Tuesday, April 30, 2013

C -O - O - L, What's that spell?

I don't really have anything new to say about our current political situation so I've decided to write about something really important. The coolest song ever. Now a cool song doesn't have to be a great song, but quality definitely helps. You know it's like how Steve McQueen is the coolest guy ever on film, but he couldn't hold a candle to Cary Grant in the looks department. So anyway, after years of research, I've decided that it comes down to two songs. Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed and Shaft by Issac Hayes. It's a real nail bitter between these two. They both have the attitude, the subject matter and the delivery of perfect coolness. The pedal work on the guitars on Shaft is spectacular, the sax solo at the end of Wild Side is sublime. 
I could go into a long analysis of each song, but suffice it to say that they work on every level of cool. Cool can't be too earnest (sorry Bono). Cool can't be too socially conscious (sorry everyone who ever wrote a song about suffering). Cool can't take itself too seriously (almost every musician). Anyway, in a photo finish, I think the winner is Wild Side by Lou Reed (although that cat Shaft is a bad mutha...). The crowd goes wild and the colored girls say,  do, do do, do do!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike - it's been a while and I needed my hamsandwich fix! Couldn't agree more - Wild Side is very "cool." But, what about Superstitious, by Stevie? I feel it fits your definition quite nicely and is definitely...cool.

SJ said...

It's funny, Lou Reed and David Bowie maintain it's either this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3OepDn5GU
or anything by the Beatles.
I vote for this one: Sweet Jane, especially with the long album intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiBvnbntiW8