I love music. It's not my anti-drug (Jesus, I hate those commercials); it's my DRUG. Seriously, I start to have mild freakouts when I have no music to listen to. I don't know what it is. Perhaps I'm uncomfortable with my own thoughts? That would be a reasonable guess. A lot of my thoughts are very strange ones. But I enjoy my thoughts. *shrugs* Most of the time, at any rate.

Ever since I was a wee tot in Hilliard, Ohio, I've been listening to music. Constantly. The first five songs I remember weren't lullabies. They were classic rock/metal songs:

1) Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne sang me to sleep when I was a wee chillun. I loved him; even though I don't (and probably never WILL) know Ozzy, he's like an uncle to me. Someone who was always there to amuse me when Dad and Mom were off doing Important Things. This is the first song I actually remember ever hearing, and I still associate very fond memories with it. I think it's stuck with me. Especially one line. "Maybe it's not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate." Great line.

2) The Boys are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy's a cool band. Fuck U2; I think Thin Lizzy is the coolest Irish band ever. This was my brother's favorite song. I remember he used to swipe the Jailbreak tape from Dad's shelf and we would play it endlessly, rewinding it over and over just so we could hear this song. I associate it with Dad's drunken basement parties, which were always fun, even if Josh and I really weren't supposed to be there. Fun anyway.

3) Enter Sandman - Metallica! This is the only Metallica song I've ever heard, but it's a great one. Dad used to like Metallica a lot, but he hasn't listened to them in a very long time. (The CD that I ripped the song off of was covered in dust.) Dreams are wondrous things. They can be the gateway to your every desire or the gate to Hell... either way, you're the Sandman's plaything while you're under his spell.

4) The Hall of the Mountain King - Savatage. I still hear this song at least once every day. Dad's absolute favorite song. And, I admit, a fabulous song; I love it when Jon Oliva cackles. He has such an evil laugh.

5) Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane, perhaps the only non-metal band that Dad listened to when Josh and I were really little. It's still one of my favorites; I love Grace Slick's voice (and she's hot, too). I was surprised to learn that this was Jefferson Airplane, Hippie Band Extraordinaire. If you knew my dad, you'd know how bizarre his listening to this is.

There are other songs that I remember bits and pieces of: The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again (the synthesizer intro part), some song about killing unicorns, Savatage's Sirens, Thin Lizzy's Cowboy Song... I suppose I was raised with great musical taste, abandoned it somewhere along the way, and picked it up on my way back.

Right now, my favorite songs:

1) Going Mobile - The Who. Pete Townshend has a lovely voice. It's a song about traveling. But unlike several songs about travel, it's not mopey and about wishing to be home. It's about liking life on the road, or taking it as a form of escapism. Creative and different. *nods* Who's Next is on its way to becoming my absolute favorite album.

2) Any Road - George Harrison. One of the last songs he ever did. George has a nice voice (though it changed a bit from his Beatle-days). Another happy song about traveling. Well, if you look at it one way. Look at it another way and it's about ambition. Getting out and chasing your dreams in whatever way you can. I love George, and I love this song.

3) Instant Karma! - John Lennon. I've really got no idea why I love this song so much. It's catchy and it gives an interesting message, about getting what you give... but instead of it taking entire lifetimes to get around, it's more an immediate reaction. (Also, "We all shine on" inspired one of my favorite books, The Shining, and it's a great line anyway.)

4) I am the Walrus - The Beatles. Jesus, what a weird song. I like weird songs.

5) War Pigs - Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath is my favorite heavy metal band. This song's great in that it promotes peace... but in a much more sarcastic, sneering way than most antiwar songs. I enjoy sarcasm and sneering very much. (Ozzy once mentioned, "Black Sabbath was a hippie band. We were into peace.")

6) Jet - Wings. I have no fuckin' clue what this song is about, but I think it's awesome anyway.

7) Time - Pink Floyd. For awhile, I would turn "Time" on at full blast and put it on "repeat" while my parents were away. It made me feel a lot less lonely. Like someone understood how I feel about staying in one place and doing one thing too long. (And I love the sound of ticking/chiming clocks. I associate it with Grandma Silsi, who's my favorite relative, even though she's been dead for nearly ten years.)

8) Woodstock - Crosby Stills Nash and Young. I sorely lament that I wasn't born in time to be one of the Woodstock generation. I feel I would have belonged then, and my heart almost aches when I watch the movie and see all these people so sincerely dedicated to peace, love, and music. It was so different from the greedy, apathetic, angry world we live in today. I think Woodstock is a lovely song, that aside.

9) Octopus's Garden - The Beatles. Ringo's song was so cute. :3 I once drew a picture of Ringo hanging out and having tea with an octopus.

10) Hallelujah - Rammstein. I speak only a little bit of German. But I know this song's translation all the way through, and holy shit, is it disturbing. (It's about a priest fucking an altar boy.) I think that I have this song to blame for rekindling my interest in good music, instead of shit like the Spice Girls and N'Sync.

My favorites change about every ten minutes.

But Going Mobile's been my favorite since I found Dad's battered old record in the milk crates.