Flower

I first heard of Phair in 1993 in the Mazda Miata with Mom during the afternoon rush hour commute between Emory University and Newnan when Phair's debut Exile in Guyville album was reviewed on NPR.

Thanks to the Internet, I can tell you that day must have been Tuesday, July 20,¹ when Ken Tucker reviewed Exile in Guyville, released in June 1993, for Terry Gross's Fresh Air. That was the summer before my freshman year at Emory, so what was I doing in the car? Was I working part-time in the Pediatric Infectious Diseases office with Mom before my work-study position started in August, or was I just killing time driving the convertible around downtown Atlanta while Mom was working? Could have been either.)

The Internet also makes it possible for me to transcribe Tucker's praise for this song in particular:

There's a thin quality to Exile in Guyville. It ends up making you think that Liz Phair is something of a dabbler, that If this rock thing doesn't work out, she'll take up painting or maybe just use her trust fund to live in Paris for a while. But there's a core of about four or five songs here that are really first rate, and one in particular, called "Flower," that I can't play on the radio but which is as fine and bold a song as I've heard about sexual obsession.

Obviously, I had to have any album with that kind of recommendation. I probably bought the cassette at the Tower Records behind Lennox Mall, and I recall playing it quite a bit during the long commutes between Atlanta and Newnan. Listening to Phair always made me feel rebellious and cool, as good rock music should. "I'll take you home and make you like it," indeed.

Thanks, Internet!

¹ The Internet tells me July 20, 1993², was the same day that the press box caught on fire at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, which 90s Atlanta Braves fans will recall as the day that Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff made his debut for the team, in his third at-bat hitting a home run to drive in Ron Gant to tie the game at 5-5 in the 6th inning. The fire didn't start until 6, so I think we found out about the fire after we got home. The fire delayed the game start until after 9; I might have watched it, but I don't have any memory of that.

² You know what else happened on July 20, 1993? Some guy named Vince Foster committed suicide. And no one ever uttered his name again.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dear diary family internet liz fair mom music one word wonders youtube

Since I've already made such a big deal about how "Spider-Man" is one word...

Spiderman

You might notice there's no hyphen in that title. That's how they spelled it when the song was included in the 2005 box set Weird Tales of the Ramones, which for all I know is how it was spelled in 1995 when it was released as an unlisted bonus track on the Ramones final studio album, ¡Adios Amigos! CD, which I bought just for that secret track. A slightly different version of the song, also by the Ramones but spelled with the Marvel Comics approved hyphen, is on Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, also from 1995, which I have never owned because most of its covers of classic cartoon themes are not improvements over the originals. Not every band can be the Ramones.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: music one word wonders ramones spider-man youtube

Recent circumstances conspired to take away my TCM but grant me a month of Netflix access. So, at the recommendation of Friend Ken, I started at the top:

104/2536. KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
If you wondered why Google reported that 6 of the top 10 Halloween costumes for 2025 were characters from this movie, the answer is simple: it's good. Very good. So good, in fact, I cannot believe that Sony and Netflix didn't negotiate a more traditional box office release. The creators learned all the right lessons from George Lucas's usual box of tricks, taking inspiration from a bunch of long pre-existing concepts and designs, blending them into a story of good versus evil in a lived-in world, and pouring the results into a time-tested, character-first dramatic format that is comfortable and rewarding to viewers. For extra Star Wars vibes: like Fox in '77, Netflix seemed totally unprepared for the flood of demands for kids' merchandise. History may not repeat itself, but it sure as hell stutters.

As amazing as John Williams is, what Star Wars does not have is pop songs. It's no accident that the Kpop soundtrack has had a very catchy (and plot advancing) song from the fictional Huntr/x at the top of the Billboard global charts for 15 weeks and counting. A song, I'll point out, that has a one-word title:

Golden

Kudos to all involved; I hope you like printing money. (Count me in for a Derpy Tiger Funko Pop! figure, if ya'll can ever actually get them to market.)

More to come.

Comments (2) | Leave a Comment | Tags: friends ken kpop demon hunters movies music one word wonders

Super Heroes

Sure, technically the song title on the musical and movie soundtrack are two words, but Rocky Horror is British. Here in America, home of Superman and Spider-Man, we spell it as one word (sometimes, at Spider-Man's insistence, with a hyphen). So I'm counting the song as a one-word wonder.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: movies music one word wonders youtube

One

Also: The number of wins the Miami Dolphins have earned in the 2025 season so far.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dolphins football music one word wonders three dog night youtube

My mouse has started to report random double clicks, and my keyboard has begun occasionally ignoring me when I press the letter "e". Traitors!

So while I work on finding replacement parts, I'll keep today's post short and just give you something I was saving for a later post: the gift of pornography. Ear pornography.

Centerfold

Na-na na-na-na-na, na-na-na na-na-na-na.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: computer j geils band music one word wonders sex

Sure, "Yesterday" is good, but...

Help!

I literally never say this, but I encourage you to follow that YouTube link and read the comments. The people love their Ringo.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: beatles music one word wonders youtube

Kryptonite

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: kryptonite music one word wonders superman youtube

In honor or our recent house guests, who were lucky enough to see Led Zeppelin perform live in concert as the opening act for Iron Butterfly at Fillmore East, New York in '69 where by all accounts Zeppelin badly upstaged their headliner, may I present my personal favorite Zeppelin track* from a much later album:

Kashmir

Rock on, Richard.

*Disclaimer: my estranged brother was always the family Led Head. But he's not here and I am, so we'll all just have to listen to what I like.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: caminade friends led zeppelin music one word wonders youtube

You might think that I'd select U2's hit "One" to be among my one word wonders, but that's not my favorite one-word titled U2 song. This is:

Lemon

(Full disclaimer: I'm not particularly a fan of U2. I blame that fact mostly on The Joshua Tree, which just could not be escaped in the late '80s. I'm wired in such a way that if something is really, really popular, I knee-jerk hate it. Sometimes I can eventually overcome that impulse, but with U2, especially after the string of uninterrupted market dominance running The Joshua Tree - Rattle and Hum - Achtung Baby - Zooropa - Pop, not so much. Even today, Bono still irritates me. I think the reason that "Lemon" is my personal favorite of their songs is mostly because of the word itself in the sense of "something that is unsatisfactory or defective." My jam is irony.)

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dear diary music one word wonders u2 walter youtube