Top Five Best Songs to Blow-Dry Hair To

I have a lot of hair. It takes a lot of time to blow it dry. I prefer to blow-dry my hair whilst listening to music [with earbuds, of course--otherwise, I'd have blasted out the stereo system by now (we don't have a stereo system)], and the best songs are ones that are at least 8 minutes long. By then, my hair is almost dry.

These are the best long songs that I have found work immensely well, whether I'm getting ready for bed or getting ready for school:

5. The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want": 7 minutes, 30 seconds
This song rocks, and you almost can't appreciate it unless you are blow-drying your hair because it so long. I've always liked this song, but I didn't love it until I heard it open the beginning scenes to The Big Chill, this wild and sketchy film with Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, and few other big names. I don't recommend the film to some of you who read this blog because it is a bit off-color in scenes, but when I saw it, I was struck. It's about a group of friends who get back together after many years because one of their circle had died: the whole funeral meet-up plot. I love that kind of crap. I'm probably the most sentimental person I know (I need a whole other blog post to vent about what strange tensions lay just in changing my name from Gilliland to Grover. And I love the name Grover!). All of the tensions and solutions in the film both blew my mind and melted my heart. I am a sucker for any film about companionship and kindred blood soul-siblings. Plus, the film track is stellar; the film also turned me onto The Band's "The Weight," another favorite since. Anyway, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is charged with the feelings that film sprouted in me, and I can't help but sing for all of my blood brothers when I dry my hair to this song.


4. The Grateful Dead's "Box of Rain": 5 minutes, 17 seconds
Okay, this one isn't perfect because it isn't long enough. Confession: I can't listen to this song without listening to it again right afterward. This, to me, is an almost completely perfect song. I love it. I hippie-dance to it. I take headbands or belts and wrap them around my damp forehead and twirl myself in the bathroom until I can't untangle myself from the blowdryer cord. It makes me feel like I'm a senior in high school in 1968, and it's summertime, and it's sunset, and I'm in the dirt and grass and under big old trees with all my hippie friends. It's sunlight in my eyes, it's grass-stains on my knees, cotton candy in my mouth, dirty sneakers on my feet, leather bracelets and tanned bodies and fishing and long, long drives down the endless highway.
(Sometimes you can just let the American Beauty album run and finish your hair with either "Friend of the Devil" or "Sugar Magnolia" but neither of them are nearly as excellent as "B. of R.")


3. Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues": 7 minutes, 33 seconds
I can't get enough Steely Dan these days. My favorite song these days is "Bodhisattva"--it's killer good and wildly gypsy-like. I think Rock Band might have stolen it and prostituted it out, but it's still hugely brilliant and stellar. It sat on my iTunes for a year or two before I listened to it completely and slapped my face for having taken so long to discover it. But, what am I doing. I'm talking about "Deacon Blues." So, it's a little depressing in lyrics, but it's completely dance-worthy. It's grooving, moving, hip-shaking; just try to dry your hair to it and not start stepping from side-to-side and doing a little microphone action with your hair straightener or razor. It's the trumpets that kill me, I think. Soul-reaching.


2. Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light": 8 minutes, 26 seconds
This was a definite favorite during my Utah State blow-drying days. It is the best ever to lip sync to, both the girl and boy parts. It was extra great in my last apartment at Utah State because I lived in the basement and could sing as loud as I wanted and no one could hear me from the third floor. It's a bit sexy, but it is also jammin'. It's good for cold mornings, because the dramatic facial expressions the lip syncing induces help warm up the cheeks. Meat Loaf at his most epic.
(For moodier, angrier mornings, I suggest M.L.'s "Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back." It's more hysterical than it is angry, but sometimes you just don't care. You want to shout! With furrowed eyebrows!)

1. Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand": 10 minutes, 6 seconds.
This pearl is not only long and poignant, it's super groovy to hippie-dance to. I can't not gyrate my hips in low, slow flower-girl rhythms. With the hot air blowing back my hair, I can't help but feel like I'm dancing on a field of waving grasses and sand next to a gray-blue sea, in the sun. I am the cowgirl in the sand. It definitely makes for some all-time favorite hair-drying experiences.