There is a genre of punk rock that I like to think of as “fun.” The best example of this was Ramones. But even more fun are The Dead Milkmen. I’ve never been exactly a fan of the band. But I always enjoy listening to them. And let’s face it: we really can’t get enough of that kind of music. Music doesn’t need to be profound or challenging. Sometimes (Most times?) it just needs to be entertaining.

And let’s not forget that punk was fundamentally a reaction against the polished substancelessness of the popular music of that time — most especially disco. The funny thing is that the best disco music was itself fun. I still think “Disco Inferno” is one of the funnest and funniest songs ever recorded — especially when you consider that the phrase “burn baby burn” is a reference to something as serious as the Watts Riots.

Here is a joyous song and The Dead Milkmen’s most famous, “Punk Rock Girl.” The lyrics are very funny. The Beach Boys sing “California Dreaming.” They want to name their daughter Minnie Pearl. And when the record store doesn’t have Mojo Nixon, they think it needs some fixin’. Brilliant stuff.

In an episode of Arrested Development, Michael is angry at his son spending time with his girlfriend, and Maeby is angry at her parents because they are the way they are, so the two of them team up and trying to make the others jealous by paying attention to each other at the company Christmas party. They end up singing a Karaoke version of the Starland Vocal Band’s song “Afternoon Delight.”

If you are my age, you probably know that the song is rather sexy. I remember hearing the song when I was 11 years old and knowing right away that “afternoon delight” was a euphemism for “sex during the day.” But it does have an easy listening feel to it that makes one think more of “Country Roads” than “Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus.” I suspect that is why the song was such a big hit. It reached number 1 in the United States and was the 12th biggest song for the year.

Sky rockets in flight.

In Will’s recent core dump of music recommendations came The Stone Poneys doing “Different Drum.” It’s a curious song. Musically, it is hard to make work, but The Stone Poneys do so. And Linda Ronstadt’s voice is, as always, beautiful. She would later do the song as a solo act.

The song was written by Michael Nesmith of The Monkeys fame. In fact, the song was apparently first performed on their television show. When I was a kid, I didn’t much like the show. But it might have been very good. Does anyone remember it fondly?

Regardless, here it is:

In 1965, Lee Hazlewood was producing the debut album of Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of one of my favorite singers (despite myself). And he thought she would be perfect to record his song “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” He reportedly told her to sing it like she was a teenager who had sex with truck drivers. But not in those words.

I know that the song is supposed to come off as dangerous. And maybe in 1966 it did. But all my life, the song has seemed sweet — like the singer is bluffing. It does sound like a teenager is singing it. I find far more true female strength in “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” or pretty much any Édith Piaf song.

But there is no doubt that “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” has broad appeal. My parents loved the song and owned the album. My older sister loves the song. And so do I. Although it is probably the case that we all get different things from it.

Will sent me a long list of songs that I should do for the Morning Music posts. They are not particular favorites of his, just some random things that came to mind — totally in keeping with the idea of Morning Music. I thought I would present the one song that most spoke to me: “Everywhere that I’m Not” by Translator off their first album, Heartbeats and Triggers.

Will and I have a long history with this amazingly great band. They were a San Francisco band and we used to see them at little venues like the Cotati Cabaret. They were great live; they were great on vinyl; they were just great. It’s just a four piece outfit with Steve Barton and Robert Darlington on guitars, vocals, and songwriting.

Many people think that “Everywhere That I’m Not” is about the death of John Lennon. It is not. It is about a guy who thinks he sees his girlfriend everywhere. But he knows it can’t be her, because in his mind she is off everywhere else having a great time. Without him. It could be a really depressing song, but instead, it is quirky good fun.

“You’re in New York, but I’m not. You’re in Tokyo but I’m not. You’re in Nova Scotia, but I’m not. Yeah, you’re everywhere that I’m not.”

As everyone who reads this site should know, I’m not up on pop culture. So when my sister mentioned the George Ezra song “Budapest,” I had never heard of it, even though it has over 38 million views on YouTube. Ezra is really not bad, which is helpful to me since I mostly assume only total crap can be popular. (This is because I am an old man and thinking that society is in decay is a contractual obligation.)

Ezra wrote the song “Blame It on Me” with Joel Pott. It’s a very compelling tune. The lyrics are evocative, but not detailed enough to extract much in the way of meaning. But it’s a pleasant song.

We haven’t been to France in a while, so how about a little Jacques Brel? (France, Belgium, whatever!) He is really one of the favorite singers — which probably explains why I have written about him so much around here. And today, we listen to “Mathilde.” It is possibly my favorite of his songs. Musically, it has these gorgeous long melodic lines. But more than that, the lyrics have a special meaning to me.

It tells the story of a lover’s return. Mathilde has broken the singer’s heart in the past. And now that she is coming back, he is filled with dread. He talks about how he is going back to hell and entering combat and so on. Yet he cannot stop himself. The whole song is a beautiful marriage of fear and excitement. I don’t think there has ever been a more honest love song.

Mathilde est revenue!

In my never ending efforts to not be boring, I came upon the Russian rock band Chizh & Co. And I know nothing about them other than that they formed in 1993. But their music is really good. It’s got a classic rock sound to it, but there is a lot of jazz in there as well. I guess it is what we would call fusion.

The following song is “Crossroads” (or “Перекресток” if you prefer). Like a lot of the music of theirs, it is Latin inspired. (Alert Vermont!) It’s the kind of music that makes me feel good: sufficiently complex to engage me, professionally rendered, and with more content than style. Check it out; it’s really great:

The Zombies are a good band. And I apparently mean that literally, because the band is still together. And unlike a lot of bands from that time, there is a good reason for it. They can really play. Other than producing catchy pop tunes, I’ve always been really impressed with the keyboard player Rod Argent. And only today I learned that he is also one of their main songwriters — writing all three of their big American hits.

One of those songs is “She’s Not There.” I actually find the lyrics kind of whiny. “How many people cried”? But what do you want? It’s a pop song. But the music is really good. I love the minor key. Here is the band back in 2007. It is mostly Argent and the lead singer Colin Blunstone. That might be Chris White on bass — I’m not sure. Paul Atkinson (guitar) died back in 2004. Hugh Grundy (drums) was around for the 50th anniversary show in 2011, but he’s not here.

Given that it is Cesar Chavez’s birthday, I thought it might be a good time to do a little union music. And I think I’ve found the perfect song: Tom Morello’s “Union Song” off his album, One Man Revolution. It even refers to Chavez (and songwriter Joe Hill, writer of “There Is Power In A Union“).

This performance is in the Los Angeles Chinatown at a protest against Walmart that labor unions put together. Of course, the Walmart opened anyway. It’s important to remember that the United States is not a democracy. Being on the side of workers in the US is being a supporter of the ultimate under dogs. But the struggle continues. ¿Si nos quedemos, juntos vamos a ganar? ¡Si!

One of my favorite albums ever is Gang of Four’s first album, Entertainment! It holds up as well today as it ever did. Musically, it is hard to beat the driving rhythms of that tight-knit trio. You don’t need anything more than guitar, bass, and drums. And as I’ve discussed, the synthesizer destroyed a lot of music from that period, so in a sense, Gang of Four was lucky.

The other side of Gang of Four was the explicitly Marxist lyrics of Jon King. But more than that, there is an explicit rejection of common pop music tropes, such as the long song. But the main thing about the band was that they really didn’t sound like anything I had ever heard. Since then, of course, there is Red Hot Chili Peppers, which has always sounded to me like a pretty direct ripoff of the band. (Not that they aren’t great.)

Gang of Four is still performing. Kind of. There is only one remaining member — the amazing guitarist, Andy Gill. The music is good (I just listened to their/his latest album). But it isn’t like the old stuff. For one thing, it isn’t political like it used to be. I think if Jon King isn’t in the band, you really can’t call it Gang of Four.

Here is the band at the time performing “To Hell With Poverty” off that first album:

I’ve been on an Aardman Animations jag. Mostly, this has meant a lot of Wallace and Gromit and a little Chicken Run. But as nice as the music is in those wonderful films, they don’t compare to the amazingly catchy theme song to Shaun the Sheep. And it is that song that has been stuck in my head for two days, driving me even more crazy than usual.

There have been 130 episodes of the show — most about seven minutes long. But what I just learned is that Aardman created a feature length film, Shaun the Sheep Movie. But other than being shown at Sundance, it doesn’t seem to have been released in the United States. But I’m sure I’ll wait for the DVD anyway.

The theme song is “Life’s a Treat.” It was written by Mark Thomas and performed by comedian Vic Reeves. All you hear on the show is a the chorus, of course. Here’s the whole thing: