Five songs: What do they say about you?

[Elder]

Brene Brown asks her interviewees to share five songs and summarize what these five songs say about them.

I thought it might be fun to play here. Join me?

Post your five songs with as much commentary as you like and then summarize what these five songs say about you.

I'll start:

I chose a song that has spoke to me from each of the major decades of my life. So, it does reflect to some degree what my cultural and musical influences were at each stage. I think, though, that overall it speaks to a progression within me in terms of my sense of self within community. I think it shows my pain of aloneness within community, within this life; it shows my attempt to learn how to show up from outside myself; and it shows a growing acceptance of waves and stages of how we show up within communities of people that are also figuring out how they show up.

 

[Wyote]

Thanks for the musical journey @Elder
Here are songs from "eras" of my life.
idk what it says about me exactly

I've chosen lesser known songs that were more personally impactful on me from albums/artists that defined points in my life.
I've excluded Green Day because they always define my life somehow.

Spoiler: 3

1) Michael Jackson - Speed Demon

2) Papa Roach - Tightrope

3) Blue Man Group - Time To Start

Spoiler: 2

4) Ensiferum - Ahti

5) Missio - Demons

 

[Elder]

Here are songs from "eras" of my life.

Thank you for sharing aspects of you in each song. I listened and just allowed the music to speak.

 

[aeon]

Spoiler: childhood

Nine Inch Nails – “Terrible Lie”

Spoiler: oblivion

Primal Scream – “Higher Than the Sun”

Spoiler: wandering, wounded and lost

The Smiths – “How Soon Is Now?”

Spoiler: serial heartbreak

TV on the Radio – “Happy Idiot”

Spoiler: boom, there she was!

Etta James – “At Last”

Doing this with five songs wasn’t easy. 0-16, 16-31, 23-35, 17-47, and 47-now.

Spoiler: kinda cheatin’

Spoiler: individuation and mental illness

Nine Inch Nails – “Only”

Spoiler: sun-kissed equanimity

Jamiroquai – “Stillness in Time”

13-21, and 51-now, after getting so sick...

Blesséd Be,
Ian

edit: added titles in case any videos are unavailable in your region

 

[Elder]

@aeon

I see a hero's journey. I feel happy for the transformations you have been able to come home to after your trials.

Thank you for playing.

 

[John K]

Great idea for a thread @Elder - it will take me some time to work through all the music that's been posted though!

I love music that takes me into a magic other world. This group have made gorgeous masterpieces out of their sephardic songs and instrumental numbers.

Spoiler

This is drop dead gorgeous and I've posted it before. I went to a convert by Julian Bream when I was at university and he played this as an encore - you could have heard a pin drop the atmosphere was so powerful. It brings back memories of those days to me.

Spoiler

This is the last track on The Cream album Disraeli Gears. It's funny of course, but this is one of the small number of LP albums we had on South Georgia island when I worked there for the British Antarctic Survey. Memories.

Spoiler

My dad's favourite jazz singer - do I need to say any more?

Spoiler

Don't know! ...... Ni says it's just right ......

 

[aeon]

This is drop dead gorgeous and I've posted it before. I went to a convert by Julian Bream when I was at university and he played this as an encore - you could have heard a pin drop the atmosphere was so powerful. It brings back memories of those days to me.

Because I am in the US (and damned legal rights, and me without a VPN), this video is unavailable to me. Through a convoluted process, I could see it is a video entitled “Prelude No. 4 in E Minor.”

Chopin Prelude in E Minor Op. 28 No. 4?

Wondering,
Ian

 

[John K]

Because I am in the US (and damned legal rights, and me without a VPN), this video is unavailable to me. Through a convoluted process, I could see it is a video entitled “Prelude No. 4 in E Minor.”

Chopin Prelude in E Minor Op. 28 No. 4?

Wondering,
Ian

I've a couple missing from your and Wy's posts too. I'm going to see if changing my location to USA on VPN can get me quick access.

My piece is Prelude No 4 by Villa Lobos - there are several alternatives on YT, both from Julian Bream and from other classical guitar players.

 

[Wyote]

it will take me some time to work through all the music that's been posted though!

And yet, you posted a 15min song. Not helping John! Beautiful song though. I was entranced.

 

[John K]

Quick tangent post .....

@aeon Just to confirm - changing my VPN region to USA got me access to your missing songs - it only took a few seconds to change but I had to log back in again. I've not played with that facility before but it's pretty good. My VPN comes bundled with my Norton 360 anti-virus license so it's not cost me anything on top of what I need anyway.

 

[Wyote]

I've a couple missing from your and Wy's posts too

Thought this may come up, I'm gonna add the info directly in the post

 

[John K]

And yet, you posted a 15min song. Not helping John! Beautiful song though. I was entranced.

LOL sorry about that, but it is quite lovely. The rest are pretty short in order to make up for it.

I'm just going to listen to the one of yours I couldn't see at first, Ahti... but the others are pretty powerful and collectively leave me feeling very moved. I think there will be a couple of keepers in there for me

 

[Elder]

@John K

What a pleasure to listen to the range! I had your Fe Maestro in mind, magic worlds, clever humor, memories, Ni, oh my! A thoroughly enjoyable journey.

Thank you for the ride.

 

[John K]

@John K

What a pleasure to listen to the range! I had your Fe Maestro in mind, magic worlds, clever humor, memories, Ni, oh my! A thoroughly enjoyable journey.

Thank you for the ride.

Rather than go through the decades, I decided to explore some different rooms of my life. I'm maybe not seeing it as a progression any more, but a slow spiral walk around a centre.

Your own music I enjoyed, and felt strongly. There is a looking back nostalgically at a lost childhood lit up in eternal sunshine, then there is the winning and losing of growing up and being an adult adrift on the seas of uncertainty, of other people, of a sort of greying of the world as it tosses us around. And then a bit later on comes the realisation that time is flowing away and the future is contracting, and so are our lives which is a fearful thing. After that is when the curve bends round, and we can stop trying so hard and bothering so much about it like we do when we are younger - and suddenly we find we can reclaim a bit of something like our childhood again and it wasn't lost after all, but transformed.

Of course this is how they came across to me, and they might mean different things to you ....

 

[Elder]

Of course this is how they came across to me, and they might mean different things to you ....

I really enjoyed seeing it through your eyes, and the vision echoes my own.

 

[ErikAlberto]

@Elder

As a new community member and as a human, I am touched by the depth of what you said with the songs you chose as they are framed within the motif of “[your] self within community”. Its very refreshing. Certainly I am trying to figure out what it looks like for me to ‘show up’ in an authentic way.
Thank you for sharing this part of your journey with us and for facilitating others to share, as well. Even as a relative outsider, I see that you show up in an important way within this community.

 

[Elder]

@Elder

As a new community member and as a human, I am touched by the depth of what you said with the songs you chose as they are framed within the motif of “[your] self within community”. Its very refreshing. Certainly I am trying to figure out what it looks like for me to ‘show up’ in an authentic way.
Thank you for sharing this part of your journey with us and for facilitating others to share, as well. Even as a relative outsider, I see that you show up in an important way within this community.

What beautiful feedback. I feel touched and so grateful for your presence.

 

[ErikAlberto]

Thanks for the musical journey @Elder
Here are songs from "eras" of my life.
idk what it says about me exactly

I've chosen lesser known songs that were more personally impactful on me from albums/artists that defined points in my life.
I've excluded Green Day because they always define my life somehow.

Spoiler: 3

1) Michael Jackson - Speed Demon

2) Papa Roach - Tightrope

3) Blue Man Group - Time To Start

Spoiler: 2

4) Ensiferum - Ahti

5) Missio - Demons

This is a compelling juxtaposition of songs @Wyote. My Ni couldn’t help but contemplate the possible connections between them. Being an open-ended expression of something about you, likened my listening experience to pondering the potential meaning of a dream. The only known unifying theme here, of course, is you, which is fun.

As a side note, I remember when that Michael Jackson album came out. I asked my parents to get it for me that Christmas and it was one of the first cassettes I ever owned. It captured my imagination and was hugely influential — as was the movie “Moon Walker” that MJ released around that time, I think.

Thanks for sharing!

Also, @Elder, thanks for making me feel welcome!

 

[Wyote]

This is a compelling juxtaposition of songs @Wyote. My Ni couldn’t help but contemplate the possible connections between them. Being an open-ended expression of something about you, likened my listening experience to pondering the potential meaning of a dream. The only known unifying theme here, of course, is you, which is fun.

As a side note, I remember when that Michael Jackson album came out. I asked my parents to get it for me that Christmas and it was one of the first cassettes I ever owned. It captured my imagination and was hugely influential — as was the movie “Moon Walker” that MJ released around that time, I think.

Thanks for sharing!

Also, @Elder, thanks for making me feel welcome!

Thank you for taking the time to thoughtfully contemplate the connectivity of the songs! Sounds like you and I have some shared common ground. Moon ground perhaps!

 

[ErikAlberto]

Spoiler: childhood

Nine Inch Nails – “Terrible Lie”

Spoiler: oblivion

Primal Scream – “Higher Than the Sun”

Spoiler: wandering, wounded and lost

The Smiths – “How Soon Is Now?”

Spoiler: serial heartbreak

TV on the Radio – “Happy Idiot”

Spoiler: boom, there she was!

Etta James – “At Last”

Doing this with five songs wasn’t easy. 0-16, 16-31, 23-35, 17-47, and 47-now.

Spoiler: kinda cheatin’

Spoiler: individuation and mental illness

Nine Inch Nails – “Only”

Spoiler: sun-kissed equanimity

Jamiroquai – “Stillness in Time”

13-21, and 51-now, after getting so sick...

Blesséd Be,
Ian

edit: added titles in case any videos are unavailable in your region

@aeon
Even just as a playlist, this is a great string of songs! These are all artists that have meant something to me, too. Having these songs paired with the headings you have for them in conjunction with the delineated time periods of your life they represent, though, is powerful. I felt a bit emotional about as I listened. Thank you for sharing this heartening story of individuation!