By Chris Keene<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like to sing. I\u2019m not a pro, not a pathetic drunken karaoke howler, just a guy who picks up a guitar and belts one out every now and then. All my most important songs are songs I sing, or wish I could sing. They are songs that collided with me, picked me up by the scruff of the neck and demanded something, sometimes even settling for just an idiotic grin (see first selection).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Feelin\u2019 Groovy \u2013 Simon and Garfunkel<\/strong> – that critical initial pick \u2013 honesty or hipness; the ironic self of today or the blissfully unhip self of yesterday? Even the name of the song contains painful yester-words, bringing back even more painful pseudo-musical experiences with pseudo-bands like the Partridge Family. So be it. This was the first song I really played well on my guitar, it stands proud and archaic at the top of my list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. River of Love \u2013 T Bone Burnett<\/strong> – the song I sang to get back the<\/em> girl. It is the only time I can remember when one song literally changed my life. Although singing it didn\u2019t keep her from leaving me during that particular altercation, it did set a hook which – together with careful reeling \u2013 eventually brought about a long-term reconciliation \u201cit starts when the heart gets broken in two, from the thief of belief in anything that\u2019s true, but there\u2019s a river of love, that runs through all time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Hey Little Guy \u2013 Steve Earle<\/strong> (Guitar Town) \u2013 one of those pre and post songs. I liked it pre-kids, but after singing it almost every night for three years to my two boys, it just oozed into the fabric of my life. It\u2019s hard to tell where this song ends and my love for my boys begins \u201cgo to sleep little rock-n-roller, your daddy\u2019s gonna knock em all dead tonight, one of these days, when you\u2019re a little older, you can ride the big bus, everything will be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Fire and Rain \u2013 James Taylor<\/strong>. This is another stridently uncool song. Only when my dad died and I needed to sing a song at his funeral, I was supposed to sing Turn, Turn, Turn, but my brain just blanked when I tried to play it. After a few moments, my brain rebooted, and this was what popped out \u2013 my dad\u2019s favorite song. \u201cI\u2019ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought I\u2019d see you again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Joan of Arc \u2013 Jennifer Warnes\/Leonard Cohen<\/strong> (Famous Blue Raincoat). Not just another beautiful duet, this song makes me cry more reliably than any other song. Could anyone person really be that good? Are most other people always that bad? Leonard croaks, \u201cand finally, she understood, if I was fire, oh, she must be wood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Walking on Sunshine \u2013 Go Gos<\/strong>. Our first wedding dance song has to be on the list, even if I picked it because the wedding band butchered all the slow songs on their demo tape (even though most \u201cwedding\u201d songs are pretty hackneyed even before a semi-polished band even gets their hands on them). Contains a perfect encapsulation of pop philosophy, \u201cI used to think maybe you loved me, now know that it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. Deportee \u2013 Woody Guthrie<\/strong>. \u201cThis machine kills fascists\u201d was inscribed on Woody\u2019s guitar. He believed – maybe more than any other songwriter – that writing a song could change the world. Because he believed, his do go on changing the world, one person at a time. \u201cWho are these people all scattered like dry leaves, the radio said they were just deportees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. Fisherman\u2019s Blues \u2013 Waterboys<\/strong>. As long as there are drunken Irishman wailing for all the lost could have beens, I\u2019ll be queuing up at the record counter to buy their CDs. \u201cI wish I were a brakeman, on a Herkley-Healan train, crashing into the heartland, like a cannonball in the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Silver Dagger \u2013 Joan Baez<\/strong>. Just another folkie, just another woman done wrong, just achingly beautiful. \u201cGo court another tender maiden, and hope that she will be your wife, for I\u2019ve been warned, and I\u2019ve decided, to live alone, all of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. Walking on a Wire \u2013 Richard and Linda Thompson<\/strong> (Shoot out the lights). The most famous musically recorded breakup in pop history. \u201cI wish I could please you tonight, but my medicine just won\u2019t come out right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. Sweet Jane \u2013 Cowboy Junkies<\/strong> (Trinity Sessions\/Lou Reed). Amazing what a lot of atmospheric reverb and a decent voice does for Lou Reed\u2019s moody song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. You Are The Light \u2013 Lone Justice<\/strong>. Maybe the essence of pop is a fleeting song from an ephemeral group nobody knows existed but which brightened many an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. Entella Hotel \u2013 Peter Case<\/strong>. \u201cYou check into your room in the Entella Hotel, get used to the gloom and the smell\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. Wrecking Ball \u2013 Emmylou Harris<\/strong> (Neil Young).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. Downtown Train \u2013 Everything But The Girl<\/strong> (Acoustic\/Tom Waits). Was it right for me to teach a four year old the words \u201cYou raise your hands and they scatter like crows, they have nothing that can capture your heart. They\u2019re just the thorns without the rose, but be careful of them in the dark\u201d? I\u2019ll let you know in ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. Witch of the Westmereland \u2013 Stan Rogers<\/strong> (Between the Breaks Live). \u201cPale was the wounded knight, who bore the Rowan shield. Loud and cruel were the raven\u2019s cries that feasted on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. World Inside The World \u2013 Rhett Miller<\/strong>. Any song that quotes Don Dilillo deserves a listen. \u201cAnd if love is all we\u2019re made of, then what are we afraid of, just \u2018cause freedom rings, it doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18. Four Strong Winds \u2013 Ian & Sylvia<\/strong>. This was the song that I could listen to my parents sing forever. \u201cFour strong winds that blow lonely, seven seas that run wild. All those things that don\u2019t change, come what may.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19. Hansel & Gretel \u2013 Laurie Anderson<\/strong>. The only real humorist in rock. \u201cHansel and Gretel are alive and well, and they\u2019re living in Berlin. She is a cocktail waitress, he had a part in a Fassbinder film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20. New Favorite \u2013 Allison Kraus<\/strong>. Sings like a skylark, plays a mean fiddle. \u201cNew Favorite, they all say it. I\u2019ll say it too \u2013 you\u2019ve got a new favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21. Caroline No \u2013 Beach Boys<\/strong>. Poses the eternal loss of innocence question, \u201cWhere did your long hair go, where is the girl I used to know, when did you lose that happy glow \u2013 oh Caroline no\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 22. Cheer Up, Honey I Hope You Can \u2013 Wilco<\/strong> (Hotel Yankee Foxtrot) With a title this gloomy, you know the song is not going to make anyone feel better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23. Side of the Road \u2013 Lucinda Williams<\/strong>. \u201cI want to know you\u2019re there but I want to be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 24. The Tower of Learning \u2013 Rufus Wainwright<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ve seen it in your eyes, what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 25. Sliding Delta \u2013 Doc Watson<\/strong>. I can\u2019t play half as easy or sound one tenth as good as Doc and his son Merle pickin\u2019 along together. \u201cSlidin\u2019 Delta, run right by my door, gonna leave here honey, don\u2019t you want to go? Easy rider, see what you done done, you made me love you, now you\u2019re on the run. No, no baby, things ain\u2019t quite that way, old trouble\u2019s found me, you know I can\u2019t stay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Chris Keene I like to sing. 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