Money!

OK, so I had so much fun with the “Food” and “Drank” posts that I decided to do one more song-theme post. This time, picking a theme relied on a bit of serendipity. I was thinking to myself, “What’s a reasonably common musical theme other than the obvious ones like love and sex?” when Biggie came down from (secular) heaven (see the above video for the reference) and played that song on Pandora. I kind of wish he hadn’t led with a song that featured Diddy rapping, but when you’re putting yourself in the hands of fate, you can’t be too picky.

As soon as I realized that money was the perfect choice, the next song popped into my head. It is the obvious choice for someone who still thinks of his Pink Floyd concert experience as a religious experience:

And for something completely different:

A confession: A friend of mine had two albums in his car for at most, if not all of our junior and senior years: Doggystyle and Pet Shop Boys’ Very. I would bet a lot of this post’s theme that I’ve listened to more Pet Shop Boys than any of you. I’m not sure what that says about me.

Anyway, trying to keep you as off kilter as possible, how ’bout this one:

Or how ’bout:

Or the amazing riff in:

Or from one of the greatest hip hop albums ever:

Then:

Or the original:

This is Wu-Tang, the greatest hip hop collective of all time, but never even remotely safe for work, though this appears to be a radio edit:

It’s about here that I started to struggle a bit, and looked around the web, which is what makes this theme-theme so fun. I found so many songs that I’d forgotten about, many of which I hadn’t heard in years, even decades. Such as:

R., who is a huge Cyndi Lauper fan, would not forgive me for leaving that out.

Even if I cant understand half of what he’s saying. And then the one Diddy song I actually like (from when he was Puff Daddy). There’s an n-word or two, along with some other salty language (oh, Kim) and sexism (ugh, Biggie):

(Lil Kim is pure awesome.)

Another obvious choice would be “Take the Money and Run,” but I like to think of this as a Steve Miller-free zone.

I remember my Dad singing this one when I was a kid:

And like 4th of July fireworks, the grand finale:

Dolla dolla bill ya’ll!

(Townes is a god.)

So what you got?