Soundtrack of My Life

Song: Babylon
Artist: David Grey
Album: White Ladder

My friends Bucky and Beast get the kudos here for introducing me to David Grey. Yes, sometimes, other people find really great music before me. These things happen from time to time. This is one of those cases.

I don't know where or how they discovered him, but I'm guessing it had something to do with The Dave Matthews Band, as Grey is signed to ATO Records, Matthews' label. Perhaps Bucky will clarify in the comments for us later...

As we've covered time and again during this segment, I'm a big fan of songs and albums that resonate both musically (you know... melodically) and lyrically and once again, this song boasts both.

Musically, this song is awesome. Simplistic acoustic guitar layered over an echoing backbeat that has enough movement to it that it makes you sway with hints of piano added for flavour. It's a pretty plain concept on paper, but it works really well. It's kind of like how, despite how utterly crappy Bruce Hornsby was, his songs always stuck in your head because the music of them was really, really well crafted.

Then we come to the lyrics. I was won over in the first verse:

Well looking back through time
You know it's clear that I've been blind
I've been a fool
To ever open up my heart
To all that jealousy, that bitterness, that ridicule

Been there. Felt that. Got the t-shirt in a drawer somewhere. Been in verse two too:

Saturday I'm running wild
And all the lights are changing red to green
Moving through the crowd I'm pushing
Chemicals all rushing through my bloodstream
Only wish that you were here
You know I'm seeing it so clear
I've been afraid
To tell you how I really feel
Admit to some of those bad mistakes I've made

Honestly, there is an easy formula to become a favourite song of mine: well-crafted melodies and music, lyrics about missing your woman and apologizing for being a bit of a dick in the past. Most guys should be able to identify with these things. Lord knows I do.

The capper for this song is that it became a staple of my karaoke rotation while I was doing my thing at Sha-na-na's. Now, that may not be a good thing and some people may definitely hate this song for the rest of their lives because of my rendition, but whatever. It couldn't have been worse than the time I tried to belt out "Sugar, We're Going Down..."