Lines on her face
She pretended not to notice
She was caught up in the race
Out every evening until it was light ---

And it was life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane
Life in the fast lane
Everything, all the time
-- Eagles

"Life in the fast lane" has one of the greatest guitar hooks in music history. One of my favorite bass hooks of all time is "Another one bites the dust" by Queen. So this brings up an interesting subject that I discussed two different times with different people over the past week -- sampling great music for supposedly new material.

"It's a hard knock life" a great song from the musical "Annie" and also a huge hip hop hit for Jay-Z. What kind of crack was Jigga smoking the night he flipped past "Annie" on cable and said, "Man, that is tight! I'm using it on my next record." And don't even get me started on Lil' Romeo and his "I don't need a girlfriend" business that samples "I want you back" by the Jackson 5.

"You down with O.P.P.?? Yeah you know me." Naughty by Nature and they sampled the beginning of "ABC" (I think, correct me if I'm wrong). Point being, doesn't hip hop have any original ideas left?? What's going on is the lack of creativity -- if you can't come up with your own hook, then dude, are you really a musician? (and no, I'm not!). All I'm sayin' is, these people are smart enough to come up with lyrics and lots of them and other beats for the song, why use that sample??

Not to say their isn't any originality in music, because there is. And not to say that this is only a problem with hip hop. Pop and rock just flat out recut old songs.

Sixpence none the richer, "Don't dream it's over"
Billy Idol, (breaks my heart to think of how he ruined a Tommy James and the Shondells classic!!!) "Mony, Mony"

and countless others I can't think of right now, but you get the point.

What's the deal with this pop life and when's it gonna fade out??

Amy