The Seven Songs Music Meme

Okay, it’s been over a month since Tundra PA tagged me for this meme, and it’s about time I got around to answering it.

A meme is an idea that is passed from blog to blog, and doing a memes are a great way for bloggers to get to know one another and to share a bit of themselves that they otherwise might not think to do.

This meme asks that I list seven songs that I am currently listening to, and then to tag seven other bloggers. This meme is so old, everyone else has probably already done it by now. But if you haven’t done it yet, consider yourself tagged and do it already, it’s a lot of fun! (Linda and Main Mama, this means you..) Thanks, Tundra PA, I really enjoyed this one…

Click on the red links to hear the music or view the album…

1. Graceland – Paul Simon

I never tire of listening to this gem, truly one of the best albums ever released. The music is fantastic, a mix of American and African rythyms plus a little Ladysmith Black Mombasa, and the lyrics are sheer poetry. Not to mention alliteration – “the boy in the bubble and the baby with the baboon heart”.

I know every song on this album by heart, and have even invented some cool moves for the “whoop, whoop” parts of the song I Know What I Know. One time we were driving to Maine with our friends, two cars playing tag along Rt 95, all the kids somehow in our car. Our friends passed us at one point, and later told us they knew exactly what song we were listening to because everyone in the car was doing that “whoop – whoop” move.

My favorite memory of the Graceland album, though, is from my fourth year of ob-gyn residency, in the days when in vitro fertilization was in its infancy. On this particular day, we were implanting embryos from our very first batch of frozen embryos. The patient was special to all of us, having gotten to know everyone intimately over the course of her treatment. (These were also the days before IVF became a mill.). Both the patient and our chief loved music, and she used to bring in mix tapes for him whenever she came for her appointments.

On the day of the embryo implantation, our patient dressed herself in a beautiful cotton nightgown instead of the hospital gown. She insisted that we turn down the lights so that only the procedure light was on. Then, while her tape player played These are the Days of Miracles and Wonder from the Graceland album, my chief implanted the embryos. It was almost too intimate and beautiful a moment for words.

She conceived, of course, and went on to deliver healthy twins. A miracle and a wonder, truly.

2. Flower Duet from Delibe – Lakme (Natalie Dessay et al)

Remember that sweet little movie from the 1980’s “I Heard the Mermaids Singing“? In it, there is a gorgeous opera aria that plays while the heroine flies through the sky. For years I’ve wondered what that aria was, and thought that I would love to learn to sing it.

Now I am no opera buff. I think I can recognize Madame Butterfly, and I know the movie Rent is based on La Boehme, but that’s about it. So it took me awhile to find out that this lovely aria is actually the Flower Duet from the opera Lakme’ by Delibe. (Click here to view it performed by Dessay and Maurus. Wait through the intro, the best part comes just after it…)

I bought the CD last month and have been listening to the song ever since. It’s actually a lovely opera, and I am enjoying more than just the Flower Duet. (I now have this image of myself really getting to know opera, and listening to the Opera at Lincoln Center on the radio while I cook on Sunday afternoons…)

The next step, of course, is to get the music, and convince someone to sing the other part of the Flower Duet with me. Any takers?

3. I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You (Colin Hay)

One of the best things about having your kids get to the teen years is that they bring new music into your life. And the great news is that there is some incredible new music out there.

Take a listen to this clip from Colin Hays album Going Somewhere, and tell me it doesn’t give you goosebumps…

4. Live at Blues Alley / Over the Rainbow- Eva Cassidy

Eva is one of the founding member of my Favorite Female Singers Taken Too Soon Club. (The other two members are Laurie Beechman and Nancy Lamott). I discovered Eva’s music some years back, only to find out that she had recently died from melanoma. Cruel, cruel world…

This album is her best, showing her incredible versatility and soul, as she moves from the jazzy Cheek to Cheek through a bluesy and smoky Stormy Monday to a rockin’ version of Take Me to the River.

But my favorite Eva Cassidy song is her beautifully unique rendition of Over the Rainbow on her Songbird album. Everytime I hear that song, it breaks my heart to think that she is gone. Click here to view a video of her singing this song. and here for a two part ABC segment on her life.

5. Enya (But not on purpose…)

I actually am not an Enya fan, and have never bought an Enya CD or listened to her voluntarily. When you call my friend Lori’s office and get put on hold, you can hear Enya. So sometimes I hear her then. But mostly, Enya wakes me up in the mornings.

You see, my neighbor, whose roof garden ajoins ours, waters her garden every morning at 6:30 am while listening to music. She seems to be particularly fond of our friend Enya over there. And so most mornings, Mr TBTAM and I, who sleep in our upstairs bedroom with the door open to our garden, are awakened to the sound of Enya’s singing.

And do you know what? It’s not a bad way to wake up. Except that while you are in that state between sleeping and dreaming, you start to wonder if maybe you died in your sleep and that the angels are singing…

Of course, now that the cool weather has arrived, Enya has taken to the indoors. Too bad – Now I have to listen to the damned alarm…

6. Nancy Lamott – Live at Tavern on the Green

As I mentioned before, Nancy Lamott is another member of my Favorite Female Singers Taken Too Soon Club. Nancy is one of the greatest cabaret singers of our time, not because she brings the house down with her voice (although she does), but because she epitomizes the intimacy, warmth and spirit of cabaret.

I was introduced to Nancy though one of my favorite radio programs, The Saturday Show with Jonathan Schwartz. I ran out to buy this album, fell in love with it, and then headed to the web where I learned that, tragically, Nancy had died from uterine cancer shortly after recording it.

A loss, to be sure, but I am thankful that we had her for the time that we did. Best song one the album? Hands down, Listen to My Heart.

7. Hallelujah – Rufus Wainright or Jeff Buckley?

Leonard Cohen wrote the song, but the definitive version belongs to Buckley. However, I really like Rufus’s version, recorded on the soundtrack of Shrek. His voice, the ease with which he sings, the piano instead of the guitar.

Here’s an amazing video of Buckley singing Hallelujah. Then check out Rufus doing his version on the Shrek Soundtrack, or in concert. You decide, I can’t.

And more…
This was very difficult for me, choosing just seven. I feel like I left so much out. So here’s a sample of what’s in my CD case (I don’t have an ipod yet…) Click on the links for the album. Enjoy!

Keith Jarret – Tokyo ’96 [Live]

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band

I am Sam Soundtrack

The Divine Miss Sarah Vaughan

Gillian Welch – Revival

Profile – The Best of Emmylou Harris

Norah Jones – Come Away with Me

Category: Considerations