Month: January 2026

The Life of Keller in 20 Songs

Since I have turned 60 way back in 2023, I often been overcome with a feeling of wistfulness. Maybe it’s been due to my grandchildren being born that brings about this feeling. Or, it could be do to the fact that I am well past the halfway mark of my life that abruptly changed in 2012. Or, it was the realization that I spent the better part of my last part of my thirties and all of my forties and a portion of my fifties going in and out of surgery rooms, going through rehab, finding more wrong with me, taking pain meds, then beginning the whole cycle again before I could ever fully recover. Then, I woke up one day in mid-2018 only to realize that I was well into my fifties, my teaching and coaching careers ended just as I was hitting my prime. Fortunately, I have not been depressed for a few months, which history says my next down-cycle is coming, but that wistfulness continues to float all around me.

I see things like all of the things I wanted to try in my classroom, like teaching a unit or two using Geometry-like proofs to explain some chemistry concepts. Whenever I mentioned that to my students, they would only groan in pain since most were concurrently taking geometry and chemistry. I see other goals fluttering around me like butterflies. There goes all the track championships, especially that big state title I was sure we would have done before 2010. Another buzzes by with my basketball coaching career that was going to restart after my boys graduated. Don’t blink, because another butterfly flitted by with my dream to return to the clinical laboratory setting to finish up my latter years as microbiologist again, possibly even doing the whole supervisor thing that a few of my bosses had hoped I would become.

Instead, I have spent the past 14 years, often in much pain that cannot be seen by anyone and only conservatively quantified by myself. I see that my main purpose in life is to lead my family through life, especially since my father is in his nineties and seems to be slipping slowly away from this world. I no longer am the invincible man, but a reasonable fact simile of that younger version though a bit worn and damaged.

So, as I was perusing music topics via the Google machine, I metaphorically stumbled across a topic, “How to Create a Playlist of 10 Songs That Define Your Life.” Seeing as I am in a wistful mood these days, this struck me as a good prompt. Without ever reading the article, I began to assemble songs that mean something to me, which led my list grow to a seemingly unruly 30 songs. It was then that I decided to read the directions to this prompt. Actually, I found two completely different sets of directions that led me to create two lists of completely disparate lists. I found those approaches fascinating in their differences, so I am going to present both lists. I would LOVE to read what songs you would have on your personal list using either set of directions, or both as I did.

May I present to you, The Life of Keller in 20 Songs. Enjoy!

Version 1

  1. Song that represents your childhood or innocence: Edison Lighthouse – “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”. This song reminds me of the days when my dad first became the principal at a very small elementary/middle school, specifically the sock hops held in the school’s crackerbox gymnasium in which young teenage girls would take my five-year-old butt out on the dancefloor to “dance.” It was the only time I ever remember girls clamoring to dance with me.
  2. Song that represents your adolescence or coming of age: Prince & the Revolution – “Let’s Go Crazy.” Okay, so I was 21 when this song was released, yet it still retains everything I love about being a rebelling youngster. This song has a screaming guitar, a call to arms at the beginning, a funky dance beat and an androgynous-looking band playing the song. What more says “F**k you!” to the world?
  3. Song that represents your first love or heartbreak: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – “Insider.” Fact: I only had two serious girlfriends in high school, and I broke up with both only because I was infatuated with an older girl from church. Anyway, even though I dumped the second one at the beginning of the summer before I went to college, I still was doing some self-reflection when I discovered this song on my favorite album of 1981, Hard Promises. Tom recorded this one with Stevie Nicks providing some key counterpoint vocals and harmonies throughout the song. The song speaks to my autistic genes that seem to affect every relationship I have ever had. The crazy thing is that the lyrics are mature enough to still work for me today.
  4. Song that describes perseverance through struggle or a triumph: Triumph – “Magic Power.” There are several songs that would work here, but there’s just something underdog in the way in which Triumph performs this one. This song has always had a special place in my heart.
  5. Big Life Change: The Style Council – “You’re the Best Thing.” All through high school, college and my twenties, I made mixtapes for every occasion. Besides party tapes and my own “Radio Keller” mixes, I made tapes that I entitled “Makeout Music.” I was always playing with the moods of my mixtapes so “Makeout Music” tapes were always an attempt to put together slow songs that contained something of a slow groove that spoke romantic interludes to my ears. I had this song on a tape at the time I met my wife, and we latched onto this song as our song. When I met her, my life literally changed over night.
  6. Song that describes friendship and family: The Band – “The Weight.” What can I say? A song that describes community being one that describes my relationship with my friends and family that perhaps my easiest selection.
  7. Song that describes a moment of realization: John Lennon – “Imagine.” I was one strange yet precocious child at age 8 because the poignancy of the lyrics of this song have stuck with me throughout my life. They have been a guiding light in my life. I just guess that I am a dreamer.
  8. Song of Joy: U2 – “Beautiful Day.” No song in my life captures the innocence of joy of simple things that U2 did in “Beautiful Day.” This was an easy song to pick.
  9. Song of Reflection: R.E.M. – “Nightswimming.” This beautiful song has always had this power over me since I first heard it at age 28. And the wistfulness becomes more apparent the older I get. How are relatively young artists so gifted that they can create art that impacts at every spot in your life? Thank God we have them.
  10. My Current Anthem: Elvis Costello & the Attractions – “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.” I adopted this song as my life anthem in 1979, and it remains my anthem today. Nick Lowe wrote the song (not Elvis!), and the lyrics should be heard all over the world today. It’s so relative that children should sing this song in music classes. Hell, all religious services should include this song in their liturgy.

Version 2

  1. First song I discovered on my own: The Cowsills – “The Rain, the Park and Other Things.” Believe it or not, but this is the first song that I remember specifically saying that I loved. By the way, their greatest hits album is awesome! This family group needs to be reevaluated now 60 years later.
  2. A song that had a chokehold on my preteen self: “School’s Out” – Alice Cooper. Cooper was my favorite artist until I heard Kiss.
  3. A song that my parents introduced to me: Peter, Paul & Mary – “Puff the Magic Dragon.” My parents were from the Silent Generation and grew up very poor. Mom was an art and drama teacher. I remember her playing this song around me often, and I used to have the 45. Lord knows what happened to it.
  4. A song that reminds you of something you loved: Modern English – “I Melt with You.” I’m not going into specific detail, but this song was involved when this happened.
  5. A song that you never get tired of hearing no matter how often you hear it: Prince – “Little Red Corvette.” Are you kidding?!?! I will NEVER tire of this song!
  6. A song that people wouldn’t expect that I would like: Poison – “Talk Dirty to Me.” Sorry, I basically hate hair metal. But, I swear that I thought this was a Cheap Trick song when it was released so I immediately loved this one. What can I say?!?! There are contradictions everywhere in my music collection.
  7. A song that makes you unusually emotional: Dan Fogelberg – “Same Old Lange Syne.” This only rings truer the older I get. I think most of us can relate to it.
  8. A song that sounds too oddly specific to NOT be about you: The Style Council – “My Ever Changing Moods.” Okay, how did a dude from the UK know exactly how a college kid in the Midwest of the USA feel? I have never met Paul Weller, but I would like to shake his hand for this song that has gotten me through the last 40+ years of my life.
  9. A song that transports me out of this world to somewhere else: Pink Floyd – “Comfortably Numb.” I have never medicated myself to the point of total withdrawal from my world, but the music from this song sure helps me do this often. That’s why I try to moderate this song in its rotation.
  10. A song that makes me feel bulletproof: Billy Idol – “Dancing with Myself.” I believe that if my college friends had to pick one song they associate with me, this might be it. It was one of my favorite party songs all four years of my collegiate experience.

There you have it! My life in 20 songs. Can’t wait to see your lists!