ThaBombShelter

I am fully confident that any true music lover has at least a few guilty pleasures hiding somewhere in their iTunes library. If you've seen the new Ford commercial for the Sync ("Play artist, Michael Bolton...") you know what I'm talking about. I have some pretty big doozies in my collection, to be quite honest, and I wanted to take the next few days airing my dirty laundry, if you will. I wanna share some of my most guilty of guilty pleasures with all of you, maybe in so doing I might be able to purge the demons and finally embrace these notorious tunes for the gems that I think they all are.

Some of my guilty pleasures are heavily steeped in nostalgia. This first one is probably my oldest guilty pleasure. You see, when I was a wee tyke, I went through what I like to call my "Country Phase" (followed later by my Metallica phase, my napster phase, my CD101 phase, and my current ThaBombShelter phase). I think I was probably in fifth grade, so, 1992? Maybe earlier, I'm not sure. Anyway, I loved Garth Brooks and Brooks and Dunn and my sister was a huge fan of Alan Jackson and Shania Twain. We totally had Alan Jackson's, "A Lot About Livin' (and a Little 'Bout Love)" on tape. I remember when my sister would play it on her pink stereo (it was totally pink with aquamarine buttons, hot!) before bed. There was even a Halloween, probably that same year, when we both tried to convince my dad to buy us cowboy boots and hats so we could be country singers. I even went so far as to make a headset mic out of aluminum foil so that I could go as Garth Brooks.

As I was listening today at work, I was reminded of how good some of his songs actually are. I guess there was good reason why I was drawn to him at a young age. Tonight, though, when I was just browsing through some images with "That Summer" piping through my headphones I was honestly struck by a huge wave of embarrassment. Do I really still like this crap? It's so dated and sappy. God, how that slide guitar comes in? Are they fucking serious? But then the track switches to "Standing Outside The Fire" and I'm reminded of this guy's talent as an adult pop star. Whether he wrote it or someone else did, it's his charisma and talent that elevate this song to batshit crazy platinum status (that's not even to mention the incredible, "Thunder Rolls"). The song is catchy as all get out, anthemic, and has a great breakdown (even with the twinkling whatsit). I mean, this song is full of Paul Simon level pop shit, not the kind of "Redneck Woman" or "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" hillbilly rhetoric that seems to be all the rage in contemporary country music right now. It was actually that kind of association with the plebes that, looking back, was what turned me off of country eventually, specifically, "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus. I think I was in 6th grade at that point, but it was one of the first times I remember ridiculing a song.

I don't really remember what I started listening to next, I think it might have been the Lion King Soundtrack, but I'm not too sure, music was nowhere near as important to me then as it is now, clearly. But regardless of what I listened to next, or what I listen to now, I have always had a soft spot for Garth Brooks. I remember seeing a TV special at some point after my country phase was long gone, (1998 or so, from what Wikipedia tells me), it was Garth Brooks Live in Dublin, and I sat and watched it, transfixed by his showmanship and the sheer production of his concert as a whole. I remember the sets and the confetti cannons (almost equaled by They Might Be Giants, but not quite) and I remember wanting to be there. To this day, in 2008, fully sixteen years after my flirtation with Country Music, I would still gladly pay money to see Garth Brooks in concert. I guess that's what makes this a true guilty pleasure. Even if I can see the shittiness of most of the tunes, there's still that part of me that will never pass up the chance to see him live.

"Standing Outside The Fire" Garth Brooks

Official Wikipedia Buy

Sync Commercial (a little guilty pleasure)