Eight songs for the soul

What better way to welcome Midsummer Day than with music? I’m responding to Magpie Girl’s 8 Things invitation in which she asks:

What eight songs connect you to the Divine? Songs that aren’t classically “religious” or “church music” but create a harmonic bridge to all things holy. Songs that soothe the soul. Songs that encourage and shore you up. Songs that connect you to something bigger and beyond, or more deeply and truly to the here/now. What songs are just Good Medicine?

I’m so lucky to be the age I am. I turned 16 in 1969. The year I saw The Stones play their massive free concert in Hyde Park just days after Brian Jones died. The year of Woodstock (no, that one I didn’t make!).

I’m so lucky to have been brought up on the great rock acts of the ’60s. Those of you young chickies out there who never had the chance, as I did, to see Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was still a member of the band, The Who at the peak of their powers, Joe Cocker riding the wave of his first success, Cream playing one of their last gigs, with Ginger Baker’s legendary 20-minute drum solos eclipsing even Clapton’s guitar… well you really don’t know what you missed!

The best? Jimi Hendrix at the Roundhouse in 1968. I’ll never forget it.

So I’m starting my selection with Joni Mitchell singing her own composition, Woodstock. There’s something about this song that takes me right back to the hopefulness and brightness of those times, and reminds me that we really are, all of us, stardust.

We’ll stay in 1969 for the extraordinary Janis Joplin singing Little Girl Blue. This is definitely in the “shore you up” category. No matter how bad it gets, you can get through it.

(Yes indeed, wasn’t Tom Jones YOUNG!?)

There’s one very simple, short and slightly whimsical song that I loved when it was first released. I think it has even more depth now. Here’s Yusuf Islam singing The Wind:

The beautiful Bob Marley offers us all Redemption:

Slightly more recent stuff now, with Green Day who (together with Foo Fighters) are my favourite contemporary rock band. Their 1997 album Nimrod gave us the song Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). Its beautiful, strange lyrics make me think about what my life is and could be:

So take the photographs
And still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf of
Good health and good time
Tattoos of memories
And dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth
It was worth all the while

It’s something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life

I was at their amazing Bullet in a Bible concert at the UK Bowl three or four years ago, where they ended with a storming, unforgettable version of Good Riddance, but I can’t find it on YouTube, so here’s another:

And of course there has to be a Leonard Cohen song in this list. Such richness of choice. In the end I’ve gone for If It Be Your Will.

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it will be your will
To let me sing

There are two versions of this I love. One is by the wonderful Antony Hegarty, which you can find here. The second is this one from Cohen’s current concert tour, with the sublime Webb Sisters.

The only song here that I knew from the start would have to make the final cut (I had a long-list of nearly 50 songs…) is George Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun.

I was at a party years ago. I felt desperately sad and alone. I thought my life was barren. Then someone put this song on to play and I realised what I was experiencing was true then, but it was not the only truth. It made me feel less desolate.

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it’s all right
It’s all right

Harrison’s own version is great, and I’ve always thought the song suits perfectly Nina Simone’s voice. Here’s a more recent version, a tender collaboration between Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor:

And finally a jubilant version of an old song I found just yesterday at Towanda’s Window. I’ve already sworn eternal gratitude to Towanda for introducing me to Patty Griffin, and now I’m so glad to know the story of Playing For Change, with street musicians from around the world.  I love the introduction to this Ben E King classic:

No matter who you are, no matter where you go in your life, at some point you’re gonna need somebody to stand by you…

Happy Solstice everyone. What are your Eight Songs?

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