If you had not noticed, I had a My Music Monday theme this month: songs titles with first names.
There are a lot of them out there - or at least in my music liberry. Though there are not a lot of songs with guy's names out there - or at least that I have.
Obvi, there are a lot of guys singing songs about chicks. But oddly enough, I have a lot of girl-on-girl action going on too. Blondie sings about "Shayla" or "Maria". Stevie Nicks sings about "Sara". Sarah McLachlan or Patty Griffin about "Mary". Mindy Smith about "Jolene".
Now and again there are songs sung by women for men: "Jackie" by Sinéad O'Connor and two weeks ago with the Bangles and "James". "Frederick" from Patti Smith too.
And to flip the table, you almost never see a guy singing a song titled after a guy's name. That would be.....well.......gay. I guess like Joe Jackson says, it's different for girls.
I think I've been through my entire music liberry twice to find another female singing a song titled with a man's name. I've already done two of the ones listed over the years, and I think I'll skip Sinéad for the time being.
That leaves me with some girl-on-girl action, which for the most part isn't really gay. Though this song seems to have a lesbian element to it: woman befriending newbie at art school.
Scandalous.
The song is called "Valerie". Oddly enough, I have three songs with that name - in various spelling variations: the Monkees, Steve Winwood and yes........Quarterflash (oh yes, they still have a website!).
Sue me: I liked a handful of songs by the sextet, even if a normally screeching alto sax would pierce my eardrums. Alto sax was to 80's music as that fucking penny whistle was to a lot of 90's songs. Dreadful.
But I liked that a woman (Rindy Ross) actually played the sax for the band. Right or wrong, that is usually a guy thing. I'm all about breaking down the walls of musical instrumentation.
Besides their three hits ("Harden My Heart","Find Another Fool" and "Take Me to Heart") they had a few enjoyable songs - one being "Valerie".
And yes, the song talks about getting involved a female student (or instructor?) at art school. And yes, the song is sung by a Rindy Ross, but it was written by her husband - so maybe it's his perspective / experience and she just sings about it?
I don't know - nor I'm getting more invested in this than I already seem to be. Just listen to it already....or not.
Quarterflash - "Valerie"
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