Songs of the Salamander; A Preamble

This was intended to be an afternoon project. It got out of hand.

You may recall that back on October 21st I off-handedly commented that I’d been inspired by Roseanne Cash’s new CD, “The List”. I decided I was going to make my own top 100 list of songs. For those of you who enjoy seeing such foolhardiness in the original print, feel free to revisit My moment of temporary insanity on October 21st.

The list took on a life of its own. My only criterion was that a song would be on the list because I couldn’t bring myself to remove it. This was never intended to be a “best of” anything list, and a good thing too, because it isn’t. Anyone who bothers to read it is going to eventually have the following reaction: She’s GOT to be joking! I know I had that reaction multiple times. There were several songs on there that I tried to boot off the list but couldn’t.

There is music in my life that is not and can never be background noise. There is a gut feeling I get when I hear some songs that the English language never bothered to invent words for. It’s as though sad and angry and hope and despair and love and need and nostalgia and joy all get jumbled together. To some degree or another, the songs I chose do this to me.

How this music came to do that to me isn’t always possible to explain. I’ve given some history to a few of the songs on the Salamander List, but others are just on there with no explanation. A few songs on the list I could explain, but won’t. The remainder of the songs I’ll explain when I can actually figure out how to do it.

There are a handful of songs on the list that I couldn’t bring myself to delete, but are really too recent to have stood the test of time. When I revisit the list in the future, I reserve the right to remove some of those songs.

There were other songs that I really wanted to put on the list because I liked them, but these songs don’t affect me the same way. Many of those songs were originally on the list, but when I went back and edited I found they didn’t withstand the scrutiny. This, in part, explains why my list of 100 Songs of Salamander has only 53 songs on it. I feel certain that I’ll be able to add to the list. I also feel certain that in a year I may remove a song or two from the list. What I’m not certain of is that I’ll ever actually find 100 songs that do speak to me in the way this music does.

There are 53 songs on the list. I am 53 years old. That’s as good a reason for giving up on the editing and finally posting.

The music will be presented in no particular order. I have provided links to the music whenever possible, which means that I’ve been forced to break the list into several parts. The entire list will be posted, again in no particular order, on my Welcome page, which will cause it to load slower than mole’s asses. If you’ve paid attention to the comings and goings on my Welcome page and Index page, then you already know a few of the songs that will appear in the days to come.