Six questions about music that define you

The Guardian has launched "Six Songs of Me," a project to map as many personal playlists as possible in an effort to understand the intersection of music and culture better.

They've set up a special site where you can pick your most meaningful songs in six categories. They're hoping to gather enough data, Clarke says, to "help us think more fruitfully about the 'big questions' that lie behind the sounds of our lives."

The categories, in the form of questions, are listed below, along with my answers to each.

I would love to hear your answers, too.

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1.  What was the first song you ever bought?

I purchased the vinyl recording of Brice Springsteen’s “Welcome to Asbury Park” (the only vinyl I ever owned) specifically for the song Blinded by the Light, though I soon fell in love with the entire album.

2.  What song always gets you dancing?

As wrong as this may be, it is currently Madonna’s Like a Prayer. 

3. What song takes you back to your childhood?

Childhood is a slippery term, but assuming that my teenage years qualify as a part of my childhood, it’s Guns n’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine. For two full summers, that song was blasted from the windows of moving cars more than any other song I can remember.

4. What is your perfect love song?

When You Say Nothing At All by Alison Krause. My wedding song. I picked it even before I began dating my wife.

5. What song would you want at your funeral?

These Are the Days by Van Morrison. I love the way the song intertwines  the past, the present and the future, and the harpsichord is simply divine.

6. Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.

Cat Steven’s If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out. For a long time this was my theme song (recently replace by Bon Jovi’s We Weren’t Born to Follow), but I have always thought that this song expresses my personal philosophy best.