Thanks for joining me for Bottom Feeders, where we take a look at approximately 20 songs each week that charted no higher than #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the ‘80s. We continue with artists whose names begin with the letter M, in our trek through the ass end of the decade.
Marillion
“Kayleigh” — 1985, #74 (download)
Although I believe the album in which “Kayleigh” originates, Misplaced Childhood, is quite good, I never really got into Marillion. So let me instead direct you to their official website which not only is extremely well put together but gives you a wonderful look at the album from the makers themselves.
In a weird one, in May alone, my iPod shuffled to this song six times. So what, you say? Here’s the thing, I probably listen to my iPod on shuffle two hours every weekday — one hour at work and the 30 minute ride to and from work and I listened to the new Marilyn Manson record on that drive for a week straight. So I’m going to estimate that I’ve shuffled for 34 hours that month. I have 9,230 songs on my iPod. Given a generous 12 songs per hour that’s 408 songs played or just a little below 4.5 percent if every song was unique. And “Kayleigh” has come up a whopping six times! Meanwhile I have over 2,000 songs that haven’t ever been shuffled to once even though I’ve owned it for two years. Why this fascinates me, I don’t know, but it does.
Marshall Tucker Band
“It Takes Time” — 1980, #79 (download)
It may sound silly, but I like the Marshall Tucker Band if for no other reason than the fact that there is no one named Marshall Tucker in the band (and yes, as I edit this, this really does sound quite silly). According to their website, Marshall Tucker was actually the man that rented their home right before the band moved in. I’m about to move in the next year or so. I think I’ll leave my name around the house with hopes that the next person will be some aspiring doom metal guitarist with no name for his band. If you see a band from Pennsylvania popping up in the next few years called Electric Steed — I’m that guy!
