“Late for the Sky” -Jackson Browne
What can i even say about this Song? In my humble Opinion, this may be one of the greatest Songs ever written.
Truly a Song i can relate to; beautiful despite the bittersweet Memories it brings.
“Illusion” -VNV Nation
Brilliant Song, i highly recommend a listen for anyone that hasn’t heard it.
“A Talk with George” -Jonathon Coulton
If ever there was a lyrical Instruction for living Life to the fullest, it was this.
“Die durch die Hölle gehen” -Eisbrecher
This has always been one of my favorite Songs. Dark, determined, and brutally honest. The Lyrics really ‘struck a chord’ with me.
Please, feel free to reply with some of Your own Music. Even if i am not familiar with them, i’ll most likely give a listen as i really enjoy Music and hearing new Artists.
Three songs have profoundly influenced my relationship with the guitar, which in turned profoundly influenced my life.
When I first heard I Want To Hold Your Hand in December 1963, it created a longing in me to play the guitar and sing. I received a cheap guitar for my 10th birthday in January 1964. By 1967 I was performing and making money in my first band.
During the summer of 1968, I bought Wheels of Fire by Cream and heard Crossroads for the first time. Something about the guitar solos in that song inspired me to seriously attempt to expand beyond rhythm guitar into playing some lead. I certainly could have chosen something easier to start with, but by the time I started high school that September I could play the first solo and my LP was ruined from me repeatedly raising and dropping the needle on that track (playing it on 16 RPM so I could work out the fast parts). I abandoned the song for a few years after that, moving on to LPs I hadn’t ruined yet, but that song got me started.
By 1978, changes in the music scene had long since caused me to switch my focus to solo performing with acoustic guitar. At that point, I had no functional electric guitar or amp. Then I heard Sultans of Swing for the first time, and simply had to buy a Stratocaster. My reawakened interest in electric guitar resulted in fairly lucrative cover-band gigs that lasted until I retired from paid performing a few years ago.
Only one I can think of off the top of my head isn’t a song, per se, because I don’t remember which specific one it was–but it was by Cruciform Injection. We’d gone to a post-Gen Con show with some friends/fellow freelancers, and the band’s frontman was a friend of theirs. I’d never heard industrial music before, and had no idea what to expect.
I loved it from the first song, and spent the rest of the evening in a thumpy, loud, synthesizer-fueled bubble of happy. The growly vocals, driving beat, and mechanical-sounding instruments just did something for me. I immediately bought all of CI’s CDs (they were selling them at the show) and when I got home, I branched out into other bands, discovering Assemblage 23 (which grew to be my favorite), Beborn Beton (second favorite), VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Funker Vogt, Covenant, And One, and several more. If I hadn’t attended that show, I probably would never have discovered industrial/EBM/synthpop. So yeah, it impacted my life.
The sentiments expressed in Paul Simon’s “Tenderness” have come into play in just about all of the relationships I’ve been in since the song came out in 1972 (and there have been a few…). At some point I wind up quoting it to just about every guy I’ve known…
The queen of dimonds let you down
She was just an empty fable
The queen of hearts you say you never met
Your twisted fate has found you out and it’ finally turned the tables
Stole your dreams and paid you with regret
Desperado (it there gonna be anything left, is there gonna be anything?)
You sealed your fate up a long time ago
(Ain’t it hard when you’re all alone in the center ring?)
Now there’s no time left to borrow
(Is there gonna be anything left?)
Only stardust (maybe tomorrow)
Maybe tomorrow
Maybe tomorrow
I think it’s about someone fighting all his vulnerabilities to make an invitation. It’s someone who’s far from perfect, throwing his soul into asking this girl to leave town with him.
The key to the song is that it’s very quiet when he’s describing himself, but then it sets off when he starts singing about what they can do together.
Well now I’m no hero, that’s understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night’s bustin’ open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
I’d agree. I can play that album by heart on guitar and piano. And whine along, just like ol’ JB. That LP turned me into the overly-sensitive Merlot-swilling new-age dude I am today.
His first couple albums have a lot of insights. In my first job out of college I did a lot of counseling students. And I was playing Jackson Browne songs (and reading his liner notes) in my off hours.
So it was inevitable that lines like “I’m just one or two years, and a couple of changes behind you” would come up in conversation… to the extent that one student asked me “So, is there any problem that can’t be patched up with Jackson Browne lyrics?” And of course, the answer was “Nope-- unless you get suicidal. for extreme cases, I have to resort to Dead lyrics.”
Reading some of the replies, I guess it’s weird that I love music but have never been influenced by it in any way.
Leaving aside Puff the Magic Dragon, which I played until they had my mom in a straight jacket, the only other songs I have listened to as much (probably more) are by Sisters of Mercy. Lucretia, My Reflection is still very nearly a religious experience for me. Same for Temple of Love and a few others.
Oh, and I can’t overlook the Moog synth performances by Walter/Wendy Carlos of some Baroque classics. But in true SDMB style I’m loathe to call those “songs.”
I came in here to say this exactly. To say this song was a game changer for me would be an understatement… It almost literally flipped a switch on me changing my life direction.
The entire album of “Beethoven’s Last Night” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra completely changed my life. In particular, the song “This Is Who You Are” really spoke to me. We are the sum total of everything that has happened in our lives … the good, the bad, and the fugly.
I love that album. I wouldn’t say it changed my life, but it’s definitely one of my favorites. Beautiful, underrated stuff. I was so bummed that when they took it on tour, they didn’t come anywhere near where I live.
You may know it already, but if you don’t, I recommend a newer VNV track in that vein called From My Hands. It coincidentally came out at a time when I was feeling the exact emotions that the song describes and is one of those rare times when a song has no errant lines that don’t apply. It’s a pretty universal theme.
