Here's the game: you've got a time machine that you can use to go back to any moment in time -- complete with all your current knowledge. What year would you go back to and which SINGLE SONG would you have wanted to write?

I might go back to 1963 so that I could beat John Lennon to the punch by writing "I want to hold your hand." It's not that it's such a brilliant song -- it's that its arrival was such a watershed event in popular music and ushered in the entire British Invasion. You can't ask much more from a song but that it influence popular culture. Okay, I suppose you could ask that it puts some money in the bank for the songwriter.

Good topic, Dennis. I was having a similar conversation with a friend, talking about the lyrics to a certain song that we both like, and I said that for a pop song, it was so beautiful and melancholic and I only wish I could write something even 1/100th as good.

For me, I'm less interested in picking a song that is influential or important, though I respect and understand that. I'd just want to have written something beautiful, something that captures some sort of strong feeling, something intangible. It's hard to pick one song that encapsulates that for me, but I'll be a good girl and play by the rules. So, I'll say that my song would be Isn't It a Lovely Night by The Decemberists:

Doc Brown says it is a REALLY BAD idea to attempt to alter the
space-time-continuum...

Great topic.

Last night I watched the Beatles story. I dreamed (seriously) that I traveled back in time and had to try convince John Lennon that I had come from the future and wanted to warn him of what the future held for him. To do that, I sang "Imagine" to him, a song he had just written but not yet recorded. I recall he was quite amazed (not with my voice), that's all I remember of that particular dream.

A long way to say, I would write "Imagine".

Happy Birthday. Eventually everyone sings it.

Well for me there are just too many choices. Without a doubt it would end up being a Beatles tune. Tony hit a great one in Imagine.
I guess if pushed it would be Let It Be or Long and Winding Road, but the again since that won't happen I guess it would.............
I'm Down!

Well for me there are just too many choices. Without a doubt it would end up being a Beatles tune. Tony hit a great one in Imagine.
I guess if pushed it would be Let It Be or Long and Winding Road, but the again since that won't happen I guess it would.............
I'm Down!

Suzi?? A "the Decemberists" Fan?? What's next? You actually gonna admit you like "Wilco" or something??

How about, for myself, Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata"? Kinda blows that "Gambler/Cowboy" image away doesn't it? Second place would be Queen's (Brian May/Michael Kamen) "Who Wants to Live Forever".

If I wanted to make money, "I will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton, or Bob Seger's "Like a Rock".

For me it would be "Margaritaville". Who would have thought you could take a minor pop hit and turn it into a multi-million dollar brand. Man I can just see all those guitars hanging on the wall of my Caribbean beach house.

Second choice,"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, Well I think I'd be feeling pretty dang flattered.

Mick

I'd love to post my choice here... just can't seem to settle on one song... I've blown a fuse on this one.

That Margaritaville idea is a good one if it comes with the know how to transform it into that brand as you mentioned. What a life Mr. Buffett must lead.

As for me, I'd have chosen Freight Train. It's a must learn for every beginning fingerpicker.

Wiley-

I do like Wilco (and Son Volt, and Uncle Tupelo). I keep meaning to try my hand at Sky Blue Sky, but just keep backburnering it. It has such a sweet intro.

As for The Decemberists, I know they're not everyone's cup of tea (I think Colin Meloy's voice being a big factor there!) but I love them. They were kind of a "love at first listen" group for me.

suziko wrote:
Wiley-

I do like Wilco (and Son Volt, and Uncle Tupelo). I keep meaning to try my hand at Sky Blue Sky, but just keep backburnering it. It has such a sweet intro.

As for The Decemberists, I know they're not everyone's cup of tea (I think Colin Meloy's voice being a big factor there!) but I love them. They were kind of a "love at first listen" group for me.


Suziko, you like Good stuff. Good taste in music...Are you familiar with Vetiver or Grizzly Bear? (Not BigBear)

Definitely I should travel back to 2000 to give the wonderful lyrics of Each Small Candle to Roger Waters.
One night we talked about human kind and a song did come to my mind. So I wrote it and gave it to Roger.

But I remember once, back to 1971, when I was thinking about an instrumental song.
One day Steve Howe some friends and me, we were walking around on a beautifull Roger Dean landscape when Steve said to me:
I need Mood For A Day.
You know what happened next.

Way back home, tired and lonely, I stopped for a while on a riverside. I looked On The Horizon and... oh man, what a beautiful song this is.

Sorry Dennis, but I found three coins in my pocket and couldn't resist to spend all of them in your time machine.

Abilio

"Imagine" would also be my choice but mostly for the words. The tune I would have loved to have written is "Going to California" by Led Zepp or "Never Gong Back Again" by Lindsey Buckingham. Those two songs make me seriously happy within two or three notes. They take me somewhere profoundly good. If I was stuck in an third world jail cell this is what I'd want to hear.