AAR After Hours

This is a song that has accompanying me for the last 25 years or so. I loved it when it came out and taped it with my cassette recorder (remember those?) Later I bought the record. At one point I saw The Breakfast Club. Much, much later I took care the song was played at my wedding party.

With this song, I don’t much regard the lyrics (unusual for me) but concentrate on the determined, upbeat music. This is a song I hum when I am about to engage on something challenging, something I face with power and determination.

Are there songs that have accompanied you for a long time?

- Rike Horstmann

Sometimes, when there’s a certain voice on the radio, those around you get all misty-eyed, or begin to tap their feet, but the one reaction that same voice triggers in you is either leave the room, or switch off the radio.

For me, Björk is such a singer. I don’t mind her as an artist or public personality, I just can’t stand her singing. My only thought, whenever my husband listens to the one Björk CD that he owns (thankfully, no more than that) is:  Can someone please stop this caterwauling NOW?

Are there singers whose voices/performance you dislike so intensely that you find it painful to listen to them?

- Rike Horstmann

I am sad to hear that R.E.M. have dissolved. I like their music a lot, and think it’s a great pity there won’t by any more by the band in this constellation.

The first earworm they gave what Losing My Religion – no wonder, after all it was their big breakthrough hit. It took me ages to identify, however. I heard snatches of it on the radio again and again, but each time missed the announcement of title and artist(s). One day it was played while I was in a boutique. I went up to the salesperson and asked if she know this song. Fortunately she did, and so I was finally able to buy the CD, the first of several by this band.

What is is your favorite R.E.M. CD or song?

- Rike Horstmann

Kurt Weill is probably my favorite composer ever. And while I like tons of his songs, today’s earworm is Youkali. It’s in French, so I can’t even tell what it’s about. I just think the music magical.

- Rike Horstmann

… is my earworm of the day. I am feeling a certain restlessness at the moment, and the song captures this emotion just perfectly. In addition, I love the old A-ha songs. (They remind me of my youth!)

- Rike Horstmann

… is my earworm of the day. I recently discovered that Jim Steinman is the composer not only of several great Meat Loaf songs, but also of Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero and Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, both of which I like immensely. (more…)

Alas, I’m not there! But my niece was there for a school trip the week before last, and it’s spring now, so I have been humming this song on and off. So hurray for early tulips and warm air and sunshine and for planning the next holiday!

- Rike Horstmann