Thursday, June 9, 2005
My Top Three Songs of All Time: #3
On various web boards and email lists people always seem to want to know what your favorite song of all time is. I have three tied for first because I really just could not choose only one, and I love all these songs equally. However over time I have ranked them, so maybe I don’t love them all equally. No that’s just not true.
My number 3 top song of all time:
Sweet Thing by Van Morrison.
When I was a kid I used to love feeling sad. I liked sad movies and sad songs. I can remember moping around the neighborhood singing “Feelings.” I didn’t even really understand what the song was about (I still couldn’t tell you) but I knew it was sad.
I also remember in kindergarten sitting forlornly on our swingset making up sad songs about my oldest sister and her husband, and how they had to be apart…because he was in jail. I didn’t know at the time that he was a heroin addict and an escaped convict, and that when my parents found out, they called the cops on him. At least I think that’s how it went.
Anyway, this song reminds me of that part of myself. The part that loves melancholy. My favorite lines: “And I shall drive my chariot down your streets and cry, ’Hey, it’s me, I’m dynamite! And I don’t know why’” and “Just to dig it all, an’ not to wonder, that’s just fine, And I’ll be satisfied not to read in between the lines.”
Available to Listen to in the radio.blog to the right.
And I will stroll the merry way
And jump the hedges first
And I will drink the clear
Clean water for to quench my thirst
And I shall watch the ferry-boats
And they’ll get high
On a bluer ocean
Against tomorrow’s sky
And I will never grow so old again
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain
Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my sweet thing
And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
’hey, it’s me, I’m dynamite
And I don’t know why’
And you shall take me strongly
In your arms again
And I will not remember
That I even felt the pain.
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty and wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again.
Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my sweet thing
And I will raise my hand up
Into the night time sky
And count the stars
That’s shining in your eye
Just to dig it all an’ not to wonder
That’s just fine
And I’ll be satisfied
Not to read in between the lines
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain
And I will never, ever, ever, ever
Grow so old again.
Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
Sugar-baby with your champagne eyes
And your saint-like smile….
That’s a good song.
"Astral Weeks" is my second favorite album of all time. I think "Cyprus Avenue" is my favorite track.
I just got a copy of "The Philosopher’s Stone"–a collection of unreleased stuff of his and am really liking it.
I heart Van Morrison. Astral Weeks is my favorite album of his. Moondance and His Band and The Street Choir are fantastic, too.
I don’t know if I could pick a favorite song.
I need to get more Van Morrison. I have Astral Weeks and Moondance, and I think a recent best of.
What’s your #1 fave album, Pris?