com Overboard starring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, then you’ve heard this song playing over the end credits. But, in the event that you have heard it, but never sought it out, here it is. Randy Newman writing great little ditties is nothing new, but this one holds a special place for me. Yes, Overboard was on basic cable all the time when I was growing up, so I’m conditioned to respond to most anything involved in it (talk to me about “Can’t Help Falling In Love” sometime). But I’m always on-board for any song that sells the simple joys of a mismatched love affair.

Favorite Lyrics – “It’s alright / Baby, it’s okay / We’re gonna make it / No matter what they say / Sure as the stars shine in the sky above / There is something special about our love”

Sunset – The Midnight – Another new wave throwback that takes me in the way back machine to when I was a kid who’d never been anywhere outside the small suburb where I’d always been. Back then, I felt trapped, as many other kids have as well. And this song sounds like it would have been my manta if it came had been released in 1988 instead of 2016 (though I likely wouldn’t have been able to fully relate to it until the mid-90’s). It starts with a spoken word verse of a girl making an offer that I would have found very hard to decline in 1995.

Favorite Lyric – “They say it’s darkest before the dawn / We’ve been in this town for far too long / They say it’s darkest before the dawn / We’re moving on, we’re moving on, we’re moving on”

Tom Petty Knew How To Cut To The Chase

by

0

I’ve always enjoyed Tom Petty’s music, but it’s been a few years since I gave his catalogue a thorough listening. Upon re-visiting it these past few days, it has occured to me that Tom Petty might be my favorite musician of all-time. Strange, and sad, that it never really occured to me before.

Many, many people have written much better eulogies for him than I ever could so, instead, I’m going to pull a couple lines from my favorite Petty songs, and explain what they mean to me.

American Girl: “And if she had to die tryin’ / She had one little promise she was gonna keep” – Don’t we have have that one promise?

Refugee: “It don’t make no difference to me, baby / Everybody has to fight to be free” – And sometime that fight never truly ends.

Here Comes My Girl: “But when she puts her arms around me / I can, somehow, rise above it” – We should all be so lucky to find that someone.

Even The Losers: “Baby, even the losers / Get lucky sometimes” – Even The Losers was almost the title of my first book before I changed it to Misfit Toys In Love.

The Waiting: “The waiting is the hardest part / every day get one more yard” – In this life you have to just keep pushing and you can get there; one yard at a time.

Don’t Come Around Here No More: “Stop walking down my street / Who do you expect to meet?” – An oddly menacing line in a pretty straightforward break-up song that no doubt inspired the iconic Alice In Wonderland themed music video.

Free Fallin’: “I’m gonna free fall out into nothing / Gonna leave this world for a while” – Which was always made easier to do while listening to a Tom Petty song.

I Won’t Back Down: “You could stand me up at the gates of Hell / But I won’t back down” – Don’t let this world push you around. After all, you know what’s right and you got just one life.

Runnin’ Down A Dream: “It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down / I had the radio on, I was drivin'” – Anyone who’s ever cruised down the highway on a spring day at 80 MPH can relate to this one.

Learning To Fly: “Some say life will beat you down / Break your heart and steal your crown / So I started out for God knows where / Guess I’ll know when I get there” – This song really started resonating with me when I left the ‘burbs to attend college in NYC.

Into The Great Wide Open: “Into the great wide open / Under them skies of blue / Out in the great wide open / A rebel without a clue” – Everyone who is, or ever was, a teenager can nod along to this bit.

Mary Jane’s Last Dance: “Oh, my my / Oh, hell yes / Honey, put on that party dress / Buy me a drink, sing me a song / Take me as I come, cuz I can’t stay long” – We all need to cut loose every now and then.

Wildflowers: “You belong among the wildflowers / You belong somewhere close to me” – Take you significant other on a vacation somwhere nice, and then get back to me on this one.

You Don’t Know How It Feels: “I woke up in-between a memory and a dream” – This happens to me every time I wake up in the middle of the night when I’m spending the night in a hotel room.

Walls (Circus): “Half of me is ocean / Half of me is sky” – This underrated gem reminds you that everyone is more than one thing, but they are also at one with every other living thing on the planet.

Angel Dream (No.2): “I followed an angel down through the gates / I can only thank God it was not too late” – This lovely tune hit me most when I met my wife, and then once again when my son was born.

The best concert I ever went to was a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers show back when I was 19 or 20 years old. Every song sounded just as good as it did on the album, with just enough extra jamming to make it absolutely worth the price of admission.

RIP to the man, but his music will live on through CD’s and playlists until we all join him in the great wide open.

The Killers Were The Soundtrack Of My 20’s

by

0

The Killers have a new album out titled “Wonderful Wonderful”, and it’s pretty good.

The title track has a nice riff that sounds a lot like Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain”. “The Man” has an okay rock-funk rhythm to it. While
“Rut” and “Life To Come” both have an inspiring sentimentality. All-in-all, I reccommned giving it a listen and maybe adding a few tracks to your Spotify or Amazon Music playlist.

But this article isn’t really about The Killers’ new album. It’s not even really about their old albums. It’s about the way I experienced those albums.

I was 25 years old in 2004.

I’d gone to college in NYC from 1997-2001, moved home for about a year-and-a-half to save money, and then moved back to the city (well, Astoria, but that’s basically just the upper-upper east side) in 2003.

It’s almost embarrassing to admit, but I probably did most of my growing up in college and shortly thereafter. I was a bit of a late bloomer and a hardcore non-comformist in high school, who refused to even try listening to some bands that were pretty widely accepted as good.

For example, I spent the first 18 years of my life in New Jersey, but I only had a passing knowledge of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. I thought Tom Petty & The Hearbreakers were pretty decent, but never really owned one of their albums. And I gave the stiff-arm to Billy Joel and The Dave Mathews Band since all the “Cool kids” were into them. I could say similar things about 90’s Alt-Rock acts like the Gin Blossoms and Counting Crows.

Needless to say, I got super into all those bands when I got to college. It even took me that long to discover that The Cure had a lot more good songs than the two they always played on the radio at the time. There were, of course, new acts that caught me attention at this time. Emo-Rock acts like Jimmy Eat World and Pete Yorn hit me right in the soft spot. They never received the same mainstream acclaim as The White Strips or The Strokes, since Garage Rock had made a massive comeback, but I related to them more.

It was out of this feedback-driven soundscape that The Killer arrived with their debut album “Hot Fuss” – the sort of glossed up rock-pop act that sounded as if Springsteen and the Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen had a love child. With my newly-discovered affection for the E-Streeters, and my long-time apppreciation for Van Hagar (a stance I will defend with the David Lee Roth acolytes all day) “Hot Fuss” hit a bullseye in my groove center.

Nearly every song found its way into my personal rotation. Sure, the hit singles “Somebody Told Me” and “Mr. Brightside” were there. But so was the two-part interrogation/confessional track “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” and “Midnight Show”. “Smile Like You Mean It”  and “Change Your Mind” both offered sardoncally good advise for a tweny-something making his way through the concrete jungle.  And anytime any of these songs got queued up at 2 AM in the pub (we didn’t really do clubs) my friends and I would happily (and drunkenly) sing along and bounce up and down in what I suppose we considered dancing.

“Sam’s Town” was released in 2006, while radio stations and bars were still playing the hits from “Hot Fuss”. The driving lead guitar on “When You Were Young” always managed to pep me up, even if – at 27 – I wasn’t quite old enough to appreciate the lyrics. “Read My Mind” was a synth-heavy power ballad that reminded me of my own transition from suburbanite to Manhattanite. Outside of those two songs, though, there wasn’t a lot to catch my interest.

2007’s “Sawdust” and 2008’s “Day & Age” both came and went while I was otherwise occupied. Sam could be said for frontman Brandon Flowers’ first solos album “Flamingo”. “Battle Born”, from 2012, had my favorite Killers song since their first album: “Runaways”. That track went all-in on the Springsteen trimmings, and I was happy to catch up on the albums I’d missed. As much I did – and still do – blast “Runaways” in my car, it was just one song and not a whole album full of treats.

I only gave a listen to Flowers’ second solo album, “The Desired Effect”, one day when I was felling nostalgic in 2015. I’m glad I did though, because that one was loaded with the best stuff I’d heard from The Killers’ corner in a long time.

“Dreams Come True” is a morale booster. “Can’t Deny My Love” is a funk-inflected jam. “Between Me And You” hit upon some of the same stresses that I’d been struggling with for a while before I’d managed to put them to bed. And “Lonely Town” referenced the Gravitron by name, so that brought back happy memories of 12 year-old me running through the Kiwanis Carnival that came to town every September flooding back. Seriously, if you haven’t checked this one out, I suggest you queue it up immediately.

My wife and I left Astoria in 2012 and moved into a wonderful house in the burbs. Two years ago our son arrived, and he’s also wonderful. Which brings us back to the new Killers album “Wonderful Wonderful” which, again, is pretty good. If “Hot Fuss” and everything that came out after it helped soundtrack your life, then you should give the new stuff a listen. I might take a deeper dive into my musical tastes at some point, though it’s a pretty deep pool. Until then, I’ll just keep playing the hits.

Crying Like A Man

by

0

What sort of things make men cry?

I won’t pretend to speak for all men, but I’ll speak for myself and maybe that will shed some light on men at large.

Musical tends to be a major factor in firing up my tear ducts, in fact it is the most frequent culprit. A swelling string section can get to the soft, gooey center of just about any man who is not dead inside.

That’s true whether in an orchestra film score,  or incorporated into a ballad or lament. Give me the cellos stirring things up deep down inside, and then the higher pitched choir of the violins to grant the release of tears.

Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back album,  especially The Book Of Love, is a prime example of blending pop music with classical trimmings.

Same can be said about Damien Rice songs like Amie, Delicate or Colour Me In.  Something with a slow build and a big finish a la With Or Without You, Journey’s Faithfully or Bloc Party’s Sunday tend to get my emotions roiling as well. It’s that they’re working the body bag of my emotions before knocking my block off.

Thematically speaking, the idea of letting go of a dream, a belief, or especially a loved one, can often hit my soft spot. Of course, that’s usually accompanied by the aforementioned musical cues.

John Barry’s theme from Somewhere In Time calls to mind the great essence of an otherwise flawed story about love made possible by impossible circumstances and then torn asunder by the unstoppable force of time.

Meet Joe Black, is a bad three hour movie that might have made a pretty decent two hour movie buried in there somewhere. But the ending featuring Anthony Hopkins saying goodbye to his family and friends with the fireworks and the swelling Thomas Newman score building out of What A Wonderful World always gets me misty.

Stand By Me starts with a simple string rendition of the titular song and ends with the main characters having to leave the innocence of childhood behind. So it gets me every time.

James Horner’s score from Braveheart is fantastic. At one point it takes a fairly over the top torture and execution scene and turns it into the build up of a moment of pure catharsis. The musical score bangs home the idea that, while they may have killed William Wallace, they did not destroy his beliefs. It’s one of those all too rare swelling-tears-pumping-fist moments.

I can occasionally be caught off-guard by understated pieces of a story that are not punctuated by a 50 piece orchestra. Stallone’s locker room interaction with Michael B. Jordan in Creed where he briefly talks about what he’d give up for one more day with his late wife is a recent such emotional movie moment.

Another moment is in Of Mice And Men, when George kills Lenny to save him from a more painful death at the hands of the lynch mob, but also because he knows Lenny can’t help himself but be dangerous sometimes. Either way, he killed the only person who he really cared for, the only thing he really had to hold onto in the world, and that’s a button pusher for me.

As Flowers For Algernon winds down the formerly mentally handicapped narrator starts losing his super intelligence and falls back into his lesser intellectual state. You can tell that he can, and cannot, sense him losing himself again and it’s pretty heartbreaking.

And, good lord, do not even get me started on anything that involves someone’s pet or animal companion dying. That’s the one thing that breaks me down every single time, even if it’s hammy or kinda rudimentary.

At any rate, it’s healthy to have a good cry every once in a while – manly or otherwise. So I’m always happy to revisit the things that bring me the sweet release of sorrow, and you should be as well.

Wherein I Write A Broadway Musical

by

0

To get my creative juices flowing before jumping into my next novel, I’ve decided to SongFic, as the kids call it. You could also lay some blame on South Park’s Tweek x Craig episode for this little experiment.

In this case, I’m using the supercharged, overwrought, mega cheesy, impossibly melodramatic songs by Jim Steinman as the soundtrack to what would be one helluva Broadway show.

Here’s the story: a young man (let’s call him Aaron) is sent from heaven to Earth to do battle with the forces of darkness that are sent up from hell to wreak havoc.

A young woman (let’s call her Eva), meanwhile, is sent up from hell where she is the gate keeper and go-between for the devil and his Earthbound minions.

Aaron is tired of the fight and ready to give it all up, while Eva is similarly disillusioned by her own mission. Needless to say (this is Broadway, after all) they fall in love with each other. Neither the forces of heaven or hell are very happy about this relationship disturbing the balance of things, and so the situation gets pretty crazy from there.

Let’s call this show Love & Damnation.

It’s worth noting that, while I’ve embedded the available videos for these songs from YouTube, you need to imagine them being performed by the characters in a sort of gothic-neo-noir setting and costumes.

We open with Bat Out Of Hell – performed by Eva and the Minions of Hell Choir singing & dancing about all the shit they’re going to kick up. This number’s purpose is the introduce Eva’s side of the story, and start things off on a fast note.

Next up, we go to Aaron and the Heavenly Souls Choir performing Nowhere Fast, one of the massively underrated songs written for the film Streets of Fire. I’m thinking there may just be one choir who changes costumes between each number, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, we see him going about his business of vanquishing demons, but feeling like none of it’s really accomplishing anything.

Fun combo number here as Eva and Aaron each separately go to their bosses – Satan and the archangel Michael, respectively – to lament their situations. Michael, Satan and the choirs of heaven and hell all respond with Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back, to declare that everyone’s life is pretty crummy so they should just get over it.

After the flat out refusal from Michael to relieve him of his duties, Aaron decides to go rogue and wander off anyway. His singing of the ballad Heaven Can Wait draws Eva’s attention and so she decides to follow him on his walkabout.

After Aaron realizes that Eva is shadowing him, they finally meet, bond a bit, and break out the rollicking duet Dead Ringer For Love.

Things are good for a while, but Eva starts suspecting that the strength of her feelings for Aaron are not fully reciprocated. At which point Aaron recounts the origin story about how his beloved was killed by a demon which led him to take on the job of heaven’s bad ass slayer. This culminates in his singing Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad to try and explain things better.

Eva goes off on her own to reconsider her feelings to the tune of Total Eclipse Of The Heart. She begins to feel like it’s worth being with Aaron even if he doesn’t truly love her, but is too proud to go to him and say so.

Luckily, Aaron comes to his senses and realizes that it’s okay to love again and that he really does love Eva. He rushes back to her and, with the help of the Heavenly Souls Choir, performs I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That). By the end of which, Eva has embraced their love by singing the last part of the song.

Everything came together nicely and culminated with a bang, so now’s as good a time as any to have an Intermission to let the audience buy some astronomically overpriced candy and bottles of water. Maybe have a bit of a pee break too.

Aaron & Eva are happily in love on a hot summer night, hence You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth. Frolicking ensues.

Holding Out For A Hero is then sung by the Minions of Hell / Heavenly Souls Choir dressed up as people (Earthbound Choir) that Aaron and Eva are helping defeat the demons in their lives. Satan and Michael take note, and are not pleased with how this forbidden relationship is affecting the balance of the battle between heaven & hell. They strike up a deal to do something to restore balance.

When Eva and Aaron start performing Making  Love Out Of Nothing At All they’re sharing a nice, tender moment. But Satan and Michael cast a spell on them, which makes them forget one another. The lovers part and wander off in opposite direction in a dreamlike daze.

Aaron reminisces about his life, death and rebirth as demon slayer while singing Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are. But the lost memory of something he can’t quite grasp sends waves of doubt through his mind and soul.

Eva is in the throes of a similar identity crisis but, with a little help from the Earthbound Choir, it all comes back to her now. First, she remember that she never actually deserved to go to hell. She was offered to the devil when she was born, and so truly owes him nothing. She then also remembers her love for Aaron, all of which is represented by her performance of It’s All Coming Back To Me Now.

Eva finds Aaron, and through the course of Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through she helps him remember their love. Once reunited, Satan & Michael drop by again to put the kibosh on things.

And so we roll right into Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young – the other great, forgotten song from Streets of Fire. The choir is split up into Heavenly Souls garb, Minion of Hell gear, and Earthbound attire. They all gang up this time to chase off the archangel and the devil by letting them know that love is truly the most powerful force on Earth, and in heaven or hell. Michael & Satan finally relent and let Eva & Aaron ride off together into the sunset to live happily ever after.

For anyone interested, you can find the full (theoretical) Love & Damnation Soundtrack at my Spotify playlist here.

https://open.spotify.com/user/joemikolay/playlist/4MPUabktxcNKpAB5d7WVYT

Also, see if you can find me a millionaire to bankroll this bad boy.