Some time ago a colleague shared a classroom exercise: she asked students to bring in a song and explain why it could serve as part of the soundtrack to their life. It got me to thinking. Hence, my life on iPod:

1

“Don’t Go Back (to Rockville)” by R.E.M. I was reared on the mindless guitar thrashing of the early 80s: Van Halen and Journey and Rush. A friend, a prototypical punk rocker, introduced me to an up-and-coming group from Athens and my ears were unstoppered: intelligent rock n roll with a splash of conscience. I loved the message in this one: Don’t look back, definitely don’t go back, keep moving forward. I played it again and again as I left home and headed into the roaring adventure of graduate school.

2

“Melt with You” by Modern English: Quite possibly the greatest punk love song ever written. When I hear it even now, I’m transported to college, that period when I was slowly, surely awakening to the world, becoming aware that there was so more much waiting out there beyond my hometown’s shotgun-pocked city limits signs. As a bonus, it reminds me of my courting days with Lori, who stills stops the world. (And, no, I’m not over the fact that Modern English sold out for a Wendy’s hamburger.)

3

“Song for the Dumped” by the Ben Folds Five. Ah, it happens to everyone - and if it hasn’t yet, it will. Consequently, everyone needs a good consolation song. This is one of the funniest, most spirited songs about getting dumped there is. And the defiance that jags through the lyrics is just what the doctor ordered.

4

“Pride (in the Name of Love)” by U2. I left my hometown in Mississippi at 23, went to Knoxville, and everything changed. The people I met there recreated me, gave shape to my spiritual and political conscience, guided me toward the path I still follow today. Music was a part of that renovation and this song captures much of it: rock n roll with a soul, with a view toward a better world.

5

“You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Concretes. Not the Supremes’ song but the one by a Swedish pop group that almost no one has heard of. This one just makes me happy with its giddy intimation that good things will come, that love is always just around the corner. Listen and you can’t help but grin - and hope.

6

“What’s the Matter Here” by 10000 Maniacs. I’d heard this song a hundred times, had even seen it performed live in concert - and never realized what it was really about until a student wrote about it in an essay for one of my classes. Again, rock n roll with a conscience: Natalie Merchant and her crew singing about the crime of doing nothing. It’s now one of those songs that makes me sit back and take stock of what I’ve done - and what I’ve failed to do.

7

“Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads. I just watched the Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” and that film captures the sheer exuberance of this song, of making music in general. This song makes me want to shout, its heady throb of guitar and drum like a healthy heartbeat. And its opening lines - “Watch out, you might get what you’re after” - could serve as anthem for all of us.

8

“At Last” by Etta James. No life soundtrack would be complete without a sultry love song. This is about as sultry as they get - and no one does sultry quite like Ms. James. Around for decades, this song just recently discovered me through a friend whose musical tastes I hugely admire. It’s a song swooning was invented for.

9

“Yeah” by Usher with Ludacris and Lil John. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m pretty much stuck in the 80s (in more ways than one, my family would add). This song (my nod to the next generation of music) is one my sons discovered and introduced me to; it’s addictive — and once you hear it you can’t unhear it: ebullient, a bit bawdy, and flat-out fun.

10

“Not Ready to Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks. The Chicks found themselves in a heap of trouble when they brought personal opinion into one of their concerts (how dare they!). After some time, they penned this song as response. More than an anthem of defiance, it speaks to the heart of what is tearing this country apart: “It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her / daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger…” Defiant, sure; stubborn, absolutely - but also a plea for tolerance, an admonition to get along.

The playwright William Congreve told us long ago that music had charms to soothe the savage breast. These 10 songs definitely soothe me. And give me hope.