#calling it: “smalltown boy” is going to be the next “running up that hill”

[the-yappstronaut]

Imagine Mike Wheeler escaping Vecna to the song "Smalltown Boy." Imagine it.

Imagine Mike Wheeler, pushed against the remains of the Creel house in the Upside Down, vines wrapped around his throat, Vecna taunting him as we hear the lyrics "pushed around and kicked around, always a lonely boy."

Imagine Mike Wheeler, in Vecna's realm, running from Vecna as we hear "run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away (crying to your soul)" from the background.

Imagine Mike Wheeler, falling from the sky, collapsing into Will's arms, sobbing from fear and hurt, as we hear the lyrics "cry, boy, cry, boy, cry," flooding through his headphones.

Imagine Mike Wheeler being pulled up from the ground, guided away from the point of the attack as we hear "you leave in the morning with everything you own in a little black case, alone on a platform, the wind and rain on a sad and lonely face."

[dumbkitsune]

Of course I want Byler to be endgame, but I want it to be the right way

I want Will and Mike to remember in S5 their journey through all these years:

I want Mike to remember how terrible and scared he felt when Will was missing, when he saw "Will's" body in the lake, when he was the only one next to Will's mom to belive that his best friend was alive and I want Will to know how much love Mike had for him since then.

I want Mike to recall back at how Will gave him courage to fight back, not only the whole "You're the heart" thing. Im talking about how defending Will's memory was the reason it was the first time he standed up to bullies.

I want Will to know the binder of his drawings Mike made to keep them.

I want Will to understand how much Mike fought next to him and for him in S2, how much he worried about him, how he stayed by his side no matter what and how even though he wanted to sacrifice himself, Mike wouldnt allow that to happen.

I want them to go crazy together once again in S5.

I want Mike to come to the conclusion that the only love confession he has ever made was when Will was posessed and wanted to get the Mindflayer out of him. Will is truly the best thing that ever happened to him.

I want both Will and Mike to notice how back in S3 Mike was proyecting his insecurities onto Will.

I want Will to know how many times Mike had been trying to call him back in S4 when he was in Lenora.

I want Mike to remember how back in the van moment Will was actually confessing his love for him and how the painting represented that.

I want Mike to finally feel needed and I want Will to know that Mike will always be there for him.

I want the song "Smalltown boy" to be Mike's Vecna song

I want the song "Heroes" to have as much importance and impact as "Running up that Hill" had in S4

I want Mike to realize how he actually had romantic feelings from the very beggining but theyre not about El, but Will. I want him, for the first time, to say "I love you" to a person he actually loves.

[weaversweek]

#Uncool500 and #Top2000

Every year, many thousands of listeners to NPO Radio 2 vote for their favourite songs. The station puts together a big list, 2000 songs long, and plays them out in that quiet period between kerstmas and nieuwjaarsdag. There are a lot of listeners, and the number one is usually "Bohemian rhapsody" or "Stairway to heaven" or something like that.

I think it would be interesting to take the Uncool 500 (as voted by about ninety people on Music Twitter on the Isles Trans-Manche: the full chart is in parts 1 2 3). Take the Uncool 500 and compare it with the NPO 2000 (as voted by everyone in the Netherlands). Voting for both surveys took place during October and November.

So I've taken the 2022 top 2000, and stripped out everything dated 1976 or earlier (as those songs weren't eligible for the Uncool 500). There's still over 1500 songs left.

The number 1 amongst post-1977 songs is "Roller coaster" by Danny Vera, from 2019. It's a soaring ballad, a very strong song, and it hit right to the heart for the Dutch public. A song you've almost certainly never heard.

It’s a song they've never tried to make a hit this side of the channel. The next songs were "Hotel California" by The Eagles, "Fix you" by Coldplay, "Black" by Metallica, "Avond" by Boudewijn de Groot, and "Nothing else matters" by Metallica.

(What's with the Boudewijn de Groot song? Good question, it was a spectacular flop when released in ‘97 but now hits a chord with the Dutch. I don't understand why.)

The NPO list gets a lot of love from the rock and metal fans - Guns 'n' Roses, Queen, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, all have big fanbases, all get into the top 40.

"Go your own way" is the first song to appear in both lists - 18 on NPO, 81 on Uncool. Then comes "Smells like teen spirit" (NPO 23, Uncool 9) and The Cure’s "A forest" (NPO 70, Uncool 27). Don’t think BBC Radio 2 viewers would vote “A forest” to number 70...

There's a crossover run from NPO 35-38: "In the air tonight", "Hurt" by Johnny Cash, "Killing in the name", and "Shallow" by Lady Gaga (Uncools 255, 219, 139, 254). "Running up that hill" is NPO's 40, our 214. "Creep" and "Lose yourself" both made the NPO top 50.

Turns out that 134 songs appear in both lists, which is somewhat more than I'd expected. Here's the complete list, ordered by the Uncool 500 position.

Song Performer Uncool 500 NPO 2000 I feel love Donna Summer 1 417 Common people Pulp 2 1260 Blue Monday New Order 4 349 Love will tear us apart Joy Division 6 425 Unfinished sympathy Massive Attack 7 440 Wuthering Heights Kate Bush 8 80 Smells like teen spirit Nirvana 9 23 When doves cry Prince 10 365 Once in a lifetime Talking Heads 14 743 Tainted love Soft Cell 17 876 Ashes to ashes David Bowie 22 763 Sign 'o' the times Prince 23 639 Born slippy (nuxx) Underworld 24 286 West end girls Pet Shop Boys 28 1301 Life's what you make it Talk Talk 29 943 Firestarter The Prodigy 32 682 Ace of spades Motörhead 34 207 Teardrop Massive Attack 37 500 Like a prayer Madonna 38 738 Motorcycle emptiness Manic Street Preachers 40 855 Glory box Portishead 41 914 Enjoy the silence Depeche Mode 42 87 Always on my mind Pet Shop Boys 43 1314 Two tribes Frankie Goes to Hollywood 45 1360 London Calling The Clash 47 922 Come on Eileen Sexist Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express 58 765 Take on me A-ha 59 266 Heart of glass Blondie 63 1041 Sound and vision David Bowie 65 747 Sabotage The Beastie Boys 67 643 Relax Frankie Goes to Hollywood 68 1377 A forest The Cure 70 27 Hey ya! Outkast 75 1304 Blackstar David Bowie 76 1368 Go your own way Fleetwood Mac 81 18 Smalltown boy Bronski Beat 84 513 G'd save the queen Sex Pistols 87 1274 Cloudbusting Kate Bush 95 330 Bittersweet symphony The Verve 97 84 Video games Lana del Rey 105 342 Golden Brown The Stranglers 111 376 The whole of the moon The Waterboys 113 311 Billie Jean Michael Jackson 114 101 Nothing compares 2 u Sinéad O'Connor 117 282 I bet you look good on the dancefloor Arctic Monkeys 124 423 One more time Daft Punk 125 1017 Knowing me knowing you ABBA 128 581 Crazy in love Beyoncé 134 1512 Everybody wants to rule the world Tears For Fears 135 206 Love like blood Killing Joke 138 745 Killing in the name Rage Against the Machine 139 37 Fast car Tracy Chapman 140 218 Tinseltown in the rain The Blue Nile 141 686 Out of space The Prodigy 143 1351 The man with the child in his eyes Kate Bush 144 167 Close to me The Cure 146 800 Uncertain smile The The 155 1081 Back to black Amy Winehouse 157 58 Save a prayer Duran Duran 165 1084 Enola Gay Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 166 1222 Take me out Franz Ferdinand 170 587 Wonderful life Black 178 1393 Losing my religion REM 179 83 Live forever Oasis 182 1284 September Earth, Wind and Fire 184 153 Kiss Prince and the Revolution 190 1095 It's a sin Pet Shop Boys 192 1102 Stan Eminem 194 184 Uptown funk Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars 203 608 Everlong Foo Fighters 204 127 Shout Tears For Fears 207 811 Life's what you make it Talk Talk 209 853 Living in another world Talk Talk 212 1232 Running up that hill Kate Bush 214 40 Under pressure Queen 215 51 Sowing the seeds of love Tears For Fears 216 1044 Hurt Johnny Cash 219 36 Baker Street Gerry Rafferty 225 543 Vogue Madonna 233 1456 The winner takes it all ABBA 241 97 Paranoid android Radiohead 245 329 Blank space Taylor Swift 250 1168 Bad romance Lady Gaga 252 905 Shallow Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper 254 38 In the air tonight Phil Collins 255 35 Zombie The Cranberries 257 91 The logical song Supertramp 272 243 The reflex Duran Duran 275 1059 Our house Madness 277 759 Fake plastic trees Radiohead 278 907 Walk this way Run-DMC & Aerosmith 284 1378 Sweet dreams (are made of this) Eurythmics 289 355 Take a chance on me ABBA 303 501 One U2 309 71 Praise you Fatboy Slim 310 1403 New year's day U2 313 475 All I want is you U2 315 786 Solsbury Hill Peter Gabriel 318 263 Somebody told me The Killers 320 991 Blinding lights The Weeknd 326 129 Because the night Patti Smith Group 334 1288 No-one knows Queens of the Stone Age 341 221 Crazy Gnarls Barkley 344 1189 99 Luftballons Nena 345 276 Basket case Green Day 349 290 Street spirit (fade out) Radiohead 354 150 Lose yourself Eminem 362 47 Man on the moon REM 364 739 Mad world Tears For Fears 374 1434 9 to 5 Dolly Parton 383 673 Lovely day Bill Withers 384 1020 Food for thought UB40 389 1273 The way it is Bruce Hornsby and the Range 395 1126 Poison Bell Biv Devoe 398 275 Ordinary world Duran Duran 401 634 The final countdown Europe 403 451 Every little thing she does is magic The Police 420 671 Back in black AC/DC 421 236 Luka Suzanne Vega 422 1253 Mr blue sky Electric Light Orchestra 426 54 Creep Radiohead 431 43 Sledgehammer Peter Gabriel 435 1072 Nightswimming REM 436 457 Absolute beginners David Bowie 438 884 Dog days are over Florence + the Machine 441 1001 You oughta know Alanis Morissette 443 911 What a fool believes Doobie Brothers 446 1305 No diggity Blackstreet 463 1469 California love 2Pac 464 843 Toxic Britney Spears 474 1522 Get lucky Daft Punk 479 844 You want it darker Leonard Cohen 483 756 Texas sun Khruangbin & Leon Bridges 493 1024 Chandelier Sia 497 537

NPO Radio 2's Top 2000 continues until 31 december. The station is broadly similar to BBC Radio 2, though there's no equivalent of the Jeremy Vine show.

Music Twitter might also be interested in NPO 3fm, it combines the contemporary bits of BBC 6 Music and the pop sensibilities of Radio 1.

Readers after higher culture might like to know about NPO Radio 4, almost entirely classical. My strong preference is VRT's Klara, a sprightly mixture of classical, modern, jazz, world and Other Stuff.