Soundtrack of Our Lives

Are there any songs that actually bring you to tears? I wonder if it's the emotion of the lyrics or the way the music played. Of course, at times it's a memory associated with the music. I can think of countless songs that stir emotion in me or bring me to a certain place and time. Take the song Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes. This song does nothing for me except conjure up the sadness I felt during the time period in which my parents were going through their divorce. How about the song That's What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John? A power house combination, and an all around feel good song, makes me feel like crap because I associate it with a group of "best friends" I had in middle school who eventually turned on me for some reason I never could understand. What bothers me most is how much I want to like the song now, but can't. I've tried leaving it on when it comes up in the rotation on the 80's station and by the time it gets to the first chorus I want to cry or vomit and I turn it off. Of course, there are also songs we associate with horrible events in history, and those can easily bring us to tears.

Another category of tear-jerking songs are the ones with emotionally charge lyrics, telling gut wrenching stories of heartache and hardship. I submit into evidence, the song The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney. It's a beautiful tribute to the importance of recognizing what the "good stuff" is. Quick summary: Young guy walks into a bar after fighting with his wife, and asks the bartender for "the good stuff." Bartender tells him he can't find that here, and goes on to recall the wonderful things that make up "the good stuff." Young guys asks about the photo on the wall, bartender says it's his wife who died of cancer and recalls some more good stuff. They share a glass of milk and he sends the guy home to his wife to apologize. If you haven't cried by that point, you're bound to when

Being right there when our time got small
And holding her hand when the good lord called her up
Yeah man that's the good stuff...

The song gets me every. single. time. There others like this too. Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven, which was about the loss of his 4-year-old son. It quickly became overplayed resulting in a numbness to the emotion of the song. But on a random day years later if it comes on the radio and you listen, you're reminded it's about the death of a child. Another is Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen. It's so haunting and if you've seen the movie, you easily attach images of an emaciated and sickly looking Tom Hanks as man dying of AIDS. There are tons of these emotionally charged songs with a straight forward obvious reason to cry.

But what about those songs that just hit you. Are there songs that just make you cry because of the way they sound? Certain singers? I often feel driven to tears when I hear Alison Krauss sing. Her voice is angelic to me, and her singing sounds so effortless. I find it to be incredibly moving. One of my favorites is When You Say Nothing At All. Not only is her voice just beautiful, but I feel like that song could be written for my husband and me. It's not her song originally, but it'll always be her song in my mind. When Eddie Vedder sings in his low mellow voice, I get an emotional feeling too. My City of Ruins, a Bruce Springsteen song he sang for Artists for Peace to benefit relief efforts in Haiti hits me in the heart.

I guess what I'm discovering as I write this is a sort of duh moment. News flash: music is a package deal. A great singer, strong musicianship, and heartfelt lyrics are going to make a listener emotional. Whether it's to celebrate, lift your spirits or to soothe your sadness, or even acknowledge your anger, a song with all these components will do what it set out to do, connect with the listener and make the song his/her own. When we feel like singers are singing for us or about us, the song is a success. There's a reason why we fill our iTunes and go to concerts. The songs we love make up the soundtrack to our lives.