Blubathon

I'm an emotional wreck, you should know that about me. If You could portray my general state of being with an emoticon it would be %^***((@?/""";; most of the time, and possibly ¬∆˙¬∆˙¬ at others.

In these past few days, I happen to have noticed a lot of songs coming on in my car that tend to make me blub a bit. Some country songs are as shamefully manipulative as an episode of ER; others hit the nail on the head for more complex reasons. Here's a list, by no means exhaustive and in no particular order, of songs that have made me blub at one time or another.

• Stronger Than I Am - Lee Ann Womack, from I Hope You Dance. This one is ambiguously about a divorcee and/or widow (cleverly taking in a huge constituency) addressing her absent husband/partner on the subject of their little girl, and how she seems to be taking the absence of her father in her stride:

  She ain’t crackin’ under pressure
  First one step and then another she goes along
  And if she falls and skins her knee
  She cries awhile and then smiles at me and just goes on
  So many things that she can teach me
  Full of life and so completely innocent
  She still says she loves her daddy
  Goes on just like nothin’ happened
  Forgives and forgets

  
  


• Please - Pam Tillis, from Thunder and Roses. Another one about a single parent - this time, she's going on a first date with a guy she really likes, and the song is her Ally McBeal-type inner dialogue of self-doubt and desire. I don't know why this affects me so strongly, but it did on first listen, before the first chorus even. Something about Tillis' high-piping plaintif voice and the 100% commitment she shows the material:

  Babysitter said 7
  She's 15 minutes late
  Jimmy's still playing in the bath
  Cold macaroni on his plate
  I still haven't done my hair
  I hate doing my hair
  It never comes out right
  I must have changed my clothes
  A half a dozen times
  Ended up in this little black dress
  Had to mend the hemline
  Now I can't find my shoes
  I can never find my shoes
  Man I hate this
  Am I nervous
  Am I scared
  Is it worth it
  Should I even care
  What a time to have these second thoughts
  Man I like this guy
  I really like him alot



• My Wild Frontier - Faith Hill, from Faith. This one is a desperate tale of love and loss, featuring the loss of a newborn baby. 'Swhat Country music is supposed to be about, innit?

  Harvested peaches in a small border town
  Saved all our wages
  Put ten percent down
  I never thought I’d see the world through a child’s eyes
  Until early december
  
  Then one calgary morning
  Still as glass
  While my baby lay sleeping, an angel slipped past
  And with one breath said I’m taking him back
  To his father in heaven
  
  Through gravel and ice and new fallen snow
  I held him through my tears
  Because I was his lonesome prairie
  And he was my wild frontier



• Godspeed (Sweet Dreams> - Dixie Chicks, from Home. It's the live version of this from the accompanyinig DVD that gets me. Partly this must be because live music in general makes me blub, and partly because she goes into the whole story of how the song was written. A divorce, mother moves to France with new partner; husband writes song for 9-year old kid he misses. Blub.


• Pocket Full of Stones - Eve Selis, from Nothing But the Truth. I should be ashamed of myself. A blatant attempt at a blub song, featuring a little kid giving stones to a stranger - each of which means something different.

  You picked a good one, that one’s laughter
  And look, this one stops the rain
  See my mom over there watching
  She likes the white one, it’s for grace



• Let's Dance - Sara Evans, from Born to Fly. Only because it was what was on a lot when my youngest was born.


• Puff the Magic Dragon - Er... When I was in Junior school, this folk group came round and performed some songs for the class in the school hall. By the time this song got to the end I was blubbing, and desperately trying to conceal the fact. It's a tragedy:

  A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
  Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
  One grey night it happened, jackie paper came no more
  And puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
  
  His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
  Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
  Without his life-long friend, puff could not be brave,
  So puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. oh!

And that's more than I can really cope with at one time.