Agent Palmer

Marvel’s influence on popular culture and the references to Marvel within that culture has been rising equal to the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but this list is proof that Marvel had its hand well into the popular culture well before the rise of the current MCU.

As with the DC inspired playlist I created, these songs need to be inspired by the comics, so Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, which is totally and completely unrelated to the comic character doesn’t get to be on the list. And no, it’s inclusion at the end of the 2008 Iron Man film doesn’t give it a pass.

Recorded in 1981 and released on September 30, 1982 as the third single on Toto’s fourth studio album Toto IV, “Africa,” has gone from hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1983 to its current place in popular culture as a meme. Not being lost but being beloved during the course of that journey.

Now, I’ll admit that a friend of mine who remains steadfast that Hold the Line is the better song, which I respectfully disagree with, because it’s more of the I don’t want to go with the crowd pick.

This is a fun little exercise if you like Guns ‘N Roses. Take their Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II albums and create a single album selecting tracks with a standard CD length cutoff on time at 74 minutes.

Now, Use Your Illusion I comes in at 16 songs with a run time of 76 minutes and Use Your Illusion II is 14 songs with a 75 minute runtime, so why 74? Well, it makes it more challenging, and it’s easy to use what was the standard.

To me, and to many, Bob Dylan is a mythical figure. I understand that he’s as human as you or I, but there’s something different about him.

He was told that he was the voice of a generation and he didn’t even want it, which made people more convinced he was. And as an artist, he reinvented himself over and over and over, in fact he’s reinvented himself more times than most people find themselves.