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Songs that have shaped my love life: David Bowie, “Heroes”
Weren’t we all part of Ziggy’s band? I honestly have no idea how I was first introduced to David Bowie. It feels like he’s just always been there in my pop-culture consciousness, in some form or another, putting together tunes that spoke for so many generations. But since I grew up in the 80s, I probably first discovered him while watching Labyrinth, playing the Goblin King, Jareth. This incarnation of David Bowie was beautiful but arrogant, intent on making Sarah his slave – just like everyone else around him. In his final speech of the movie, he pleads “Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you…
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Songs that have shaped my love life: Liz Phair, “Fuck and Run”
Liz Phair has been a favorite of mine since high school. Could be the Chicago gal connection, or simply the fact that she had the ovaries to call her first album “Exile in Guyville,” aiming her middle finger sky high and skewering the cock-rock of the Rolling Stones’ signature “Exile on Main Street.” Though there are plenty of Liz Phair songs that I love, the one that most aptly characterized my love life for the longest time was “Fuck and Run.” Maybe that sounds self-explanatory, but let’s probe a little deeper, shall we? Phair’s stripped-down sound appeals to me even now, because who doesn’t love a girl and her guitar?…
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Songs that have shaped my love life: Postal Service, Brand New Colony
The Postal Service is another one of my favorite bands that no longer exists. If you’ve heard of them before, you probably already know that The Postal Service is one of those “side project” bands, formed by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello, aka Dntel. It’s also one of the bands my husband and I connected over. We both really like the song “Brand New Colony,” although the whole Give Up album is pretty much flawless. I mean, how can you not love a guy who wants to whisk you away from everything that’s cynical and boring about the world, to a place where passion knows…
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Songs that have shaped my love life: Poe, Hey Pretty
When I first started writing these “Songs That Have Shaped My Love Life” posts, I had a pretty long list of artists in mind that start with the letter P. Thus far, I’ve only mentioned the worst of these, Pearl Jam. At this point I’d like to direct your attention to one of my favorite female musicians who, sadly, is no longer performing: Poe. Poe’s second album, Haunted, came out in The Year 2000 (and yes, back in the day, we half-jokingly wrote it like that, feeling like everything was suddenly super futuristic) – five whole years after her first release, Hello. Fans of the former immediately snatched up the…
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Songs that have shaped my love life: Sarah McLachlan, Possession
We all know the story of Sarah McLachlan’s song “Possession,” right? No? Okay, check this out: While it sounds like a pretty hot love song on the surface, it’s actually a series of increasingly disturbing “love notes” from McLachlan’s real-life stalker. Yeah, how’s that for 50 shades of fucked up? The first time I listened to this song, naturally I figured it was a hot love song. I listened to it a lot. It was on one of the first CDs I bought in high school, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. If FTE had been a vinyl record, I would’ve worn the damn thing out, that’s how many times I listened to…
