songs that mean a lot or feel special / magical, idk i just wanna ramble ok??
More, More, More by Andrea True Connection
listen to the full six plus minute version!! there's so much happening - so many little shifts and segments. also, and maybe more critically spiritually speaking, Andrea True was a sex worker who laid down the perfect vocals for the vibe of the song - then had the piece of shit bro who produced it trash her after the fact to try to monoopolize credit for the greatness of the song. as if it'd be anything without the spice that Andrea brought to the mix. anyways, may Andrea have eternal peace for delivering those lines with so much sass and for dealing with horrifically typical music industry misogony.
If You Love Me (Really Love Me) by Brenda Lee
i love when a woman sings about love and catastrophe in the same breath, and Brenda Lee absolutely belts this one. she knows about longing - she's felt what i've felt. "I will smile and never count the cost." (also check out her song "Emotions"!!!)
Give Me What You Got by Wendy Rene
perfect. perfect. perfect. i love every single one of Wendy Rene's handful of songs, but this one is so. fucking. good. the guitar / rhythm bite into you - then Wendy lays into it and it's all over. her voice has this like, i don't know, she's really putting a lot behind of hit, and she's fiinding all kinds emphasis and notes and little runs that are beautiful and unique - but there's almost like a deep earnesty that comes through her singing that feels like nothing i've ever heard in any singer. like, a desperation, almost? like she's truly letting it all out through her voice. when i listen to her, i feel like i know her.
Maybe It Was Memphis by Pam Tillis
another haunted kind of love song. it actually sonically sounds like a steamy summer night somehow. this one reminds me of growing up in the 90s - knowing nothing about love, but everything about the electricity of a song. it reminds me of the summers i spent traveling for work in my twenties, longing for home, longing for a life where my work didn't require me to be apart from my person. the country music association robbed Pam Tillis in 1992 by failing to award this one Song of the Year.
This Swirling by Frankie Cosmos
post-transition, i'm a cryer. a big time cryer. not always, but often i really love crying. This Swirling feels like a love letter to crying. it's affectionate towards it. it romanticizes it a little bit. "through a veil of tears." "watch you through a wash." this is someone who is up close and personal with the ritual of tears. once i hear this song, i wanna listen to it on repeat for like three days in a row. some personal trivia - my government middle name is Frances, and at least some part of the draw to that name was being able to use Frankie as a middle-name-nickname. Frankie Cosmos, forever.
Flamethrower by Babydoll
like so many songs, this one found me at exactly the right time for the mental stuff i was wading through. from the very first time i heard very the first line, "there you are, smiling in your cage, like you never fell apart," i knew it was going to hit hard. it feels like this song speaks to this thing i've always had in me - that i can still feel in myself even after so many iterations - a slice of myself whose presence colors a lot of who and where i am and whose sprawl and gravity i've only recently started being able to perceive. but also, this is just SUCH a vibey song. the verses have this driving undercurrent to them, relieved by the spacey, otherworldly choruses. i was lucky enough to see it performed live a few months ago and it was incredible :) listen to it!!
If You Need Me by Wilson Pickett
the wobbly guitar in this is the absolute best a guitar has ever or could ever sound. and christ almighty is Wilson Pickett putting his heart into it. you think he's been giving it everything until he gets the bridge, then he hits "I still love you, always think of you" and it's like you're hearing singing for the first time.
No One Needs to Know by Shania Twain
"I want bells to ring. A choir to sing. The white dress, the guests, the cake, the car, the whole darn thing. But no one needs to know, right, now." might be one of my favorite lyrical moments ever. and to follow it with "We'll have a little girl, a little boy. A little Benji we call Leroy - SO. CUTE. it's Spring and late Summer to me. it features in one of my fav movies ever, Twister, and it just reminds me of growing up in the small town late 90s so damn much. also, Shania -and specifically the way that other women hated her back then- was a key early activation of my inner girl's girl.