Pick three songs that you feel most describe your life.
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Not ones you like just because of the sound, but because of its essence. Songs that you can understand multiple layers of, possibly down to the rough draft. Songs that seem to understand you, probably more than any of your exes did. Songs that make you feel something, rather than just hear something.
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Well this is one of those songs for me.
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Gnarls Barkley is a musical superteam made up of hiphop star Ceelo Green & DJ/producer Danger Mouse. This musical bromance has been on my radar since senior year of high school, when "Crazy" came out and brought some funky bass beats to the radio. Their first album, St. Elsewhere, was an avantgarde gem and changed the way I experienced music.
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Then "Going On" arrived from their sophomore album, The Odd Couple. I love everything about it- the architecture of sounds, the cool video, and most of all the lyrics. It's one of my favorite running songs, pre-game anthems, & everyday tracks (I've listened to it well over 1000 times). If I had to choose a song to best describe my life, this would be crowned the winner.
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So, my inquiring mind wants to know... what's your song?
I'd say that I probably have two. The first is "Mississippi" by Bob Dylan. The second is "Blue Bayou," originally by Roy Orbison (but my favorite is the version by Norah Jones and Matt Ward, as preformed at Austin City Limits). I feel like both of these songs reflect the feeling of being in one place and wishing you were somewhere else. For some reason, I always feel restless - no matter where I am. I think, for some reason, I'm nostalgic for a place that doesn't quite exist, and both of these songs strike that chord in my heart. Though at the same time, they remind me of the importance of living in the moment ("being here now," one of my favorite mantras), living simply, and enjoying life for purely having lived it.
ReplyDeleteMy song would have to be "Warm Beer, Cold Women" by Tom Waits. While to be honest not every line might fit my life perfectly the message, the sound, the soul is all very much something I identify with. I get goosebumps hearing it... I guess I can't fully explain.
ReplyDeleteThis is a tough question to answer. I don't really have a connection with music as in "this song explains my life" or "this artist knows how I feel". Maybe as a teenager I felt that way sometimes, but my connection to music is different.
ReplyDeleteI know you said don't pick a song because of the sound, but that's exactly how I know I connect with music. Your sentences after: "...but because of its essence. Songs that you can understand multiple layers of, possibly down to the rough draft" are exactly how I feel.
For some reason I have a tendency to "see" music. Imagine a white space with colors representing different instruments, tones, etc. That's how I hear music. It sounds strange, I know (and since you know me personally you know I don't do drugs lol), but I've been hearing music like this for many years now. I can remember one of the first songs that I heard this way: "Missing" by Evanescence. Each sound filled this white space with color. It resonated within me down to my very core. The more I hear a song where I see how many layers (i.e. colors) there are that fill that space, the more I know the song connects with me.
So to answer your question lol, I think currently a song that connects with me is "Move for Me" by Kaskade. There are so many tones in the song that exude layers that splash around that white space. Listening to that song while I exercise is especially wonderful- I feel like I am getting through my own layers down to heartbeats and the images that the song makes.
Other [older] songs that I felt similarly about: "Vitamin R" by Chevelle, "The Deep End" by Crossfade, "The Dark Side of Indoor Track Meets" by Falling Up, "Gloomy Sunday" by Heather Nova (meh sometimes), "Let Go" by Imogen Heap, "Save Me" by Nicki Minaj, "Glitter in the Air" by Pink, "Mosquito Song" by QOSA, "Oubliette" by TREOS, "Discovering the Waterfront" by Silverstein, "Don't Look Back" by Telepopmusik, and a remix of "One Day I'll Fly Away" by Tony Phillips.
PS Funnily enough a good example of how I "see" music can be seen in Fage commercials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WucnZYuUPjg