My final song of this two-week series comes courtesy of the great Lucinda Williams. ‘Side of the Road‘ covers some of the same territory as yesterday’s Miranda Lambert track — the idea of wondering what might have been.
But ‘Side of the Road‘ — one of my very favorite songs by anybody — focuses less on those untaken paths and more on the need to sometimes step aside and find yourself.
Miranda Lambert’s ‘Airstream Song,’ from her 2009 album Revolution, is an ode to the lives we might have lived.
I’m sure Lambert prefers her life as country music royalty to a life moving town to town in an Airstream, breaking hearts along the way. But I don’t doubt for a second that she sometimes wishes she could know what that other life is like.
Including this one, the last three songs I’ve featured have all mentioned the years 1982 or 1983. Surely that’s a coincidence, as each of these songs would work using any other year, but it’s striking nonetheless.
I was 11 in 1983, five years older than John Mayer, but I nonetheless share his fond memories of that much simpler and more carefree time.
The Shins’ most recent album, Port of Morrow, is chock full of excellent songs about a wide and fascinating range of topics. One in particular, ‘Fall of ’82,’ stands out for me because it’s an ode to singer-songwriter James Mercer’s older sister.
These lyrics remind me very much of my relationship with my own sister, who was always my first and best confidant. It’s a relationship I see mirrored in her own children, who are also five years apart, a younger brother and older sister.
I’m entering my second week of songs that have personal meaning for me — a quality that is extremely rare in the music I listen to. Tellingly, many of these songs aren’t particular favorites of mine… the personal connection clearly isn’t that important when it comes to my enjoyment and appreciation of good music.
Last week’s songs all focused on the life cycle of a relationship… from adolescent romance through marriage, kids and ultimately death. This week’s songs are less unified in theme but they do seem to share a certain melancholy (surprise!) quality and most of them deal with some combination of nostalgia and regret.
