Today’s selection, rounding out my top five desert island songs, fits nicely into the discussion in yesterday’s comment section.
Dana might argue that I’m closing out with an R.E.M. song because they are one of my favorite bands. I would counter that R.E.M. is one of my favorite bands because of this song (which I featured in its original form as SOTD #201).
R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction is one of the key formative albums in my life. It was released in 1985 but I discovered it a couple of years after that, during my sophomore year of high school.
To this day, I can’t hear a single track from this album without being transported to the basement of my Northern Virginia home, where I would listen to this album on repeat on a Sony Walkman.
And ‘Maps and Legends’ is the most transporting of them all, brimming with mystery and, yes, melancholy.
He’s not to be reached, he’s to be reached.
Called the fool and the company,
On his own where he’d rather be.
Where he ought to be, he sees what you can’t see, can’t you see that?
Maybe he’s caught in the legend,
maybe he’s caught in the mood.
Maybe these maps and legends
have been misunderstood.
Down the way the road’s divided,
Paint me the places you have seen.
Those who know what I don’t know
refer to the yellow, red and green
Maybe he’s caught in the legend,
maybe he’s caught in the mood.
Maybe these maps and legends
have been misunderstood.
He’s not to be reached, he’s to be reached. (4 times)
The map that you painted didn’t seem real.
He just sings whatever he’s seen
Point to the legend, point to the east,
Point to the yellow, red and green
Maybe he’s caught in the legend,
maybe he’s caught in the mood.
Maybe these maps and legends
have been misunderstood, been misunderstood. (Maps and legends)
(Maps and legends) Is he to be reached? He’s not to be reached.
(Maps and legends) Is he to be reached? He’s not to be reached.
(Maps and legends) Is he to be reached? He’s not to be reached anymore.
Meet Me In Montauk 
To clarify, my “argument” is not really how you have restated it above. rather, my point as to your picks this week is much the same as the point I was trying to make regarding your year end “best of” list. Namely, the particular way you discover music, usually through reading about the artist, then buying the album and, only then at times, discovering that certain song from that album that impacts you more than others (or, as you have essentially conceded in today’s post as well as the others, the song that exemplifies your love of that artist or album a bit more than the rest of the album or discography) infuses and informs how you come to your list. (Wow, was that a run on sentence or what?)
By contrast, I suspect most of the rest of us, probably including the fun dude whose list in RS inspired this week’s theme, discover a particular song through radio play, seeing the video, etc… That might or might not then cause us to buy the album, which will either make us fall more deeply in love with the rest of that artist’s work, though sometimes, of course, one ends up realizing the artist really had one great song in them. so, case in point from Amy’s comment from yesterday, she discovered that Belle and Sebastian song because you put it on a mix tape for her. Apparently, though she would likely not put it in her top 5 (particularly because she didn’t been remember knowing and loving it from the first blog post), it is nevertheless a song she came to love through that introduction by you and that love was not strengthened through buying the album or the rest of the band’s discography so as to make the artist or album one of her favorites. Similarly, the song I mentioned earlier, “Broken Arrow,” became known to me through radio play (I’m pretty sure). I believe at one point I bought (or rented back in college) his album, which did nothing for me. So, while I still hold the song in high regard (though likely not top 5 regard), my love of the song did not come from reading about the artist (which is how you often discover your favorites), buying the album and then having your opinion fortified by your love of the artist and the particular album that served as your entry point to that song and artist.
My only other secondary point as to how you derived this favorite “song” list is that I think you are either consciously or subconsciously dismissing great songs from artists who you consider second tier or whose discography as a whole has disappointed you even if one or more of that artist’s albums are, or were at some point, a favorite. So, for example, your favorite Billy Joel or Paul Simon or Dave Matthews Band song doesn’t crack this list because, at some point, the artist or at least a fair amount of that artist’s discography became less appealing to you.
anyway, I think I have said more than enough for now. 😄
I do see your point, and I think it’s valid. However, I wonder if your own list wouldn’t be similar.
You mention above that ‘Broken Arrow,’ your example of a great one-off song, wouldn’t make your own list. I love that song as well, but I didn’t consider it for this list either.
I suspect your own list would lean toward artists you like overall rather than those one-offs. Of course, you can now produce a list of outliers just to prove your point!
Fair enough. Challenge accepted!
And I think you may well be right that I will ultimately favor my favorite artists over outliers. What do you think of my second point about the second tier artists or those who have stumbled more at times in their career, or in a case like Billy Joel, stopped putting out music (after some weaker records so as to face a double ding) or the Beatles because they haven’t existed for over 40 years. I suspect my list, while less likely to contain an outlier, is more likely to include my favorite Joel or Beatles song.
I’m putting together my second five (stay tuned next week) and, without giving anything away, don’t be surprised if you see one or both of those artists represented.
I’ve noticed a correlation between the songs on my larger list and a certain period of my life — namely, mid-teens to early 20s. I’m curious to see if that same period is covered by your list.
In my case, that decade or so was both my most formative period (as I guess it is for everybody) and also the time I was most fully engaged in music. As in, sitting around for hours with headphones on engaged.
My list… song #1:
As Dana and I discussed this process, I thought to myself that the only “fair” way for me to choose FIVE?!?!? songs to have on a desert island would be to just quickly to a gut check and think which songs could I imagine living the rest of my life, however long and lonely it might be, without…. I came up with the first three in about five second. It took me a bit longer to decide which of my desert island artist’s songs I would bring, but I ultimately realized that “If I Had a Boat” should get the spot. Finally, how could I not choose “Here Comes the Sun.” I adore this song under normal conditions. On an island, I’m going to need the daily reminder 🙂
(as for the raging debate/discussion you two have been having the past few days, I only listen to two of these (Van Morrison and Lyle Lovett) on the album that contains them. The others I have gravitated towards for different reasons, though usually I first hear songs I love in a film, video or television show (such as “Broken Arrow,” the most memorable example, which I went searching everywhere for when I heard it in an episode of thirtysomething many, many years ago).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXP4UqgNg70
song #2:
song #3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVAnlke_xUY
song #4 (the toughest pick, as there are 5 others that could just as easily take this “spot”):
song #5:
A fine list, indeed.