Okay, flipping up the lists. I need to leave the artists alone because I’m quickly running out of artists I feel entirely qualified to talk about. Basically, I don’t want someone to say, “what about (insert song)?”…and I’ve never heard of it. That’s no fun.
So today, I’m going with songs i wish I’d written. Some of them are songs that hit me very personally. Some are just so good that I hope one day to write something as good as those. Various reasons here.
Also, this is easily the least scientific list I’ve done because the scope is so broad. The numbers don’t really reflect much except for those near the top. I’m just going through iTunes and seeing what grabs me immediately. I’m leaving a million people off, but I know you all will be quick to tell me what a moron I am. I am, after all, a moron.

25.Shooters – Lil Wayne. No, it shouldn’t be on this list, but it’s my favorite song right now. It’s the Southern liberation anthem of right now. Always okay with that.
24.Fly Away – Goodie Mob. This was the Southern liberation anthem of 1998. “If you don’t like what I say/fly away/If you don’t like where I stay/fly away.” This still holds. Carpetbaggers, take note.
23.I Can’t Write Left-Handed – Bill Withers. I wrote something about this, but I’m too lazy to look for it. Just google my name and Bill Withers.
22.Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison. It’s important to note this isn’t the best song from Van the Man. That would probably be “Tupelo Honey.” However, this is the best written. So concise, so powerful, so catchy, and so damn good. “Sometimes I’m overcome thinkin’ bout making love in the green grass by the stadium with you, my brown eyed girl.” I wanna say stuff like that. And something to note–I read somewhere that this was originally titled “Brown Skinned Girl.”
21.Gun – Gil Scott-Heron. “Brotherman nowadays livin in the ghetto/where the danger’s sho nuff real/when he’s out late at night/if he’s got his head on right/I lay you nine-to-five he’s walking with steel.” Gil’s an absolute genius. Scathing critique of society with an understanding that we gotta do foul thing sometimes just to make it.
20.I Wish – R. Kelly. We can talk about how R. writes simple stuff, but this one is dope as hell for a few ways. First, he actually sang rap lyrics and made that shit work really well. Second, this song really captures what it’s like to live with the expectations other have of you. This came out the summer Jon died, and it really hit me hard at that point. Ever felt like other people didn’t cut you the slack of being a human being? I have. Apparently, so has the Arruh.
19.Cut Loose – Field Mob. I’d love to be able to write a song about a woman leaving me for an old man because I was a little too rough with it, if you get me drift. Sorry, but that’s incredibly creative.
18.Little Red Corvette – Prince. So many directions to go on this one, but I’ll take this one that Eric Arnold once described as a freaky version of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”
17.Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd. “Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?/Hot ashes for trees?/Hot air for a cool breeze?/Cold comfort for change?/Did you exchange/a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?” Well, did you? Definitely put this in the Top 5 since I’m too lazy to rearrange the list.
16.Never Let You Down – Kanye West f/J. Ivy and Jay-Z. Every last one of them comes with the fire. Every last one. And it’s that inspiring kind of fire. I listened to this song every day second semester of my first year at Carolina as I tried to get through the Hawk to get to class. It’s that kinda fire.
15.Big Punisher – I’m Not a Playa. Pun was the best at rapping about trim ever. And forgive me, but I wish I could be that crude and direct and still get results. And I’m pretty direct as things stand now.
14.No Woman, No Cry – Bob Marley. So many directions to go with Marley, so I’ll go with the anthem. Unreal.
13.Yesterday – Beatles. Played out, cliche, whatever. It’s the most covered song ever for a reason. If nothing else, McCartney can write. As well as Harrison? I’m not sure. That’s right, Harrison.
12.Welcome to the Terrordome – Public Enemy. If I have to explain this to you, something just ain’t right. “What you need to do is get your mind ready/instead of getting physically sweaty.” Right on, Chuck. Right on.
11.One – U2. Ever gotten back with your ex-girlfriend–or boyfriend, if that’s how you roll–and had her/him straight tap dance on your shit because of whatever pain she still harbored for you breaking up with her before? Then this is the song for you. And eve if you can’t relate, you can dig this one. “Did I ask too much?/more than a lot?/You gave me nothing now that’s all I got/We’re one, but we’re not the same/we hurt each other and we do it again/you say love is a temple/love the higher law/love is a temple/love the higher law/you beg me to enter and then you make me crawl/and I can’t keep holding on to what you’ve got/when all you’ve got is hurt.” Hey you. You know damn well who you are. Man, I’m so fuckin jaded.
10.Sooperman Lova II – Redman. Okay, there is one thing about my professional writing that I definitely need to fix–I’m too damn serious. I mean, I don’t think humor and stuff should be the vehicle of my work, but I haven’t figured out how to really write irreverantly. I wanna be able to write stuff like this one. Absolute genius.
9.Let’s Do It Again – Staples Singers. Written by Curtis Mayfield. Song’s so dope that you don’t think about how weird it is for Mavis Staples to be singing that song with her pops. I wish I’d written this because Curtis managed to encapsulate exactly the sort of thing I want a woman to say to me. “The smell of the morning flowers as we pass away the hours/I wanna do it again.” If you’re talking about the morning, so do I. “Let’s do it in the morning/sweet breeze in the summertime/feeling your sweet face/all laid up next to mine/sweet love in the midnight/good love come morning light/don’t worry ’bout nothin’/just gettin good loving/do it again.” Well, if you insist…
8.Heaven Help Us All – Stevie Wonder. Timelessness goes a long way with me. “Heaven help the boy that won’t reach 21/and heaven help the man that gave that boy a gun.” Again, where are the morons that act like cats just started packing heat last week? This song’s from the mid-’60s.
7.Under Pressure – Queen and David Bowie. I’ve always said that Bowie might be the most underrated writer walking. That’s understandable. I mean, really, look at him. It’s hard to think of anything else. Anyway, this makes it just for the bridge Bowie throws at the end. “What’s was such an old fashioned word and love dares you to care for the people on the the edge of the the night and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves. This is our last dance. This is our last dance. This is ourselves under pressure.” I’m not too keen on that “love your brother” shit, but that’s amazing.
6.A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke. I think the piece I wrote that’s linked says it all. But when people are up to redo a song for forty plus years after its original release, you’ve done something serious as a writer.
5.Victory – Puff Daddy and the Family. Yeah, like this has anything to do with Puffy. This is about the two best Biggie verses ever. Check the link.
4.I Ain’t Mad Atcha – 2Pac. I firmly believe Pac is seriously overrated, but I also think Pac’s dope as all get out. Strange dichotomy, but I’m going with this cut. Why? Because if you’ve ever had to manage an old friendship as you and your friends are changing at an exponential rate, you have to feel this one. The realizations he has in this song are why I’m still close with my best friend from 3rd grade, my boys from freshman year of college, etc.
3.All I Got Is You – Ghostface Killah. Simply put–the greatest verse in the history of rap music. Don’t agree if you don’t want to, but this is absolutely amazing. Click the link for the lyrics. Taking out a few lines would be an injustice.
2.My Way – Frank Sinatra. Written by Paul Anka. This is the theme song for anyone dripping with self-indulgence and too stupid to believe there’s nothing out there he or she incapable of pulling off. Yanno, people like me. “For what is a man? What has he got?/If not himself, then he has not/To say the things he truly feels/and not the words of one who kneels/The record shows I took the blows/and did it my way.” Yep, sounds about right.
1.American Pie – Don McLean. Yes, if I could have written any song, it would have been a folk rock song. Consider this–this song is, what, eight or nine minutes long with nothing but lyrics and refrains? Every bar is banging, the imagery is amazing, and he manages to capture one of the most sentimentally significant moments in American pop music–the day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper’s plane crashed in Iowa. And I don’t just wish i’d written the lyrics. I wish I’d come up with the groove, the transitions, everything. “And the three men I admire most/the father, son, and the holy ghost/they caught the last train for the coast/the day the music died.” If I could write that well, I’d be making a lot more money.
So what do you wish you wrote?