Vince's Journey

Wow, three months since my last post!! I can't believe it's been that long but then again, this blog was originally set up to keep people up-to-date on my health situation over 4 years ago, so I guess no news is good news. Anyway, I watched a movie over the holidays called 'Julia and Julie' and it somewhat inspired me to get back into the blogging business. It was about a present day woman with a somewhat, odd infatuation with the old cooking show host, Julia Child, and her subsequent attempt to cook every recipe in Julia's cook book over the space of one year. I don't know why anyone would want to take on such a task but since they made a movie about it, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea in the long run. Nevertheless, I decided once the new year got into full swing I'd try to put a post on the old blog every day - only took me 11 days; there's no looking back now. Who knows, maybe they'll make a movie out of my blog in a couple years.

It was nice having all the kids together over the holidays but all good things must come to an end. Aaron went back to St. Louis yesterday so life is back to normal - Julie's at volleyball, Abbey talked on the phone for over an hour and I'm putzing around with my I-Tunes account. Over the holidays I put together a 'Top 100 Songs' play list and I had a few edits to make tonight (I'm already tired of a couple of my top 100) - it's a work in progress but I'm getting there. I think that's what I'll write about over the next couple weeks, my Top 100 songs. Right now I'm listening to #50, 'Living for the City' by Stevie Wonder, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll count them down starting with #100 and will do 10 per day until we get to numero uno. If that doesn't keep you coming back, I don't know what will.

I'll also comment on the more important news stories on the day. Like today, for instance, Mark McGwire admitted that he used steroids while breaking one of baseball's greatest records of all-time, Roger Maris' 61 home runs in a season - which, by the way - already had an asterisk next to it since old Roger needed 162 games to get to 61 while the Babe only needed 154 to hit 60. But back to McGwire - he was on steroids when he hit 70 home runs back in the late 90's??!! Seriously, who saw that coming? Really, Mark, that's more shocking than Jay Leno's prime time talk show failing. And doesn't that kind of cheapen the record? Maybe they should have put 10 asterisks next to Mark's numbers! Fortunately, Barry Bonds shattered it by hitting 73 a couple years later and to this day, he hasn't admitted to using any steroids so with the exception of old Roger who damn near killed himself chasing Babe Ruth, asterisks will continue to be non-existent in the record books of baseball.

On to my top 100 songs. I'll start by pointing out my favorite musicians are The Beatles, Prince, Elton John and the old Motown greats so there is a heavy emphasis on those artists. Some songs would be ranked among the top 100 of just about any music lover's list while others have a special meaning or sentimentality to me. I'm sure there may be a few songs that you have never heard before so if you get the chance go to YouTube or I-Tunes, give it a listen and let me know what you think. Here are #100 through #91....

100. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End - The Beatles. I know it's actually 3 songs but you can't listen to one without listening to the other two and what a perfect way to end a top 100 list; with The End.

99. Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley and Dwight Yokum. Two different versions, Yokum's cover is a bit more country than Elvis' but he put a surprisingly nice spin on the song. I recently saw a live version by Elvis and it took him about 5 minutes to end it, absolutely classic, and you have to love the back-up singers on both versions.

98. My Maria - B.W. Stevenson. Back when I was waiting tables in the mid-1980's, one of my tables told me they would give me a$50 tip if I could tell them who sang the song, 'My Maria'. Without missing a beat, I said 'B.W. Stevenson - can I get you another round of drinks?' After they left, there was $50 tip on my tip trip. I've been a big fan of the song ever since.

97. Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin. My signature song at Karoake - I actually sang 'Mack the Knife' at the Oyster Factory in Hilton Head and once again, received a couple of nice tips - I didn't take the money, I let the guitar singer who I upstaged keep it.

96. I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) - The Proclaimers. Many of you know I'm a huge Ohio State football fan. Every week during football season, I get together with a great group of friends and we watch the games together. Between the 3rd and 4th quarter, we all get up and sing and dance to this song - it would be difficult to describe what we do but perhaps some day one of our performances will wind up on YouTube so you can see for yourself - if it does I assure you you'll never be able to hear that song again without thinking about us. You have been warned.

95. Because the Night - 10,000 Maniacs. Written by Springsteen, probably performed better by Patti Smith, Natalie Merchant puts a more mellow spin on the song on their Unplugged CD and for the most part, it works. This is on the list more for the song than the Maniacs performance - I don't have Patti Smith's version.

94. Last Dance - Donna Summer. I was at Ohio State during the disco explosion and Donna Summer was the 'Queen of Disco'. Believe it or not, this song won the 1978 Academy Award for Best Original Song, beating 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' from Grease.

93. Dance to the Music - Sly and the Family Stone. Sly was a tremendous musical influential back in the late 60's and early 70's and if you want to see one of the greatest clips ever from the Ed Sullivan Show, catch the night Sly went up into the audience and coaxed a stodgy group of middle-aged, white people to 'Get up, and dance to the music!' Thirty years later, this song still has the same effect.

92. New Year's Day - U2. First song I ever heard by U2 and it's still among my favorites today.

91. Dancing Queen - ABBA. I know what some of you are thinking - how can Dancing Queen be ahead of New Year's Day? Well, this song is one of my vivid memories from my freshman year of college and like it or not it, I truly it is disco era classic. Plus its hard not to smile whenever you hear DancingQueen, especially if you've ever seen the Broadway musical, Mamma Mia!

That's enough for now. Be sure to check back tomorrow for #90 to #81...and who knows what will be tomorrow's news? I know Wednesday everyone will be talking about the return of American Idol. Can Ellen replace Paula? Honestly, who couldn't replace Paula? I guess we'll see tomorrow night.