My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb/ And all I remember is thinking, I want to be like them

In my fiction writing workshop the other week, our professor passed around lyric sheets to three songs -- Patsy Cline's "He Called Me Baby, Baby"; Harry Chapin's "Taxi"; and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." All three are told with a first-person narrator.

One idea behind this lesson is that each of these songs tells a story. When you add the musical component, each song creates a mood. Imagine your character feeling the way that you do about a song -- any song -- and put that character's feelings onto the page. Lyrically, the Patsy Cline and Harry Chapin songs seem to spin a specific and familiar tale, of loves lost and loves unrequited. The Gnarls Barkley song refers to ambition and self-awareness. These are nebulous subjects, which are difficult for a character -- and an audience -- to work through.

I remember when/ I remember, I remember when I lost my mind/ There was something so pleasant about that phase/ Even your emotions had an echo in so much space/ And when you're out there/ Without care/ Yeah, I was out of touch, but it wasn't because I didn't know enough/ I just knew too much/ Does that make me crazy?

I think "Crazy" is a genuine classic. When this song came out, it was all over the radio in a way that I remember thinking was different from most hit songs. Rock stations, hip-hop stations, NPR. "Crazy" was everywhere. I remember thinking, I am going to be hearing this song for the rest of my life. I am surprised to read online (thanks, WikiPedia) that it came out in 2006 -- over five years ago. By and large, I think it has aged well.

"Crazy", like OutKast's "Hey Ya!" -- a smash hit of similar scope -- has made a smooth transition to the stage of You can play this at the wedding reception and even the old people might dance. It also lends itself well to covers and re-interpretation. Here are a couple of solid tributes by Cat Power, performing Gnarls Barkley with the Memphis Rhythm Band in Germany, and Shawn Colvin, live from somewhere, opening her show with it.

Cat Power "Crazy (Live in Berlin, 6.11.2006)"
Shawn Colvin "Crazy (Live)"
Gnarls Barkley "Crazy"
Old School "You're Crazy, Man"

I'd smoked my brain the night before/ On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'/ But I lit my first and watched a small kid/ Cussin' at a can that he was kickin'

R.I.P., John R. "Johnny" Cash. (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003). Here are a few favorites from the Man in Black.

Johnny Cash "Ain't No Grave"
Johnny Cash "Danny Boy"
Johnny Cash "Drive On"
Johnny Cash "I Hung My Head"
Johnny Cash "Sunday Morning Coming Down (Live in Amsterdam, 2.26.1972)"
Johnny Cash with Fiona Apple "Father and Son (Cat Stevens cover)"
Johnny Cash with Bob Dylan "Girl from the North Country"
Johnny Cash with Bob Dylan "I Walk the Line"
Johnny Cash with Willie Nelson "I Still Miss Someone"
Johnny Cash with Willie Nelson "Unchained"
Johnny Cash with Joe Strummer "Redemption Song (Bob Marley cover)"
Johnny Cash with U2 "The Wanderer"

Fears be gone, it won't be long/ There's a light in the sky

Songs that feel like September, autumnal in mood or theme, and songs that feel like New York. The day is over on the East Coast. A new one begins. I like these lyrics by Big Star:

I can feel it now, it's time/ Open your eyes/ Fears be gone, it won't be long/ There's a light in the sky/ It's OK to look outside/ The day will abide/ And watch the sunrise

A replica of the Statue of Liberty in somebody's yard in Ponca City, Oklahoma (2002).

Big Star "Blue Moon"
Big Star "September Gurls (Studio Rehearsal)"
Big Star "Watch the Sunrise"
Willie Nelson "September Song"
Pearl Jam "Growin' Up"
Pearl Jam "Wishlist"
The Pogues "The Body of an American"
The Pogues "The Sunny Side of the Street"
Joey Ramone "What a Wonderful World"

Cat Power "New York"
Ella Fitzgerald "Manhattan"
Johnny Hodges "Autumn in New York"
Billy Joel "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)"
Billy Joel "New York State of Mind"
Sinead O'Connor "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City"
The Pogues "Fairytale of New York"
Bruce Springsteen "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
Bruce Springsteen "You're Missing"
Simon & Garfunkel "Bleecker Street"
Simon & Garfunkel "The Only Living Boy in New York"

He was often heard to say/ "I'm a free-born man of the U.S.A." --The Pogues

Bright before me, the signs implore me/ To help the needy and show them the way/ Human kindness is overflowing, and I think it's going to rain today

Remembering Katrina today.

Trouble in mind, I'm blue/ But I won't be blue always

New Orleans is a wonderful city for music, maybe the best ever. Here are a few of my favorite New Orleans songs, many by New Orleans artists. There are many, many more.

A couple of my favorite books about Hurricane Katrina and the people of the Gulf Coast... Douglas Brinkley's The Great Deluge, and Dave Eggers's Zeitoun.

Buckwheat Zydeco "Cryin' in the Streets"
Jimmy Buffett "Stars Fell on Alabama"
Dr. John "World I Never Made"
Fats Domino "Walking to New Orleans"
Gulf Aid AllStars "It Ain't My Fault (feat. Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz, and Trombone Shorty)"
Norah Jones "I Think It's Going to Rain Today"
Randy Newman "Louisiana 1927 (feat. Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra)"
Preservation Hall Jazz Band "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?"
Preservation Hall Jazz Band "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?"
Preservation Hall Jazz Band "Old Rugged Cross"
Preservation Hall Jazz Band "Trouble in Mind"
Alvin Robinson "Let Me Down Easy"
Allen Toussaint "Yes We Can Can"
Trombone Shorty "Hurricane Season"

On a bus stop in the town, "We Rule The School"/ Written for anyone with eyes in their heads/ Do something pretty while you can/ Don't fall asleep writing, from California to New York

Today, I went to graduate school orientation for the second time. The first time was in New Jersey in 2005. For the next two years, probably more, I will be reading and writing (less so arithmetic) in an English Department in New Hampshire. In the spirit of showing school spirit, I posted some spirited school songs today.

3 Simmons "You Are My Dream (School Time)"
Belle & Sebastian "We Rule the School"
Belle & Sebastian "The Ghost of Rockschool"
A Classic Education "We Can Always Run to Hawaii"
Ferris Bueller's Day Off "Handle School on a Day Like This"
Old School "Denver, Gorgeous!"
Old School "Pretty Nice Weekend"
Old School "So Good"
Old School "You're Crazy, Man"
Liz Phair "Whip-Smart"
Schoolhouse Rock "Interjections!"
Schoolhouse Rock "Verb: That's What's Happening"
School of Fish "3 Strange Days"
Paul Simon "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"
The Simpsons "Me Fail English"

Newport Folk Festival, 2011

Such a great time at the Newport Folk Festival this year... Here are some of my favorite songs from this year's artists.

The Decemberists "O Valencia!"
The Decemberists "July, July!"
Mavis Staples "Creep Along Moses"
Mavis Staples "Have a Little Faith"
Tegan and Sara "Monday Monday Monday"

The White Stripes "Walking With a Ghost (Tegan and Sara cover)"

Justin Townes Earle "Hard Livin'"
Justin Townes Earle "Mama's Eyes"
M. Ward "Buckets of Rain (Bob Dylan cover)"
M. Ward "Made of Glass"
Ryan Adams and Gillian Welch "Helpless (Neil Young cover)"
Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch "Lua"

Come on, sorrow, take your own advice/ Poor boys and pilgrims with families, we are going to Graceland

You can be anywhere, watching any bird take flight, and "Magpie to the Morning" is what it sounds like. The song arrives and departs with a glide, always soaring, because it can.

Come on sorrow, take your own advice/ Hide under the bed, turn out the lights

Neko Case's voice is gorgeous. After the first instrumental interlude, the recording engineer picks up her voice saying Here I go and then Neko belts out the lyrics. I'm glad they kept this in the mix. It fires me up.

Mockingbird sings, in the middle of the night/ All his songs are stolen, so he hides

Neko Case "Magpie to the Morning"

"Graceland" opens with one of the English language's greatest similes.

The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar

Yet somehow, this makes perfect sense to me. "Graceland" is a song about heartache (She comes back to tell me she's gone/ As if I didn't know that, as if I didn't know my own bed) that also manages to uplift (I have reason to believe we all will be received).

It is a traveling song with the versatility to make it apropos to most pilgrimages. And the album track has the Everly Brothers singing back-up.

Paul Simon "Graceland"

The sky above, a blaze that only lovers see

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse. An extraordinarily talented singer and performer. What a voice!

Here she is, live from the iTunes festival in London, 2007...
Amy Winehouse "Tears Dry on Their Own"
...and here are the Arctic Monkeys covering Ms. Winehouse on French (or Belgian) television. This cover is truly a tribute, nails it.
Arctic Monkeys "You Know I'm No Good"

I am a Mormon, and a Mormon just believes.

My faith journey is a complicated one. If it wasn't complicated, it wouldn't be much of a journey.

I am not a practicing Mormon -- or a practicing Catholic, as I was raised -- but I do believe in God, and I do believe that Jesus was his son, and that Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected after three days. I also believe he was able to feed a crowd of thousands with only a few loaves and fishes. I don't believe these things to be metaphorical. I believe they actually happened.

Religious beliefs are wacky. In order to believe these things (which I do), I have to accept that Mary became pregnant without having sex with Joseph, and I also have to accept that a man (even a holy man) came back from the dead, visited his old friends, shared some wisdom, and then ascended into heaven as everyone watched.

I believe God has a plan for all of us/ I believe that plan involves me getting my own planet

The South Park guys -- Trey Parker and Matt Stone -- produce some of the most thoughtful and insightful works of art about the quirky nature of religious belief. When cynicism is called for, they are cynical, but The Book of Mormon isn't a cynical musical, and it isn't about taking shots at Mormonism. At times, it is incredibly filthy and profane, but it is also a consistently sweet story about the challenges of maintaining one's faith, even when the sadness and senselessness of the world conspire to shatter it, and the affection that Parker and Stone have for their subject is really kind of beautiful in a way.

The Book of Mormon, the musical, really inspires me. I don't think this was its intent -- foremost, I think its intent is to entertain and to be a good musical -- but such is the outcome. Even atheists can find inspiration in The Book of Mormon.

Andrew Rannells "I Believe (from The Book of Mormon)"

I don't have to think, I only have to do it

The original TV broadcast of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York had room for two Meat Puppets covers -- "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire" -- both of which I remember hearing on FM radio quite a lot in the 1990's. The third, "Oh Me," was cut for commercials in the original airing of Unplugged, but it is my favorite song in the whole set, equaled in loveliness only by "All Apologies."

As I write this, I'm wondering if there is a connection between my affection for "Oh Me" and its status as a relatively obscure track, compared to Unplugged's other covers (Meat Puppets, David Bowie, Vaselines, Leadbelly), which make Unplugged such an amazing collection of influences and interpretations. I wonder if I am proprietary about "Oh Me" because I want it to belong to me in a way that other Nirvana songs cannot, simply because the band continues to be so popular and has so few songs to choose from as your favorite.

It reminds me of when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a massive success, and I resented no longer feeling like the only 14-year-old kid to have discovered them. Nirvana no longer belonged to me, in other words. Probably every kid felt this way. Adolescence is a very self-centered time.

I love this song. The way it arrives, the way it departs, the unresolved chords, the understated guitar solo in the middle that remains the only guitar solo I can play by heart.

If I had to lose a mile, if I had to touch feelings/ I would lose my soul, the way I do/ I don't have to think, I only have to do it/ The results are always perfect, but that's old news

Watching "Oh Me" on YouTube, I am surprised at how sad it makes me to see Kurt Cobain so emotionally invested in his performance. It is possible -- probable, even -- that I am projecting emotions onto Cobain that aren't there. In so doing, I will hardly be unique, but watching him, I feel that he really wants to get this one right, that he wants his performance to match up to his love for the material, and he does it.

"Oh Me" is a beautiful, soulful, sincere performance. This is a song of yearning, of infinity stored deep inside.

Would you like to hear my voice/ Sprinkled with emotion/ Invented at your birth?

Yes.

Nirvana "Oh Me"

Miles of Light Explode

"Golden" revisits my mind often, lyrically as well as melodically.

Watching a stretch of road/ Miles of light explode/ Drifting off a thing I'd never done before

It is gorgeous, the way the main riff climbs the fretboard, and returns again to ascend after each chorus. For a song with such urgency -- the rhythm of brush sticks is ceaseless -- this is a song that somehow manages to drift along insistently, like the way the wind lifts a leaf -- and the pedal steel is perfect.

I heard this song for the first time in Taos, New Mexico, where I was living for the summer with a guy named Chris from South Carolina. We were working for the Forest Service on a backcountry trails crew in the Santa Fe National Forest. Chris and I hadn't met before, but we got along very well. He had a great beard. Musically, Chris bestowed on me lots of Woody Guthrie, never enough Vic Chesnutt, a smattering of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, a modicum of Modest Mouse, and my first introduction to My Morning Jacket.

Favorite lyrics...

People always told me that bars were dark and lonely/ And talk is often cheating filled with air


Be right here forever, go through this thing together/ And on heaven's golden shores, we'll lay our heads


How many times I have prayed this last idea, thinking of people I know who have already left this earth, or who are still alive, but lost to circumstance, belonging now to the past, and here I am wondering where the present went? "Golden" is a beautiful song for ruminating, or for just drifting along.

My Morning Jacket "Golden"