English professor Shannon Lakanen regularly teaches creative writing, Integrative Studies and women's studies classes.
She makes no claim that these are the top 10 best songs ever recorded, but if she had to choose 10 songs to listen to for the rest of her life, she supposes these would be in the running. Over the Rhine - "I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time ..." This is a great band from Cincinnati that isn't well-known. There is no easy way to categorize them because their music varies from each track. The Cowboy Junkies - "Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning"The best break-up song ever. It's empowering, positive and unforgiving all at the same time. Most importantly, it's focused more on where one is going than where one has been. Patty Griffin - "Mother of God" I've been swept away by Patty Griffin for the last year or so. This one works as an essay in song, as many of hers do: "Something as simple as boys and girls / gets tossed all around and then lost in the world." Janis Joplin - "Get It While You Can"This choosing-one-song business is tough (I could easily come up with my top 10 Patty or Janis or Fiona songs). Fiona Apple - "Window"It's all about perspective, filters and theory. Every time I hear it, I think I ought to use it in class one of these days. The White Stripes - "Little Room" "Rag & Bone" is by far my son's favorite song of all time, but I have to go with this one. It's the song I crank up flail around to when writer's block gets to be too much.
Coldplay - "Swallowed in the Sea"For me it's all about being tempted to let go of the most honest person in your life but tightening your grip instead. Hootie & the Blowfish - "Hold My Hand" Yes, Hootie. It was annoyingly overplayed on the radio a decade ago, but it's become mine and my son's unofficial theme song over the last couple years.
David Bowie - "Rebel Rebel"This is a throwback to my high school days, bringing to mind an almost exclusively black wardrobe, piercing my boyfriend's ear at home, squeezing an absurd number of people into my brother's MG and the occasional mosh pit circa 1987. The Libertines - "Music When the Lights Go Out"Bless Pete Doherty's little junkie heart: he's a musical genius, and I'm sure those who haven't heard him yet (in The Libertines or Babyshambles) will agree--if he can ever clean up his act enough to break into the U.S. music scene.
