The Soundtrack of your life.

[Rustenexcel87]

Hi all I'm more or less an new poster not sure if something like this was ever posted here but I thought this thread might be a way to get to know others in this forum so....

I'm an English teacher and every year I assign a paper to my classes called "The Soundtrack of My Life" the idea is to think of your life as a movie from birth until today. While for many the plot of the movie is still developing the sound track to this movie is in full swing. So if you could pick 5 songs that represent your life up to this point, what would they be an why? The songs can represernt a person your close too i.e a husband or wife's favorite song or a song to cover an era. I always tell the students to pick songs with meaning and not just songs they like.
I got the idea for this project from another forum about 6 years ago and I have had many a conversation in places like bars with this topic. So I thought it might be fun to ask this question here. What would your soundtrack be and why?

 

[Cy/MiG]

Awesome topic, fantastic idea. Only knock is having to choose 5 songs! 😀

Onward...

Forced to choose only 5 songs, I'd have to decide between my fave bands of my lifetime (thereby eliminating all pre-86 rock) narrowed down to:

NW Rock: Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden
Cali/Desert Rock: RHCP, Rage Against the Machine, Kyuss, QotSA
Metal: Metallica, Slipknot, System of a Down
Euro: Muse

From there I'd have to just throw darts at the board to choose only one song per group, then only five and why. So, in no difinitive order (underlined for pick at the moment):

AIC: Nutshell, Down in a Hole or Sludge Factory
Nirvana: Sappy, Marigold or Heart Shaped Box
Pearl Jam: Black
Soundgarden: Jesus Christ Pose or Hands all Over

RHCP: Otherside (the song I want played as I die. !@#$%^ perfect)
RAGE: Tire Me, Know Your Enemy or Wake Up
Kyuss: Thumb, Black Widow or Isolation
QotSA: The Bronze, Regular John, or Long Slow Goodbye

Metallica: Fade to Black
Slipknot: Surfacing, My Plague, or Distasterpiece
System of a Down: ??? Sugar (I guess. Too hard to pick just one or even a short list.)

Muse: Stockholm Syndome or Showbiz

I could pick any five from that list (or an array of other songs from those particular groups.)

For the moment, the underlined ones are the shortlist (subject to change).

Track listing would be: Surfacing, Fade to Black, Nutshell, Black and then Otherside.

 

[Rustenexcel87]

Awesome
Fade to Black would be on the long list. I only said 5 songs becauese I figured it's a tough topic.
When I do it at work I got to grade it and I get about 150 of them so I want them short , but not to short. But if you want to add to it go for it.

My short list.

Color My World by Chicigo - represents my parents (their wedding song)

Pop Rocks and Coke by Green Day - represents good friends in my life always being there for me

The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel -Reminds me of my childhood since my father would sing it to me everynight when I went to bed, to this day I hear it and I feel calm.

Soul Singing by The Black Crows -Reminds me to go out and take advantage of all life has to offer.

Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. - I had a long bout with depreshion in college and I was able to over come it. Now that I learned how to cope this song empowers me because as bleak as it can be there is a message of hope in the song. When I went through that time the hope that these feelings would pass gave me the courage to push on and take the bull by the horns and get this issue under control and move on with my life.


anyway add more CY would love to hear about em

 

[Cy/MiG]

Well, it's hard to improve upon a (half-assed 😀) succinct EP like...

Track listing would be: Surfacing, Fade to Black, Nutshell, Black and then Otherside.

But if I had to make it an LP, I guess I'd add:

Green Day: Sassafras roots (can't believe I omitted Green Day)
Smashing Pumpkins: (who I had purposely omitted) Cherub Rock
Kyuss: Thumb
Nirvana: Aneurysm (can't believe I forgot about this one...)

and then cap it off with:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Wir Setzen uns mit Tranen Nieder (the song that plays during the opening credits to 'Casino'. I know I said no pre-1986 songs, but this one is too perfect to omit.)

So the listing would be:

Cherub Rock & Surfacing (birth and adolescence )
Sassafrass Roots (youth and early teens)
Thumb & Aneurysm (entrance into reality)
Fade to Black & Nutshell (slipping into denial and grief)
Black and Otherside (coming to terms and acceptance)
Wir Setzen uns mit Tranen Nieder (the end, reflection, letting go)

I could make ten other lists, but just running off what I had previously what I just made sounds not too shady (or even good! 😀).

 

[Knox The Hatter]

I guess they'd be songs about loneliness and pain and the desire to crawl back into a womb...

Wow! Quite revealing!

 

[Rustenexcel87]

Considering this was one of the first threads I started when I first delerked, I figured I wuld see if anyone had anymore to add. This is always a good converson at the bar.

 

[PhoenixRising]

My list is of favorites from every decade I've lived through so far:
Starting with the late 60's:
Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Proud Mary"
70's:
Styx: "Fooling Yourself"
80's:
Triumph: "Fight The Good Fight"
90's:
The Offspring: "Gone Away"
00's:
Rush: "Earthshine"
And for the current decade:
Dream Theater: "Breaking All Illusions"

 

[Skipadeedoodah]

First favorite song. Also describes my overall demeanor pretty well.

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Parents' divorce. It was 3 or 4 years before I could listen to it again.

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The end of my engagement.

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This represents my confusion about why people stay in shitty relationships.

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No explanation needed.

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[Rustenexcel87]

Wow Sippy good one.

 

[PiedPiper]

Damned tough assignment for a guy my age, R. You mentioned your dad and his rendition of "The Boxer." Well, my dad was a DJ in the very early 50's. My catalog of "possibles" goes back a long way,... and definitely includes a wide range of classical pieces as well as popular tunes. If I were, for example, making a tape to listen to on a long drive, I'd go with Bach's third Brandenburg Concerto, Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, Rossini's William Tell Overture, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue,... and a good long performance on classical guitar.

Came of age with the Beatles, CSN&Y,.... Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler were tough to beat in the later years,.... Squirrel Nut Zippers,.... Leo Kottke,..... I guess I'm "eclectic," ..... but just five pieces? I don't know.

 

[unit5610]

Here are 6, since I'm in my sixth decade.
1960's: The Turtles- Happy Together
1970's: Boston- Don't Look Back
1980's: Icehouse- Uniform
1990's: Frente- Labour of Love
2000's: Radiohead- Go To Sleep (Little Man Being Erased)
2010's: The Apples in Stereo- Dream About the Future

 

[pfromptown]

Mine fall into place without much effort (In no real order):

Love - You Set The Scene (Made me realise that pop culture, and all its stupid proclamations and over-handed conclusions, meant more to me than anything simply because of all the cod philosophy in it, which I have a weakness for myself. I love how this song can make me feel as though I'm 18 again and I've just discovered that there is so much to know about the world.)

Phil Oakley & Giorgio Moroder - Together in Electric Dreams (Me and my girlfirend don't just have one "Our" song - we have dozens - but this is the one that reminds me of her the most, and the fact that she makes me unreasonably happy, absolutely 100% of the time. The over the top 80s synths and guitars just bring to my mind what a mind-bendingly warming, almost corny emotion love is if you let it come into your life without holding back.)

Bob Dylan - If you see her, Say Hello (On the flip side of the coin, this song speaks to you if you have ever been heartbroken, in a way that I don't think any other pop song ever has or ever will. My heartbreak, rather than coming from a girl, actually came from being abandoned by my best friend at a very vulnerable time in my adolescence, something that I never really got over until we reconciled as adults. I once walked down a road with this on my headphones and cried so forcefully that I couldn't see where I was going and came super-close to being run over by a bus!)

Elvis Presley - Just Can't Help Believin' (Probably the most important to me as it was one of the first songs I ever heard. My Dad used to play a cassette of his greatest hits and I'd heard it at random a few times but I remember once being sat in the front room playing with it on in the background and just standing up and walking over to listen to it, and being excited, curious and slightly scared, all at the same time. My Dad later gave me the cassette and I couldn't believe it, it was like I owned the most precious thing in the world, this wonderful exotic treasure that contained this flabbergasting sound. My first real experience of pop music. That year I got completely ridiculed for appearing as Elvis in the school talent show (I was about five or six) but I didn't care, I knew better than all the kids who were listening to the Spice Girls... When I was ten I got my first CD player for my birthday and had a similar experience with "I can hear music" by The Beach Boys. My mum, who was in the midst of a massively unhappy marriage at the time, came in and put it on and lay on my bed like a 14 year old girl, singing her head off. I had never seen her like that before and even though I came out with the customary response - "Mum, don't be weird" - I was secretly fascinated that she could become so lost and so joyous, just through listening to a song, and I wanted that for myself.)

Eric Clapton (Originally Robert Johnson) - Sweet Home Chicago/Aerosmith - Stop Messing Around/ (Or pretty much any major electric blues number. This stems from my first year of university, when I joined a band and played pretty much every blues tune under the sun with people I really felt a kinship with; I hadn't felt too happy for what felt like decades and the first year of university really made me feel connected with people again, and the wonderful feel good factor of all that great music cemented this newfound love I felt for human beings, which I'm happy to say I still have 🙂 )

 

[Mitchell]

It;s hard to pick five songs about my life... because of the different periods I've gone through. I'm going to try to do this based on my whole life, but also with the difficulty I'm going through now.

Definitely:

"Steal My Sunshine". With my mom about to pass away from cancer, I feel like my Sunshine is about to pass away. The person who always pumped me up, and made me feel good, will be gone soon.

Help! Again, almost a plea/cry for what I'm going through now.. I'm going to need the help of my family and friends to get through what's going to hit me soon.

"This Magic Moment". I've had some good milestones in my life, but haven't fulfilled the hopes and dreams I've wanted to for myself. My life could be described as having some good Magic Moments.. but not the consistent timeline of good things I'd hoped for in life.

Still Crazy After All These Years. As people who know the song are aware,.. Paul Simon wrote this song when he was divorcing his first wife, and was in a deep depression. It describes me perfectly. Even after everything I've been through, I still have my same interests, both vanilla, and sexual. Most people who arent in the fetish world would just say I'm Still Crazy After All These Years.

Kind And Generous-by Natalie Merchant. This represents more my feelings about my mom, than neccessarially a soundtrack of my life. The song decribes her perfectly. My mom has always been so Kind And Generous to me, and kept on giving, no matter what. The part where Ms Merchant says "Thank You, Thank You" over and over toward the end of the song.. would be representative of my gratitude to my mom for all she has done for me in my life, and how Ms Merchant says "For your kindness, I'm indebted to you". No words could be more truly spoken. I owe my mom so much, even though she doesnt see it that way. She feels kindness is automatic, and that it's a parent's responsibility to make their child feel loved, their child's hopes and dreams come true, and to make their child's life easier. She has done all these things for me.

That's my list.

Mitch

 

[Whoviantrekkie]

Early school years
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Middle-high school:
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Certain someone:
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What keeps happening to that someone:
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The Light at the end of the tunnel:
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