There are always the songs....ones we define ourselves by...or listen to...over and over.  Just wondering what are yours?  For myself....it is the Neil Diamond song...'I am I said.'  Guess the reason that song strikes such a strong point for me is the initial verse.   I know I will never see my home again.  I doubt I will ever see my parents again.  But the song gives me strength.  I have given them the option.  Ball is in their court .  'I am I said.'  Your move! 

In it's own weird way it would be Bob Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue.

Chesney Hawkes- The one and only

The carpenters "Goodbye to Love"

Jimi Hendrix, "If 6 was 9".

It was 1973 ... and the 3 biggest things in my life where (in no particular order):

1) Top 40 AM radio
2) 45 RPM records
3) Wearing girls clothes - especially bras and panties

Oh, those wonderful nights with my radio next to my bed, pulling in those great radio stations like CKLW, WLS, WCFL, and WABC. If I was extra lucky and the gods of the aether smiled upon me, I'd catch Radio Luxembourg on the shortwave bit. Every week Id listen to Top20 on the BBC World Service also on shortwave. Needless to say, I'd hear all those great songs, which meant I'd be buying LOTS of great records -- 45 rpm singles.

On Sundays, my mum and dad along with my sister would go visit my grandpap and I'd stay home by myself. I'd dig out a skirt and top that I bought, or maybe the one dress that I had, my teen bra and some panties, some pantyhose (Today's Girl brand), and get dressed up. I'd do my nails in a pretty pink and do some makeup. I wasn't very good yet. And then, I'd toss a stack of 45s on my record player and sit reading the latest copy of Tiger Beat or 16 (to catch up on the music scene) or Seventeen (to catch up on fashion). I'd lay there on my tummy on my bed, in a scene resembling any other teenage girl around the world. Sure, I still had short hair like a boy, but that was okay, in my mind I was truly a girl in every way. Thank heavens I never did get caught.

And so, it was that I'd hop on my bike on other days, obviously in boy mode, but more than likely wearing panties and a bra if I could get away with it. My mum kept count of the undies I tossed in the dirty clothes - god forbid I should show up short on boy's undies -- hehe -- she washed more pairs of wrinkled up never worn clean boy's undies than she'll ever know.

Anyway, it was off to W T Grant's to buy 45s and panties. And when I was there, I bought the 45 of the song, whose lyrics I quote below. I also bought some really cool nail decals that had a Japanese character/ letter decoration on them. The song was Diamond Girl by Seals and Crofts. The lyrics, well, I saw them my song to the girl within me.

I was so glad I found the girl within, and that she was mine, and she is so precious to me. Part of her heaven was rained on because my mum tried to destroy her. I couldn't be me without her, and she could be her without me. We are real.

So -- that's my song -- forever and always

Huggles

Toni-Lynn

-----------------------------------

Diamond Girl by Seals and Crofts

Diamond Girl, you sure do shine. Glad I found you, glad you're mine.
Oh my love, you're like a precious stone, part of earth where heaven has rained on.
Makes no difference where you are. Day or nighttime, you're like a shinin' star.
And how could I shine without you, when it's about you that I am?

Diamond Girl, roamin' wild. Such a rare thing, radiant child.
I could never find, another one like you. Part of me is deep down inside you.
Can't you feel the whole world a-turin'. We are real, and we are a-burnin'.
Diamond Girl, now that I've found you, it's about you that I am.

Diamond Girl, you sure do shine. Diamond Girl, you sure do shine.
Diamond Girl, you sure do shine. Diamond Girl, you sure do shine.

In a weird way, I would have to say "Part of Your World", from the little mermaid. I dunno, it just feels like Ive been an outsider all my life, just trying to fit in.

It doesn't so much tell my life, but this thread makes me think of Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly.

He sang as if he knew me
In all my dark despair,
And then he looked right through me
As if I wasn't there.

She only sang it, Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel wrote it, it's really their song.  The person in the song is allegedly Don (American Pie) McLean.  And though unaccredited it's the original performer, Lori Lieberman, who wrote the poem that inspired the lyrics.  So mabe be it's really 'her' song.

And, to date, I'm sure that F&G made a whole lot more money off of Ms. Lauryn Hill  and the Fugees recording it than from Roberta Flack.

This song is for anyone who has ever worked in a large office ever...including me

Quote from: Gravity's Child on August 22, 2011, 04:01:59 PM
This song is for anyone who has ever worked in a large office ever...including me

Or maybe this one:

Or this rare vid of BTO doing Takin Care of Business

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care of Business (Live)

"A man, I'll Never be" by Boston.... oh so true
"Learning to Fly" by Pink Floyd....   taking risks. It was my tune when I was hang gliding.

I have about a million songs for a million moods, but there are very few that capture a broad spectrum my inner life.  Sometimes I can swing instantly from optimism and beauty to fatalism and incessant hopelessness.  But under it all is this sense of wonderment for what goes on around and wanting to observe and experience it all.  This song probably defines that more than anything for me:

Juliana Hatfield Three - For the Birds

Addition....a song from JD Blackfoot.
"Now I have seen the eagle soaring beautiful and free.
I don't want no man to make less of me.
Do you take me for a fool, or as a little child
and, do you really wonder what has made me wild.

I have a few, but my main one is Reflection from the movie Mulan:



Look at me,
I will never pass for a perfect bride,
or a perfect daughter.
Can it be, I'm not meant to play this part.
Now I see,
That if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart

Who is that girl I see
Staring straight, back at me
Why is my reflection someone I don't know
Somehow I cannot hide, who I am
though I've tried.
When will my reflection show who I am inside.

In all honesty this rewriting of a very famous song. Sadness for a future some us hoped for that disappeared, something beyond us as individuals.



Hopefully some will understand the lyrics:

"Noi siamo gli ultimi del mondo.
Ma questo mondo non ci avrà.
Noi lo distruggeremo a fondo.
Spezzeremo la società.
Nelle fabbriche il capitale
come macchine ci usò.
Nelle scuole la morale
di chi comanda ci insegnò.

Questo pugno che sale
questo canto che va
è l'Internazionale
un'altra umanità.
Questa lotta che uguale
l'uomo all'uomo farà,
è l'Internazionale.
Fu vinta e vincerà.

Noi siamo gli ultimi di un tempo
che nel suo male sparirà.
Qui l'avvenire è già presente
chi ha compagni non morirà.
Al profitto e al suo volere
tutto l'uomo si tradì,
ma la Comune avrà il potere.
Dov'era il no faremo il sì.

Questo pugno che sale...

E tra di noi divideremo
lavoro, amore, libertà.
E insieme ci riprenderemo
la parola e la verità.
Guarda in viso, tienili a memoria
chi ci uccise, chi mentì.
Compagni, porta la tua storia
alla certezza che ci unì.

Questo pugno che sale...

Noi non vogliam sperare niente.
il nostro sogno è la realtà.
Da continente a continente
questa terra ci basterà.
Classi e secoli ci han straziato
fra chi sfruttava e chi servì:
compagno, esci dal passato
verso il compagno che ne uscì.

Questo pugno che sale..."

Gee Mimpi that's a hard act to follow

Not quite 2 months ago I went to the store after work on the way home and they were playing a classic disco song from Saturday Night Fever, "If I Can't Have You". The words took on a different meaning to me, the whole song did, as I was still struggling with my fears of starting my Transition. The meaning became clear to me, I couldn't go on any longer without being my Female self. I still listen to it at least once a day right now.

"What You Wish For" by Guster



The lyrics completely represent where I am, and the end represents where I'm going.
I can't get enough of the driving riff either.

Russell, thank you for bringing up Mulan! Inspirational film. The songs are great, too... and criminally absent from my iPod.
mimpi, Google Translate might depreciate the lyrics, but the messages I'm getting are thought-provoking.