Hello, too many days late! Last Thursday through yesterday-ish, I had what I hope was the only bad cold/sinus infection I’ll experience in 2019. So here I am with the Week 2 Song Challenge Recap, with the Week 3 Recap not far behind at all. Let’s not waste any time!
Day 6: Transports you to another place and time
“Drift Away” by Dobie Gray
The place: Midland Dairy in Kearny, New Jersey
The time: throughout the school year, circa 1999-2004
On most days during lunch period, I would visit this great deli/convenience store near school to get a bottle of Coke (in a glass bottle, because I was a class act), some kind of celebrity-centric magazine (to balance out the classiness), and a Snickers ice cream bar (no explanation necessary). I swear that every time I walked into the store, “Drift Away” was playing. I often visited Midland Dairy with my friend Chris during this time, so hearing “Drift Away” reminds me of him too, which is great because Chris is great.
Day 7: Would be the soundtrack to your training montage
“Magic” by B.o.B (feat. Rivers Cuomo)
Let me be perfectly clear: I am a complete sucker for upbeat, gleeful songs ESPECIALLY if they have a whiff of cheese. I love the inherent silliness in music like this, and if the song has any sort of confidence-building message, even if it’s more tongue-in-cheek, you know I am going to add that to my exercise or my “let’s rock this presentation” playlist. And since I’m a little nerdy and odd, the fact that Rivers Cuomo is the one actually singing the words “I’ve got the magic in me” makes it a bit of an anthem for the awkward person who wants to be convinced that they, too, indeed have the magic in them. It’s sincere in a bit of a desperate way, and I adore it.
Day 8: Is really good live (based on your experience)
“Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2
Typically I prefer smaller venues to arenas when consuming live music–small places require a more stripped-down and music-focused act instead of a multi-media performance, and I confess I like the dinginess and casualness of a bar show versus a concert that’s in the triple digits for one ticket (not to mention it takes like an hour to get out of the parking lot at the end of an arena show, ugh).
The only time I’ve seen U2 is also the only time I’ve been to a huge venue show and afterwards felt like “yeah, I’d like to do that again”. Arena shows are great places for flashier entertainers with costume changes and other bells and whistles and marvels in concert special effects and dancers and other such business. When I saw U2, there was a long stage and a massive screen, but otherwise it was just the band dressing in the same style they’ve been dressing in for decades, and yet they do not get swallowed up in the vastness of the place where they’re performing. Bono is this small dude who somehow manages to be larger than life, leaning on sheer charisma instead of props or other add-on’s. It’s incredible. I was captivated by him, and I literally cried while I sang along with everyone else: “Free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride!”
Also, I chose to feature this specific video because the footage was shot the day before I saw U2 in the same venue.
Day 9: You can’t help but dance to
“Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars)
This song is too cool for me and I can’t handle how much I want to dance to it. This is the song that got me out on the dance floor during a work party recently, and I’m embarrassed just thinking about how goofy I must’ve looked. But I remember not caring at the time because there was literally nothing I could do about it.
Day 10: You can sing really really well
“When I’m Sixty-Four” by The Beatles
This song is sweet and the melody has a limited range that’s neither too high or too low for me–a goldilocks of a song! I’m not a great or strong singer, but sometimes I can hold a tune. I can hold a tune with this song and so I belt it out when it graces me with its presence on the radio (YES I already told you I listen to the radio!). Not that this is really a song you “belt out” but you know what I mean.
Day 11: You resonate with most right now
“Crossed Wires” by Superchunk
One of the many upsides of my current job is that I do a lot of independent, quiet work which allows me to listen to music throughout my day. Recently I was listening to a playlist on Google Music and the first lines in this song stopped me in my tracks:
I went out and felt the sun on my face
Then a tug on my leg and now I’m
Back in the cave
There’s a moment of peace
That I just can’t re-create
I immediately was like YUP, I get it, and this song gets me.
The imagery here is a boiled down version of what my daily struggle with anxiety looks like. Often I’ll get a glimpse of something hopeful and joyful (e.g. a start of a day, a good feeling, an idea, anything really), and then something else, internally or externally, will almost immediately counter and overcome the feelings of hope and joy, replacing them with despair.
Of course I don’t want to feel despairing, so it’s a constant battle of hope versus hopelessness that takes place in the innermost recesses of my mind. And since it’s rooted so deeply, it comes out in ways that are tough to explain. It takes different forms, including experiencing complicated and contradicting emotions, acting moody and flaky, isolating myself from people altogether, etc. BUT, in the midst of this, even though everything is chaos, there are moments when I do feel the sun on my face, and that brief peace is a gift when I otherwise constantly live in fear that something in my life is going to burst into flames.
If that was too much of a downer for you, I’m not going to apologize, so just watch the music video to feel better (or watch it again if you watched it already).
Day 12: Was #1 the week you were born
“Invisible Touch” by Genesis
Remember when I said the following: “I am a complete sucker for upbeat, gleeful songs ESPECIALLY if they have a whiff of cheese”? Well, perhaps it’s because I was born with a predisposition to loving this type of music! This song! This music video! It’s everything. I couldn’t be prouder of being born during this moment in popular music, ha! Truly though.
Coming soon: Days 13-19 of the 30-Day Song Challenge!