Music and Decisions

Today I had to think about music a lot. Not only did I have to pick a song for an analysis of its lyrics in our next session, I was also listening to music on the way back home from work and I had really twisted feelings. Naturally, I define myself by the kind of music I listen to and therefore wanted to pick something exceptionally poetic and meaningful. Of course I had to rule out those songs that were just too commonly acclaimed to be poetic: “Imagine” by John Lennon for instance. Even though I adore the Beatles, I could hardly pick a song that appeared as the number one on almost every list of “best songs ever”, because what would that make me? Rather unoriginal. I feel slightly embarrassed by the fact that this simple task proved to be such a challenge. How hard can it be to just make a decision? To be honest, I am not great at making decisions anyway. As a child I would try the “Eeny meeny miny moe”-approach each time. Sadly, that doesn’t work for grown-up decisions. At least most of the time. So here I am trying to determine which song would be sufficiently poetic, least cryptic and legendary enough to be analyzed. Finally, after hours and hours spent at work roaming the internet for lyrics, I have decided to evade the decision. I have decided that I am absolutely entitled to regress back to the age of carelessness and counting-out rhymes. “Eeny meeny miny moe” it is. For now I will ignore my own incapability. I mean, who am I trying to impress with my choice of lyrics anyway. Since I will hardly have to justify my choice, I might as well let fate decide. Oh, turns out to be an amazing song. In two very amazing versions:

The Man in Black: Johnny Cash

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails