10 Songs that Saved My Life

Recently, the members of U2 released what they called the 10 songs that saved their lives to coincide with the release of their single “Your Song Saved My Life” from Sing 2.  Since I thought it would be a fun idea for a blog post, I copied the idea and compiled my own list of 10 songs.  While some would try to associate songs with life experiences, I honestly am unable to do that, so I mostly (with one exception) determined this list based on songs that were essential to my musical life.  The first 9 are listed in order that I believe I heard them, though there might be some minor errors in the order.  While it was difficult for me since I had around 70 songs I seriously considered, I chose 10 songs that I think are most important in my life.

 

“Piano Man”, Billy Joel

I tend to doubt that many people remember or can easily identify the first song they ever heard.  I am in the same boat there, though I do have a different sort of memory where I remember the first two times I heard a song and instinctively recognized it:  “Kodachrome” by Paul Simon or “Piano Man” (though I ironically am not sure which memory came first).  Since the latter seems more likely and is a song I enjoy more, I’ll go with that.  I have several memories of hearing that distinct harmonica solo even though I often couldn’t identify the song with the name or artist.  Even though it isn’t my favorite song by Joel (that would be “Captain Jack”), this has a special place in my heart as an early song in my music fandom.

 

“Respect”, Aretha Franklin

There is something about Franklin’s vocals that cause any listening experience of this song to be a surreal experience given the skill and power she has.  I consider her to be the greatest vocalist in rock/pop/R&B kind of genres, but this song represents something that I’ve always admired about her.  Aretha Franklin had this innate power to take any song and make it her own, even if she didn’t write the song or someone else recorded a notable version prior to her performance.  While Otis Redding released the original version of a song about a man demanding respect for his woman after coming home from work, Franklin flipped it on it’s head by changing the meaning, gender dynamics, and even rearranging it herself to make what she considered to be the perfect song.  While some artists seem to be experts at rearranging, remixing, or covering songs, it is something that I have always had difficulty with.  While I often don’t have as much trouble coming up with tunes, changing something existing to sound unique and original has always alluded me, so hearing anything that Franklin can do is special, with this song being the cream of the crop.

 

“Wish You Were Here”, Pink Floyd

For many years of my life, I largely only listened to classic rock music, and Pink Floyd was a big part of this development.  While I was tempted to include a track from Dark Side of the Moon, which has been among my all-time favorite albums, I wouldn’t have reached that point without listening to this song.  While “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2” was the first song I ever heard by the band, I really wasn’t a huge fan of the song on its own.  This was the second song I heard by them, and when I listened to this song for the first time, I was absolutely blown away by it.  I thought the instrumentation on the song was absolutely stunning and beautiful, complimenting the vocal performance and lyrics.  It is a bit haunting lyrically in some regards, which I thought was interesting considering how subtle it was as well.  This track was probably the song that got me into classic rock as a whole, as well as Pink Floyd in particular.

 

“Crazy”, Gnarls Barkly

Everybody’s music tastes change over time, which makes it tough to necessarily pinpoint one song as a favorite song.  That said, if I had to choose one song to be my favorite all time song, this song is probably the one.  Even before I knew who made the song, it filled me with a level of joy I rarely feel when I listen to any sort of music.  In particular, the baseline and chorus of this song have always stood out; while the chorus is catchy, the bassline feels even catchier, something that feels impossible to pull off at times.  I also joke that this song is a good judge of who I’m dating after one person I dated didn’t like this song and…well, let’s just say there were several legitimate red flags in the relationship, though I find it easier to site her disliking the song as what should have made it abundantly clear it wasn’t going to work.

 

“Jesus Walks”, Kanye West

Even though I love rap and hip hop now, I was never a big fan of the genre growing up, though there was a track here and there that I gravitated towards.  When I was in high school, I made my first attempt at a greatest artists of all time list and opted to try to listen to some of the artists I might include, which suddenly made me enjoy hip hop music when I found a few songs.  The first two rap songs that I fell in love with were “Lose Yourself” by Eminem and “Jesus Walks”.  While “Lose Yourself” was the first song I loved, “Jesus Walks” felt like a game changer for me.  The lyricism discussed something that didn’t seem to be talked about in popular rap music and the production felt like nothing I’d ever heard from any of the classic rock music I was obsessed with at that point.  From then on, I started exploring more hip hop music from all generations.

 

“A Change is Gonna Come”, Sam Cooke

This one is on here for possibly the simplest reason:  I consider this song to be the greatest song of all time.  I remember hearing it for the first time and being captured just by the orchestral arrangement to start the song, then Cooke began to sing.  He has this absolutely beautiful voice that can enthrall anybody whether they were planning on listening or not, even if they are not much of an R&B fan (a genre I didn’t think I was as into at the time).  Since then, this song showed me that I am a sucker for 60’s R&B.  Additionally, the lyrics of this song being about the Civil Rights movement is something that I think makes this song age well.  While Cooke spoke openly about his struggles with racism and showed the difficulties this entails, there still appeared to be a glimmer of hope, even just with the title and main line in the song.

 

“How’d You Like That”, The Kooks

This seems like such a random song to include, but this song might represent my shift towards enjoying alternative music.  In my junior year of high school, this song randomly became a radio hit on alternative radio, and I grew to like a few other songs by the group.  When the station did a contest to give away free tickets to a show they were performing, I decided to call in to enter and I wound up winning.  While it was not the first show I had ever seen (that would be Mark Wood, formerly of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who I saw because he was performing down the hall at a convention center I had performed at with an orchestra and they let us in for free), this was the first concert I legitimately intended to see.  It was a good concert and not only got me hooked on concerts, but also on alternative music.

 

“Illinois”, Sufjan Stevens

Before you say, “of course Matt would choose one of his favorite artists”, this song actually represents an important milestone in my music interests.  While I had shifted away from solely listening to classic rock to listening to other genres as well (especially alternative), I was writing for my high school’s newspaper when I was once assigned a story to discuss similarities and differences between two music platforms:  one being the popular Spotify and the other being the rising music platform Bandcamp.  When I went to Bandcamp to explore it for the first time, they had some popular artists listed on the top of the page (they no longer do this as they changed their formatting).  When I looked at the names, I saw Sufjan Stevens, who I had heard of but didn’t know any of his music.  I listened to “Illinois” and it was a life changing experience for me in terms of both the music aspect and my music habits.  In addition to falling in love with his music and enjoying indie music more, I utilized the site to find several artists immediately after.  This allowed me to discover artists I grew to enjoy, including Giles Corey, The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, White Panda, Cloudkicker, Moses Sumney, Diet Cig, and Yazmin Lacey, several of whom I’m not sure I would have heard of otherwise.

 

“Crucify Me”, Bring Me the Horizon

To get into another song by one of my favorite bands, this is another track that has much more meaning than just BMTH being one of my favorite bands.  For many years, I wasn’t the biggest metal fan to say the least, but sometime in 2014, I started getting into a little bit more metal music, especially metalcore.  While I considered songs Of Mice & Men (the first metalcore band I liked), Blessthefall (the first metalcore band I saw live), and August Burns Red (who showed what kind of energy and intensity can be used during live shows), I ultimately opted for this track by BMTH because they were the first metalcore band I truly loved and because this track opened up my mind to what the genre could be.  The combination of electronic influence that was different than electronicore, vocal samples, and heavy instrumentation alongside screaming didn’t seem like something that would work this well, but this band was able to make this work with ease.

 

“Tiny Dancer”, Elton John

First off, this isn’t the last song out of the 10 that I had ever heard, but I thought it would be a good conclusion.  Second, the reason this song is on this list is different than the other tracks.  Most of these tracks relate to a specific music moment, but this is a rare song I think of a specific moment of my life.  In this case, I think of how my sister ruined this song by bringing up the “Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza” joke misheard lyrics.  While some might be annoyed that she ruined this song for me, I’m not for two reasons.  The minor is because this wasn’t at all my favorite Elton John song (maybe “Rocket Man”?  Not sure), but the major is because it helps sum up the relationship my sister and I have.  She has been my best friend for my entire life, and this just demonstrates how silly we can be, reminding me how fortunate I feel to have her as my sister.  Now, anytime I hear this song, I sing along as Tony Danza and, after getting the idea of Tony Danza trying to give me a hug out of my head, I think of all the amazing times we have had together and all the times I look forward to continuing to have with her.

 

Honorable Mention

Since it was inspired by something U2 did, I will give them a shoutout with an honorable mention.  While I considered “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Zooropa”, I will ultimately go with “Bad” here.  Not sure what it is about that track, but there’s something that just puts me at ease and makes me so happy whenever I hear that song.

 

 

What are some songs that would be in your list?  Let me know in the comments!