Music Soothes The Savage Beast

I made myself a "Thanksgiving" iTunes playlist that we've -- Shae and I, mostly, but sometimes G too -- have been listening to in the car. The "air quotes" are intentional because not all these songs make a hell of a lot of sense, in terms of being actual holiday songs, but then again, there are not a whole lot of actual Thanksgiving songs anyway. You would think a celebration of early American communism would inspire some sort of hymn or carol or something. Perhaps a Soviet-sounding sea shanty. Something.

While I'm out getting my hair cut, I thought I'd share my playlist with you. Here is (about 60% of) the official "rockle-riffic thanksgiving playlist." Notes are after the link:

As you might have suspected, a bunch of these are mostly songs that contain the words "Thank You" or some variation thereof in the title. I mean, really, "How 'bout getting off of these antibiotics?" is not the sort of lyric that might inspire overwhelming outpourings of emotion and gratitude. But then again, I am currently taking antibiotics for the Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Plague, and I have to say that getting off these antibiotics is something to be thankful for. Biaxin will seriously mess up your digestive tract if you don't take it according to the pharmacist's directions. Yogurt, people. Trust me on this one.

Every one of these songs makes me thing about something specific that I am thankful for. Maybe they'll mean something to you, too; then again, maybe they won't. If you have songs that really make you think about Thanksgiving and what you are thankful for, let me know, because I am always up for expanding my MP3 collection.

Some of the best songs on the playlist got left off this iMix, though -- I can't really explain why iTunes didn't include them, but whatever. Here are the other 40% or so of the titles:

• "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" by Al Green & Annie Lennox
• "In My Life" by The Beatles (and I totally know that the Beatles are on iTunes now, so I don't WTF the deal is here, but WHATEVER, uppity hipster Apple people!)
• "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley
• "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" (duet version) by Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland
• "Lovesong" by The Cure (I am thankful for Robert Smith and black kohl eye pencils, full stop)
• "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper
• "Sweet Potato Pie" by James Taylor & Ray Charles
• "Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book
• "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson
• "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" by Marvin Gaye
• "His Eye is On the Sparrow" by Marvin Gaye (shut up, I like gospel music sometimes)
• "You Are My Sunshine" by Ray Charles
• "Thank You (for Lettin' Me Be Mice Elf)" by Sly & the Family Stone

Not that you asked, right now Shae's favorite song on this whole list is "Everybody Eats When They Come to My House" and my favorite is "Sweet Potato Pie" which is especially strange because I don't even LIKE sweet potato pie. But James Taylor and Ray Charles sound surprisingly awesome together, so I recommend that you check out that song.