Sunday, January 01, 2006

My Soundtrack

A month or so ago I posed the question "If your life had a soundtrack, what would be on it?". I got some interesting answers from a few of you, and I appreciate the responses. But I did not give an answer myself. I felt that this was not something to be hastily answered. So I gave it much thought over the past month or so. And now, after much reflection and deliberation, I think I have arrived at an appropriate response.

Before I reveal my playlist, I must explain. First, let me tell you what this soundtrack is not. It is NOT a list of my favorite songs. That would serve little purpose. It is also NOT a chronolgy of my life in musical form. That would be too hard. Instead, this soundtrack represents many of the feelings, emotions, experiences, etc. that have been a part of my life. Each song means and represents something different. I carefully selected songs that would cover the broad range of human emotion that myself, as well a the rest of us, have experienced. The result, to me, was quite amazing.

Why do I do this? Well, one reason is that this is a creative way to express myself. The second reason is that I take myself too seriously. Either way, it is something I wanted to do, because it is both fun and refreshing. And after it was finished, I burned the playlist onto a CD for my own personal enjoyment. It is a fine piece of work to be sure.

So here it is. Make of it what you will. I hope you enjoy it.

1) Where To Begin by My Morning Jacket. This song speaks of being lost and confused in the world, like being on a road and not knowing where it is taking you. How many times have we felt like this?

2) Yellow by Coldplay. To me, Yellow is about dedication and commitment. Chris Martin writes about what he would do for those he cares about. It is important that we show those that we love that we would do anything for them.

3) Fallen by Sarah McLachlan. This song is about the times that we mess things up. I can't count how many times I have screwed things up in my life, making the wrong decisions in the wrong situations. None of us here make the right decison every time, and this song says that perfectly.

4) Mr. Brightside by The Killers. Simply put, this song is about jealousy and pain. It's about the times that you have been angry at someone on the inside but still cover it up with a smile on the outside. It's about the bitter feeling of jealousy that stings your heart when life gives someone else what you wanted, and you are left holding the short end of the stick.

5) My Hit And Run by Third Eye Blind. This song is about surviving a motorcycle crash. But more than that is about being thankful for the time that you have been given on this earth. And it is about, in that moment that your bike crashed and you are flying through the air towards possible death, who you really care about, as their images flash through your mind. It speaks of not taking the time you have and the people you care about for granted.

6) Anchor by Lifehouse. I like this song becasue it is the perfect analogy for the role that God plays in our lives. When God is our anchor, when we rely on him for everything we need, nothing can wash us out to sea. He is our foundation and what we must turn to in all situations that come our way.

7) All Kinds Of Time by Fountains Of Wayne. This song takes the few seconds that a football quarterback has after recieving the snap and making a decison to throw the ball and turns it into one of my favorite songs. I think this song really speaks to me becasue, when we step back and look at everything around us, and think about all that we hold dear, it can turn even the most pressure-filled situations into the best experiences.

8) Io (This Time Around) by Helen Stellar. This song has only a few words "This time around you can be anyone", but they have a lot of meaning. God gives us a second chance when we screw things up, and the next time that situation comes up, we can be the person He wants us to be. This is just a cool song.

9) The Hardest Part by Coldplay. The crucial part of this song is when Chris Martin says "Everything I know is wrong, everything I do just comes undone, everything is torn apart, and that's the hardest part". Words of frustration to be sure. But this is how I feel many times: I don't understand what is going on around me, and everything I try to do in life seems to "come undone". Things that I once thought were constants in life are no longer there, and things get torn apart for seemingly no reason at all. But on the flipside, it is in these very times that I need to trust God to take care of things, because He understands what I do not.

10) 21st Century Kid by Jaime Cullum. This song is about all of us really, growing up in the 21st century where we have so many different paths we can travel. Most importantly, it speaks of letting your voice be heard among the noise and chaos of the world we live in because, believe it or not, people will listen.

11) Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional. We have all had those guys or girls over the years that we have "liked", so to speak. This song is about all the vivid memories that the mind holds of time spent with those people. It reminds me of those memories every time I hear it.

12) Blind by Lifehouse. Regrets are something that we all must deal with. This song is about such those regrets. Often we regret something we have said to people, but more often I think we regret not saying things that we should have said to people.

13) Going To California by Led Zeppelin. This song is about change, something I have had to deal a lot with since my first days of college life. Change is inevitable, and more than often it is for the better.

14) All I Want by Sanctus Real. I like this song because I think it shows what our focus should be in life: glorifying God in all that we do. It talks about taking all that we have and giving it back to God, because he deserves all that we have.

15) Iris by Goo Goo Dolls. What I hear in this song is a basic need of all humans: acceptnace. We all want to be liked, and often times we are afraid for the world to see what we are really like, when in reality they are feeling the same things we are.

16) What It Is To Burn by Finch. This is a song about pain, something we all experience. But it is in those times of pain that we often learn the most, as we are most vulnerable and willing to be helped. Pain is an essential part of life; but we learn from it and move on.

17) Bitterweet Symphony by The Verve. The feeling of bittersweetness is one of those strangest things you can experience. It's feeling sad while being happy, experiencing pain while feeling joy. This song deals with those contradictary feelings, as well as feeling the need to change but the desire to stay the same.

Well that is my soundtrack. I really have nothing else to say about it except that I hope you enjoyed it. My goal was to take both the negative and positve things of life and balance them into the list, something I think I did a pretty good job of. Let me hear yout thoughts.

posted by Wes @ 11:55 PM

6 Comments:

At 1/02/2006 12:08:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

iris is one of those songs I don't want to admit that I like.....but I do. when everything seems to be broken, i just want you to know who I am. I always took it to mean that something went wrong between him and the one he cares about and everything seemed to get messed up and he doesn't care what anybody else thinks, doesnt want anyone else to see him, he just wants her to know that he cares about her and who he really is isn't the man she has seen over the past little while.

i can't believe i admitted i like a goo goo dolls song.

 
At 1/02/2006 01:51:00 PM, Blogger troy said...

your life is depressing...

 
At 1/02/2006 07:14:00 PM, Blogger Wes said...

I wanted to add more songs that would represent my generally happy state, but unfortunately I couldn't really find any that fit sound-wise. Unfortuntely, the genres of music I like have sadder lyrics. After reading over what I wrote, it did sound a little depressing, I agree with you there. I didn't mean for it to sound like I was in some depressed, melancholy mood all the time. I have experienced all of those things I listed, but over the course of a lifetime, not at this very moment. That's what I was going for when I made this. My life is not at all depressing. I am a generally happy and content person. Kind of like Tapp minus the neuroticism. :)

 
At 1/02/2006 07:33:00 PM, Blogger d blake said...

a good solution to the melanchola would to be add (let's all say it together) "I'm so Happy" to the list.

 
At 1/03/2006 04:24:00 PM, Blogger SMITTY said...

your post was a great idea...i'll have to think of mine. oh yeah, you forgot Gittin' Jiggy Wit It.

 
At 1/04/2006 11:57:00 AM, Blogger Josh said...

I love Sarah McLachlan, and "Fallen" is one of my favorite songs. There was a not-so-happy time in my life where all I did was drive around harmonizing to that song, crying, and eating scones and Lexapro. Is that weird?

 

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