Tuesday Random 5: Soundtrack of my Life

Hello!  I'm baaaack!  Sorry for the neglect, I have been busy with life and whatnot.  No excuses, I am a lazy, lazy writer sometimes.  However, here's one to get us ALL in the mood to jot down a few sentences!

One of my ol' college pals started up a Facebook post every Tuesday that she named the Tuesday Random 5.  It can be a thematic post, or it can be totally random observations or experiences from the past week.  Eventually, it spread and now there are probably 8-10 of us that post on a weekly basis.  I decided to move it to my blog after one of my friends did the same.  A good way to make an honest effort at writing again.  Please, by all means, join in!!  We would love to have you.

This week's post is taking a lot of thought and planning.  One of the normal Random 5 posters suggested that this week be a "Soundtrack of my life" sort of post.  Therefore, I will try (desperately) to limit this to 5 songs that define my life.  This is going to be difficult.  I am a musical person.  I love music, concerts, playing instruments, singing (off key and rather deficiently), and otherwise moving and grooving to the sound, man.  I sing and dance along to musicals in the kitchen.  I bob my head and play the drums on my steering wheel in the car and I play air guitar when Green Day comes on my mp3 player at work.  I have a soundtrack constantly playing in my head.  In other words, music influences my daily life.

This is why it is agonizing, to say the least, to narrow down my soundtrack to just 5 songs.  Here we go...*eeeeek*

1.  As a child, there were numerous musical influences in my life.  Many memories are punctuated with songs that I will never forget.  My parents had a collection of vinyl records and 8 track tapes that were a mixture of country, rock, and Christmas music, but what I really remember for much of my youth is hearing the oldies.  My parents loved the oldies.  Every family vacation, we would listen to them and my parents even bought one of those Time magazine cassette tape sets of the best of the oldies.  We love them still.  One in particular that I pick out again and again is "The Wanderer" by Dion.  He's also the singer behind "Runaround Sue", another of my all-time favorites.  Here's proof that even as a child, I loved the rebel.

2.  My tween years were devoted to Poison and hair bands in general, because, the 80s happened people!  However, I wouldn't say any of those songs defined my life.  Then came college and in 1996, my friend Ryan introduced me to my first taste of alternative rock, a genre that I still listen to more than any other.  This type of music was a little beyond my small town country upbringing.  We didn't even get a radio station that played this music.  My friends, "The Distance" by Cake

3.  One of the happiest moments of my life, dancing to this song with my new husband.

"Could I have this Dance" by Anne Murray  Cliche'?  Perhaps.  Still love it, though.

4.  I love musicals.  They are my jam(s).  Rent, Les Miserables, West Side Story.  I cannot get enough.  It's hard to pick one that really defines me, but I have to say that for a long time, I felt a kinship with Eponine from Les Miserables.  I've had those relationships of longing and it can be nearly soul destroying.  The song "On my Own" is so poignant and beautiful and when Lea Salonga sings it, I am practically in tears.

5.  Oh no, I'm already to my last pick!  How is that possible?  No room for The White Stripes' "Icky Thump", "Grapevine Fire" by Death Cab for Cutie, or Mumford and Sons' "The Cave".  I didn't even mention my devotion to the greatest rock era that includes Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Queen!  I didn't talk about my love for old country, mainly Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", "Lady" by Kenny Rogers, and Eddie Rabbitt's "I love a Rainy Night", nor did I dissect for you my love of one of those songs that no one's heard of, like The Killers' "Jenny was a friend of mine".  ARGH!  It's okay, it's okay, it's okay....*breathing*  No, really.  It's okay, because my last pick is great.  You'll love it.  If you've never heard it, click play and enjoy.  It's one of those songs that I barely knew existed when I was younger.  It would pop up on my mp3 player and one day, I really noticed it, ya' know?  It tripped me up.  A defining sound of a generation, The Beatles played good music.  They occupy 23 spots on the Rolling Stone's Top 500 songs of All Time for a reason.  My favorite though, is Eleanor Rigby.  Sad, soulful, masterful.

Good news!  Upon researching, reviewing, and singing along to a myriad of songs today, I already have a great theme in mind for next week!  Can't wait to see you then!