Most people will tell you that they don’t have only one favorite song. They will name off artists, albums, genres or maybe their favorite song right now. Not me though. I have one favorite song, and I’ve had this favorite song since it debuted in high school in 1999. It will probably always be my favorite song. I love the tune, I love the chorus, I love the lyrics; it’s a song that really speaks to me and defines my mindset. Or maybe it’s just a really catchy song. That’s the thing about me, I don’t know that much about music.

My favorite song is ‘The Great Beyond’ by R.E.M.

Great song, right?

I am geeky about a great many things. I love comic books and video games. I’m a huge fan of TV, movies and books. But the one medium I’ve never really been geeky about is music. I never wanted to be a rockstar when I grew up. I don’t know anything about the history of music. I can’t speak intelligently about the great movements or artists. I’ve heard of Elvis, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, but I could barely tell you anything about them. I’d only heard of contemporary artists like Lady Gaga or Amy Winehouse when they started making news about their weird behavior.

I don’t know music, but I know what I like.

Click the jump to see some other songs I like and learn a bit more about my tastes in music.

‘The Great Beyond’ was written for the movie Man on the Moon in 1999, the Jim Carey flick about legendary comedian Andy Kaufman. The movie title comes from a previous R.E.M. song called ‘Man on the Moon’ from 1992. Both songs are about Andy Kaufman. So I take it Michael Stipe and R.E.M. are big Andy Kaufman fans. I don’t know when I first heard ‘The Great Beyond’. I assume it was on TV. I never watched Mtv as a teen-ager, unless it was the cartoons like Daria or Celebrity Deathmatch. I barely had a CD player, which I think I got for Christmas, and I never had cassettes. Music just wasn’t my thing. Movies were, though.

Especially Jim Carey movies

I don’t know if this is something that only happens on TV or in movies, but I’ve never had a transcendental moment with any song. They just don’t speak to me that deeply. But I like songs, typically individual songs. I’ll hear one on TV or on the radio and I’ll download that specific song to add to my playlist. I know what types of music I like.

My favorite songs are usually ballads. Something slow and epic. ‘The Great Beyond’ falls into that category. It starts slow, then builds and builds to a wonderful climax. And I love the lyrics. They’re weird and beautiful. Perhaps even a little wacky. But they’re sung with a soulfulness that takes them seriously. I love that. I’d like to believe that this is how my mind works. Wacky, but seriously so.

I’m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I’m tossing up punch lines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

I’m breaking through
I’m bending spoons
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom
I’m looking for answers from the great beyond

I think of music as a storyteller, I think. I’m a writer. I think up heroes and adventures and action scenes, and I like music that would be playing in the background of these scenes. Most of the CDs I bought when I was a teen-ager were movie soundtracks. Some of my favorite artists include R.E.M., Alanis Morrisette and the Goo Goo Dolls, and I’m a fan of Nick Drake, Green Day and…well, probably just a random assortment of artists. Like I said, I tend to listen to just individual songs. So I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you.

‘RE: Your Brains’ by Jonathan Coulton is just a hilariously fun song about zombies in an office setting.

I heard ‘Camera One’ by the Josh Joplin Group on the radio and immediately drove home to download it. Great song.

I saw ‘Dreaming of You’ by The Coral on an episode of Scrubs. Hooked for life.

‘Experimental Film’ by They Might Be Giants is ‘our song’ between my girlfriend Alyssa and I. We both discovered the song in the following video, a cartoon by Homestarrunner.com, a comedy website we both enjoyed. Alyssa went away for awhile, and when she came back, I wanted to catch her up on everything she’d missed. So I sent her the video, thinking she’d never seen it. But of course, she had. She reminded me that she first showed it to me long ago. Then she told me that she’d always considered it ‘our song’.

So it is. And it’s perfectly so.

I discovered ‘Fly’ by Nick Drake in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums. Brilliant movie, brilliant song.

‘Furr’ by Blitzen Trapper I saw on the TV show Chuck. Fun song. One of my more recent favorites.

‘Luisa’s Bones’ by Crooked Finger is a fun ditty, also from Chuck. That show had good music.

This is, by far, not a definitive list. A few other favorites include ‘Delirious Love’, by Neil Diamond; ‘Such Great Heights’ by Iron and Wine; ‘In The Sun’ by Joseph Arthur; ‘My Brilliant Feat’ by Colin Hay; ‘Rainbow Connection’ by Kermit the Frog; ‘Tomorrow is a Long Time’ by Bob Dylan, and Weird Al’s entire career. But again, there are more. I just like and collect songs.

I also like songs with cool lyrics that have a nice tune to go along with them. I’m a pretty lyrical guy. I sometimes think I could write lyrics, but only if someone else gave me the tune. I think this gives me a very literal interpretation of songs. Even when they’re secretly about drugs or something. Makes me think I’m a little naive about this sort of thing. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t care if I’m naive when it comes to songs. These tunes can be enjoyed any way we want, to hell with whatever secret message these artists were trying to get across.

I’m perfectly happy believing that ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ was about a boy and his magic dragon.