Music Please?

Loz from Sunrays and Saturdays and Charles from Am I Thinking That tagged me for a musical memory meme. It is really quite entertaining. Here are the rules:

1. Name between 5 & 10 songs that have made an impact on your life. I’ll leave it up to you to decide how many you wish to describe.

2. Pass it onto five other people with a link back to your own post and this one as the original.

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1. Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker. This was the first song I ever played "by ear". My mother bought me an old upright piano when I was seven. After being subjected to my mother's musical taste (country), pecking around brought up this tune - with many more to follow.

KEY LYRIC - none

2. By the Time I Get to Phoenix by Glen Cambell. When I was very young - about three years old, I sang this song to my family at our family reunion in honor of my uncle who just moved his family from Indiana to Phoenix. The reviews were great and some were even touched. I had no idea what the song was really about.

KEY LYRIC - none

3. Almost Paradise by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson. Back in college, I had an on again/off again relationship with Andrea. I mentioned her in my post called "Peace". We were off again one time when I called her up to see if she would be interested in going to my fraternity's "Rose Formal" dance. It is kind of college's version of prom - except you don't rent tuxes. She agreed to go with me and we got together a couple of times preceding the big dance. During those times, we both mentioned that things were pretty good and that Almost Paradise was a song that we both took a liking to. During the dance, the DJ dedicated that song to "Jeff". I whispered to Andrea, "Isn't that funny, another Jeff is connected to that song by someone (there were a number of "Jeffs" in my fraternity). She replied, "I dedicated that to YOU, silly." I was embarrassed but thrilled because I knew at that moment that our relationship was renewed.

KEY LYRIC - "I swear that I can see forever in your eyes."

4. The Beautiful Ones by Prince. Different story, same girl. Later in that stint of our relationship, I was acting silly one day and jumped up on my desk and sang that song to her. You see, Andrea was gorgeous. I always told her that her looks meant trouble for me. So, I jumped up on my desk and belted it out in a most humiliating yet meant to be crazy humorus way. She giggled like a school girl. What makes it stand out in my mind is just a few years ago, I talked to Andrea for the first time since college. Of course, she mentioned my Prince immitation. Some things just won't die.

KEY LYRIC - "The beautiful ones always smash the picture. Always, every time."

5. The Baby by Blake Shelton. Back in 1993, my mother was rushed to Cincinnati to have emergency brain surgery. She ended up having 31 hours of surgery (17 hours the first time, and 11 hours two weeks later). I wasn't sure she was going to make it. She always called me her baby boy. The lyrics of this song even touched me today as I was looking at it. You can see them (and all the songs in this meme) at any of the song title links. Mom has been disabled, but alive ever since that summer of '93. I have been taking care of her and is thankful for every day with her. There is more to what my mom means to me in my posts "Ode to my Mother Pt 1" and "Ode to my Mother Pt 2".

KEY LYRIC - "my heart, it was breakin'; I never got to say goodbye"

6. The Dance by Garth Brooks. I share this pick with Loz, who tagged me. My last girlfriend and I had a long relationship. I thought we were going to be married eventually. Our relationship came to an abrupt end. There was hurt and betrayal and I didn't think I was going to survive it for a while. When hurt takes over like that, you start wishing you never met the person you felt was responsible for that intense pain. However, when I heard and listened to this song, I knew that I was blessed for what I had experienced with her. I don't regret a thing.

KEY LYRIC - "I could have missed the pain, but I would have had to miss the dance."

7. You are My King (Amazing Love) by the Newsboys. One day when driving home from work, I was feeling rather sorry for myself. The girl from The Dance story above had recently broke up with me, I had slammed my hand in a door, and I just didn't know what I was going to do with myself. Then, this song came on the radio and kind of put things into perspective for me. I still think of that when I need to - which has been quite often lately.

KEY LYRIC - "Amazing Love, how could it be that you, my King, would die for me?"

8. Live the Life by Michael W. Smith. This song is near to my heart as a Christian. So many Christians come off judgemental and shallow, legalistic Republicans because all good Christians are Republicans, right? This song helps remind us (Christians) what were supposed to be doing and thinking about instead of getting caught up in all the crud that makes the world hate us.

KEY LYRIC - "And God knows it's a shame, as we look to pass the flame, we are not the worthy bearers of His name."

Those are it for me. Some of these lyrics are very much worth checking out. You can see them all in my appendix blog.

Now for the tags: I would be interested to see the list from the following people: Anna, Laura, Michelle, Jimmy, and Sayre. You know the drill.