Give me something to sing about

I have a t-shirt that says that. James Marsters thought it was very amusing. And see how hot he is? He must be right.

So, because my brain has been in default mode all day (actually for a while), I'm going to try finding meaning in song lyrics. I read a thing in the paper the other day about 'the nation's favourite lyrics' or some other bollocks on VH-1. Well, they had stuff like Bittersweet Symphony and Angels in the top 10. No; those are songs you like listening to. The lyrics mean nothing. But then this are the people who told us Imagine was the greatest song ever written (drone on, John, drone on) and Grease was the best musical, like, ever (West Side Story? My Fair Lady? The Simpsons' musical episides have more gravitas).

Anyway. Here are, in no particular order, my best songs for:

Grieving. I've spent most of today trying not to think about Honey and wailing whenever a slightly relevant song comes on the radio. Or if my brother plays Crowded House's She Goes On:

This is the place that I loved her
And these are the friends that she had
Long may the mountain ring
To the sound of her laughter

And she goes on, and on
In her soft wind I will whisper
In her warm sun I will glisten ’till we see her once again
In a world without end

Which made me cry even before my dog died. Fresh from the Concert for George--the only version I'm familiar with--Joe Brown and I'll See You In My Dreams. Picture the Royal Albert Hall filled with cascading rose petals while the finale plays:

Lonely days are long
Twilight sings a song
Of the happiness that used to be
Soon my eyes will close
Soon I'll find repose
And in dreams you're always near to me

I'll see you in my dreams
Hold you in my dreams
Someone took you out of my arms
Still I feel the thrill of your charms

And, since anything has meaning when you're really depressed, James Blunt's Goodbye My Lover (I swear this song was haunting me in Sweden).

You touched my heart you touched my soul.
You changed my life and all my goals.
And love is blind and that I knew when,
My heart was blinded by you.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

Bread, Everything I own. Written for his father, I think.

Is there someone you know
You're loving them so
But taking them all for granted
You may lose them one day
Someone takes them away
And they don't hear the words you long to say

I would give anything I own,
I'd give up my life, my heart, my home,
I would give everthing I own
Just to have you back again
Just to touch you once again



Songs to cheer you the fuck up, or at least give you a little bit of hope when you're mired in misery. Nerina Pallot (I saw her before she was famous, before even the obscure Sunday Times critics decided she was cool, so ner) Learning to Breathe (maddeningly hard to come by online, guess she can't be that famous yet). This is a gal who is passionate, by the way, about finding exactly the right words to express what she means. She doesn't take her words lightly (unlike me, hah):

This road is long, this road is wide
It takes more than luck to last the ride
It takes strength, and it takes courage to survive
And did someone ever say to you
"There's nothing bound in thought you cannot do"?
Well, I've said some things, but not all of them came true

So I don't want to be the last, don't want to be the first
Don't want to be alone with my thoughts tomorrow
Don't want to be afraid, don't want to look away
I'm learning to breathe
Don't want to be the last, don't want to be the first
I just need a hope and a light to follow
Like sailors look to stars to find their way home
I'm learning to breathe on my own

And I know a man who lost his wife
This is the way he chooses to describe his life:
"If I think too much I find there's just a hole."
But before she went she left a son
He says, "Dad, you're not the only one."
Maybe love is just a requiem for the soul.

Because most things that cheer you up are cliches, and because sometimes just realising you're PMSing and it's not actually the whole world that's against you can actually make you feel better (or at least give you an excuse), Daniel Powter and Bad Day:

You had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day

And because I love the boys, the Finn Brothers and Nothing Wrong With You. Again, the song makes me cry, but usually it's because I'm a wuss and I need to try harder. Actually this song was written by Tim Finn after a rather startling and unprovoked racial attack on his wife. Neil sings it, though.

The moment that we dread
It comes all too soon
Voices in your head
Still carry on the tune
Let the sound come in
From the world outside
You just keep on singing
When they tell you filthy lies

All the mud in this town
All the dirt in this world
None of it sticks on you
You shake it off
'Cause you're better than that
And you don't need it
There's nothing wrong with you

Remember how it made you hurt
Even as you fight to go on
Turn it into something else
Turn it into something else

Ahh, I feel better now. Nothing like behaving like a teenager to make you feel better about yourself.


Alll together now:

It's all right if something’s come out wrong,
We’ll sing a happy song,
And you can sing along.

'Where there’s life, there hope'
'Every day's a gift',
'Wishes can come true',
'Whistle while you work',
So hard all day:
To be like other girls,
To fit in, in this glittering world.

Don’t give me songs,
Don’t give me songs.

Give me something to sing about.