My Ten Favorite Songs

siddeley | June 8, 2009 | Be first commenter

10. Cotton Jenny by Gordon Lightfoot – I remember it playing one summer when I was a little girl and is one of the first songs I memorized the words to. One of the lyrics is “I ain’t got a penny for Cotten Jenny to spend” so I called it the Penny Song.

9. Touch too Much by AC/DC – Starting around 13 or 1979 I couldn’t get enough of AC/DC – I remember being at a party with this song playing and when the words “when you turn out the light” came on in the song one of the guys turned the light off. Everyone loved it and some major energy was created to which AC/DC just helped to make stronger.

8. The Entire Aqualung album by Jethro Tull – I had this album on 8 track and bought it along with Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark (another awesome album). My real favorites on the album were not the “Sitting on a Park Bench” Aqualung song that everyone knows, but the more delicate songs such as Wond’ring Aloud where, in my opinion, Ian really shines…. “Wondring aloud will the years treat us well”

7. Wild Horses by Rolling Stones – It’s a good song but when a friend told me the story behind it – Mick’s girlfriend had overdosed and she was saying something like “how can you even look at me….let alone love me” and that was his reply – Wild horses couldn’t drag me away. I can only imagine how vulnerable she felt, and he probably did too. I imagine realizing you love someone that much would make you feel very vulnerable. The story could be made up for all I know. Doesn’t really matter though.

6. Bobby Magee by Janis Joplin – When I started to play guitar and write my own songs I saw Janis – minus the drug addiction – as a role model. Especially the way she felt the music. You could see it come through her performances and of course she wore her heart on her sleeve completely in life. So this was a song I learned how to play (btw written by Kris Kristofferson) and belted out with some Janis passion. But the real reason this song is on my list is because this is what I would sing as I rocked my daughter to sleep, this was her lull-a-by, and now she sings it to her son along with another song that I made up for her called “Mommy Loves You.”

5. The entire Minstrel in the Gallery Album by Jethro Tull. I dont know that I would have included this 10 years ago, even though I had listened to it. But a few years back I opened up to the album and started to feel and love the layers and layers of music and meaning. From the opening to One White Duck: “There’s a haze on the skyline to wish me on my way” to the end of Requiem “I looked aside and walked away along the Strand” emotion and meaning were in every note.

4. US Blues by the Grateful Dead. There isn’t much that I don’t like of the Dead and this song is not their deepest or most musical by any means, but it had the energy and the fun to make me want to sing it all the time. My friend Doug, who was a much better electric guitar player than me, probably played the song more than he ever wanted to because of my requests. I saw him last year at my daughters wedding – 16 years from the last time I had seen him – and he had his guitar and I asked him to play US Blues

3. You are my Sunshine sung by My Father. I can remember him singing this song to me when my hand was too little to hold anything but one finger. I think that says it all.

2. Why Me Lord? by Kris Kristofferson. “Lord Help Me Jesus, I’ve Wasted it So……” I have been there, I understand his plea. Not to mention the way the music pressurizes every note, every word so that you feel the emotional roller coaster. You travel along.

1. Mother Goose by Jethro Tull. It was about 1986 and I was living in Raleigh. The band was in town to play a concert but Ian Anderson and Martin Barre did a couple acoustic songs on the local radio station. This was one of the songs they did and it was so very beautiful and light that I knew at that very moment this was something I wanted to carry with me through my life. One of those beautiful things that you can stow away as a reminder of the purity that can be created through music.