What Are the Three Most Important Songs In My Life?

What Are the Three Most Important Songs In My Life?

Today's prompt is to name the three most important songs in my life.  There must be a Beatles song in there somewhere and a Harry Chapin, then it's a free for all.  The Beatles made a ton of songs, some will say Sgt. Pepper was their best; others, The White Album.  My favorite is Rubber Soul.  But it's all about the sound, not the lyrics.  So how can it be one of the most important songs in my life?  I think I made a wrong turn somewhere, this challenge begins to feel a bit more daunting.  

Harry Chapin, with his storytelling style makes it a bit easier.  Although there are many great stories among his albums, I'll stick with "Taxi," a story about being true to what you wish for and not so true.  Harry, speaking in the first person, remarks that he and the old girlfriend he encounters while driving his taxi late one night have something in common.  In some ways, neither has achieved the dreams they had that caused them to drift apart.  He's a taxi driver, drifting through life, and she's a wealthy wife of some older man, seeming not to be very happy in her life.  But in a way, they'd both gotten what they asked for.  "She was gonna be an actress and I was gonna learn to fly."  Here she's acting happy, behind her lonesome walls, and Harry, he's flying in his taxi, taking tips and getting stoned.  I have always  loved the song and the lesson it offers about what dreams can become if you lose track.  Sticking to making your dreams a reality is the right path.  

Next up for me is Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On."  In a capsule, paraphrasing--Mothers there are far too many of you crying.  Brothers, there are far too many of you dying.  War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate.  We've got to find a way to bring some love and understanding here today.  Picket signs on picket lines are punished with brutality, what's goin' on?  Who are you to judge me just because my hair's too long.  Yes, only love can conquer hate, ask Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.  Ask Mahatma Ghandi.  All of these made an impact by answering hate with love and understanding.  Hard to argue that or to hear the message given more soulfully and delightfully than the way old Marvin did.

The third song will have to wait.  I'm done here for now.