Five Great Songs from the Say Anything... Soundtrack (that aren't "In Your Eyes" or "Joe Lies")

My sister once declared that Say Anything..., which turns 25 today, was a definitive chick flick that guys will watch (she phrased it more eruditely than that, but you get the idea). She's right--maybe it's Cameron Crowe's screenplay, or the way it captures the aches of the male crush, or its creation of a world where a guy who spends his Saturday nights at a Gas 'n' Sip could date a girl that looked like Ione Skye. There's something about Say Anything... that gets through to the lunkheaded heterosexual male, more than perhaps any other film in Netflix's Rom Com section.

As with every Crowe film, us music nerds get the bonus of a killer soundtrack, doused with everything from Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" to Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden two years before the grunge boom (which Crowe went on to capture in his next movie, Singles). Of course Say Anything... is best known for the Peter Gabriel song in its most famous scene, and Lili Taylor's odes to her callous ex are probably a distant second, but its soundtrack has a trove of less-famous gems worth celebrating today.

1. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"

It's a classic today, though there was no way of knowing that in 1989, when Living Colour were a relatively new band under producer Mick Jagger's wing. They're still a ferocious live band, and Vernon Reid is universally acknowledged as one of the world's greatest guitar players, but this is deservedly their most enduring song.



2. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Taste the Pain"

Another band on the cusp of megastardom when Crowe picked them for Lloyd Dobler's tape deck, the Chili Peppers were streamlining the disjointed funk rock of their earliest albums on "Taste the Pain," showing hints of the songmanship that was about to peak on Blood Sugar Sex Magik.



3. Depeche Mode, "Stripped"

Like Crowe himself, Depeche Mode were experts at taking the artsy underdog to the mainstream, being lonely enough for Cusack types and sexy enough for the rest of the world. Arguably the male musical equivalent of "a brain trapped in the body of a game-show hostess."



4. Fishbone, "Skankin' to the Beat"

Now that ska has been raided and exhausted beyond repair, "Skankin' to the Beat" should be as dated as Fishbone's cameo in Back to the Beach. Thankfully, its got enough of a new wave touch to earn its spot in the graduation party scene, and justify the Fishbone logo on Lloyd Dobler's shirt.



5. The Replacements, "Within in Your Reach"

Crowe dug this one out from the second half of the Replacements' messiest album, where it hid next to a drunken cover of "The Twist." Performed entirely by Paul Westerberg, "Within Your Reach" is the only song in Say Anything... that sounds like something Lloyd Dobler would actually write, though I'm glad Crowe made him a kickboxing instructor instead.

Jesus Rides Beside Me

Jesus Rides Beside Me

1. Mississippi Fred McDowell, "Jesus is on the Mainline"
2. Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"
3. Depeche Mode, "Personal Jesus"
4. Soundgarden, "Jesus Christ Pose"
5. Big Star, "Jesus Christ"
6. The Vaselines, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"
7. Spaceman 3, "Walkin' with Jesus"
8. Violent Femmes, "Jesus Walking on the Water"
9. Stevie Wonder, "Jesus Children of America"
10. Suffocation, "Jesus Wept"
11. Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hotrod"
12. Homer Quincy Smith, "I Want Jesus to Talk with Me"
13. Al Green, "Jesus is Waiting"
14. Tom Waits, "Jesus Gonna Be Here"
15. Minutemen, "Jesus and Tequila"
16. Wilco, "Jesus, Etc."
17. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well"
18. ZZ Top, "Jesus Just Left Chicago"
19. Slayer, "Jesus Saves"
20. King Missile, "Jesus Was Way Cool"
21. The Velvet Underground, "Jesus"
22. Sam Cooke, "Jesus Gave Me Water"

Enough awesomeness to offset an entire month of "The Little Drummer Boy."

For Tony Scott

Helping to make both Soundgarden and Brad Pitt household names, from True Romance.

California Metal

My sister is moving to California this month, and I agreed to make her a corresponding mix CD. This was before I realized that there are a lot of songs about California. I figured that I'd work things out simply by not including any bad California songs, but I'm still struggling to cut down 40 or so great tracks into an 80-minute CD.

Some outtakes:

The Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton, "Hollywood Squares"

Two of the most idiosyncratic artists in metal bring out the best in each other, taking noise and melody to parts unknown.



Tool, "Ænima"

A 12/8 finger extended to L.A. gangbangers, scientologists and folks who don't believe in climate change. The weirdest song to ever win a Grammy.



Public Enemy, "Burn Hollywood Burn"

Metal by association. Dig Flavor Flav dropping punchlines before he became one--the Driving Miss Daisy reaction still makes me smile.



Guns N' Roses, "Move to the City"

In title alone is this appropriate for my baby sister.



Guns N' Roses, "Paradise City"

As grand a statement as ever recorded, but not the GNR song I'm picking for the mix.



Soundgarden, "Outshined"

These days, Chris is probably looking Minnesota and feeling California.



Kid Rock, "Cowboy"

I love this song. My sister, like most intellectuals, does not.

Song of the Day: Cheech and Chong, "Earache My Eye"

Nobody should buy comedy records. Yes, support your stand-ups, catch their tours and watch their specials. But how many times have you actually listened to Steve Martin's "King Tut" or Chris Rock's "No Sex in the Champagne Room?" Recreationally? The next time you put either of those on a mix CD, count how many times you laugh and how many times you skip forward to the next track.

That stated, for however thousands of Adam Sandlers, there area few Lonely Islands or Flight of the Conchords who can make a laughs record with staying power. Metal is a prime contributor to this exclusive club, most famously with Spinal Tap and more recently with Dethklok and Steel Panther. Scott Ian has at least five songs that are as funny as anything by Tenacious D. But the heaviest, catchiest comedy metal song of all time is claimed by Richard Marin and Thomas Chong.



I love "Earache My Eye." That stupidly infectious, three-chord progression is weirdly heavy, especially for 1974, when it debuted. The lyrics, credited to "Alice Bowie," detail a a cross-dressing delinquent and don't have anything to do with earaches, eyes, missing prepositions or the "plot" to Up in Smoke, where it makes its most famous appearance.



Supposedly the boys were stone cold sober while filming this, making it all the funnier that they don't even pretend to play their instruments.

Being uproarious, left-field and easy to play, "Earache My Eye" is ripe for live covers, as the Rollins Band, Rush, Soundgarden (in a medley with "Big Bottom") and Korn have testified. Against all logic and sanity, two things that this song is not known for, the best cover version is Korn's. Mainly because it features Cheech on vocals.



As comedians, Cheech and Chong proved that a good-natured, mishap-prone duo with a low budget could invent, popularize and influence a new film genre for decades. And as Alice Bowie, they rocked as hard as David and Cooper.