EDIT: Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #1

So two things, both inspired by Dan. The first was a great couple of mix CDs he made me. Although it wasn't all my style, I liked listening to the things he thought were worthy of a mixtape, and almost every song was new to me. There were a few gems, and in fact the first 3 songs on the 2nd disc went great together, so I wanted to post them:
MP3: The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
MP3: Leona Naess - Unnamed (This Song Makes Me Happy)
MP3: Jens Lekman - Kanske Är Jag Kär I Dig

He also mentioned the free mp3 of the day at Spinner, and I was intrigued, because I'm always a fan of free music. So I headed over and checked it out. I was a little disappointed just because it's an AOL run site with not a lot going on, but they had a segment called I "F'in love that song," and it invited people to submit the song they freakin' love. So I couldn't help it, and I submitted the first great song that came to my head. Since they haven't posted a new one in over a month, I think it may have been a waste, which is too bad, because I love writing about why I love a song. So here is my first submission, and I plan to do some more (I think Sun Kil Moon "Glenn Tipton" will be next.)

"Muzzle," The Smashing Pumpkins
From 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

You know that friend you have who thinks they know good music because
they can sing all the words off whatever Top 40 radio song is playing
at the moment. Well that was me. I loved listening to music, but I
was misguided as to what made a song "good." Enter The Smashing
Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness". I hadn't even
heard the soon to be ubiquitous "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" yet, and
knew the band in name alone when a friend bought me their double album
for my birthday. Although Siamese Dream is usually argued to be their
strongest effort, for a junior high kid with all the emotional drama
that goes along with it, the roller coaster ride of Mellon Collie
seared itself onto my soul as a personal soundtrack. The album lead
to the realization that there was music being made out there that
could really speak to me on a personal level, which, at the age of
fourteen, is an exciting thing to learn. No song wrapped me in its
own self-importance more so than Muzzle. From Billy Corgan's nasal
yelp of "I fear that I am ordinary just like everyone," to the
over-the-top, pounding drum roll in the second verse, the song thrust
me into true teenagerdom. I remember writing the lyrics out on
notebook paper, daily, during study hall, including the litany of
things Billy claims he "knows" at the end of the song. I think I, and
every teenager who has ever been oppressed by the emptiness of youth,
knew the silence of the world, too.

I fear that I am ordinary, just like everyone
To lie here and die among the sorrows
Adrift among the days
For everything I ever said
And everything Ive ever done is gone and dead

(chorus)
As all things must surely have to end
And great loves will one day have to part
I know that I am meant for this world

My life has been extraordinary
Blessed and cursed and won
Time heals but Im forever broken
By and by the way...
Have you ever heard the words
Im singing in these songs?
Its for the girl Ive loved all along
Can a taste of love be so wrong

(chorus)

And in my mind as I was floating
Far above the clouds
Some children laughed Id fall for certain
For thinking that Id last forever

But I knew exactly where I was
And I knew the meaning of it all
And I knew the distance to the sun
And I knew the echo that is love
And I knew the the secrets in your spires
And I knew the emptiness of youth
And I knew the solitude of heart
And I knew the murmurs of the soul
And the world is drawn into your hands
And the world is etched upon your heart
And the world so hard to understand
Is the world you cant live without
And I knew the silence of the world