Friday, March 11, 2005

The soundtrack of my life

Wouldn't it be great to have your own theme music? I've given this a lot of thought, which is probably a little scary, but seriously. Who doesn't want a song to swell, reminiscent of John Travolta walking down the street in "Saturday Night Fever"?
But, you would have to choose the song very, very carefully, as this would be the music to follow you around forever, so it's really quite an important decision.
I've thought about maybe "Black Magic Woman" by Santana, but it denotes a certain quality I don't think I possess. Anyone can dispute me on this, but I don't think I'm particularly evil, so that's out.
Another possibility is "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," but I feel like it's a little too lighthearted to convey my personality. But God love Cyndi Lauper.
There's always a typical female anthem like "I Will Survive," but since that song is all about getting over a messy break-up, I choose not to have my theme song be about men and what they have or have not done to me.
Basically, I've narrowed it down to a few choices:
1. Ani DiFranco's "I Am Not a Pretty Girl"--The lyrics are "I am not a pretty girl. That is not what I do. I ain't no damsel in distress, and I don't need to be rescued, so put me down, punk. I am not a maiden fair. Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?" How empowering is that? The drawback to having this as my theme song is that it's fairly slow, and while, granted, I'm not a particularly high-energy person, I feel my anthem needs to be a bit more upbeat.
2. The Black Crowes' "Hard to Handle"--Now, this song is obviously written and sung by men, but if you ignore that fact, it goes "Hey, little thing let me light your candle (some words I don't know...) I'm hard to handle now." Now, I like the idea of being hard to handle, because, in actuality, I kind of am. However, the fact that it's originally sung by men puts it slightly down in the running.
3. I don't know who sings it, and I should be shot for that, but "Brick House." Hee, hee. Now, I don't really know that I'm "mighty, mighty, just letting it all hang out," but that would be a truly kick-ass theme song to have. It's right up there with having "Let's Get It On" as your theme song, but, really, no one can pull that off, nor should they try.
4. Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Now, until I completely uprooted my life from Mississippi to Pennsylvania, I never in a million years would've thought of this song. But, I was recently listening to it, and I thought, you know what, I did do it my way. One portion of the song, "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention." Another section, "Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew, but through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out, I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way." Hell, yeah. Enough said.
However, after giving it way too much thought, I've decided if I got to have a song follow me around, it would be Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians "What I Am."
It's got a funky little beat befitting someone as hip(yea,right) as myself, and the lyrics are awesome.
"I'm not aware of too many things; I know what I know if you know what I mean. What I am is what I am. Are you what you are - or what? Don't let me get too deep."
I think, without being too wordy or pretentious, that sort of sums up what I feel like sometimes.
But, I do secretly have "Brick House" to fall back on.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My theme song will forever be the "Theme from Shaft" after my starring role in a goof reel we put together after the TV part of my journalism course at Queensland University of Technology.