Some Songs

Wish You Were Here: a beautiful, sparse guitar duet by Pink Floyd, the words are gorgeous and the music divinely warm and simple.

It was the first riff I learned on guitar because Matt taught it to me some Monday after drumline practice freshman year. It made me think about him for a while afterwards.
"I was dueting with my uncle and we played Wish You Were Here and it made me sad. :(" -Dave
It is the most important vinyl album I own and the basis for the mural on my door.

American Pie: piano and guitar, it's got nonsensical lyrics that sing of lost love, an inability to help others, and a love of fading music.

The first full song I learned to play on guitar, I've screamed through choruses with Katy Creppon, in Sarah's basement, and hope to with new friends as well.

Soco Amaretto Lime: guitar and harmony and a vinyl scratch, this song made me cry for the memories I won't have and adventure and wondering if I will ever again be young and love in the same time.

Jeff showed it to me after the Power Pit Reunion, and I cried in front of him for the third time in less than a month.

You Can't Always Get What You Want: English chorus, guitar, lonely trumpet, Mick Jagger, and one hot maraca, it's the epitome of my quiet longing and belief that it'll all turn out alright or dead.

The only song featured on [H]ouse twice, it was my personal motto for a long time.

Hallelujah: piano and vocals, it doesn't really matter who's singing it. The words are Biblical in nature, and sometimes I don't understand, but when I do, it's tragic.

The times sung together my first year with the pit, innumerable. Coffee House and private moments of mourning, this is the most important song of my high school career and summary of freshman year.

Golden Slumbers: Abbey Road, a piano and strings and childhood idealism and the dream that someday I will not wake up alone.

In My Life: The Beatles' most sentimental work by my standard, and once hailed as the greatest song of all time, it is a very thin song with vocals and warmth and harmony.

Landed: piano, a drum set, a bass and Ben Folds' voice, it's about redemption and leaving and being welcomed back.

My favorite song by Ben Folds (that is not a cover of Bitches Ain't Shit), I've seen my clouds come tumbling down countless times.

Mr. Tambourine Man: the most lyrical poetry I've ever come across, the guitar is simple and the harmonica sad.

I want everything beautiful and free in this song.

Love Reign O'er Me/Baba O'Riley: I couldn't pick my favorite The Who song. They've both got memories.

Samson: quiet piano and the unattainable voice of Regina Spektor, I can never be the first one to love you.

Us and Them: the second riff I learned on guitar, it's a beautiful, swirling culmination of every beautiful instrument and sad thought I can muster.

It's only barely my favorite song from my favorite album for reasons I won't explain. It would be The Great Gig in the Sky, if only because someone I admired and found solidarity in and was jealous of in 9th grade loved it.

Farmhouse: a beautiful song with enveloping guitar by Phish and lyrics so simple and comforting.

It was playing when I finally escaped Dave bearwrestling, and it made each think of the other though that was found out later. I couldn't believe how perfect it was and is. There are several by Phish I should include, but I'd have to thank Dave for introducing me to them. I feel like I can't like them on my own.

Thunder Road/Born to Run: The Boss has more "American" lyrics of freedom and young love than all the novels of experience I've yet read and I cannot choose. Whether guitar, piano, or mad saxaphone, they are wonderful for their own reasons.

In the Sun: featured on Scrubs, a solitary guitar, and vocals warm and cold at the same time, there are memories I can't stand to think of.

Going to California/Tangerine: my favorite by Led Zeppelin, they're of a quieter guitar than many of their other rockin' hits, but the lyrics are more for me and childhood escapism

Old Man: by Neil Young and the Stray Gators, it's a simple guitar and a wavering voice singing of growing old and the differences and change of age and idealism

It was the first and only song my dad has sang with me to some degree of completion. I was singing it as I came home the first time I snuck out.

Stolen: a blatant pop song with a strong guitar, drums, and vocals by Dashboard Confessional.

I played it for two hours the day I broke up with JoeKat, determined that I would give it a try and not end what had given me so much happiness. This summer made it all the more a reality, because when the last week of the gold and glimmer was replaced, I intended to break up with Dave to save myself heartbreak. He fell in love with me, and ended that notion.

Some I loved before the memories, some the memories made me love. There would be many more from Pink Floyd, Phish, and The Beatles if I was going into songs that should be appreciated with all reverence, but these are the best. Probably another 30 would be needed for me to accurately depict the summation of my musical choices with importance, but I left out blink-182 and Bright Eyes because there are a lot that I feel like I shouldn't be so attached to.