Autobiographical: Six Songs of Me

Here is your autobiographical assignment:

In class on Wednesday:

1. In class, identify six songs which define you as a person. 
2. In short answer responses (8-10 sentences each), write about THREE of your chosen six songs. Be sure to explain the personal significance of each song.

Due Monday:

1. At home, translate your understanding of ONE of the remaining three songs in a drawing.

Examples:

• “If I Loved You” from Carousel (1945): The first time I heard this song I cried. Maybe, it had something to with the fact that Kevin Borland broke my heart just a few days earlier, but who can say. All I know is that when Ms. Baxter played the song in Drama, gauging our interest in Carousel for the next play, it was as if this song was written specifically for me. Immediately, I started to cry—and I couldn’t stop. It wasn’t an ugly cry, but it wasn’t a cry that people didn’t notice, either. The song is about a doomed, but hypothetical, relationship. It is not only a song about heartbreak, but specifically, the heartbreak that come’s from regret: “Longin' to tell you / But afraid and shy / I'd let my golden chances pass me by.” Today, Kevin is a distant memory; I can’t believe I shed a single tear for that boy. But “If I Loved You” has stayed with me, deep in my heart. It reminds me that in life (including relationships), having tried, and failed, is better than having never tried at all. I’m determined not to let any golden chances pass me by.
 

• Western Stars” by k.d. lang (1988): I grew up in the Coachella Valley of Southern California. But my Coachella isn’t hipsters and Daf Punk, it’s craggy mountains and the warm Santa Ana Winds. The desert is my home and “Western Stars” takes me back every time I hear it. The song is about the loneliness of the desert, under a star-filled sky: “Western stars light up the sky / hear the desert wind roll by / Tonight, tonight / Western stars can break your heart / they keep shining when we're apart / Tonight, tonight.” I remember those stars. They really do light up the sky. To me, “Western Stars” is about my home in the desert, where I’m basking in the most beautiful lights you’ve ever seen.