(#34) Three Marlenas

Day 1 of my blogging challenge is to discuss my favorite song. Picking a favorite song, singular, is kind of impossible for me, so I'll narrow it down to three, which is still pretty darn difficult.

I've done this before but here I'll add some to the list...

1. "Baba O'Riley" by The Who

This song is the end all be all for me. The synthesizer at the beginning, followed by the piano, then Moon on the drums then Entwistle with the bass and Daltrey coming in on the vocals...such a beautiful build-up. Even from the first twenty seconds of the swirling synth line, you can tell that something big is about to happen. And happen it does - my favorite five minutes of music on this planet. This song is so sweeping and epic to me and I feel like it says something when almost forty years after its creation, it still holds that power.

Don't forget the violin at the ending. Never forget the violin at the ending.

This is probably the most amazing cover I've ever heard of this song.

2. "Rocks Off" by The Rolling Stones

"Aw, yeah!"

This song just sums up the dirty blues of the Stones for me. The imperfections are what makes it great; the way individual bits of the music -even Jagger's lead vocals - fade in and out add to the dazed, spinning feeling of the piece as a whole and the rollicking piano and horns complete this song that is equal parts raw, confused, and quite honestly, just plain fun. To me, this is a summer driving song, to be played loud with the windows down.

3. "House by the Sea" by Iron & Wine

If you've never heard The Shepherd's Dog in its entirety, download/buy it right now and listen to it. I'll wait.

Back? Okay. Now, if your favorite track wasn't "House by the Sea," I...really don't mind, because there are so many great songs on this album I could see how it would be difficult to pick one. But still.

This is one of the strangest pieces of music I've heard and many adjectives could be used to describe it - wistful, haunting, beautiful, complex, mysterious, etc. The way the various sounds and strings flow together paint this gorgeous blurry sepia-toned picture in my head. I know I won't do justice to describe it so if I link to it here will you promise to listen to it? Thanks.

Whew. One down, twenty-nine to go.