Seeing as this week I have nothing interesting or blog-worthy to report, I've decided to do a rather special blog. It was an idea I had as I was going through my ipod: If I had to pick 10 songs that would define me, what would they be? Its a concept that I thought would be easy, just pick a few songs from my favourite artists, but then I started thinking of songs that had a lot of significance to me; consequently every song here has a story to tell. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be (thats what she said).
Apologies to anybody who just thought this blog would just be about cycling; this will be fully resumed in about 2 weeks when we will be cycling from Mirepoix (my current location) back to the UK. But for now, just listen to some wonderful music.
Apologies to anybody who just thought this blog would just be about cycling; this will be fully resumed in about 2 weeks when we will be cycling from Mirepoix (my current location) back to the UK. But for now, just listen to some wonderful music.
I was first introduced to Bon Iver by my friend Dan Scouse about 3-4 years ago. Since then he has gained massive popularity, primarily due to the fact that his debut album is incredible. He recorded every song on his own in a log cabin in Wisconsin. I listened to the album every night for about 6 months with Laura by my side.
Buddy Holly was my childhood hero. I was enthralled by his rise to fame, his success and then the tragedy. It was the first proper album I ever owned and Rave on was one of my favourite tracks of his.
Its hard not to love David Bowie, and I could have chosen about 20 different songs of his. But I recently heard this song at the end of the documentary: The Cove. I've never appreciated the lyrics so much and it gave me an overwhelming desire to help environmental causes, something I will pursue well into the future.
This song reminds me of the best 3 months of my life. It was constantly played in America while I was working with American conservation experience. Many of the projects involved long drives to different national parks and this song became legendary throughout the ranks at ACE. I still remember a drunken 'A capella' version of the song by about 15 of us in Flagstaff brewery which brought the bar to a complete standstill.
I've no idea why I became so obsessed with this song, but it represents the only music rebellion era I've ever had in my life. I used to love coming home drunk to this song and putting it on full blast to the dismay of my university housemates. I still remember my friend Adam screaming at me to turn off 'that shite'. And he can really scream. I retaliated by turning it up even louder. It makes me laugh knowing that this song represents the music rebel in me.
I'm a newcomer to classical music, but there's no better place to start. 'The planets' is a series I can listen to endlessly, and Jupiter is my favourite. It needs no more explanation, however, this particular performance is absolute perfection. I love how the conductor becomes overwhelmed with emotion after about 3 minutes.
Motown is the ultimate in feel good music. I think this is about as good as it gets. I defy anybody not to feel happy while this song is on.
Just in case things were getting too happy, here's a classic which reminds me of one specific day I had in America. Me and a few friends from ACE were in a whiskey bar in Flagstaff at about 1pm on a tuesday. Their jukebox was incredible and we put this on; the mood suddenly changed and one of my friends started getting really weird and insulting everybody for no reason. She got really personal and it actually made me question whether I was a good person or not. It was strange because before that moment I had had nothing but respect for her, but with this song in the background I can still remember that moment so well, I had never been insulted to my face like that before, and I don't think I ever will be in the future. Then later in the day, by complete coincidence this song came on at a bar we were at and we all sang and danced like nothing had ever happened.
This song speaks so many truths about how I've started to feel in life.
Possibly the greatest song of all time. Its also tops my 'most played' chart on my ipod so it must have some significance to me. It never fails to give me shivers and despite what I'm ever busy with at the time, I always have to stop and just listen to the last few minutes with my eyes closed.
Well that brings it to 10. It was too hard to pick out a single track from Bob Dylan, but otherwise I think its a pretty good list.
