Do you have a 'favourite' song?

Its weird, for years and years I didn't subscribe to having a 'favourite' song. After all, I listen to so much music, from so many different genres, styles, eras and cultures, that how could I pick one measly little song over all the others? It didn't make sense to me.

But then again, I realised the other day that I do have a favourite song. Want to know what it is?

So what defines a favourite song? Its hard to say, which is why I never believed in the idea in the first place. I suppose one's favourite food would be something that they could eat anytime, anyplace, and always want more, or maybe its just something that tastes amazing that they only get to have once in a while. Someone's favourite car would be one that they've driven or that they enjoy driving the most, or perhaps one that they just love to look at.

The pattern that seems to emerge looking at this whole 'favourite' phenomena is that there are many reasons why anything could be somebody's favourite anything. So what about music?

I've noticed that a lot of the time, people's favourite song is actually their favourite song 'at the moment' - i.e. the song they like the most out of the selection of music they've been listening to the past week/month. Especially with subscribers to the mainstream, where artists and songs are literally released as flavours of the week, this makes sense pretty much. I have no problem with this, though I would never call any of those my personal favourites, I would identify them as 'something I'm listening to a lot lately' and leave it at that. After all, I could get sick of it in a few days, or just be in a different mood tomorrow and not really want to hear it again.

Sometimes your favourite song could be one that's connected to a specific moment in your life. Music has an amazing power to link us to memories, places and people we've encountered in our lives, and that emotional tie is insanely powerful. A simple song can make the hardest of men feel sad and on the verge of tears, it can remind the softest child of a time of anger and make them upset. Perhaps there's a song in your life that is linked to a particularly strong or fond emotional memory - sometimes its the song one met their significant other to, or the first dance, or perhaps just a song playing at the best party of your childhood.

I could go through all the possible reasons, but I'd be here all day. But you see the point - Looking at it from all these angles, there's not as much of a problem with labelling a song as 'your favourite' amongst all the others, as its probably your favourite for a good reason. You can let people know the reason or keep it to yourself, the most important thing is that you just love listening to it.

So what's my favourite song? This is a song that, cliche's aside, always sends shivers down my side, and after listening to it literally thousands of times, I never get sick of hearing it. I have not heard a song that, to me, is better written, arranged or performed, and its a huge factor in why Porcupine Tree are my favourite band. Hope you enjoy:

So what's your favourite song, and why?

Keep loving music ;)

Vinnie