My dad used to jokingly tell the story of me constantly asking him to play “the ‘Lethal Weapon tape,’” just so I could listen to a particular George Harrison song over and over again. It’s still a cherished memory in my family, but it also made me realize how much you can learn about someone by knowing their first favorite songs. It’s like looking at someone’s baby pictures, but with sound. Since I’ve been sharing my insights with you through this newsletter, I thought it would be fair to share a few of my first favorites.
While you read, you can listen along on Spotify.
1. Cat Stevens: “Moonshadow”
I have a vivid memory of someone singing “Moonshadow” to me as a baby, and to this day, listening to the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens can make me feel an almost supernatural sense of comfort. My parents had a state-of-the-art CD player when I was a kid, and I recall being meticulously taught how to place “Cat Stevens: Greatest Hits” into the tray and cue up track 8, which was, of course, “Moonshadow.” (Listen on YouTube)
2. Tom Petty: “Free Fallin’”
Growing up in New Jersey, I didn’t visit the West Coast until my mid-20s, so the proper nouns in “Free Fallin’” sounded exotic to me, like Mulholland, Ventura Boulevard, and even the glamorous oasis called “Reseda”. Nowadays it would probably make the list of the most overplayed American rock songs of the 20th century; nevertheless, I can still recall a time when its lyrics sounded alluringly foreign to me, as if actual vampires might have haunted Ventura Boulevard. (Listen on YouTube)
3. U2: “Zoo Station”
U2’s angsty, glammy “Achtung Baby” was a staple in my parents’ car after it came out in 1991. Listening to it over and over again from the back seat, the album seemed to contain all the mysteries of the adult world, just beyond my understanding. I only knew that it sounded inexplicably cool and a little scary! The album expertly blends relatively straightforward rock songs with ghostly sounds to create an otherworldly experience. The Edge’s adventurousness with effects pedals and Brian Eno’s arty production provided a lot of the strangeness that intrigued me. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was an iconic second-wave feminist slogan, not a clever lyric that Bono made up. But no matter what, “Achtung Baby” will always have a special place in my heart for being one of the first records to freak me out in a good way. (Listen on YouTube)
