68) My Life In Song

The following is a list of songs that comprise the story of my life. This is My Life In Song:

Best of my Love: When I was in elementary school I found a bag of tapes stuffed in a cabinet in our living room. The first one I grabbed was The Eagles. First album I listened to start to finish.

Come Sail Away: Craig introduced me to Styx on a bus to camp in junior high. He brought a walkman and we took turns listening to three songs each. On this trip I listened to Yaz, Styx and The Judies. Obviously I gravitated toward Styx. Come Sail Away was a favorite for many years. Unfortunately it makes me laugh now. But I still love it.

YYZ: Craig introduced me to RUSH, and when I heard the trio jam on YYZ I learned that a song didn't even need lyrics to rock. RUSH was my first concert ever, and I have seen them now each time they have come to Texas. And you can bet I will be there again next time they come.

Amanda: The first song I learned on guitar. For the most part I still know how to play it. And I remember Wally teaching me how to play a bar chord and me being completely amazed by Tom Shultz for writing a song with such a difficult bar chord in it.

Survival: I discovered Yes sometime during high school, and can honestly say this is the strangest band I have connected with. Their music is high brow, overly complicated and dramatically theatrical. However, for a year or more of my life I fell asleep to Survival playing on my stereo. Not a huge Yes fan these days, but I truly love this song.

Immortality: Immortality is the gateway to love of Pearl Jam. I remember one night driving home from a party riding in Dugat's bouncy Jeep. He had a discman velcroed to his dash with Vitalogy in it. I was drunk and tired. I lay in the backseat repeatedly asking Dugat to play Immortality again. Trust me, it is good enough to hear over and over, even if you aren't a high school student on the verge of passing out.

Closer: Freshman year of college consisted of three albums: Oasis (What's The Story Morning Glory), Pearl Jam (Vs) and NIN (Downward Spiral). I am sure all the kids lucky enough to be on our hall know the songs on these three albums. Closer was the song I looked forward to the most of all of the songs. Champagne Supernova was second.

In My Tree: I lived in Houston my sophomore year of college. Probably the worst year of my life. I enjoyed much of Houston's traffic while commuting to U of H. I listened exclusively to Pearl Jam's No Code. In My Tree still brings me back to that year and remembering sitting in my car in our dirt driveway in the heights finishing that song before going inside.

All Mixed Up: I moved back to Waco and lived with Chris and Dugat. Chris introduced me to 311. We threw so many darts and drank so much scotch to 311 it gives me a hangover to think about it. Dugat used to say: All mixed up, don't know what to do. Next thing you turn around and find a booger in your shoe. In fact, he probably still says that if you bring up 311.

Indifference: At some point during college we started singing terrible versions of this song at 3 in the morning. I remember laying behind the back tires of a car singing this until the neighbors threatened to call the cops.

Open: In my final year of school I was introduced to The Cure. I hesitated giving the band a chance. Then I discovered this song. True it has a 3 minute intro, but I used to listen to this song every morning driving to campus from my apartment. The Cure is L.'s favorite band and I cannot hear Robert Smith's voice without thinking of her.

Do It Again: I do not like Steely Dan, but while living in Tyler Guitar Hero came into my life. I played the crap out of this game. As I explored the difficult setting I came across Do It Again. One night I must have played through this song at least 100 times trying to pass it. Poor L. She had to listen to this song over and over, and she had to see me at my most determined. Plus, I ended up drinking lots of whiskey and coke. Sometime in the middle of the night I passed the song and then passed out.

Driven To Tears: We moved back to Dallas and I decided to buy the entire catalog produced by The Police. Not sure what motivated me to do this, but I did it. And it turned out to be a great decision. I discovered that I truly like their music. I also discovered that there is a drummer out there whose style is so strange and mesmerizing that I was inspired to buy a drum set.

New Day Yesterday: For the past 8 months or so I have been in this huge Jethro Tull funk. Not sure why, but I have been listening to their pre-Aqualung albums and have really connected with Benefit and Stand Up.

This list is getting long, so I will stop now.