"Lights Out": 12 Songs, One Title

Hey, Meh writer @JasonToon here. We’ll get to our weekend playlist in a minute. But first, if you’re anything like me, you’re wondering what this product is. Here goes:

Hue is the smart-lightbulb system from Philips. You connect the included bridge to your WiFi network. You wirelessly connect the two included bulbs to the bridge (along with any additional bulbs you buy later). You control the bulbs with an app on your Android or iOS device, including timers, pre-set “scenes”, all that jazz.

This particular set, Lux, is the 1st generation Hue system, now discontinued - but the bulbs are still compatible with the 2nd and 3rd gen bridges, and the bridge is still compatible with the 2nd and 3rd gen bulbs (with the exception that this bridge is NOT compatible with Apple HomeKit).

Bottom line: this kit gives you everything you need to check out smart lighting for what you’d normally pay for a bulb or two. This would all be so much simpler if they just made the final ultimate generation of things first, wouldn’t it? But here are two very informative primers: The Difference Between All of Philips’ Hue Light Bulbs and What’s the Difference Between 1st- 2nd-, and 3rd-Generation Philips Hue Bulbs?. Just remember this one is the “Lux”.

Now, you know what’s not confusing? How many songs there are called “Lights Out”. It’s a short, sharp phrase that’s both familiar and metaphorically rich: a born song title. AllMusic lists more than 1,000 songs called “Lights Out”. Here are 12 of my favorites, chosen with no particular logic other than to show the many emotional colorations one title can take.

My all-time favorite has to be the Angry Samoans’ 1982 ode to self-blinding, calling on the kids to “poke, poke, poke your eyes out”:

Hard to follow that one, but I’ve always dug the sleek pop perfection of the 2008 Santigold (formerly Santogold) song:

I could have sworn this next one was by the J. Geils Band, but it was actually from their departed singer and Jagger acolyte Peter Wolf’s first solo album in 1987. Pretty decent late-'80s overproduced dad-rock:

Far be it from me to stifle anybody’s artistic ambition, but with a few exceptions, I still like Green Day the most when they sound like a punk band. This 2009 pogo was relegated to a B-side, but it’s more exciting than a lot of their LP cuts this century:

In 2010, when Rick Astley rode the Rickroll wave back to the charts after 17 years, it was carrying a guitar and singing a surging, echoey, Coldplay-meets-Robbie-Williams number entitled… guess what:

Anglo-German proto-metal wailers UFO loved “Lights Out” so much, they made it the title track of their 1977 career pinnacle LP:

Not many pop stars release their first album at age 35 and get a gold record for it. But one music-business newcomer managed the trick back in 2003. Her debut top-20 single served notice that wherever she came from, whoever she was, people should keep their eye on this Lisa Marie Presley:

It couldn’t be much more different from the song with the same title by freezing cold French-Canadian synth duo Essaie Pas, released earlier this year:

“Lights Out” equally suits Ike Reilly’s heartland singer-songwriter rock on this 2009 cut:

Jerry Byrne’s barn-byrning 1958 single was co-written by his cousin Mac Rebennack, later known as Dr. John, and it rocks harder than any Dr. John tune I’ve ever heard:

The Auteurs’ trick was to wrap dark, sinister hintings in finicky, precise pop. I don’t know what this 1999 jumble of strangers in parking lots, blind guardian angels, busy rescue parties, and “Don’t Fear the Reaper” quotes adds up to, but it’s not exactly a lullaby:

For that, we turn to Nat King Cole’s dreamy 1961 rendition of a 1935 Billy Hill standard:

Aaaahhh… and with that, it’s lights out on another weekend playlist, brought to you by the Philips Hue Lux Starter Set and one of the most suggestively versatile phrases in the songwriter’s dictionary. If you’ve got a favorite “Lights Out” I’ve overlooked, post it in our forum, where the lights are always on.

A few more of our weekend playlists to light up your Sunday:

• What Makes the Perfect Roller Skate Jam?
• Ahhhhhh: 12 Shades of Musical Relaxation
• Pop Will Repeat Itself: The Theory of Repetitive Song Titles
• Grazing in the Grass: A Picnic Playlist
• Turn On Country Style: Psychedelic Country Nuggets
• Songs to Scrub By: Our Shower Playlist