This was really hard for me. But everyone has their favorites. The only way I could possibly do was to limit myself to four songs per album original (ie not live recordings like Back on the Bus Y'all or 1,200 Curfews. I also included unreleased stuff and covers. All of the links will take you to the lyrics at Lifeblood so be sure to use your browser's back button to come back here. I also included a brief statement as to why I loke the song. If you have any further questions, please e-mail me. Note: I reserve the right to change these listings as my favorite songs change!
Strange Fire
Land of CanaanWhy: This is the earlier vesion of LOC (the later version appears on the self titled album). It's just a great song to sing along with when you are angry.
Strange FireWhy: An early lyric masterpiece. Damn, I'd love to see them perform this live!
Walk AwayWhy: My favorite song on the album. Sure, Amy over does the "babies" just a bit, but this illustrates her passion.
Make it EasierWhy: An Emily song. The mantra of my life...
Indigo Girls (Self Titled Album)
Love's RecoveryWhy: This is the first Indigo Girls song I truly fell in love with. It must've been like 1989 or 1990. My friend gave me an IG tape. By song #7, LR, I was hooked. And I've never gone back.
Blood and FireWhy: The essence of Amy Ray's passion. Need I say more? Gawd, it makes me cry. I understand why she won't do this live anymore, but damn, I wanna hear it!
Prince of DarknessWhy: Another Amy song. Love hearing it live... love singing the Michael Stipe part!
Secure Yourself Amy wrote this song after her cat died. It has helped me get through loss in general.
Nomads*Indians*Saints (my favorite album!)
WatershedWhy: This is one of Emily's best songs ever. The lyrics and music are both excellent. This song is great to listen to during any time of change. Also a GREAT driving song!
Hand Me DownsWhy: Gawd, another fine example of pure Amy passion! "Everything I truly love I love in you and I love in me..."
World FallsWhy: This is my favorite song! This song describes me. I am a traveler. Travel is one of my passions. This is the BEST song to listen to on the road. but I can also relate to it. I've done it all... from sleeping on a beach in Australia to arriving in San Francisco with 20 bucks in my pocket and a backpack on my back. And it's true... "everywhere I go all the beauty just keeps shaking me..." From Australia to Japan to all parts of Europe to my real home of San Francisco and so many parts of North America. This earth is just FILLED with beauty. Beauty is in our backyards, no matter where we live. And traveling and meeting new people and having hands on experiences with different cultures and exploring foregin lands is AMAZING. This world rocks and we need to respect it and its people. They played it for me at Saratoga2 after Matt requested it. Awesome moment!
Keeper of My HeartWhy: Amy solo in the same genre of "Blood and Fire." Gawd, she makes me scream!!!
Rites of Passage
GhostWhy:: Emily Saliers was an English major and it just shines through. This song leaves me absolutly speechless. Pure poetry. Beautiful imagery. Emily's usages of words and metaphores is pure genius. And how this song touches me. Why does it always seem to mirror my lovelife?
NashvilleWhy: Amy song. Substitute "cornfields" for "mountains," "Champaign" for "Nashville," and "Midwest" with "Southern," and you have my grad school experience!
Let it Be MeWhy: Columbus, Ohio, December 1998: Emily, "This song is about peace." Need I say more? Ok, and hello... can Emily predict the future? "Well the world seems spent and the president has no good idea of who the masses are..."
Romeo and JulietWhy: This is a cover. Amy did not write it. She, however, perfects it. Gives me the chills everytime I hear Amy scream "when julie I'd do the stars with you anytime" Give me a cold shower.
Swamp Ophelia
ReunionWhy: My song after I quit grad school, "I drove out of there with no one behind me, feelin' funny and free." Thank you, Amy.
MysteryWhy: This song is beautiful. Someone on the IG list once made a statement that this song is about Emily's relationship with Amy. That stuck in my mind. To this day, that is my favorite reading of this song. I also have great memories of this song -- sitting in Sensei's kitchen on a cold night doing origami.
FugitiveWhy: Amy no longer does this in concert. Like Blood and Fire, it hits home too hard. About her relationship with Cooper, another musician. One of my favorite lines, "got to learn to respect what we don't understand" comes from this song. My favorite song on this album...
The Wood SongWhy: Again, a lyrical masterpiece by Emily. A song about acheiving your goals. I love how Emily uses GRE vocabulary ("futility" appeared on my first GRE!). So unlike top 40 artists who are so undaring and so unintellectually probing! This is my favorite Emily song. Recently, I have discovered that it is my cat, Frisco's, favorite song. What can I say? She has good taste!
Shaming of the Sun
Get Out the MapWhy: So happy. Great sing along. If I'm at a show, you'll notice me as the girl sho goes crazy for the West Coast line!
Hey Kind FriendWhy: This song is so different from most of Amy's other songs. But nonetheless, I love it. A beautiful story about the power of friendship, even long distence friendships. My favorite song on the album.
Scooter BoysWhy: Political Amy! I love political Amy! Besides, this song has a beat to die for!
Shame on YouWhy: I love it when Amy rolls her eyes and giggles when she sings "When the beautiful ladies walk right by, you know I never know what to say!" So cute and so sexy. I also love the underlying political theme of the song. My favorite "overplayed" Indigo Girls song.
Come on Now Social
Gone AgainWhy: Amy wrote it in Australia! She makes mention of so many places I have been. Kings' Cross and Melbourne (though the wrecking crew and the rainbow room are non-existant). And I WILL go to Kakadu National Park one day! There are heaps of salties!
Soon Be To NothingWhy: Aside from being beautiful, this song helped get me through the height of culture shock in Japan. I have clear memories of riding in a rural bus down the costal highway in Miyazaki-ken with the line "I have passed these pines 'bout a million times, effortlessly. Now I grip the wheel, fear is what I feel at the slow unraveling of me" playing. Everytime I hear SBTN, I think of my good times, and bad times, in Japan.
OzillineWhy: Amy's song to her deceased grandmother, Ozilline. I would loved to have met the woman from Amy's description. Lately, "I had to put the dog down before I hit the road, I watched that sweet old life become a bag of bones" has really hit home hard for me, as my dog Shanghai has terminal cancer. I was bawling during that line at the Berkeley and Cleveland shows.
Philosophy of LossWhy: Emily is pissed! She is really bothered by the church; it is great to hear her tell her story live. This is a hidden track on CoNS. Wow. Emily made two negative church refrences on one album (in Trouble as well). This song took on a brand new meaning for me after 11 Sept.
Become You
Become YouWhy: Amy's song about being a proud Southerner, but having to reconcile with the South's dirty past. Great political theme "the center holds so they say, it never held too well for me," and "damn that old confederacy!" Amy rocks out on the harmonica!
Our DeliveranceWhy: In recent times, a lot of Americans have acted with passion over ration. That is fine, but Emily reminds us in this song (and when introducing it at shows) that it is important to really think. It is scary to label an entire region the "axis of evil." Remember... "they're sending soldiers to distant places, x's and o's on someone's drawing board, like green and plastic, but with human faces, and they want to tell you it's a merciful sword, but with all the blood newly dried in the desert, can we not fertilize the land with something else, there is no nation, by god exempted, lay down your weapons, and love your neighbor as yourself..."
BitterrootWhy: Years ago, Amy started sticking an earlier version of this song in the middle of "Chickenman." Now it's a full blown song complete with the band. However, when the Indigo Girls play acoustic sets, this song still appears in the midst of "Chickenman." Great beat. Fun song. "Have you been travelin'? Yes, I've been travelin', I've been travelin' too." YES, I have!
Moment of ForgivenessWhy: For a while, I was a bit sick of this song. Now that it's no longer overplayed, it just makes me cry.
Stag(Amy Ray's solo album)
LaramieWhy: Amy's lyrical response to the murder of Matthew Shepard.
Johnny RottentaleWhy: You have not lived until you have seen Amy stand all alone on stage with her mandolin and just belt this one out.
Covers
Wild Wild Party in the Loquat TreeWhy: This is the most hilarious, fun, and wacky IG cover! Gotta love A and E making animal sounds. And the fuzzies and furries line is a keeper. It is Becky's and my goal to get them to do this one live!
Heartache Central TimeWhy: Amy stuffs more passion into this song... Again, I just want to hold her and tell her that all will be fine. Also, I am not mentioning any names, but this song so mirrors my relationship with a certain person who I used to love and have so much respect for. "I don't even love you no more, but I can't get you out of my mind..." I think I'm going to cry...
Unreleased (by Epic) Songs and Others
DevotionWhy: My friend Doug, who is not too crazy about the Indigo Girls, absolutely loves this Amy song. So do I! Amy and Emily harmonize just like the old days. And giving it up all for a love that can't be defined really hits us queers hard.
Runners Up (because just three from some albums was a stretch!)
1 2 3Nomads*Indians*SaintsWhy: This probably should be up with the rest of my favorite N*I*S songs. As a matter a fact, I am sure it will be in a few weeks. This is one of the IG list's (collective) most disliked songs. But I love it. Maybe because it's another Amy scream-a-long. Or maybe because no one really knows what the hell (exactly) it is about. So it can relate to anything about a lot of things.
Welcome MeNomads*Indians*SaintsWhy: Amy's song about Los Angeles. Hey, it's not San Francisco, but close!
Touch Me FallSwamp OpheliaWhy: Heheh... I will not tell!
Well...that was...hard. Making a least favorite IG song page would've been so much easier. :-)
