Songs That Grabbed Me – 5 Seconds of Summer, She Looks So Perfect

Typically in this series I’ve talked about songs that have stuck with me over the years for various reasons. Today will be a little different. It’s a very recent song and it’s by my daughter’s favourite band. Yes, it’s a teeny bopper song. There. I said it. 44 year old dude likes a teeny bopper song.

Songs That Grabbed Me – Hunters & Collectors, Throw Your Arms Around Me

I’ve loved this song since the day I first heard it. The beautiful haunting lyrics written by Hunters & Collectors lead singer Mark Seymour in the mid-1980’s Human Frailty album, apparently are about a one night stand. Hmm. I completely missed that when I was 15.

Songs That Grabbed Me – Yothu Yindi, Treaty

Yunupingu died earlier today.

The lead singer of Australian band Yothu Yindi was 56 and was suffering from kidney failure. Far too young.

He is best known for the song Treaty which was written by Yothu Yindi and Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil front man Peter Garret, around the time the then prime minister Bob Hawke promised to form a treaty between the Indigenous Australians and the Australian government by 1990. And then failed to do so. Treaty was originally intended to raise public awareness of the promise made and then became a protest song when the promise was broken.

Songs That Grabbed Me – Goanna, Solid Rock

This is a protest song about the treatment of the Australian indigenous people during the time of the first European settlement and the whole invading-the-country thing. It’s suggesting the accepted history is inaccurate and that it wasn’t the relatively peaceful encounter many are led to believe.

Songs That Grabbed Me – Smokie, Oh Carol

I remember hearing this on the radio when I was a young tacker and loved it. Back then it was the rolling rhythm that sucked me in but later I began to appreciate the lyrics. Come on, what red blooded boy doesn’t like the imagery of a hot girl? Often exaggerated imagery projected by an over-excited mate describing a girl he can’t have but wishes he could.

Songs That Grabbed Me – Beach Boys, Surfin’ USA

Surfin’ USA by the Beach Boys (music by Chuck Berry), isn’t this the best surfing song? The Wilson brothers were said to have liked the Chuck Berry song Sweet Little Sixteen so much they thought it’d be a great idea to put some surfing lyrics to the music. That led to listing all the popular surfing locations in America, throw in a simple but clever little rhyming story about having no excuses for not surfing if there was an ocean nearby, and the rest is this very catchy song.

Songs That Grabbed Me – U2, Mothers of the Disappeared

From the 1987 Album , The Joshua Tree, easily their best album in my opinion, the final track, Mothers of the Disappeared, has to be one of the saddest songs ever written. Argue with me if you like. I’ll just nod and say “yeah, probably” but I really won’t care.

Songs That Grabbed Me

We all love lots of types of music. We all have our individual favourites, too. The odd song  that resonates with us, rings a bell, strikes a chord. They stay with us forever, long after they drop out of the charts and our friends stop talking about them. These songs could be recent, they could be from our childhood or teen years when we first “discovered” music. Or they could be from our parents’ era. They all have something in common. They all mean something to us for whatever reason.