If you could only listen to three songs for the rest of your life, what songs would you choose?
Inspired by something I heard on the radio on the way to work.
I have a feeling, from past music threads, that I won’t know half of the songs mentioned in this thread. Jellies sure have eclectic taste in music.
This will be a very hard question for me to answer, so I’ll come back later with my picks.
Any three songs. Go!
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Three songs? What a horrible torture. It doesn’t matter whether I like the songs now—I would be utterly sick of them after two hours.
What @elbanditoroso said. I would have to come up with 3 songs that I already hate.
Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion, Skynyrd, Freebird (Live), and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. And you have to leave me a gun.
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me, John Denver – Sunshine On My Shoulder, Jim Croce – Time In A Bottle. I don’t need a gun, I’m good with these.
Hey I gave you three, although I cheated on the last one.
If “The Four Seasons” counts, so does “Carmina Burana” and “Don Giovanni.”
@gailcalled In that case, I’d pick Wagner’s ring cycle as one of mine. It could take me a few lifetimes to get bored with that.
@livelaughlove21 This is tough! Of the top of my head, I can’t even pick three genres to listen to for the rest of my life. Let’s say I pick a few of my favourite artists:
Land of Talk
Punch Brothers
Rufus Wainwright
Then, strategically, I’d probably pick songs of theirs that I don’t know well already, so that I could stretch out that feeling of new discovery, which is one of the things I enjoy most about music.
@glacial: “The Ring” would be a lethal sentence for me. Death by shrieking.
I like Sinatra’s slow stuff, but can’t stand the Ring-A-Ding-Ding shit
Aretha Franklin “Until You Come Back To Me”
John Lennon and the Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows”
Steely Dan “Aja”
My response will vary depending on the time of day you ask me, but right this moment I’d list these three:
Ray LaMontagne’s “Let It Be Me”
Melissa Etheridge’s “No Souvenirs”
Josh Groban’s “Remember When It Rained”
Most of these I would consider death by a thousand cuts. When I was young and at summer camp, one of my 14-year old friends (female) played Sinatra’s Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered over and over… at 60 days and ten playings nightly, that’s 600…:“I’m wild again, beguiled again, a simpering, whimpering child again..”: (Doing this from memory from over 50 years ago)
Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos
Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
If I Didn’t Love You – Barbra Streisand
Weekend in New England – Barry Manilow
Something by Pistol Annie’s (Trailer For Rent maybe) just because I love the sound of their voices together.
I can’t wait to get home so I can pull some of these up on YouTube and listen to them. Keep ‘em coming!
Revel’s Bolero
London Symphony Orchestra
A Day in the Life
Beatles
Cantaloop
Herbie Hancock
Does Beethoven’s ninth count as a song?
MIlo here; There are human voices singing words, so I say “Yes.”
Just for fun, in their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” feature, Rolling Stone listed these as the three greatest songs of all time…
3. Imagine by John Lennon
2. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
1. Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
Though I love Imagine, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with this top 3. I’m not sure what I’d replace it with, but meh…
I think I found one of my three picks: I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You by Elvis Presley. I never get sick of that song. So that’s my cheesy, slow song. My next two will be a feel-good song and perhaps an angry song. If I’m stuck with only three songs for the rest of my life, I need one to match my three most common moods: sad, happy, mad.
Don Henley, Boys of Summer
The Calling, Wherever You Will Go
Frank Sinatra, My Way
I know these can be a bit cheesy but I associated certain songs with people and situations. Boys of Summer is the perfect driving with the top down song. It reminds of me of warm summer days and being young. My Way is my husband’s mantra and Wherever You Will Go never fails to make me think of my daughter.
Three of the odd numbered Beethoven symphonies. I prefer the odd numbers over the even numbers.
Three songs always guaranteed to lift my spirits:
“Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen
“Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing)” by the Benny Goodman band
“Rain King” by the Counting Crows
Sinatra’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” Mel Torme’s “My Romance, and Ralph Vaughan’s “Lark Ascending” (or any piece of music by him). Like @downtide, I’m always uplifted by these. Never tire of ‘em.
In The Fade – Queens Of The Stone Age
I’ve Got The World On A String – Frank Sinatra
Rhapsody In Blue – George Gershwin
At Last, Etta James
Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd (It’s a work of art, you can’t chop it up.)
Turn Around, They Might Be Giants
Hmm.
Well Keuhkosi for sure (be warned that’s my favorite acoustic black metal song) and then it gets harder. Maybe Many Lives 49mp cause Owen Pallet is a badass with a violin and…hmm. Well something with Mark Lanegan’s vocals for sure…I’m thinking All Misery/Flowers.
Oh and look at that. Two of those I wank to. —How very practical of me.—
Well, if I had to be trapped at Hoover Damn (the last bastion of electricity in the US) at the End of the World with a guy, his music collection, and a 2½” foot lead pipe, I’m thinkin @fundevogel could be the guy. I retain all rights to the lead pipe, however.
< Insert “laying pipe” joke here >
If I had to hang out with @fundevogel and listen to his music, “the rest of my life” would be very short, unless I lost the hearing in my other ear beforehand.
Three specific recordings of three songs, or various versions of three songs? It makes a difference.
Also, is there constant playing of these songs, or is it just that whenever there’s music playing, it would be one of these songs?
* her music *
I’m sure I’ve got stuff you’d like @gailcalled But three is is pretty limiting number for any of us. I’ve got Erik Satie, Count Basie, Django Reinhardt and that sort of thing too. I just tend to like the weird rhythmic stuff most.
@fundevogel: Could we just turn the volume way down and hang out?
That would be a terrible punishment to inflict. Burn in Hell maybe, but what have I done to be condemned to just three pieces of music?
Don’t answer that. Plenty is surely the honest reply, so here are my selections in no particular order:
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
Bedřch Smetana’s Má Vlast—Die Moldau The best part’s at 18:23 in.
Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond
If I can please have one more, Maurice Ravel’s Bolero
If You See Her Say Hello by Bob Dylan (to remember Laura)
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton (me and my wife’s song)
Too Much Monkey Business by Chuck Berry (brings back my younger days)
@gailcalled Anytime. Or I could just turn it off. Just cause I’m down to three songs doesn’t mean I want to hear them 24/7 :)
Or we could just sing whatever struck our fancy.
@fundevogel: It’s a deal.
(Even 60 seconds of Ravel’s Bolero would force me to puncture both my eardrums)
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