Only When I'm Dancing Can I Feel This Free

You are what you listen to. Or something like that. I grew up apparently with a lack of hobbies, because every time I bought a tape, I’d rush home, lock my door and pull out some paper. I would then sit and read the liner notes over and over (who did they thank? Who produced it?) This sometimes took a weekend (rewind. stop. what was that line again? fast forward. stop.)

Stop snickering - this is one small part of how I amassed my Stash of Useless Trivia. Like the fact that Patrick Leonard who helped Madonna’s early stuff was the same guy who helped Jody Watley (listen to "most of all" right after you hear Madonna's get up there, and you can hear his keyboards and how he used some of the same stuff. It’s how you know that the Bangles sang the chorus on Cyndi lauper’s “change of heart” or how you know Prince wrote “Manic Monday”. And how you know that he also wrote sinead’s “nothing compares 2 u” and he will only sing it with one person, Rosie Gaines. (And that he does, it’s a live track on his best of discs.)

But I digress. I always digress. Is butidigress.blogspot.com taken yet?

For a long time I've wanted to compile a list of my favorite song lines. I know a woman who keeps a list of first lines from books. Maybe I'll try that next. For now, here are some lines that, for all different reasons, I have love or been affected by in the past 28 years. I'll get the Madonna ones out of the way first, so skip down if you're a hater.

“all I know from experience is that if you have to ask for something more than once or twice, it wasn’t yours in the first place…” -Madonna/Waiting

“I’m not religious- but I feel so moved. Makes me want to pray.” – Madonna/Nothing Fails

“without your love, I’m nothing but a beggar” - Aerosmith/Angel

“try me on… I’m very you” - deee-lite/Try Me On...I'm Very You

“you turned to me as you were threading daisies on a chain. You said ‘it’s decision time again’..." –Everything But the Girl/Wrong

“Kiss me. Please kiss me. But kiss me out of desire, baby, not consolation. Oh you know it makes me so angry cause I know that in time I’ll only make you cry. This is our last goodbye” - Jeff Buckley/Last Goodbye

“I want to end this letter with three words- we tired y’all” Prince/Dear Mr. Man

“Everytime I comb my hair, thoughts of you get in my eyes.” Prince/ Erotic City

“Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten.” – Natasha Bedingfield/Unwritten (yes, I had a very hard time admitting I wanted to include this)

“There’s a time for every star.” – Nikka Costa/Everybody Got Their Something

“brick for brick I know this city like my handprint” – G love n special sauce f. jasper/This Ain't Living

“The rich declare themselves poor and most of us are not sure if we have too much but we’ll take our chances cause God stopped keeping score…you hold on to what you can and charity is a coat you wear twice a year…” –George Michael/ Praying for Time

“She got the beamiest face. Car turns left. I’m into you” Howie Day/Secret

“You make me love you… with a little L” -- Jamiroquoi/Little L

“Yeah yeah have you heard the news today? Money’s on the menu in my favorite restaurant.” - Jamiroquoi/When You Gonna Learn?

"Snap her up in a butterfly net... Pin her down in a photograph album" - Counting Crows/Anna Begins

And that's just for starters.