Queen's Meme ~ You In the Moonlight with Your Sleepy Eyes

Sometimes it's the song. Sometimes it's the singer. These are songs and experiences I love and always will. It took me forever this week to play my own meme. Someone needs to tell Mimi to lighten up on the memes. Oh, the memories my brain conjured with this meme. I threw out a lot more than I kept. It was hard!

#26 Name That Tune Meme

The Rules : Once you have been tagged (or commanded by the Queen) you are supposed to write down the top 25 SEVEN songs you cannot live without. The ones you can listen to over and over and never get tired of. They don't have to be in any particular order. These are the songs that make you laugh, cry, think of an old friend, whatever the reason. I know it's impossible for many of us to narrow it down to seven. There are just too many songs. Instead, make a list of seven songs that move you personally and tell us why. What memory does the song evoke? What emotion? Where were you when you first heard it? We'd like to know what's in your musical memory bank. Name seven songs and tell us about your emotional connection to the song.
Fair enough?

Here's my list. But it is FAR from conclusive. I doubt it will ever be definitive.

1. Leather and Lace - Fleetwood Mac - 1981
"I have my own life
and I am stronger than you know
but I had this feeling
when you walked into my house
that you wouldn't be walking out the door
lovers forever face to face
My city your mountain
stay with me stay
I need you to love me
I need you today
Give to me your leather
Take from me
my lace"


2. "Do What You Have To Do" ~ McLachlan is McLachlan is McLachlan and there is none like her. She weaves poetry into stars of sound.

What ravages of spirit
conjures this tempestuous rage
Created you a monster
Broken by the rule of love
And fate has led you through it
You do what you have to do

and the infamous "Answer"
At least in my life it was infamous. There is hardly one of her songs that hasn't touched me on some level at some time in my life. Her Mirrorball album (seen above) was my divorce album. It helped me find the courage to start a new life with .....me.

Sometimes she was the soundtrack for two.

Cast me gently
Into morning
For the night has been unkind
Take me to a
Place so holy
That I can wash this from my mind

One cold winter night I chased the moon down a lonely road toward his town about an hour away for date number four. I remember this: He was very tall. It was cold. A deer ran in front of my car. He wore a black leather jacket. Always. I loved his cologne. He loved my skirts. I had a long black coat over boots and leggings and skirts that made him smile. The air was crisp and clean. The chemistry? Tantalizing and strong. No pressure. No worries. Just fun.....that is until Sarah's "Answer" smacked us right dab in the pheromones with a dose of tenderness by the fireplace in his living room. It was lovely and unexpected. I'm learning the best relationships usually are. Winter turned to spring and someone else entered both our lives. It was time to move on.
I wish him nothing but moon-filled joy.
Thank you, Sarah, for turning fireworks into substance. It's nice when you can look back and smile. I think of him when the moon is full and the night is cold. And I still smell the leather.

3. **Poor Gustav. He looks so out of place here**
Mahler's 5th Symphony Adagietto - Why? I had to analyze it for a Music History class in college. That's why. I trudged down to the library dungeon in the basement of the music school and sat with headphones watching the rain pour above me through a small sliver of a window. I was not looking forward to this task. Then I fell in love with Gustav. I fell in love with classical music. I fell in love with classical music because of speckled studious Gustav. I fell in love with the violin modulations that never quite make it and angst from the pen of his genius. I wrote an award-winning paper on the trials of a man in his mid-forties who - at the time he wrote this symphony - was still searching for the love of his life.
I could relate. Thank you, Gustav.
Have you met Stevie? She's very pretty you know....

4. Barbra Streisand's live concert in Central Park 1968 -
I wanted her vibeI wanted her wardrobe
I wanted to be there
I wore that record out

I wonder where that record is.





We build up walls that others can't penetrate. We hold a mirror to everyone but ourselves. This song always reminds me that defenses can easily be melted by the power of love. And really, who would want it any other way?

5. End of the Innocence - Don Henley and/or Bruce Hornsby
Remember when the days were long
Happily ever after fails
and we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
oh but I know a place where we can go
you can lay your head back on the ground
and let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
the end of the innocence.

I let my hair fall down.
I've never regretted it.


6. Prince - "Purple Rain"

Shocked? I know. Don't say it. Watch him play guitar sometime. Forget about the makeup and theatrics and changes in religion and hype and diva status and Super Bowl presence. Just stop and watch him play. Watch him breathe in the music. Watch him breathe out the sound. He might not go down as one of the all-time best technical guitar players in the world (although I would argue the point) but there is a controlled genius about him that I admire. With a stroke of wild I find fascinating. I know! Who knew?!
He is, even with all the controversy, a consummate musician through and through.
Trust me on that one.



7. Tracy Chapman "Give Me One Reason"
Give me one reason to stay here
and I'll turn right back around
Said I don't wanna leave you lonely
you gotta make me change my mind

No matter what mood I'm in, that song makes me shake off my shoes and feel better. It is sexy. It is bluesy. It is simply happy. And she makes me want to dance.









8. Stevie Nicks
"Landslide"

Well, I've been afraid of changin'
cause I built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older
too