Songs of the Decade

Songs of the Decade – 12.29.09

December 29th, 2009 MUSIC Jamie Dull

Jamie Dull’s Song of the Day feature will finish out its run in December by focusing on his top 10 songs of the decade. Click. Listen. Enjoy

Mmm. Top three songs of the 2000′s. I better make good choices right? Let’s hope I do.

Top Ten of the Decade – #3

Song: David Gray – “As I’m Leaving“

Year: 2001

Link: ♫ http://twt.fm/358418

About: I’m not sure if this is technically cheating, but I’m going to run with it. This song was originally written sometime between 1995 and 1998, but wasn’t released until 2001. For anyone who knows me or follows my SOTD Tweets, you’ll understand that I am a phenomenally huge David Gray fan. As a musician, he’s principally one of my biggest influences, if not the biggest. I knew that somehow I had to include David in my top ten songs of the decade list because, well, he deserves it. Hell, I could have easily chosen multiple songs that could fit into this list, but then I would be just acting biased. Anyway, personally I have a special connection to David’s music. I originally wanted to select David’s song “Freedom” to take the #3 spot, however I had already used it up in my SOTD tweets earlier this year. So, I had to choose another. “As I’m Leaving” has a raw emotion element to it that has clearly been absent in over 90% of music that has existed within the last 10 years. I find that when songwriters are able to tell stories through their instruments rather than exclusively through lyrics, the soul behind the song is much brighter. David has the talent of knowing how to pair lyrics to sounds. It’s almost like every song is a soundtrack to a lost film. “As I’m Leaving” speaks oceans of brilliance.

I’m leaving my explanation of this song a little shorter than usual because I know that I could end up typing out a novel of why I love it. I hope you enjoy it.

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Jamie Dull

Jamie Dull is a musician, writer, coffee drinker, webmaster, and Twitter advocate currently based out of Chicago, IL. He has been a musician for over 20 years, performing every instrument for his albums on jamiedull.com, and has also worked with or performed on stage with the likes of Jim Peterik (Survivor), Howard Levy (Paul Simon, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones) Josh Woodward, and more. Follow Jamie's "Song of the Day" tweets on Twitter - @jamiedull

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User Responses

4 Responses and Counting...

Nick
December 29, 2009

‘Mmm. Top three songs of the 2000’s. I better make good choices right? Let’s hope I do.’

I can’t think of a better way to start than to pick David Gray.
Jamie Dull
December 29, 2009

Agreed! Good to know someone else out there appreciates David Gray.
Nick
December 29, 2009

I was at work before, but having listened to the song I would emphatically agree with your choice of this song. It was a stand out on the Lost Songs CD which was one of my favorite from David Gray. His earlier work is amazing. I like his recent stuff but it just doesn’t move me like the stuff from 10 or so years ago.
Jamie Dull
December 29, 2009

Yes his Lost Songs album is highly underrated. This song in particular does stand out amongst the others. It’s such a beautiful piece of music. He played it acoustically this past October at the show I saw in Chicago. Breathtaking.