# Songs that have impacted Your Life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784 "2010-10-11T13:35:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PennyGaunjworth\_of\_chicago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@PennyGaunjworth\_of\_chicago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PennyGaunjworth_of_chicago)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784/21 "2010-10-15T22:17:05Z")
Zombie by the cranberries ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784/22 "2010-10-18T01:06:58Z")
George Michael’s **Freedom '90**. Playing the minute I got back into the car after leaving court as a legally emancipated minor. All we have to do Is take these lies and make them true somehow All we have to see Is that I don’t belong to you, and you don’t belong to me Also, in a similar vein, Madonna’s **Human Nature**. _And I’m not sorry It’s human nature And I’m not sorry I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me_ Both songs helped me be strong through a very difficult time in my life. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784/23 "2010-10-18T18:03:30Z")
**XTC** ’s _Dear God_, in the 80’s. I also discovered at the same time the earlier **Jethro Tull** songs _Wind Up_ and _My God_. We were an a-religious family in a rural conservative region and we’d spent our lives awkwardly deflecting questions about religion, church, etc. Wide access to media didn’t exist for an adolescent kid struggling with finding his moral center, and to find these songs validating my own inner feelings was a revelation. Not only was I no longer alone, but it felt that I had a loud voice in the media, I wasn’t a freak for being an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784/24 "2010-10-19T04:34:41Z")
_At Seventeen_ by Janis Ian helped me realize that I wasn’t the only one who felt like a weirdo in a world full of “normal” teenagers. _The small-town eyes will gape at you In mute surprise when payment due Exceeds accounts received At seventeen_ True when Ms. Ian wrote it, true in the 80s when I was a teen, and no less true now. My junior year of high school, I became friends with a boy who turned me on to the Smiths. I was so sad to be discovering them as they were breaking up. I became, and continue to be, a fan of the Smiths and of Morrissey, and one of the high points of the past few, crappy years for me was going to see Morrissey at the Palladium. To this day I can’t listen to _Suedehead_ without thinking of Eric. Dude, wherever you are, I hope you’re OK. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784/25 "2010-10-19T06:26:45Z")
Wilco’s _How To Fight Loneliness_ is pretty important to me, because it’s what introduced me to the band. But when I’m feeling really down, hopeless, etc I listen to a song from the same album _Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway Again_ > [@](#): > > We’ll find a way regardless > To make some sense out of this mess > Well it’s a test but I believe > A kiss is all we need > > All the above for being in love > Shouldn’t that alone be enough? > Oh it’s tough when love’s a weed > It grows inside of me > > Nothing’s ever gonna stand in my > Nothing’s ever gonna stand in my > Nothing’s ever gonna stand in my way again Great Lake Swimmers _Still_ helps me rally myself, too. > [@](#): > > I’m still a note that’s unplayed, ink on a page, I’m still, I’m still > I’m still a cry in the night, lonesome and high, I’m still, I’m still > > I’m still tuned to an instrument of greater and unknown design > I’m still looking for direction, some kind of sign > > I’m still tuning myself to the great key, I’m still, I’m still [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-impacted-your-life/556784.md?page=1)