1. dave navarro - "the bed"
runner up: none
"the bed" is a cover of a lou reed song and believe it or not, i still haven't heard the original! when i first heard this cover, i liked it but it did not affect me. a couple listens later and it touched me somewhere deep and from then on i would just cry and cry as i listened to it but it was a good cry and i'd be sure to listen to the whole song. it's like going on an emotional ride. eventually i think it just wore me out so i stopped listening to it. what touched me about it was more that i was putting myself into the song. "this is the place that she took the razor and cut her wrists that fateful night." that could've been me. suicide was on my mind too often from ages 7 to 23. it pretty much was a multiple choice option on most of my decisions in life. "do i write this 10 page paper that's due in class or do i kill myself? i'd rather kill myself." i'm sure a lot of people think that way at times but my problem was that i'd take it seriously. the only thing that kept me around was that i wanted to see what tomorrow would be like. tomorrow would come and i'd realize that yesterday i was so silly. a constant cycle. look at all the things that i would've missed out on! that's what keeps me going. my mindset has since changed. perhaps that is the main reason i don't listen to this song anymore.

i could not think of a runner up song. there is no song in the english language, no other song period that has made me cry as much as dave's cover of "the bed". i guess it's time to listen to the original and see if it has the same impact. i think a lot of the moodiness comes from the moog keyboard in the cover version. if that was replaced with something else, i don't think it would affect me as much.

[update 3/29: watching episodes of "south park", i was reminded of a runner up song. when mr. hankey sings "have yourself a merry little christmas", it brings a little tear to the eye. it's just the cutest/saddest thing.]

2. victimas del dr. cerebro - "venas"
runner up: aterciopelados - "el dorado"
i don't speak spanish but i understand enough that the times i pay attention to what is being said, "venas" affects me. there's something about colonization that really gets me. perhaps it's because that's the history of this country, of this world. a series of colonizations and the injustices that go along with that. "venas" is a badass song but sometimes i find it difficult to listen to because of the chances of tearing up. please leave me alone with my music so i can enjoy it to a maximum.

the runner up song "el dorado" is pretty much the same thing. i start to get feelings in my gut but i don't think it actually gets to the point of tears. just sadness and anger. the music is a big part of the emotional manipulation. it just feels sad. there's other songs in spanish that i listen to and i feel like i understand just by the mood of the music. of course, it'd be really funny if my interpretation of foreign songs was completely off. that's partly why i don't want to learn the language of some foreign songs that i listen to or read the translation of the lyrics. it could completely shatter the beauty of the song that i have built up in my head.

3. the boom - "shima uta"
runner up: buck-tick - "kodo"
"shima uta" is another cover song. it's a song from okinawa, where my mother is from, but the band who sings it is from mainland japan. there was an okinawa culture craze in the mid- to late- 90s in japan and i think this cover song sparked the interest. since the band isn't from okinawa, they sung the song in standardized japanese, however one line is sung in okinawan dialect. (the choice of which line is a bit bizarre but maybe they had to do that one in order to fit the melody.) when this song came out, i liked it but it didn't touch me at all. (the b-side is fun too!) it was just cool to hear modern rock songs with an okinawan musical base. it's only recently that i tear up when i hear this song and it's usually when i'm alone, driving, and blasting the music. i think it's more of a thinking about your roots thing than a "damn, those lyrics are good" thing because honestly, there's nothing special about this song. it's actually kind of a cheesy love song. 'sending my love across the sea' sort of thing. it's funny when you compare it to how i react when playing okinawan songs in shamisen class. a couple of those folk songs we practice talk about how great okinawa is and i just get pissed off in my head: "no, it's not that great. afterall, everyone here left!"

for the runner-up song, well i tried to think of another song in japanese that touches me deeply and the only thing i could think of was "kodo". it's a reverse feeling for me. it still makes me think of suicide but it makes me very happy. like it's a good day to die. in the western world feeling happy and wanting to die are opposites. the way i feel about the song was probably not the intention of the songwriters but then again, they're not western.