FriendBurst Blog

In the iconic 80’s movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the coolest of the cool, Mike Ramone said these words about moments when you want to feel good: “whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.”

Mike was so right.  That selection of five songs defined being uplifted via music, via the scratchy goodness of your LP, 8 track or cassette.

Nowadays, our iconic music is not hindered by the sequential bounds of linear recording. The concept of “5 sings in a row” has been individualized.  We  create playlists; we shuffle or have iTunes deejay for us.  Gone are the days when recording artists considered not just the impact of individual songs, but the story that was told through the particular sequence of tracks on an almbum.

I was talking to a friend today about the story created by Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Yeah.  The songs by themselves were great; taken in order, it was a work of art.

The freedom of digital recording means that we won’t ever hear stories told like that ever again… At least not with the reach and universality that was available before.

Used to be that you always count on tracks 1, 4 & 5 being the BEST singles on an album… and that’s my perspective speaking from the age of CD’s.  If I had been born half a generation earlier, considerations of when you would ask the listener to remove the record, flip it over, and listen to the other side would come into play.

Never again will a Mike Ramone be able to point to a beautiful series of tunes derived from the restrictions of now obsolete analog recording mediums.  Perhaps we have lost something there.

For me, I have created my own personal Side One of Led Zeppelin IV, which I share with you here.

Whenever I simply want to feel better, whenever I know I will get a guaranteed emotionally humorous reaction that makes me laugh so hard that tears come to my eyes, that gets at my very soul of what I find entertaining, funny, musically driving and YouTubilicious, I play these five songs by Parry Gripp.

This is my Side One of Led Zeppelin IV, for the 21st Century. I don’t know if these are in the order they were released, but they feel that way to me.

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom

Track # 2:  Young Girl Talking About Herself

Track #3:  Cat Flushing the Toilet

Track #4:  Spaghetti Cat, I Weep For You…

Track#5:  Hit Me in the Face with a Soccer Ball

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately about how we are all doomed. That America as we know it is no more. These videos may, in fact be evidence of that, if we are to compare it to say, Side one of Led Zeppelin IV (okay, I know they were from the UK), but if that is the case, if were are in fact in the midst of the decline of western civilization, at least we can go down with a smile on our face.