Quote of the Week...from Isaac Marion

My favorite songs change every year.                     ---Isaac Marion

Not exactly a tremendously profound quote this week with important ramifications about life and reality...but the American zombie romance writer Isaac Marion's quote (he's not a zombie, but writes zombie romances) does provide me a convenient transition to what I really wanted to discuss today: my favorite songs of 2019.  I've been following popular music pretty much from the time I was seven, usually focused on a particular genre for each era, and as such have come up with my own "Song of the Year" as I have lived through each of them, from 1964 up to now.  Sometimes those favorites decline in my estimation over the years while other songs that I either disliked at the time or may not even have been aware of have surpassed my yearly "best" in my appreciation.  2019 began with me enjoying Paul McCartney's latest album Egypt Station, while Beck came through a little later with Saw Lightning, a single from his later-released Hyperspace album that he largely collaborated on with Pharell Williams.  I listened to it and wasn't very impressed with most of the songs, though.  Also, while progressively reviewing my 500 all-time favorite songs on this blog, I once again heard the German techno band Kraftwerk's extraordinary 22-minute piece Autobahn...for the past month or so I've listened to it several times...can't get enough of it.  As for songs from the radio last year, other than Saw Lightning, I was disappointed not only with the general pop music out there, but also the alternative/indie releases as well.  So 2019's favorite songs list for me is necessarily short...here it is:

1 SAW LIGHTNING...Beck
2 CAESAR ROCK...Paul McCartney
3 AUTOBAHN...Kraftwerk (from 1974)
4 HAPPY WITH YOU...Paul McCartney
5 I DON'T KNOW...Paul McCartney

Although I didn't listen much to pop or alternative music on the radio in 2019, I did get into the habit of listening more to classical music, usually either from WUFT/Classical/102.7 in Gainesville or New York's WQXR on my Android...Mendelssohn's 4th "Italian" Symphony and Mahler's 2nd "Resurrection" Symphony are "new" favorites of mine.  Maybe that's why I got so taken with Autobahn...in some ways it belongs more to the classical genre...