# I’ve been tagged: The Perfect Song
Marko has tagged me to come up with a list of perfect songs for five specific genres. Here are the rules as Marko has laid out:
1. scan through your itunes or cd library. refamiliarize yourself with the nooks and crannies of your musical options.
2. identify five categories — genres, if you will — of music. these should be as obscure and finely-articulated as you’d like. feel free to use modifiers liberally.
3. nominate — select, really — a “perfect song” for each category. include a link for each song to something (the amazon page for the CD, or the artist’s website, or whatever). you may find it easier, as i did, to find “perfect songs”, and craft categories or genres around them.
4. ideally, some of the songs will be nominally obscure, or, at least, not completely mainstream and overplayed. no need to tell us all about songs we all know!
My list is a little different in that I’ve attached a specific action or state of mind to my genres. Hopefully this is ok with Marko. Here is my list:
1. The perfect song to listen to while imagining you can fly: “There Goes the Fear” by The Doves from the album The Last Broadcast
2. The perfect song to listen to while you are realizing that your life is full of apathy and that you were meant for more: “Aperture” by Gustavo Santaolalla from the Motor Cycle Diaries Soundtrack
3. The perfect song to listen to while lying in bed with your significant other, on top of the covers with your clothes on: “At My Most Beautiful” by R.E.M. from the album Up.
4. The perfect song to listen to while you are driving through the neighborhood where you grew up: “Skull” by Sebadoah from the album Bakesale.
5. The perfect song to listen to while playing your stereo (or headphones) at a deafening volume: “Growing Up” by Peter Gabriel from his album Up. There is no better sounding song in my iTunes library. Amazing.
So I guess I have to tag others? I think that’s how this works. If so, let’s hear from John Chandler and Tim Samoff.
February 26th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
nice! ooh — i don’t know some of those songs, and i will very soon be considering some purchasing of them!
February 26th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
oh crap.
Now I have to get creative.
February 28th, 2007 at 8:42 am
that is really funny, my brother and I were talking about great songs on otherwise terrible cds…at my most beautiful was #1 on my list. I love that song and am happy they did it, but their last 3 albums showed me just how important a drummer is
I always though the best flying on a plane song was Goodbye Sky Harbor, but for my 45 min songs, it is real close with Roller Queen…dammit 3 days by Janes Addiction is also on that list.
hmmm, how about best cover…I am thinking, Toad the Wet Sprockets cover of Hey Bulldog.
ok, I am off to put some more thought into this.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:45 am
Done!
http://sense-datum.org/tim/archive/2007/03/01/I%E2%80%99ve_been_tagged_The_Perfect/tim_samoff__weblog
March 1st, 2007 at 7:48 am
Hmmm… The URL came out a little odd. Sorry.
March 6th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
liked the motorcycles diares music so much, it led me to get the babel soundtrack last month. no disappointment.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:20 pm
[...] Zach has tagged me with a meme of the Perfect Song. Here’s the rules: [...]