MK's Favorite Song

DAY 1: Favorite Song

Music has a special place in my life. I find music usually can express what I am feeling and while I am not the writer or creator the song it can NAIL IT for me. It can be a cathartic release or an inspiration or an accompaniment to a road trip. I LOVE MUSIC and generally have it on all the time – in my car, in my office, anywhere I can. A certain song can also bring up vivid memories or pull up an image in my mind of a person or place.

While I am sure most people would say the same thing, for me it feels like I have an intense relationship with music. I wish I could scribble down my feelings and have them be an expression of my heart or stand up and belt out with passion a song that was a view into my thoughts but while I can play Fur Elise on the piano - I can’t sing.

So I live vicariously through the music on the radio or on my phone. Chad has introduced me to a wider range of tunes and opened my taste up to include some music I would never have thought to listen to. Chad has always liked the more Indie type bands and music.

To pick just one favorite song does not seem possible – there are so many to choose from and all with special meaning.

I always think of my brother Jamey when I hear The Devil Went Down to Georgia and Rambling Man because he had a Southern Fried Rock album he used to listen to when he was very little. I think he would find it amusing that I would pick these two songs out of the gazillion songs he has on hard drive. Jamey is like Chad in that he has a wide appreciation for music.

The instrumental Peter and the Wolf will forever conger up images of my mom when she was in her twenties and early thirties. She would play this record (yep on a record player) when we were home and busy around the house.

Jet Song / Maria / I Feel Pretty – the entire West Side Story soundtrack makes me think of my father. For all his military he-man testosterone-ness, he has a beautiful appreciation of the arts. He thoroughly enjoys operas, symphonies, ballets, and musicals. He and my mother made sure I saw as many performances that came through Tulsa as possible – Carmen, Nutcracker, Aida, etc.

I immediately think of Leigh Anne and her ex-boyfriend when I hear My Own Worst Enemy from Blink 182 – not sure she is thrilled about that however Closer to Fine – actually anything by the Indigo Girls, Patsy Cline, or bluegrass makes me think of her too.

Hold On To the Night – Junior Prom
Centerfold – 1982 Early MTV
Feel Like Making Love – College Float Trips
Neon Moon – Silver Bullet Bar Columbia, MO
YMCA – Roller skating in grade school
Gettin Jiggy With It – RA #18
Escape The Pina Colada Song – Broken Arrow and Disco Duck Records
Shameless – Dreaming of Chad before I knew who he was

Blue October’s Hate Me is a song that make me sad but in a therapeutic way. It is hard to explain - I do not know Justin’s pain first hand but something about the song comes through me like I can feel it. Dave Matthew’s Grey Street does something similar but not as strongly. I can play these songs when I am in a funk and it just resonates.

To pick one song that makes me think of Chad is hard – the obvious choice is Crush NOT Crash but Crush by Dave Matthews – it is how Chad proposed and our first dance at our wedding. It is a song that is beyond special to me. But there are so many others some of which I bet he doesn’t even realize – Just Wait, Flagpole Sitta, Shimmer, Slide, Summons, Who Am I?, Calling You (he knows this one – it’s my ringtone for him), I Alone, La Vie Boheme/Seasons of Love/Over the Moon, and on and on. Side note: what is important to know here that it isn’t always the lyrics that make me think of him but the song may be part of a bigger scene in my mind.

So after all this rambling – (Look Jamey I am a Rambling Woman!) to pick one favorite I don’t know how so I went with what I would want at my funeral. Chad and I have had this discussion and while I like the Some Where Over the Rainbow by the Hawaiian guy I will pick Louie Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. I know there is a mix of the Some Where Over the Rainbow and the What A Wonderful World but for this exercise I am picking the pure version of What A Wonderful World. Cheezy but true.

When I am at peace and my heart is open to view the world with all of its beauty and glory and I can see God in the people that surround me and feel His love with every breath – it is that song. That is the legacy I want to leave my children and when they hear this song they think of good things and me.

It is a wonderful world – it is just some days it is easier to remember than others.