Shawn RyanSongs are meant to produce a certain feeling, whether it's love, hate, longing, optimism or just plain old lust. But some hit the nail on the head better than others.
» Nowhere to go. If you can listen to Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Show Me the Way Back Home" and not feel emotional pain at the story it tells, then I just don't know what to say about you.
» Glass half full. As Kathy Mattea says in "The Cape": Jump off that roof because you don't get anywhere if you're not willing to take a leap of faith.
» Relationship revenge. Don't want to wallow around in all your self-pity? Want to get back at the person who broke your heart? Try some of the explanations in Train's "50 Ways To Say Goodbye."
» Desperation. Lorrie Morgan's "Something in Red" is a stunning example of how to sum up a relationship in five verses, squeezing in years of emotion.
» Teenage desire. Pubescent sweat drips off Alice Cooper's "Working Up a Sweat." Towels not provided.
» Beautiful pain. Breaking up is hard to do, but at least it's melodic and catchy in Sonia Dada's "You Don't Treat Me No Good."
» Hate myself for loving you. Not Joan Jett (although that's a great song on this issue, too), but you crank it up a notch when you buy a hammer, a baseball bat, a bottle of booze and pistol, then hand them to the woman who's treating you like dirt and tell her to use them on you. Yeah, you're a basket case, just like The Refreshments document in irresistible manner on "Girly."
» Are we done? No one does the soul-sucking emptiness and ultimate death knell of today's culture than Dio's "The Last in Line." Or maybe it's all about the optimism of rebirth? Your call.
» Lifetime love. If the piano intro isn't enough to make your eyes well up, then the lyrics of Five for Fighting's "100 Years" will do it. If they don't, you're dead inside.
» Wearing a mask. Ever feel like you're holding it together only because no one else has figured out that you're a fraud? Ari Hest knows how you feel in "They're On to Me."
» Power through the pain. "Dry My Tears and Move On" by Richard Thompson. The ache is palpable, and so is the strength.
» Unavailable love. Scrape your heart across sandpaper and you'll have an idea of Mark Curry's pain on "Wanna Run Away."
» Memories. Yeah, I know everybody hates them. I don't. Nickelback's "Photograph" is a terrific, deliciously painful and spot-on description about letting go of the past. Doesn't matter what generation you're from, this stuff hurts.
» Ouch! "H-A-T-R-E-D" by Tonio K.
Contact Shawn Ryan at mshawnryan@gmail.com.