I don’t know about you, but the most impossible question I can be asked is: What is my favourite song.
It depends. What season is it? Am I stressed out? Am I calm?
Am I going for a long ride? Is it the morning of a work day or the weekend?
Are we house cleaning?
Am I grilling?
I don’t have a favourite song, but I have many that are my go-tos.
One constant on my playlists is anything by The Tragically Hip.
There are Hip songs/albums I listen to more in the winter, like In Violet Light and others I will blast on the first inkling of good weather, such as Road Apples.
In the winter, I listen to a lot of Rheostatics and Northern Pikes. I don’t know why.
To get motivated to write, I will usually listen to a playlist of 1990s era Canadian rock and songs from the Due South soundtracks.
Yes, I am fully aware how odd it is.
But the Hip song Membership also inspired me to get back into writing and try my hand at freelancing.
So depending on your thoughts on my stories, you’re welcome or I’m sorry.
But I also grew up listening to two totally different genres and love them both.
Country music is played on the regular at our house. I got my wife into it, but she really only likes the newer stuff.
I do as well, but give me the Waylon Jennings Waylon Live double album any day. It's a masterpiece.
Johnny Cash? Anytime and always.
Of course, I’m a big hip-hop and rap fan.
Biggie is, was and always will be king, and Jay-Z is a close second. Both I love while relaxing on a hot summer drive.
It always amazes me how the music I like replays each year at around the same time or in the right mood. Music just speaks to us and stirs such strong emotion.
I know people who could rhyme off musical facts more than I can and know more about this band and that artist, but that stuff isn’t what I’m referring to when I talk about the love of music.
The feel. Where it takes you and why.
I can think of three songs that make me cry, no matter what I’m doing — which is why I don’t say what they are, should someone play them as a joke.
It's equally weird to me how a song can evoke complete sadness, fear or a horrible memory.
I can’t listen to The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby. I even don’t like Changes by Tupac because the Hornsby classic is sampled heavily.
But the second that song gets going, it takes me back to somewhere I don’t want to remember and I find I have to get away from it.
What's your favourite song? It's a horrible question to expect an answer from. However, I have a song for a question like it.
I was once asked that if I was stuck on a deserted island and could only take one song, what would it be.
I would take Everlong by the Foo Fighters. It just seems perfect to me. Dark, light, fast and slow. Emotionally deep, but then very simple and easy listening. It's a perfect song, in my opinion.
That is the answer to the question for me, I suppose.
So share yours. You get one answer and no honourable mentions.
Shawn Gibson is a staff reporter at BarrieToday.
