Music-Tag: My 10 Favorite Music Videos on Youtube

Lately, I have rediscovered the pleasure of listening to music the way I did in my teens. As in actually listening to it, instead of using it as a background for my web surfing, my reading or my chores. Because, somewhere along the way, I lost my compass, and all music became elevator music to my ears, just a lifeless mush that served only to drown out the street noise. Too stressed and preoccupied with all sorts of practical issues, I felt guilty about enjoying anything that broke my focus.

However, since things have taken a turn for the better in the past month, I have started to recapture the true spirit of music, and now I can’t get enough of it. My playlist is now a ridiculous mix of styles and genres, going from pop to opera to metal to show tunes and so on.  And this list here will be exactly the same, incoherent, inconsistent, inconsequent and incongruent. I know words. On top of that, it is probably (and unapologetically) uncool, but it’s not like my blog is on the cool hunters’ watch lists. Hell, not even my lifelong friends read it regularly!

I picked the songs I listen most to on Youtube so I can link to them. Obviously, ten songs don’t even come close to covering all my preferences, and I am leaving out a myriad of artists that I adore, from many different cultures… including, umm, mine. But there will be time for that as well.

I tag Esperanza, Reggie,  and whoever else wants to take it.

10. Leonard Cohen – The Tower of Song

Leonard Cohen is my all-time favourite singer. He’s already 76, and I don’t know how much time he has left. He was in Romania twice, and I couldn’t be at his concert either time. He was here last year in December, and I was completely broke. If he comes to sing in Vancouver again, I promised myself to do ANYTHING to get to his concert. From baking muffins to surrogacy…. ANYTHING!

9. Jim Croce – Operator

One of my favourite songs ever, by the ugliest handsome man ever. Without having read his biography, I found myself envious of his wife and every woman he might have loved during his short life. His was the voice of a man who could love above and beyond the measures of us average folk. Or maybe I’m just being a naive 28 year-old teenager. But, if it’s only an illusion, I wish someone fooled me like that for a day, or even for an hour.

8. Madonna – Like A Prayer

I wouldn’t call myself a Madonna fan, but I do admire her career and her incredible staying power, and there are definitely certain songs of hers that I’ll gladly listen to. I picked this video because I think it was her greatest moment, and one of the best moments in music video history. Plus, she was the ultimate naughty Catholic girl (well, she and Marie Simas ), before she went nuts.

7. Rammstein – Tier

Simple. Because I am a Rammstein fan, and because Till Lindemann is shirtless in the video. Rammstein are good, but not that good to be above sexual objectification. Till wouldn’t mind it, I’m sure. You don’t maintain and expose that kind of body if you mind being objectified. Meanwhile, if a man said that, I would want him tarred and feathered a.s.a.p. Ahh, double standards.. gotta love ‘em!

6. Everlast -Saving Grace

I think we can all agree that Everlast is no looker, but, with that uber-manly voice, who cares? I would use the Romanian expression “to sing from the balls”, but I’m so delicate that I’m afraid my laptop would crash. I usually don’t care for TV show theme songs, but we have to admit that this is a damn good piece! Also, he gets extra points for hating Eminem.

5. Otis Redding – Try A Little Tenderness

Some people don’t like this song because of the lyrics. But, as one who has always fancied older men, I can’t say that I’m bothered. I love the song, and I could listen to it over and over again. And I have, and I will, and haters can go kick rocks.

4. Smokie – I Can’t Stay Here Tonight

I’m not sure quite how famous British band Smokie is in North America, but in Europe they are part of the “oldies but goldies” group. They were huge in my parents’ generation, and young people my age like them too. I am particularly fond of this song, because I have a black belt in long-distance relationships and I used to need a soundtrack to feel sorry for myself. Not going down the LDR road again, but I’ll always love Smokie.

3. Puccini – Turandot – Non piangere, Liu (Placido Domingo, Leona Mitchell)

My all-time favourite aria from my all-time favourite opera. In this scene, Calaf comforts young Liu who tries to deter him from gambling his life at the hands of the ruthless Princess Turandot. I have loved opera ever since I was six and started playing my parents’ vinyl records with Rigoletto and famous arias, but I only discovered Turandot in college. I would like very much to see a really good staging of this opera live one day. One of the things on my bucket list.

2. Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata

Seven months ago, I met a man. A tall, thin man, like an endless birch tree. A graceful and sad man, like one of the Swan Princes in Andersen’s story. Every gesture he made was like a note in this perfect sonata, because some people just can’t help the music in them. And, even though it’s all over between us, this piece will always remind me of the Swan Man… the Music Box Man.

1. Metallica – Enter Sandman (Live in Moscow, 1991)

We usually wish to be younger than we are, but this video is one of the few things that makes me wish I were a bit older. I was only 8 when this concert took place and Metallica were at their very peak. But I know that such concerts were not mere musical events in the Eastern Europe of those years, they meant so much more! My eyes tear up when I see the emotional reactions of the Russian fans, and so early after the switch to democracy (or so they imagined… yikes). When I got old enough to go to concerts, Metallica had already cut their hair, and, just like Samson, had lost their power – may their die-hard fans forgive me. But still, they will always be music royalty to me and to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Advertisement