Mix: If I Was a Lighthouse

[potentiality_26]

Fandom: N/A
Subject: potentiality_26
Title: If I Was a Lighthouse
Warnings/Notes: Bad language and dark subject matter in one song; made for waywardmixes challenge #19 (Meet the Mixer).

Listen on 8tracks.




A song you’d kick zombie ass to during the apocalypse

When I was about nine, my mother was cleaning out the basement and found her old record player. As a joke- and probably to show me how weird music could be- she played me Warren Zevon’s record Excitable Boy. The joke was pretty much on her because he immediately thereafter became my favorite singer.

This is more than my ass-kicking song, too: it’s also my song you want your friends to love as much as you do and my song from an album you’ve memorized all the words to; it’s my all around favorite song, and I don’t often get to say so because when it’s a question in the ‘getting to know you’ portion of an orientation seminar, it’s an awkward favorite song to have (I assume you’ll be able to guess why).

If I do get to mention it, it’s usually as an anecdote to explain why I’m strange- so, it seems like a good place to start.      

1. Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner- Warren Zevon

Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray

A song you’ve heard live

I’m not really a concert person. I’ve been to exactly one in my life, and so almost all the songs I know that I’ve heard live are from musicals, but I dislike hearing only single song from a musical, which is why this mix isn’t just Les Miserables (I’m pretty sure you can find the answer to any question ever in there if you look hard enough).

Anyway, that one concert was Jewel, in Las Vegas. I don’t remember much- it was a while ago- but I remember when she sang Sometimes It Be That Way, because she sang slightly different lyrics than you’ll find on the CD. She sang, ‘I’m sorry, God,’ instead of ‘I swear to God’ and I thought it was brilliant. At the time, I didn’t really appreciate much else- but as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to realize that it’s brilliant all around, and I’m happy to have heard it live.     

2. Sometimes It Be That Way- Jewel

And I'm sorry that
Jesus died for my sins
And I swear to God
It won't happen again

A song that reminds you of your favorite fictional character

Picking a single favorite fictional character doesn’t really happen for me. I’m even having a bit of trouble zeroing in on my first. Probably Enjolras, but we’ve talked about that already.

One thing I can say for sure that though I loved a lot of characters and books and tv shows and movies before that, I didn’t really become a fan until I was fourteen and I discovered fandom. The series with which I did so was Angel, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce was my favorite character.   Wes/Fred was the first ship to break my heart, and when I decided that maybe slash was more my thing there were plenty of goodies there too.

The first fanvids I ever watched were for Angel too, and so was the first I ever tried to make- A Wes character vid to this song. The vid is lost to time, which is probably for the best, but whenever I hear this song I still think of it.    

3. Cannonball- Damien Rice

Still a little bit of your song in my ear
Still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer to me
So close that I can't see what's going on

A song that was your middle school/high school anthem

Around the same time I was discovering fandom, I was also starting high school. I went to a college prep school which was also a boarding school, and a long way from my home. I wasn’t exactly prepared.

It was a period of much angst and self-pity, so I’m allowing myself a fairly self-indulgent song for it. Apologies, everybody; I was fourteen and it was my song.

4. I Am, I Said- Neil Diamond

Nowadays, I'm lost between two shores
LA's fine, but it ain't home
New York's home, but it ain't mine no more

A song that reminds you of your best friend

In high school I also had my first roommate. I wouldn’t say she was my best friend, but given that I was an only child learning for the first time how to cohabitate with another person under the age of thirty, she was the closest thing I’ll ever have to a sister.

5. My Eliza- Rachael Sage

People can be easier to love in retrospect
I am bound to you in blood
And secondly, in so much respect
You are so much braver than I'll ever hope to be
But I am stronger than you know, so you can speak to me

A song that would play in the movie trailer of your life

After high school comes college and then work, and a chance to pause for the first time and actually think about the fact that eight years actually went by pretty fast.  I’m a writer rather than a songwriter, but I think anyone who has been expecting to be an instant star any day now for about as long as they’ve been alive and found out that yep, it’s not that easy, will think this is their theme song too.

6. These Are the Songs- Amy Wadge

I learned the moves; I thought I had it down
If I could only get to Nashville I would tear up that town
I'd sing with James Taylor and with Jackson Brown
I'd have Grammys galore and I'd be Hollywood bound
Change the face of rock and roll
Rip it all up at thirteen years old

A song from last year that you still love

I had a laugh over this prompt because exactly none of the songs I’d put on the list so far were from as recently as last year. But I’m a huge fan of The Gaslight Anthem, so I bought Handwritten pretty much the day it came out, and even now I’m still discovering new ways I think each song is awesome.

This one also ticks the song with a color in the title box, and the song by an artist you’re not so secretly crushing on box (God, Brian Fallon), and when I first heard it, it hit me pretty hard. It’s a sad song, yes, but also hopeful. No matter what you’ve been through, I choose to understand it to mean, you’ll eventually find someone who gets you.

7. Blue Dahlia- The Gaslight Anthem

I had a dream about you once, and I could barely see your form
And I met you between the wax and the needle,
In the words of my favorite song
Your black hair was like a raven with your tan skin on the beach
Your backdrop were the auroras and my sidekick was all this grief
And I've been so low down, I'm almost level with the ground

A song that would be your own country’s national anthem

I’m an American, and despite some of the things that have been happening recently I’m still pretty proud of that, so I like that this song is distinctly American. But I also think that a national anthem, if it is indeed the public statement of what you want to be as a country, should be less about ideals that (while nice) your people don’t really reflect anymore, and more about where you actually are now and how each individual could do better.   

8. Walking at Dusk (the Liberty Bell)- Jeffrey Foucault

Well I've been thinking about war, just thinking
I've been beating my plowshares thin
I sought my own redress
I read the Gettysburg Address
But old Abe, it seems a hard road to win

A song that reminds you of your favorite season

I love winter time. I like it when it’s cold and I get to wrap myself in blankets over my keyboard and drink hot chocolate. I also love Christmas, in that way only certain moderate cynics can. The main thing I find annoying about it is those few weeks before the holidays where all the radio stations seem to play nothing but Feliz Navidad over and over again.

One of my favorite singers recently came out with a Christmas CD that is amazing. All the songs are brilliant, but the first track makes you want to stop everything you you’re doing, shut up, and just listen. Since it’ll be around before you know it, I give you a Christmas song to like.

9. Sol Invictus- Thea Gilmore

Come the day, come the dawn
Somewhere it lays
Know my heart, know my life
Forget everything

A song you play when you need to go on a crying jag

I love the Vitamin String Quartet and the way they turn rock and pop songs into chamber music. As much as I enjoy the original version, I think their rendition of this song is one of the most beautiful things ever. It’s the song I play when I need to lie around and feel sorry for myself, but also the song I play when I want to get some writing done and when I want to unwind. It’s all-purpose loveliness.  

10. Pictures of You- Vitamin String Quartet

A song you’d serenade your lover with

I like all kinds of love songs, but my favorites are uncomplicated because I think the most poignancy can be found in simplicity. You don't get much simpler than this one, which is probably why it brought me to tears the first time I heard it. If I was going to serenade someone (I’m not; I’m a terrible singer), it would be with this.  

11. The Book of Love- The Magnetic Fields

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I, I love it when you sing to me
And you, you can sing me anything

A song with lyrics you’d tattoo on yourself

This song is pretty amazing, sad and hopeful and dark and bright and I really think it’s speaks for itself. I also think I’ll leave you with it. This has been a lot of fun (I think I even learned some things about myself) and I look forward to getting to know all of you the same way.

12. The Stable Song- Gregory Alan Isakov

Now I've been crazy, couldn't you tell?
I threw stones at the stars, but the whole sky fell

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Wow!!! What an awesome list!

*HUGS*

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[untldeathtakeme.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. Cannonball for Wes/Fred. Ow my heart. That was one of my first very tragic ships. I think Blue Dahlia may be my new favorite song. The other tracks flowed well, the explanations were adorable and this is awesome in every way.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Ah, Wes/Fred. I was listening to it putting together the mix and thinking- "You know what? Still not entirely over it." And I'm happy to spread The Gaslight Anthem love.

[thethingiswhat.livejournal.com]

"I Am, I Said" is one of my favorite Neil Diamond songs and there are so many good songs on here. Plus I love seeing Warren Zevon on a mix.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed. I think Warren Zevon songs should be everywhere, all the time.