[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 22: A Song I Listen To When I’m Sad

Again, this is too much like Day 4. WTF? And again, I’ll split the hair and say that this is probably meant to be a song that I will play when I’m sad in order to fell… happier? sadder? Well, when I’m sad, a happy song will just annoy me. I prefer to wallow a bit, even find something that will break the seal and make me cry. The few things that will do it are songs from tragic gay loves stories — psychoanalyze that — specifically “What Would I Do?” from Falsettos (there’s that show again) and anything that Gustavo Santaolalla wrote for the Brokeback Mountain sountrack; I’ve included “The Wings” and the Emmylou Harris-sung “A Love That Will Never Grow Old.”


For a limited time: WHAT WOULD I DO with Stephen Bogardus

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 21: A Song I Listen To When I’m Happy

Is there anything better than this picture?

Anyway, Day 21 is is perfect for today, since it’s my birthday. And I’m happy, not least because my Facebook wall is overloaded with people writing “Happy Birthday!” on it. It’s wonderfully moving seeing these things from people who I’ve never met in person, from my oldest friends, from my newest friends, even from my nursery school teacher. But today’s song is way too similar to Day 3’s, which is a song that makes me happy. I guess one is a song that if it comes on, I’m happy, and today is a song that I put on because I’m happy. I think they’re somewhat interchangeable, and I could answer “Express Yourself” again, but I think that would be cheating.

Anyway, I’ve found myself listening to Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” when I’m in a great mood recently, and it is very happy-making. It’s her first and best song. And, because it’s my birthday, I’m going to be happy for longer than four minutes, and I’m adding on Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA,” which I just adore in so many, admittedly wrong, ways. For me, it’s pure joy.

Dance! Dance! Dance! Party! Party! Party!

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 20: A Song I Listen To When I’m Angry

Whoops! Sorry — I’m a day late!

When I’m really angry, music doesn’t help. It’s too all-consuming for me; I’ve got some anger issues that a lot of therapy and some happy pills have done a good job on, and I mostly keep that eye-blurring rage from happening. When I’m more mildly angry, however, when I’ve got my righteous rage on, I’m pretty aware of how I feel, and I will even get a little self-referential. And I’ll play something like “You Oughta Know,” which is the best angry, lover-spurned, fuck you song ever. When it first started getting airplay in the summer of 1995, people in Boston would request it as “the angry girl song.” It’s so awesome to sing along to, especially if you have an axe to grind. I could have used it as Day 8 as well, since I know all of the words to it.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 19: A Song From My Favorite Album

Is there a better album that Prince’s Purple Rain? The answer is “maybe, but probably not.” But whether or not it’s perfect or near-perfect or as perfect as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or OK Computer, it’s my favorite album. I think it came out at the right moment in my childhood to be embedded into my cognitive schemata for life. It rocks, it’s danceable, it’s dirty, it’s sublime. Every song is great, even the throwaway ones, like “Darling Nikki,” which is used in the movie Purple Rain as a sign that out hero is losing it. It’s also the first time that I noticed that my parents weren’t censorious. They had no issue with the word “masturbating.” Ha.

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[30 Day Song Challenge] Day 18: A Song I Wish I Heard On The Radio

When I saw Day 18, I immediately thought of “OFD (Originally From Dorchester)” by Bryan McPherson. My brother produced the album the song is on, Fourteen Stories, and when I heard “OFD” for the first time, I couldn’t resist jumping up and down and pumping my fist. The whole album is most excellent, a legacy of Bob Dylan and REM, and it’s a crime that it’s not heard by more people. You can listen to it in its entirety here, and also buy it via the handy links. “OFD” is track 11 if you want to scroll there now.

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