The day the music died

A couple years ago I asked on my blog what the first pick in the draft of all the songs ever would be for any given listener. The answers were varied, but the persistent theme was that each song was important to each listener. Now, I ask a question on the other side of the coin - what would you listen to if you were going to be unable to ever listen to music again? Here's what I have on my final playlist, in no particular order:

Piano Man - Billy Joel
Maybe it's because 60 Peer Mentors sang this three summers in a row. Maybe it's because the senior class sang it at formal during Cape Week. Maybe it's because any bar playing this song will have everyone singing along to it. Whatever the reason, Piano Man is a song that you sing at the top of your lungs, every time, and unifies you with everyone else you're singing it with.

Your Hand In Mine - Explosions in the Sky

As much as I play up the first two songs on The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (go ahead, look up any of the nine blog posts with direct references to it), Your Hand In Mine is the one that I'll always stay in love with. There's something about it that reminds me of perfect innocence; a sweet bliss to close your eyes to and be in peaceful harmony with.

Ocean - John Butler Trio

There are a number of versions of Ocean that I could choose from for this, but the one I'm going with is the first version I ever heard. It's the shortest version and also the simplest of the Oceans that John Butler has played. Again, I have a connection to many versions of this song, but the first time I saw what John Butler was about, with the raw emotion and putting his physical willpower into the song, I knew I would never stop listening.

Awake My Soul - Mumford & Sons

The mental image that I will always have while listening to the end of this song is driving on the highway, singing as loud as possible, the music even louder. This is one of those songs that gets me that stars-burning-through-sheets-of-clouds feeling, an invincibility that cannot be broken.

Layla - Derek & The Dominos

This is the one song that was always on this list. Some songs just missed the cut (One Headlight, Postcard From 1952, How's It Going To Be) and others were debated, but Layla has always been number one on this list. It's the painful guitar solos, it's the four-minute piano part, it's the birds chirping at the end; it's everything. I know that I've said before that I would be content leaving this world to the end of First Breath After Coma, but leaving existence as I know it to the end of Layla is just as good.

So, there it is. The Pantheon of songs that I would listen to if music were never to be a thing again. Some of this you might agree with; or, you might have a different idea of songs you'd listen to one final time. What would they be?