Music for the Soul

‘All music is beautiful.’ – Billy Strayhorn (an American composer, pianist and arranger).

I’m going to do something a bit different in this blog, because I’m listening to a song right now which is really making me think what an impact certain songs have on particular points of your life (for the record, Radical Face with their song Welcome Home, Son).

Music is beautiful. Songs can see you through every moment of your life, be them happy, sad, thought provoking, angry, jealous, gentle, loud, poppy, dance alongs, sing alongs… The list is endless. The melodies of tracks help, but in many cases, it is the lyrics that really hit home and create a ‘moment’. I have so many songs in my life that I associate with different times in my life, and they are all special.

Song writers are poets who put their lyrics to music and create songs and tracks that inspire and relate to people and situations across the world. Having written poems myself, I know that it can be a very therapeutic process for the writer too – their writing allows them to let out pent up emotions and feelings that otherwise might be bottled up, for fear of annoying people by talking about something too much, or someone.

So the difference in this blog today is that I’m going to:
1. Write my Desert Island Discs – the tracks I would take with me if I was stuck on a desert island and could never listen to any new music again.
2. Write why I’ve chosen those tracks.

Here goes!

1. U2 – Sometimes you can’t make it on your own.
This isn’t my favourite U2 song – Beautiful Day is. But I can relate this song to a couple of situations in my life, and definitely to at least one person, who felt (and probably still feels) that they can make it on their own. Maybe they can, who knows. My favourite lyric is – ‘Sing, you’re the reason I sing, you’re the reason why the opera is in me’. I think everyone needs someone to put the opera into their lives and make them shine in everything they do.

2. Coldplay – Don’t Panic
This reminds me of nights in my childhood, when Mum would play this. It was one of the first ‘pop’ albums Dad bought her, and the whole family loved it, still loves it. Then, one night, I was out walking with someone and the stars were out. It was freezing cold, the sky seemed huge, but the stars were so beautiful that we stood and looked at them for a while. Somehow, this song came up in conversation by way of a description for that moment, and it’s been a bit more special to me since then.

3. Florence and the Machine – You’ve got the Love
This song came out around the time that I left uni in 2010. Me and my house mate were the last two left in our house and after a hard day packing, we decided we were going to get drunk and go out to celebrate finishing uni, getting degrees and to say goodbye to Southampton and each other. We never made it out – we sat and drank and talked and smoked and laughed and got emotional and had a fantastic night, which ended with us standing on chairs, singing this song to each other. It’s a blurry memory, but an amazing one none the less. We’re still best friends, and this song still reminds me of her every time I hear it.

4. Karl Jenkins – Adiemus
When I was little, we used to come on holiday to Wales (before we moved here). Our family would spend hours in the car travelling over from Suffolk, and further hours during the week (or what felt like hours!) as we explored the countryside. Apart from story tapes to keep us occupied, Mum also played this album a lot (the title track has the same name as the album). Now, whenever I hear this song, it reminds me of trips out around Wales, green hills and for some reason (because it never seems sunny now we live here!), sunshine and picnics. Perfect childhood memories.

5. Lana Del Rey – Video Games
I loved this song from the moment I heard it, but didn’t catch an artist’s name for the first few times I heard it, so spent ages trying to find out who sang it! The reasons why I love this song are really personal, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing them, but anybody who knows me will know the reason why I love it, and that’s good enough for me. In the meantime, she can carry on singing and creating beautiful music!

6. Rodrigo – Concerto de Aranjuez
Another childhood memory – my parents love classical music and my Dad loves Spanish guitar music, so I grew up with it playing in the background a lot. For some reason, this melody always stood out for me, and I still love it. Other classical tracks stand out too, but this song reminds me of our old house too, which I like.

7. Van Morrison – Have I told you lately that I love you
Although I think Van Morrison is singing about a partner, I always think about my Mum when I hear this song. She really does ‘ease my troubles’ and she always makes me feel better, no matter what. I probably don’t tell her enough that’s she’s great, and this song reminds me I should! This song always leaves me feeling vaguely sad too.

8. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
This is the most well-known song of the White Stripes album, Elephant, and rightly so. The entire album is genius, but this song is a stand out track. I remember getting this album given to me by a friend in Year Nine, and going home to listen to it. I think I kept it in the CD player for about a year afterwards – it was the first ‘grown up’ album I ever liked and I couldn’t stop listening to it! I’d liked other albums before it – Feeder, Comfort in Sound being just one, but to me, this music was something completely new and unlike anything I’d played before. I listened a year or so ago when Zane Lowe played this as one of his Masterpiece albums, and played the CD straight afterwards too. The old feelings came back – the CD was left in the player for about a month afterwards and car journeys were accompanied by the sound of Jack White’s voice and guitar playing. The song, and the album, reminds me about growing up, my teenage year and finding my way through the high school jungle!

Music is emotive, provocative, beautiful and soulful. It is also extremely personal. Everyone is different in life, so it stands to reason that everyone’s tastes in music are likely to differ too! Nobody’s taste in music should be dismissed as too different, shallow, deep, weird or strange. We’re all entitled to our own favourite bands and artists, and we’re all entitled to appreciate music in our own way too. Whilst some may worship the very ground their favourite band walks on (got all the albums, been to all the concerts, know everything there is to know about the lead singer), others may go through life liking just one song from one album by that band and being entirely disinterested in hearing anything else they have to offer! I know for a fact I’m more like the latter person – my music tastes are so eclectic you can leap from Eminem to Van Morrison to Maroon 5 to Katy Perry in my playlists and everything in between! There’s nothing wrong with being deeply interested in music, or only liking one song from every band or artist you listen to. For some, music is a hobby, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. The fact is, everyone loves music in some form or other, and everyone can tie an emotion or memory to one song or another.

So that’s it people! My desert island discs… I’m sure they’ll change in the future, because we’re always evolving, and new, equally great songs will always be produced. There’ll be songs in the future for every occasion in my life, with the right lyrics and melodies to suit my moods and provoke the same emotions as the songs above provoked in me in the past. 

Have a think what your Desert Islands Discs might be… It’s nice thinking about the past, and looking at your memories through music. So why not give it a go?

‘Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.’ – Paul Simon (Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist).