Leigh M. Johnson

The thing about a good workout song is that it has to be semi-fast (but not too fast) and it needs to have a pretty steady beat.  No matter what sort of exercise you’re doing, it’s always made more difficult when you find yourself slowing down and speeding up in response to the music, so…

Prince Rogers Nelson, formerly “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince”, now known just by his mononym “Prince” again, is the sexiest artist I know.  For music fans of a certain age, Prince (and his earlier band, The Revolution) is deeply etched in memory, in desire, and in purple as nothing short of iconic.  Standing at…

I doubt I would have said this 10 or 20 years ago, because I was too young and too stupid and too stubborn and far too proud then, but I’ve got a great family.  I mean, a really great family.  We have our problems, like all families do, but there is no doubt in my…

It’s really no mystery to anyone who knows me how much I dislike Taylor Swift, today’s pick for the most overrated artist I can think of.  Also, if you don’t want to read the rest of this, let me sum up: Barf.  Just in case you’re still reading, though, here’s some elaboration.  It genuinely pains…

Finally, FINALLY, today I’ve been given a prompt that makes for an incredibly easy pick.  I’m sure there are a million artists or bands that have never achieved the level of fame they deserved– many of whom I know personally and who grind it out every night as hardworking musicians here in Memphis– but when…

My self-imposed ban on repeating songs that I chose in the original (June 2011) version of this Challenge is making it more and more difficult every day to match the perfect song to this month’s prompts.  My first choice for “a song that could have been written about my life” would have been The Rolling…

For a few years in my 20’s, I dated and lived with a Deadhead.  And I’m not talking about some amateur, weekends-and-summers only, tie-dyed, wake-and-bake, jam-band fan.  I’m talking about a Genuine True Believer.  He had whole cases of cassette-tape bootlegs from Grateful Dead concerts going back more than twenty years.  He was in touch…

I really dislike the designation “best friend.”  I can’t entirely explain why but I’ve always felt like it’s an impossible-to-determine category.  What makes a good friend the “best”?  The time you’ve known each other?  The experiences you’ve shared?  What you’ve given or sacrificed or provided for one another?  Is it about quality or quantity?  Is…

I have a whole complex theory about breakups, the first and most important axiom of which is that breakups hardly ever “take” on the first time.  As a rule, if you’ve been in a real relationship with someone– meaning, first, that you’ve invested a significant amount of time and emotion into the relationship and, second,…