Wednesday, December 30, 2015

On the Radio - My 2015 Song of the Year

This marks the fourth time I've chosen my "song of the year"-- a song that was new (to me) and resonated with me more deeply than any other. A former student and her college radio show get credit for introducing me to the the song I chose this year, as was the case in 2013. At some point I need to write a post about that song snd the other previous too. 

Regina Spektor is perhaps most well known as the singer songwriter responsible for the tune which opens each episode of Orange is the New Black. The song I heard on my student's show several months ago begins with a somewhat morbid and esoteric verse, but some of the lines reflect my reality from two years ago: a young guy walking though a busy store with oxygen is not wholly unlike driving a hearse through a crowd. This verse ends with a lyric about disease affecting loved ones. It was about then that this song "hit me," and it didn't let up. 

While the chorus replays one of those odd events in life that I've always found fun to analyze and appreciate, and enjoy even more in my post-transplant life. 
But it is the second verse that locked it into "song of the year" territory. As someone whose heart literally pumped someone else's blood, who was one room down from a man my age fighting to survive every day following a heart transplant, Spektor's depiction of what "life" is speaks to me on a very literal level, as well as an emotional one.

 I fought back tears writing this, just as I do each time I listen to "On the Radio."  Here is a link which includes lyrics if you'd like to hear my "Song of 2015."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4nuDlSxLOjI


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