15 Songs
Matt Barr, once of the blog BTD, which now seems to be a weird forum thingy, tagged me in with this delightful little meme.
"Go with your gut here. These are the songs that emotionally resonate with you, that linger in your head long after they’ve played. Every time you hear one of these songs, all you can think is, “Damn, that’s a good song!”
Toss logic, reason, and ideas about what music “should” be out the window. We’re going for pure gut response here. Maybe it’s the beat, a great guitar riff, or just the lyrics, but something about each of these songs should really strike a chord inside of you. These may not even necessarily be your favorites, just the songs that really “sock it to you” on a fundamental level."
This is what I came up with:
Conquistador, Procol Harum
Life During Wartime, Talking Heads
Death’s Black Train is Coming, Gob Iron
God’s Gonna Cut You Down, Johnny Cash
Cure for Pain, Morphine
Tremor Christ, Pearl Jam
Broken, Beat & Scarred, Metallica
Lonely Avenue, Ray Charles
One Way Out, Allman Brothers Band
Ball and Chain, Social Distortion
Ashes to Ashes, Tarbox Ramblers
Blood and Roses, The Smithereens
Pride and Joy, Stevie Ray Vaughan
World Leader Pretend, REM
Cinnamon Girl, Neil Young
Soundtrack to Mary, Soul Coughing
Would?, Alice in Chains
Kansas City, Wilbert Harrison
I cheated, and put 18 on the list because I just run like that.
I also just noticed that only two maybe three, songs on this list could be even remotely be called happy. I must be more depressed than I realized.
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Redemption Song, Bob Marley
Machine Gun, Hendrix/Band of Gypsies
Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A
4th Chamber, GZA
Knock on Wood, Otis Redding
Eh...maybe I should do a separate one of white people...?
Buckethead,
I was actually thinking of Piaf, but Armstrong would epitomize one aspect of the meme: the ability to touch one's heart with only limited musical tools. Armstrong played a great trumpet, but one could not find kind words to describe his singing voice ... except that it could break the hardest heart.
Goodness! You guys aren't sentimental, are you? I'd have to include "La Vie en Rose" on such a list.
Louie Armstrong's version of…
Louie Armstrong's version of that one is great, I admit. I was picking songs from my iTunes liberry, so my selection was biased in favor of songs that I already own.
A more thorough consideration would have taken too much time, I think.
Gadzooks! I only know 9 of your songs off the top of my head. Am I culturally illerate?
I don't even know what songs I'd put on a list like this? Should one select songs that have emotional relevance to you because they happen to be in the soundtrack of your life? For example, REM's "Me in Honey" was playing on my Hi-Fi when my long-term girlfriend (from college) broke up with me. I can't hear that song without thinking about that event - hence it's resonance. Objectively the song shouldn't resonate that much...
I would be surprised if…
I would be surprised if anyone had heard of the Tarbox Ramblers - they're not exactly Billboard Top 100. Gob Iron is a side project of Jay Farrar, of Son Volt, which is sort of alt-country.
I don't know that the originators of this meme had soundtrack of your life in mind - that might be another meme. Just songs that hit you in the gut. I remember being just floored when I first heard God's Gonna Cut You Down - the song didn't have any life history for me, just a musical punch to the gut.
Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQkFxfyHgMk