10 Songs That Changed My Life

Last year I did a post about 10 albums that changed my life. It took me this long to think about only 10 songs, which is more difficult. How can you sum up such a great influence on you with just a few songs?


Here are ten, for now:

1. Led Zeppelin / Stairway To Heaven

Sorry you guys, but I´m afraid it´s going to get only more cliche from here. Not much to say- it´s fucking Led Zeppelin, it´s the most amazing song in the world, you discover life, universe and everything when you listen to it, and the younger you are exposed to it the better.

What has the song changed exactly in my life? I don´t know, what has it changed in the lives of millions other people?

2. Queen / The Prophet´s Song

You know how I love A Night At The Opera, and this is perhaps Queen´s most underrated song. The arrangement and composition of this song is insane, this is basically classical music level. I can still listen to this song a thousand times, lipsyncing for my life.

A thought came to me while I listened to the album not long ago: it could be so cool to make a musical out of the album, like Jesus Christ Superstar- every song is like a happening in the plot of the film featuring different characters. That could have been so cool.

3. Bauhaus / The Passion Of Lovers

Yet again another cliche pick. I am in my first year of high school, I am walking to my bus station and listening for the first time to the freshly downloaded Bauhaus. My eyes widened and I couldn´t believe how it spoke to me. This song has incredible energies, mystery and elegance and represents for me that new thing I was exploring back then- post punk. It still moves me greatly today.

4. Opeth / Bleak

This is one of my favorite songs from Blackwater Park, their most famous album. Opeth have been with me forever, but this was one of the first songs by them that I listened to.

5. Sopor Aeternus / The Sleeper

This was the first song by SA that I listened to as well. This band was a huge revelation for me in my babybat years, and this song has captivated me ever since. It still echoes of scenes when I was sitting at my table alone at night, writing poetry or drawing, communicating with the goth world of the internet.

6. The Doors / End Of The Night

Another mysterious song. Everything by Th Doors reminds me of our first time together with Boris, as he introduced me to so many classic rock bands. I need to have another "special psychedelic" listen to The Doors again one day (hey, it worked with The Beatles´ Sergeant Pepper!).

7. The Birthday Party / Mutiny In Heaven

Either the song, or the entire album with the same name. This is me and Boris wanting to roam Berlin, play and hear cool music and meet Blixa Bargeld on the street while doing so. Berlin was a dream in black and white like a scene from the movie The Wings Of Desire which inspired us so greatly when we were 16 & 17. It still does. 

8. The Mars Volta / Teflon

This incredible band was associated with unpleasant memories for a long time, until just recently when I managed to replace that feeling with something better. TMV are powerful beyond words and always draw new emotions from me with time. First time I gave them a lesson was a very weird time in my life.

9. Radiohead / Paranoid Android

This song makes me incredibly emotional (lol like all songs on this list?) and besides everything is a fucking masterpiece. I hate the video, I don´t care how unconceptually conceptual it is, they have ruined the song with that video. I actually cannot listen to this song too often, I would get very fragile.

10. Grauzone / Träume mit mir

While we were at it, Boris and I thought that we were the only ones in Israel listening to this "obscure" music (nothing obscure when it came to the popularity of Grauzone in Europe lol). It was fun to understand bits and pieces of this song when we just began to learn German, and again there was something bittersweet in the air.

I always manage to link these kind of listings to my timeline or biography! Then again, it´s only the natural thing to do. Have you noticed that almost every song is associated with sad things? 

As if anyone even read what I wrote lol.

Also, every song mentioned was listened by me before the age of 20. I guess the music I´ve listened to in my teens has left a deep mark in me, and that is something I haven´t noticed before. What happened after 20? Have I died a bit inside?

N. Finsternis