All the emotion from 2008 distilled into one song

12/31/2008 Jrnl/Music

My song of the year has to be “Harvard Hands” by the Foxymorons. If you haven’t heard it, you can find a free MP3 on the webpage for the album, Hesitation Eyes. From pretty close to day one, 2008 was a year spent in a pit, looking to the sky for light and dreaming of warmth. It’s the kind of feeling music expresses in ways words simply can’t, and it’s expressed brilliantly by the Foxymorons.

I really love everything about this song. I love how it’s melancholy, with a dash of good old Americana. I love the wordless tune sung between lines on the verses. And the guitar solo at the end reflects a passion for life I feel after trying to sort out what I lack, what I have, what others take for granted and what I must remind myself not to – a whirlwind of everything I love, hate and fear.

It’s one of those songs that’s so theatrical, it feels appropriate to take a bow at the end – just like I want to take a bow and exit the theater that has been 2008.

Runners up

Getting married has been wonderful, but employment (and the lack thereof) in 2008 frankly made me identify with “Helter Skelter” (“When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride, ‘till I get to the bottom and I see you again”). Also, Saul Williams brilliantly summed up a lot of my frustration with one line in “Black History Month,” the lead track off of Niggy Tardust, when he observed that “the banana peels are carefully placed.”

That said, I’m hopeful things will get better. I look to 2009 with anticipation, and I think that feeling is expressed well enough by “Everything that Happens,” by David Byrne and Brian Eno. It’s nice to be reminded that “every tomorrow will be yesterday, and everything that happens will happen today.” It may be a little sappy, but in hard times, a little sappiness now and then can be a good thing.

Comment [3]

255 Cornelia

01/01/2009 User Comment

we have a group of songs, each the individual song of each person.

“Anti-christ Television Blues” by Arcade Fire.
from Von Mittendorf

“Trilogy” by Sonic Youth
from Smicholas

“Parade” by Hirasawa Susumu
from Barfy
“This song is from the film Paprika by Satoshi Kon. I listened to it over and over again in 2008 because my great goal for the year was to ride an elephant in the doll parade as depicted in the film.”
(I made it!)

The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer by Dr. Dog
from exonprovence

“The Valley Shuffle” by Acidwolf

“This little acid diddy was the closest to my heart in ’08. It’s done by Acidwolf, a pseudonym of Benn Jordan (a.k.a. The Flashbulb), who in addition to being a very awesome and transcendent acid producer also has a lot of great things to say about the future of music distribution and creator rights on the internet. I’ve listened to this song so many times while in the process of moving to and living in New York this past year in 2008, the song will always in some way remind me of this year, I think.”

from Hendo (Minister of Rhythm)

TenFootNinja

01/07/2009 User Comment

My contribution is old, late, and relevant to President Bush.

The Beatles-Fool On The Hill

Dan Hiester

01/07/2009 User Comment

You still get points for being witty. And Hendo gets points for including… a lot.