I got busy at work yesterday and forgot to post my song that I wanted to post, so I'm posting it a day late. The song is Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident) by John Michael Montgomery.

Picking this song for a couple of reasons. First, because I love everything John Michael has ever done. I was a huge fan of his back when he was popular. But second, because of just how funny the song is, both beat wise and lyrics. It's just one of those upbeat, funny, catchy songs that I love to listen to. It's kind of fast-paced, especially for a country song from back in the 1990's and I remember the first time I heard it, I knew I wanted to memorize the lyrics which took a while.

[Verse 1]
Well, I went down to the Grundy County Auction
Where I saw something I just had to have
My mind told me I should proceed with caution
But my heart said go ahead and make a bid on that

[Chorus]
And I said, "Hey, pretty lady, won't you gimme a sign?"
I'd give anything to make you mine all mine
I'll do your bidding and be at your beck and call
Yeah, I've never seen anyone looking so fine
Man, I gotta have her, she's a one of a kind
I'm going once, going twice
And I'm sold on the lady in the second row
She's an eight, she's a nine, she's a ten, I know
She's got ruby red lips, blond hair, blue eyes
And I'm about to bid my heart goodbye

#CrucialTracks #Music #CountryMusic #OlderCountry #JohnMichaelMontgomery #Sold

Today's song is a simple one and one without too much of a story behind it. Cry Tough by Poison is a song from their very first album, Look What The Cat Dragged In, that has stuck with me for years. Oddly, it wasn't until a few years after the albums release on August 2nd, 1986 that this song grabbed me. It's just one of those songs that it's all about the beat that I liked for the longest time, but then later in life it's about the lyrics as well.

Poison made a video for the song, but for a lot of years, it only aired on MTV one time and that was during a special edition of Headbanger's Ball. Eventually MTV started playing it more for whatever reason and that was when I really began to enjoy the song and relate to it. Today, it's a song I listen to quite often.

[Verse 1]
Remember the nights we sat
And talked about all our dreams
Well little did we know then
They were more distant than they seemed
But well, well I knew it
You knew it too
The things we'd go through
Well, we knew the things we had to do
To make it, baby

[Chorus]
You gotta cry tough
Out on the streets
To make your dreams happen
You gotta cry out
Out to the world
To make them all come true

#CrucialTracks #Music #Poison #CryTough #HairBands #HairMetal #80sMusic

For today's song, I'm going to tell a story I hope you all read and enjoy. Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice is the song I'm choosing, for a couple of reasons. First, because I actually really liked and still like Vanilla Ice in so many ways. I was obsessed with his music when this song and album came out even though so many didn't. Yet so many did, because it was a hugely popular song and still well known today.

The second reason I'm choosing this song is because of my dad. Yes, my dad! In 1991 when Vanilla Ice was coming to the West Palm Beach auditorium in West Palm Beach, FL, I decided I was going to the concert. The original plan was to go by myself. When I told my dad early one morning I was heading to go get in line for tickets, he said, "grab me one too and I'll go with you." I was caught off guard and thought it was a joke. Long story short, it wasn't a joke and my dad went with me to see Vanilla Ice at the age of 47 years old, I was 20.

Fast forward to the night of the concert. It's a night I will ALWAYS remember, and I do mean ALWAYS! My dad, again, 47 years old, standing on the seat dancing to the music and so much more. Vanilla Ice threw a white towel out into the audience right at us basically. In the row in front of us were two teenage girls, and the towel basically hit them in the top of the head. My dad reached out as well and it was he and one of the girls fighting over a sweaty towel from Vanilla Ice. My dad wasn't giving up and about the only time I saw my dad not show as much respect to someone as he normally did, yanked the towel from her. It was his for the keeping. She wasn't mad at all and even high-fived my dad for getting it. Again, something I will NEVER forget and something that brings a smile to my face every time I hear this song.

[Intro]
Yo VIP, let's kick it

[Chorus]
Ice, ice, baby
Ice, ice, baby

[Verse 1]
Alright stop, collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
"Will it ever stop?" Yo, I don't know
Turn off the lights, and I'll glow
To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance, go rush the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it, you better gangway
You better hit bullseye, the kid don't play
If there was a problem, yo, I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

[Chorus]
Ice, ice, baby
Vanilla Ice, ice, baby
Vanilla Ice, ice, baby
Vanilla Ice, ice, baby

#CrucialTracks #Music #VanillaIce #IceIceBaby #StoryTime #Story #MusicStory

Growing up and spending 30+ years of my life in Houston, Texas, I listened to a lot of country music as you can imagine. With that time being back in the 1970's - 1990's, the king of country music, George Strait was a staple on the radio at all times. That brings me to today's song by George called Amarillo By Morning.

This song is just another one of those songs that stuck with me from the moment I first heard it and has all of my life. While not my favorite George Strait song, it's likely my second favorite song by him and one I enjoy listening to. It brings back the roots of country and western, going to the rodeo, living on the ranch and various other similar things from back in those good ole days.

[Verse 1]
Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone
Everything that I got is just what I've got on
When that sun is high in that Texas sky
I'll be buckin' at the county fair
Amarillo by morning
Amarillo, I'll be there

[Verse 2]
They took my saddle in Houston, broke my leg in Santa Fe
Lost my wife and a girlfriend, somewhere along the way
Well, I'll be lookin' for eight when they pull that gate
And I hope that judge ain't blind
Amarillo by morning
Amarillo's on my mind

#CrucialTracks #Music #GeorgeStrait #CountryMusic #CountryAndWestern #Houston #Texas #TX

We're just going to make this a simple one for today's song. Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue is just one of my all time favorite songs easily my favorite song by Motley Crue themselves.

It's catchy, and just an overall great song showcasing their talent from the 1980's when it was all about the hair and the metal. It's a song I love to listen to and hear and never get tired of.

[Verse]
You know I'm a dreamer
But my heart's of gold
I had to run away high
So I wouldn't come home low
Just when things went right
It doesn't mean they were always wrong
Just take this song and you'll never feel
Left all alone
Take me to your heart
Feel me in your bones
Just one more night
And I'm coming off this
Long and winding road

[Chorus]
I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home
Tonight, tonight
I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home

#CrucialTracks #Music #HomeSweetHome #MotleyCrue #HairBands #HairMetal #80s #80sMusic

For today's song, we're going back to the early 2000's with Faint by Linkin Park and of course the original singer, Chester Bennington. Faint is hands down my favorite Linkin Park song of all time and has been since the first time I heard it. Something about the beat, the rhythm and the lyrics just grabbed hold of me and have stuck with me ever since. It's a song I listen to very often, and even more so since we lost Chester Bennington several years back.

While I like most every song Linkin Park has ever put out, to me, Faint is just the best of the best and something I love to hear. It gets me motivated and can really make my day!

[Verse 1: Mike Shinoda]
I am a little bit of loneliness
A little bit of disregard
Handful of complaints, but I can't help the fact
That everyone can see these scars
I am what I want you to want
What I want you to feel
But it's like no matter what I do, I can't convince you
To just believe this is real

[Pre-Chorus: Mike Shinoda]
So I let go, watchin' you
Turn your back like you always do
Face away and pretend that I'm not
But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I've got

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
I can't feel the way I did before
Don't turn your back on me, I won't be ignored
Time won't heal this damage anymore
Don't turn your back on me, I won't be ignored

#CrucialTracks #Music #LinkinPark #LP #Faint #Meteora #ChesterBennington #ChesterBe

Today's song is going to be Caramel by Sleep Token. While I know I did a Sleep Token song yesterday and it also happened to be from the new album released yesterday, it's just what I've been listening to and really enjoying right now.

Caramel is my second favorite song from the new album Even In Arcadia. It's a catchy to me song that I really enjoy listening to. It's classic Sleep Token, yet it's different Sleep Token all at the same time.

If you're not already a fan of their music, I feel this is a good song to really get acquainted to them with and something that is very enjoyable.

Count me out like sovereigns, payback for the good times
Right foot in the roses, left foot on a landmine
I'm not gonna be there tripping on the grapevine
They can sing the words while I cry into the bassline
Wear me out like Prada, devil in my detail
I swear it's getting harder even just to exhale
Backed up into corners, bitter in the lens
I'm sick of tryna hide it every time thеy take mine

So stick to me
Stick to mе like caramel
Walk beside me till you feel nothin' as well

#CrucialTracks #Music #SleepToken #Caramel #NewAlbum #NewSong #NewMusic

Since today is the release of Even In Arcadia by Sleep Token, today's song is Gethsemane which is a song from that new album. I'm picking this one as it's easily my favorite song from the album. What really gets me about this song is the one and only verse that it has. It's just something that gripped me from the moment I heard it. As @jcrabapple@dmv.community stated yesterday, and I quote, "The jangly, prog-emo guitar part before the first verse is something they've never done before. That verse (there's only one verse) is a bop.

No doubt about it, I'll be listening to this entire album often, but this song will be on repeat today during work!

I'm caught up on the person I tried to turn myself into for you
Someone who didn't mind the push-pull parlour games
Someone who wasn't always cryin' on the journey back
Someone who didn't feel the low blows either way
Thought I was waitin' for you, when all along
It was you with the countdown kill switch
And it was me with the blindfold on

#CrucialTracks #Music #SleepToken #Gethsemane #NewAlbum #NewSong #NewMusic

Today's song is a song that I just really like and always have, Chains of Love by Erasure. Erasure is one of my all time favorite groups from back in the 1980's that wasn't considered hair metal. Chains of Love is just one of those songs that stuck with me when I first heard it and has just always been my favorite, though there's not much by Erasure that I don't like or enjoy.

Do you remember
There was a time, ah-ha-ha
When people on the street
Were walking hand in hand in hand?
They used to talk about the weather
Making plans together
Days would last forever

Come to me, cover me, hold me
Together, we'll break these chains of love
Don't give up (Don't give up)
Don't give up (Don't)
Together with me and my baby
Break the chains of love

Today's song is Love Story by Taylor Swift. This is the song that got me listening to Taylor and becoming a fan. Prior to this song, while there were only one or two songs she had released, I wasn't a fan at all. Once I heard this song and even saw the video, I really started appreciating her music and her talent not only as a musician but as a person.

Today, Taylor Swift is always my most played artist on any sites that offer you a look back at your stats for the month or the year. It's been like that for years and will likely continue to be like that going forward.

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air
See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say, "Hello"
Little did I know

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you, "Please don't go," and I said

Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"