Ten Songs - Friday Reflections (Actually on Friday)

PROMPT: Put your iPod on shuffle. List the first 10 songs that play and how you feel about them.

Dancing With Myself - Billy Idol

Sometimes when I hear a song from my youth, a song that I thought I understood the lyrics to, but later learned that I really hadn't a clue about, I feel like an idiot. This is one of those songs.  Back in the day, I really thought that Billy was singing about having no one to dance with and, to my credit, it was partially inspired by him watching some Japanese kids dancing by themselves (if I'm remember correctly from his autobiography). It wasn’t until I was a young adult when the lyrics I wait so long for my love vibration and I’m dancing with myself took on a whole different meaning.

Goodbyes - 3 Doors Down
This is a song that I had never really given much consideration to before last fall; since then, however, it has taken on significant meaning. I have cried to this song many times and ironically, it seems to randomly come up a lot when I shuffle my songs in the car. Back around New Year's, I started skipped this song every time it came up. Listening to it for this writing prompt was, to be honest, a little difficult, but at least I didn't cry.  It still made me sad.

Can’t Stop Loving You - Van Halen

Listening to this song, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.  I have memories of this song from my teen years, but I don't recall having any feelings towards it one way or another.  I like it, I've always liked it, but I don't think I ever really listened the lyrics until I listened for this prompt.  I understand this song very well now.

Drive (For Daddy Gene) - Alan Jackson

This song is rather bittersweet for me. It reminds me of my father, who starting letting me drive when I was 13 years old. During my teen years, my father and I spent many, many hours in the car together as I refined my driving skills. Even though he and I are not very close anymore, this song reminds me of a very special time when we were.

Burn it Down - AWOLNATION

Whenever I hear this song, I automatically recall the scene from the episode of Sons of Anarchy that it was featured in.  It was a high speed chase involving motorcycles and guns and Jax Teller (the show's main character) in all his badass, alpha male splendor.  This song makes me want to drive fast and I find myself always singing the burn it down, baby, burn it, burn it down part of the chorus. 

Cryin’ - Vixen

This song makes me feel like I'm in high school again, full of raging hormones and convinced that I know everything about life (even though I still don't).  It also makes me very nostalgic for a simpler time, a time before mortgages, taxes, and adult responsibilities.

Old Blue Chair - Kenny Chesney
In this song, Kenny sings about a chair that he has spent a lot of time sitting in, a chair that has been an indirect witness to his life.  I love this song because I've had a similar relationship with a chair that sits on my mother's deck in West Virginia.  

I've seen the world from a bus windshield

But nothing compares to the way that I see it

To the way that I see it, to the way that I see

When I sit in that old blue chair

Amen.  Nothing compares to the way that I see my life and the world as when I sit and view it from my Mom's brown, wicker swivel rocker.

Wind of Change - Scorpions

This is another song that takes me back to high school.  It was during those years in which many revolutionary waves occurred in central and eastern Europe, eventually resulting in the fall of communism. I remember being so awed with the events that I saw play out on the evening news every evening, even as a self absorbed teenager, for I knew the world was changing and that I was witnessing history in the making. 

Back Where You Belong - .38 Special

My best friend and I have a very special place in our hearts for .38 Special. They are one of those bands who always seemed to have a song playing in the background throughout the various stages of our lives. She and I have seen them in concert together 3 or 4 times.  Hearing this song, and most .38 Special songs, always makes me think of her and the good times we've had together.

You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

Every time, and I mean every time I hear this song, I'm instantly transported back to that day in October 1986 when I stepped into my neighbors basement to watch some MTV with him and I saw the video to this iconic song for the first time.  I swear, I instantly fell in love with Jon in that moment  and, as I've said on here before, my life changed.  Bon Jovi has provided many of the songs to my life's soundtrack.  Listening to this song always makes me feel young and happy and a little bit giddy.

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