Favorite Songs

I was thinking about favorite songs. What are my favorite songs? What are other peoples’ favorite songs? You can tell a lot about a person. But it’s sort of like poetry for me – meanings are sometimes elusive.

Claire de Lune

This is my “if you were stranded on an island” song. If I had only one song that I had to listen to every day all day, this would be it. I discovered it when I saw the movie “Frankie and Johnny” with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. Great romantic comedy. Equally as great soundtrack. This song is complex, yet not too complex and beautiful, relaxing. I saw a pianist play it recently at a funeral of a friend of mine’s brother (he took his own life). It was beautiful to watch and bittersweet to listen to. Her brother loved music, this must have been one of his favorites too.


Iris
My jam! It’s by the Goo Goo Dolls. They were dubbed an 80’s punk band, but I don’t really consider this punk music. This song is so great – the lyrics are what I feel about 90% of the time – “…I don’t want the world to see me because I don’t think that they’d understand. When everything’s meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.” I guess I just don’t feel like most people know who I am. Some will know me better than others despite my expectations. I struggle at times to be content with that notion, but it is not something I can change. You can’t make someone want to know you and what makes you tick. Either they want to know and spend time finding out, or they are more self-absorbed and/or don’t think it’s necessary. When I’m brooding or moody, this will do.


What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
Barbra! It’s such a great song. Wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone – a powerful thought. I just love the lyrics and how they frame this thought. And Barbra’s voice is magical. I wish I could sing this song and do it justice. Me, dressed in black (of course), black backdrop, microphone, single spot light. Ah yes, caught dreaming again!


And So It Goes
Classic Billy Joel. Just when you think he’s just a fancy piano player, he brings this song that puts breakup feelings in a very frank, moving manner. “And so it goes, and so it goes, and you’re the only one who knows…”


Make You Feel My Love
Written by Bob Dylan, sung by many – Garth Brooks, Adele.
I’ve never been a Bob Dylan fan. He just sounds off-key to me. But when I heard this song, I became a fan. “…when the whole world is in your face, I could offer you a warm embrace, to make you feel my love.”


Stay
By Sugarland. This is a powerful song for me. It represents a time in my life that is awhile back, but I still remember. Low self-esteem kills the spirit. Jennifer Nells sings this with such feeling – you know she’s been down this road before. I saw her sing it on an awards show once and she just put everything on the table with this song and was crying in the end. This is why music is just so powerful. It’s a view into the soul. I suppose that’s what all of the arts are. That must be why if someone knows I am a writer or thinks I have creative talent (besides owning them money), it’s a sigh of relief that they can see what I am tentatively showing them.


I Love the Way You Love Me
By John Michael Montgomery. I was dating my husband, my all-american cowboy, and I thought “we need a song!”. Chicks think about stuff like that. I was driving to Chicago on my lengthy commute and I heard it. I thought, this is it, this is our song.