Trying To Find A Song For Lit
I am supposed to find a poetic (or not poetic) song for extra credit in my lit class.
This sounds like the easiest assignment in the world, if you are not a poetic genius/freak. I listen to songs for A) their musical quality and 
their lyrical quality. Of course, the songs I pick for lit are based solely on their lyrical content, and the music doesn't come into play at all.
That, of course, annoys me. I have many songs that I find awesomely amazing, because of both their poetry and the music (which, 9 times out of ten, is awesome piano chords for me). While these songs have great lyrics, they just aren't as special if you don't analyze both the words and the sound. So I've had to cross out pretty much all of my most favorite songs, and had to work my way down the list of songs I have.
It's been nearly impossible for me to pick a good enough song. I've had about two weeks now, and have probably gone through two dozen ideas, and none of them have been good enough.
For a while I was stuck on the Dixie Chicks' Travelling Soldier for the emotional value I give to it, and thought it would be a great song to represent me at the moment. Then I realized that these songs are not automatically going to represent us, and just because I've had two friends die as "Travelling Soldiers" doesn't mean anyone else will appreciate the song or find it as meaningful as I do. Especially since it's the Dixie Chicks, and it seems everyone loves to hate them. Christ, they hated Bush before it was COOL!! Shouldn't we give them a little credit, man? They were cool before cool was cool. 
Anyway, I decided that song just wouldn't cut it. So I went through all the Eagles songs I have on my iTunes, then Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, etc etc and the only songs that seemed poetic enough happened to be 7 MINUTES LONG and that is just a bit much to sit in class silently reading along with the lyrics.
So I went through every song I have on iTunes, and came up with a list of six songs I feel are insanely and awesomely lyrical, and here they are:
~Spanish Harlem Incident written by Bob Dylan (but performed by Chris Whitley, HOLY SEXY SONG!!)
~Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Elton John (This song reminds me of Almost Famous, the best movie, and prompted me to switch my SN on MSN to *Almost Famous* for a good half hour)
~Anna Begins by Counting Crows
~Miller's Angels by Counting Crows
~Never Is A Promise by Fiona Apple
~Paper Bag by Fiona Apple (Which features my current SN and Title of Blog--I went crazy again today / looking for a strand to climb / looking for a little hope ")
For all of you that know these songs, which one would have picked? If you don't know them and want to, look up the lyrics!!!
I chose Paper Bag by Fiona because I like the lyrics, they're great. I also can relate to the song, (damn BOYS), and because it's fairly short and won't use up too much of my printer paper, since I have to print off 20 copies. It's a pretty sarcastic song, and I like it!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm really rethinking my decision, though.... I really really really would like to do Never Is A Promise. Fiona Apple's lyrics are so utterly amazing. I love a great many of them, and would really like to play all of them, but I just can't afford to waste that much paper 
Though if I did have to choose just one, not related to the length of the song and how much paper I would be wasting, I'd choose "Sleep to Dream." Angry songs = good.
So yeah, let me know what you think. Which songs would you choose??
~Anne