I thought I would try something new tonight and share some of the music I love with you nice people. I am going to go through my mp3 collection and find stuff I really love, andpost a YouTube link to it in this article, and tell you about why I love the song and what it means to me.

If it seems to work as content, I will do more at some vague point in the future.

If it doesn’t seem to work, I guess I will just have to declare the experiment a success and never do it again.

First up, my favorite love song of all time. Some of you might already know which one it is.

To mean, that is love. A deep, heartfelt promise to be with you no matter what happens, forever. To me, that is what a relationship is : being there for one another no matter what life throws your way.

I have had very little to rely on in my life. I both want that kind of love and want to give it as well.

Plus that electric organ bit at the end is so damned gorgeous. And the fact that it is sung but a mega hottie like Robert Plant in his prime doesn’t hurt either.

Another love song I love is this one by Cyndi Lauper :

As you can tell, it’s along the same lines. Someone saying they will always be with you no matter what. I have lived a long time with the feeling that nobody could stand to be near me if they saw the real me.

Join the club, right?

An eternal pledge of love circumvents this. It means you can be yourself with this persona and they won’t run away screaming. And if you are lucky, they can do the same with you, and you can grow old as your genuine selves together.

At least, that’s what it means to me.

Next, we have one of the first of what I am sure will be many Paul McCartney and/or Beatles songs :

I couldn’t tell you why that song moves me like it does. And honestly, I don’t need to understand it. A younger me would have been unable to leave it until he had analyzed, dissected, and understood exactly why he liked it, to many decimal points.

And that’s not a bad thing. It’s a big part of what makes me the artist I am. I figure out what makes something good, and over time, that becomes integrated into my creative process and becomes yet another color for my palette.

But sometimes, I just don’t need to know. Paul McCartney shines a light into my soul that brings me joy. That’s enough.

Of course, there is going to be a fair amount of The Bourbons in these lists :

This one only recently became a favorite, though. Somehow, all the other times I had listened to it, it made no special impact. But then I started really listening to the lyrics, and I realized how liberating and transgressive its message is.

The whole idea of choosing to lose the game is extraordinarily subversive. It rejects competition on all levels. My favorite line is “No need to beat these guys who were cheating away”.

Everything in our society is geared towards promoting victory. The good guys have to not only prevent harm but to win. The only acceptable loss is one where you tried your hardest to win. Above all, you have to play.

But maybe some of us just don’t want to play at all. We want to stay where people love and accept one another without competition, rules, or comparison. We don’t like competition itself, regardless of who wins.

Even, or especially, if it’s us.

So let’s just lose, go home, and be human again.

I guess it’s safe for me to post this song by now :

For ages, I couldn’t even think of this song without the whole song playing in my mind, like Cartman from South Park and the song Sailing Away by Chris De Burgh.

It’s not hard to see why. It almost seems to cute to say the song has a driving beat. Everything about the song makes your pulse race along with your mind. It embodies the mood fo the lyrics perfectly.

Plus, the themes of lyrics are universal. The fire of obsession and desire, the feeling that you know what you are doing is futile or wrong but you just can’t stop until you have burned out completely, the perversity of trying to acquire something in a way that drives it further away from you. It’s deep down stuff plucked right from the heart of lunacy.

No wonder I love it so much. I dig insanity music. It equalizes the pressure of the insanity in me.

And now, light your lighters and sway back and forth, because we’re doing Freebird :

I love this song for many reasons. For one, musically, it is off the fucking hook. Everything is gorgeous and groovy and smooth and powerful and blazes like the glory of angels, and it makes me want to curl up in the song and live there. Live in it’s gloriously technicolor early Seventies heaven.

But I will confess, I also love it because it is the perfect scumbag redneck boyfriend song. This is the song your ex boyfriend Rodney who knocked you up again is playing when he drives off to leave you behind with the mess he made and go find some other lovely lady to charm into bed with him and make feel like she’s the best thing in the whole world before leaving her behind when things get messy or boring or whatever.

Cause he’s as free as a bird, y’all! AND THIS BIRD YOU CANNOT TAME!

Well that’s it for me for tonight, folks. Odds are fair to middlin’ I will actually remember to do a video roundup tomorrow. That would be a first.

Until then, enjoy the tunes. Whatever you think of them, don’t be afraid to share your opinion. You don’t have to like it just because I do. I want to hear from everyone. And as always….

I will talk to you nice people tomorrow.