Today’s category is…
A Song That Expresses Your World View (Or Somethin’ Like That.)
Here are the staff picks:
Kevin Coyne: “Something Worth Leaving Behind” – Lee Ann Womack
Live your life for yourself, your life dies with you. Live it for others, it lives on long after you’re gone.
Leeann Ward: “What You Give Away” – Vince Gill
I like the way this guy thinks. I wholeheartedly believe in this philosophy and tend to be a sucker for any song that expresses it.
Dan Milliken: “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)” – The Byrds
Ecclesiastes and Pete Seeger wrote this classic in a Music Row living room after eating some barbecue and swapping stories about their weekends. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” gets that life paints in shades of gray – things that seem undesirable to us may yet be necessary, and different courses of action may be morally sound or not depending on circumstance. But the song also doesn’t shy away from advocating for peace at the end, as if to say, “maybe we’ve already served enough ‘time for war,’ you know?”
Tara Seetharam: “What a Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong
I know it seems like a simplistic pick, but lately its message has really resonated with me. It’s incredible –mind-blowing, really– how much beauty and humanity you can see in the world every day if you choose to see it. And life is significantly more rewarding when you do.
“We Shall Be Free” – Garth Brooks. The issues in the song still hold true and will always need improvement, and whenever I think something is wrong with our culture this song always gives me hope that it can improve.
Blackhawk – “That’s Just About Right”. I like this song because it says you have to pay attention to really appreciate life’s greatest moments.
I don’t think any one song could possibly express my world view – it’s a mixture of Hag’s “Fighting Side of Me”, Satchmo’s “What A Wonderful World”, Pete Seeger’s “Turn Turn Turn” and Guy Drake’s “Welfare Cadillac” with a whole lot of Spike Jones, Homer & Jethro, Jim Nesbitt and Weird Al Yankovic thrown in for good measure !
“Cowboy Logic” – Michael Martin Murphey
The one that comes to mind off the bat is Randy Houser’s latest, “In God’s Time.” That does the best job of describing my view on the world.
I love the line: “No one knows/not you or me/it might be tomorrow/or it might never be.” That can apply to so many situations in life and it’s so true.
Joe South’s “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”
These are probably sentimental favorites, and perhaps a bit too Utopian, but I must still mention them:
IF I CAN DREAM–Elvis Presley
WE ARE THE WORLD–USA For Africa
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE–The Beatles
Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying
I remember when I was a kid (which isn’t long ago at all), when although I didn’t then like music, would listen to this song on the radio on the way to school. I also remember around that time a family friend who was is a similar position to the man in the above song, so this song really impacted me at the time and even now :)
uhm..
I’ll go with the most blatant
“Imagine” – John Lennon or
“Angel” – Westlife version
First one that comes to my mind is Dixie Chicks’ “More Love.” It’s message is so simple, yet so true: “More love… That’s all we need.” I also love how the song is contructed, beginning on a smaller scale with a relationship scenario, and then working up to a call for world peace.
“I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World,” written by Kyle Fleming, Dennis Morgan, Charles Quillen
My mom was big into Ronnie Milsap when I was young. I remember us driving around playing a tape of his hits. Maybe it was because my parents divorced when I was so young (it was a bitter divorce to cap a horribly ugly marriage), but this song resonated very strongly with me even before I should have been able to appreciate it.
I won’t lie: I’m a negative person in general when it comes to myself. I think very little of anything good that I’ve done and almost obsess over the mistakes and failures (of which there have been many). But when it comes to standing back and trying to get perspective on life at general I still try to go back to this song’s message.
I don’t believe in regret, because it suggests that if you start thinking about where things went wrong you’ll eventually conclude you should never have started something in the first place. I reject that entirely. Exploring life, and love, is the entire point of drawing breath and we should never allow undesirable outcomes to make us resent ever having taken the chance in the first place.
“They say that all good things must end
Loves comes and goes just like the wind
You’ve got your dreams to follow
But if I had the chance tomorrow
You know I’d do it all again”
“I think the World Needs A Drink” by TerriClark. It is so true in these crazy times!
“The Heart of Life” by John Mayer.
Life is good. Let’s not forget that.
^ Agree, Billy!
‘I Would have Loved You Anyway’ Trisha Yearwod-Brooks
‘The Dance’ Garth Brooks
A life lived with regret is no kind of life at all IMO
…joe diffie’s – “prop me up beside the jukebox”
I’m surprised no one’s said Travis Tritt’s “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive”, but I’ll go with John Michael Montgomery’s “Life’s A Dance”. It’s cheesy, but it’s a classic.
Dear Mr. President P!nk
“The Secret of Life” by James Taylor.
Love Kyle’s pick! JMM was great!
Martina’s Happy Girl expresses how I want to live my life, and More Love (Dixie Chicks) expresses how I want to live with the world.
“Not That Different” collin Raye
“God Bless the USA” Lee Greenwood
“God Bless the Child” Shania Twain
“Thank God for Kids” The Oak Ridge Boys
..to name just a very few
“The Luckiest’ – Ben Folds