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"This is an important project."

                            ----Anonymous (Okay, my brother).

So, I've started floating the idea of the 40@40 to a few people.  Responses typically fall into a few categories:  

1. Yawn 

2. Sounds like fun, let me see it when its done.

3. This is easy, just make sure you include these 15 songs...

I've already started a number of other debates with folks who fall into category 3, and say things like "WHATDAYA MEAN no Nirvana???" or "If you don't include 'Melt with you' then you are a damn fool."
---And I quite like the category 3 people: at least they CARE.  (But I could do without the "oh and how about..." texts after they've been drinking.),  I think those people have started to personalize the idea, they think about what there lists would include, and chafe when ours don't always match up.

THAT'S OKAY! This is, and always will be a 1000% subjective and personal endeavor.

I was excited to tell my brother about this idea.  He was skeptical at first, because I think he saw it as a (derivative?) greatest hits project.  This was evident when he pushed back on my sketch of my first decade picks.

"Tainted Love? Soft Cell?"  

"If you've got that in there, you've GOT to have 'Take on Me' right?"

---Actually no, I don't.

"That ridiculous, Take On Me is a CLASSIC.  Classic song.  Classic video."

---True, but that's not the only criteria.

"Whatever"

And so here was an early and strong challenge to the very CONCEPT of the 40@40.  

But I am up to it. I decided not to eschew (or at least not wholesale cop-out) on the "why Tainted Love and not Take on Me"? question.  ---It isn't any fun to respond "because it is my list, now get off my lawn."  So I've stewed on this question a bit. 

I hadn't yet formulated my answer when, a few days later, I got an email from my brother that simply read:  "Does White Town's 'Your Woman' make the list?  ----Great question! And showed that maybe he's more of a 3 than a 1 after all!  

Here was my answer:  

"THAT is a close call. It is currently in the 'maybe' column for my second decade.  It speaks to the same part of my soul that "Tainted Love" does---for whatever reason: when I first heard them, or how they sounded, or what I was doing at the time, I NEEDED those songs then and and now more than anything by A-Ha or Duran Duran.  The top 40 is a tricky and personal and revealing list!"

---not bad for typing with two thumbs on my loaner phone while (clearly not) putting the dishes away!

---and that answer was good enough! Because it generated the quote at the top of the post.

So, I was feeling pretty good again about what I was doing, and where this was going.  And then, just for funsies, I watched the Take On Me video. 

 ---Man, that's a good video! Very clever use of animation, and the happy ending seems earned.

---Come to think of it, I don't remember ever even SEEING the Tainted Love video....

---What's that like?

---WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

---SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE ABSOLUTE F---?

It is a GOOD THING I was already pot-committed before I saw that video.

Now, technically, the above isn't the exact version of Tainted Love that makes the 40@40 cut----the most important thing is for it to have that aching "Baby, Baby, Baby, Where did our love go?" interlude for it to count.

But STILL, that is one randomly (yet persistently) offensive video!  And yet, that eyeliner? You GO 1981 Marc Almond!

F

Top 40 at 40: An evolving list of rules for the 40@40

Since I'm here, and since I actually found the neon yellow notecards I've started dashing my list out on, let's go over the rules.
The 40 songs must have been recorded/released at some point during 1977-2017.
I am going to break the 40 songs into the 4 decades.

The factors (to be weighted in annoyingly varying and internally inconsistent manners) that go into selecting a song include:

1) Historical importance/affection for the song*
This one is easy. A big part of this is nostalgia, and so reflecting my "original" love for the songs matters. BUT, this can't be the only factor, and it can't always count the same every time---otherwise "Walking Like an Egyptian" would make the cut, and SPOILER ALERT, it doesn't.
I say historical importance for the "song*" because it could also be read as "song/band/event" depending on WHY I feel compelled to weigh this factor more heavily.

2) Current attitude/enthusiasm for the song
This is an interesting one.
When I am picking among my "classics" -- New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode -- how do I choose the right songs?
The ones that I've loved the longest or the strongest, or the ones that I love the most, RIGHT NOW?
This will also be an important factor for the last decade----which SPOILER ALERT, will look/sound different from the first 3.
(Reflecting the fact that we consume music differently, that trends/genres are meaningless and, oh yeah, I'm old and lazy and don't "discover" bands anymore, so I'm stuck with the stuff I've heard).

3) Appropriateness of the song for the function (party/public consumption)
I want people to come to the party, and I want them to have a good time.
This means that no matter how important "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Angel" (by Eurythmics) were to my survival of Middle School, they SPOILER ALERT aren't making the cut.
This means that for artists like Everything But The Girl, even if factors 1 and 2 lead me to "The Heart Remains A Child" or "Walking to You" I am still going to end up picking "Missing" or "Wrong" or "Lullaby of Clubland"
--- unless things go CRAZY SOUTH over the next year and I say "screw it, we'll all be sad together!" ---
--- in which case, I'll at least probably save on the bar tab, because who is going to stick around for THAT? ---

4) We are servants of time, true, but we aren't exactly model slaves
There is tension in the structure of this construct.
Just on my slapdash notecards, I can already tell that 97-06 (my Twenties!!!)*** will be the hardest to pick just 10 from.
So, I may develop exceptions to the rule and factors (all reasonable, of course) to allow me, to say, sneak an older song later, or vice versa.
It can't be a free for all, because, some of the fun/interest is the tension/problem of winnowing it down.
This means I'm still stuck filling out a "Thirties" list----so if I have to take a lesser PSB song from a recent album and sacrifice something from a more critically successful period, then so be it. Every song will have some sort of story/explanation---especially the close calls and the rule benders.

Okay, I think that's enough on the RULES for now. More to follow and much to change around them all.
F
***I've been thinking about this as strictly dates (77-86, etc.) until the moment of that "***" when I made the connection to my life. That "my Twenties" exclamation was a real-time realization of how the time frames also match up to my own decades. (Likely obvious for everyone else, but hey, YOU AREN'T THE ONE WRITIG THIS, so BACK OFF!)

TOP 40 at 40. An experiment. A life. (Too much?)

I've got an idea. It must be a good one because I keep coming back to it.
You know I'm serious about it because I've started writing things down.
I'm going to throw a dance party for my 40th birthday.
That dance party will feature my top 40 songs from my first 40 years.
There will be challenges:

-->WHERE to have it?
---->WHO will come to Ohio?
-------->HOW do I pick just 1 Kasabian song?
----------->WHAT do I do about the last 10 years of music, a veritable desert when compared with the first 30 years?

I'll come up with solutions to these all, and probably tell a few stores along the way.

Here we go.

F