Sing, Sing a Song

I’ve wanted to write a post about music for a while, but I’ve struggled with how to make it engaging. I just wasn’t sure that anyone would be all that interested in typical topics like “best driving songs” or “songs you’re embarrassed you like”. On the other hand, I have written extensively about Lionel Richie on this blog, and I’m sure that no one has been even remotely interested in that, so I’m not sure what my hang up is.

Anyway, today I was over at Kristi’s blog, and I was inspired by her idea – which she also got from someone else – to write my own personal list of the “Greatest Song Parts”. So this is a lineup– in no particular order – of some pieces of songs which I think are really fabulous.

Here it goes.

You Had Time, Ani DiFranco

“Cause you are a china shop, and I am a bull. You are really good food, and I am full.”

The amount of longing – the desire to be what someone else needs you to be – in this line and throughout the entire song is simply overwhelming. I feel this way every day in my marriage. (Just kidding, SRH).

At This Point in My Life, Traci Chapman

“At this point in my life, I’d like to live as if only love matters. As if redemption was inside. As if the search to live honestly, is all that anyone needs. No matter if you find it.”

Completely sappy, I know, but this song is so how I felt when I knew that SRH was going to propose, and this line sums up how I knew that I could marry him.

(Truly, I am deep and tortured. I just hide it behind a "cute" facade.)

Starfish and Coffee, Prince

“Starfish and coffee. Maple syrup and jam. Butterscotch clouds and a tangerine. And a side order of ham. If you set your mind free, baby. Maybe you’d understand.”

I adore this man because of lines like this. It’s nonsensical, beautiful, and provocative.

Black, Pearl Jam

“I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life. I know you’ll be a star – in somebody else’s sky. But why, why, why can’t it be, oh can’t it be mine?”

Besides being imminently doable, Eddie Vedder has a voice that reaches inside my body and speaks to my soul. Who doesn’t want to be the person he’s talking about in this song?

Ain’t to Proud to Beg, The Temptations

“I know you want to leave me, but I refuse to let you go”

Because a good stalking song should be on everybody’s list.

Down on My Knees, Trisha Yearwood

”I learned to be strong a long time ago, and I can face any wind no matter how hard it blows. But I’d have to be stronger than I want to be, if I had to live without you loving me.”

And conversely, a love song with some boundaries.

Self-evident, Ani DiFranco

“And we hold these truths to be self evident: #1 george w. bush is not president, #2 america is not a true democracy, and #3 the media is not fooling me.”

And while I avoid most things political on this blog, and I know some of you will roll your eyes at the unabashedly leftist sentiments of the song, I was at a concert where Ms. DiFranco stated this line, and I can still remember the reaction of the crowd and this particular line still moves me when I’m in my car. It had to go on the list.

I’m Bad, LL Cool J

“You try to brag you get your rhymes from a grab-bag. No good scavenger catfish vulture. My tongue's a chisel in this competition sculpture.”

I miss braggadocio rap music – and this line is the epitome of it.

Mr. Mastodon Farm, Cake

“Now due to a construct in my mind, that makes their falling and their flight, symbolic of my entire existence. It becomes important for me to get up and see their last second curves toward flight.”

SRH turned me onto this band, and I’ve become a bigger fan than he is. This song is weird, and it feels quintessentially Cake.

So I’m sure I will be kicking myself for days about what I left off this particular list, but it’s what came from the top of my head this evening.

Come on, share your favorite song parts in the comments. It’ll be fun.