My Top Ten Existential Songs (Volume 1)

I've been off work ill for most of the week, fighting a head-cold of volcanic proportions... or man-flu, if you prefer. Lying there in my sick bed, in between sleeping and watching Twin Peaks to prepare for the new series in May, I had some time to ponder the big questions of life. Why am I here? What use am I to anyone? Will Pulp ever get back together?

 Here are ten tunes that ponder similar existential quandaries...


10. Bob Dylan - Blowing In The Wind

Let's start with his Bobness, still as relevant today as he ever was...

Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?

 A song full of rhetorical questions... which always reminds me of Homer Simpson's response...

9. The Cure - Killing An Arab 

Robert Smith reads too much Albert Camus and ends up writing a song about The Stranger. Why did he do it?

I can turn
And walk away
Or I can fire the gun
Staring at the sky
Staring at the sun
Whichever I chose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing

8. George Harrison - What Is Life?

Can you think of anyone better suited to turn existentialism into a love song? 

The video, seemingly recorded after George's death in 2001, is really quite lovely.

7. Manic Street Preachers - Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

Oh, Mummy, what's a sex pistol?

6. Diana Ross - Do You Know Where You're Going To? (Theme From Mahogany)

Another one I remember vividly from my youth... though this was released in 1975. How many three year olds wonder where they're going to? (Beyond the toy shop?) I might have to ask my boy...

Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to, do you know?
Do you get what you're hoping for?
When you look behind you there's no open door.
What are you hoping for, do you know?

5. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

Of course, there had to be Radiohead. Stick a pin in the Radiohead songbook and you'll burst an existential bubble every time. It wears me out.

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time
All the time

4. Joni Mitchell - Both Sides, Now

It's not just clouds that Joni has been pondering...

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

3. REM - Stand

Try this next week: consider your place in the universe. (Alternatively, consider how young Michael Stipe looks in this video.)

Stand in the place where you live
Now face north
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven't before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face west
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't before

2. The Flaming Lips - Do You Realise?

OK, so along with Wichita Lineman and ThereIs A Light That Never Goes Out, I want this song playing at my funeral. I hope that's not too big an ask.

Do you realize that everyone you know
Someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

1.Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

I really struggled getting this week's Top Three into order; any one of them could have taken the top slot. But come on, you don't get much more existential than this... do you?

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go to?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say yourself, 
"My God! What have I done?"

I called this post Volume 1 because I'm sure I've just scraped the surface of existential pop songs. Feel free to suggest some more big questions and I might do a volume 2 sometime...