Results for “belonging among dreamers”

Songs

You Belong to Me

Carly Simon

A woman confronts a partner who has just confessed some flirtation or infidelity, and instead of collapsing into jealousy she…

possessiveness disguised as devotion jealousy and self-assurance confession and its fallout

You Belong To Me

Patsy Cline

A wistful farewell that sends a traveling lover off around the globe while quietly staking a claim on his heart. Cline's reading…

longing and separation possession within love travel as distance

You Belong To Me

Chaka Khan

A meditation on jealousy and reassurance, sung by a partner who has just been told about some flirtation or attention from an…

jealousy possessiveness self-assurance

The Dreamer

Common

Common uses the framework of the American Dream and Martin Luther King's rhetoric to narrate his own rise from Chicago's South…

ambition and self-mythology the American Dream legacy and lineage

Army Dreamers

Kate Bush

A mother buries her son, a young soldier killed in service, and the song moves between her grief at the funeral and a bitter…

class and limited opportunity maternal grief futility of war

We Belong Together

Mariah Carey

A breakup confession sung after the fact, where the narrator admits her own foolishness cost her a relationship she now realizes…

regret and self-recognition dependency and loneliness denial giving way to clarity

Rainbow Connection

Willie Nelson

A cover of the Muppet Movie standard, rendered here by Willie Nelson as an unhurried, weathered meditation on faith and longing…

longing for meaning faith versus doubt the pull of the unseen

On My Way to Harlem

Gregory Porter

Gregory Porter narrates a pilgrimage to Harlem that turns into a meditation on cultural inheritance and gentrification—the icons…

cultural memory gentrification and displacement artistic lineage

Caravan

Van Morrison

A rhapsodic, almost plotless celebration of communal joy, music, and firelight, built around a rolling gypsy caravan as an image…

communal belonging music as transcendence romantic longing

Clarksdale Moan

Son House

This is a plainspoken Delta blues meditation on home -- specifically Clarksdale, Mississippi -- rendered through the traditional…

place and belonging poverty endured with dignity memory and habit

When I Loved Her

Kris Kristofferson

A plainspoken elegy for a lost relationship, built on unglamorous, specific praise rather than romantic cliché. The narrator…

loss and regret the ordinary made sacred restlessness vs. belonging

Weary

Solange

A slow, hymn-like meditation on exhaustion and self-possession, "Weary" opens the emotional register of A Seat at the Table by…

exhaustion and endurance Black womanhood and dignity mortality of power

Jettin'

Digable Planets

A loose, groove-driven travelogue through Brooklyn, built more on atmosphere and rhythm than narrative, where the trio's verses…

place and belonging Brooklyn/borough pride Black cultural memory

Archangel

Burial

Built almost entirely from pitch-shifted vocal samples looping a handful of phrases, this track uses repetition and vocal…

isolation longing for belonging fragile intimacy

Back to California

Carole King

A road-weary travelogue in which the narrator catalogs the Southern and Eastern towns she's passed through on tour, using each…

homesickness touring fatigue regionalism/East vs West

Too Many Birds

Bill Callahan

A parable about overcrowding and homelessness set in a single overloaded image: a tree so packed with birds that the newest…

displacement scarcity and belonging restlessness

Someone To Watch Over Me

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan's 1986 reading of the Gershwin standard treats the lyric as a meditation on wanting a specific kind of protection…

romantic longing vulnerability self-deprecating humor

The Ghetto

Donny Hathaway

This is less a lyric than a groove built around a single word, repeated until it becomes a chant, a claim, and an invitation.…

community and belonging reclamation of a stigmatized word celebration amid hardship

Godspeed

Frank Ocean

A parting blessing rather than a breakup lament, this song frames love as unconditional even after a relationship or bond has…

unconditional love letting go spiritual devotion

Got to Be There

Chaka Khan

A devotional, almost ceremonial love song built on a single vow of presence: to be there at the first light of a relationship,…

devotion presence and belonging new beginnings

5:15

The Who

A disoriented young man rides a commuter train while his mind fractures into fragments of memory, sexual anxiety, and social…

dissociation and identity collapse adolescent sexuality and shame class and Englishness

F.U.B.U.

Solange

F.U.B.U. is a direct address to Black listeners, reclaiming the phrase 'for us, by us' as a statement of cultural ownership. The…

Black solidarity cultural ownership racial profiling

You Said Something

PJ Harvey

A quiet nocturne built around a single unrepeated line of dialogue that the singer withholds from the listener. Set on a…

displacement and belonging withheld intimacy urban romance

Philadelphia

Neil Young

A spare, hymn-like address to fear and mortality, written for Jonathan Demme's film about a man dying of AIDS-related illness…

mortality stigma and shame need for belonging

North American Scum

LCD Soundsystem

A wry, self-aware address to Europeans (and to Americans who wish they were European) that turns cultural embarrassment into a…

national identity and self-deprecation cultural cringe toward Europe irony as defense mechanism

Secret

Seal

Seal builds this track almost entirely from a single confession — that the speaker is a hidden part of someone else's life —…

secrecy and concealment possessive love mutual belonging

Pacifics (From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “N.Y. Is Red Hot")

Digable Planets

Digable Planets turn a Sunday in New York into an extended meditation on rest, community, and creative replenishment, moving…

urban leisure and rest Black cultural inheritance (jazz, literature, hip-hop lineage) community and belonging

Earth Intruders

Björk

A relentless, drum-heavy chant that casts a collective 'we' as an invading army of natural forces, half-tribal ritual and…

collective identity vs. individual doubt militarism and ritual violence nature reclaiming or overwhelming order

Peace Train

Cat Stevens

A buoyant early-70s anthem that turns hope for global reconciliation into a literal vehicle, imagined as a train that anyone can…

utopian hope collective longing for peace spiritual/religious undertones

Orphan Girl

Gillian Welch

A solitary traveler addresses an unnamed companion and, implicitly, God, laying out a life stripped of family ties. The song…

orphanhood and isolation religious faith as substitute family longing for belonging

Lyrics to Go

A Tribe Called Quest

A pure showcase track in which Q-Tip and Phife Dawg trade verses of boastful wordplay, with the title hook functioning less as a…

braggadocio craft and mastery of rhyme group identity and loyalty

Doin' Time

Lana Del Rey

This is Lana Del Rey's faithful, lightly reworked cover of Sublime's 1996 track, itself a reggae-inflected reimagining of the…

betrayal and possessiveness local pride and belonging romantic disillusionment

Don't Give Up

Peter Gabriel

A duet built as an argument between despair and consolation: one voice details the humiliation of joblessness and displacement,…

unemployment and economic shame loss of identity and belonging depression and suicidal ideation

Window Seat

Erykah Badu

A meditation on wanting to disappear and be missed at the same time, built around the image of flying solo on a plane. Badu…

individuality vs. belonging fame and exposure emotional withdrawal

Mo Money Mo Problems

The Notorious B.I.G.

A victory-lap posse cut that doubles as a meditation on the isolation success brings. Over a buoyant, sample-driven groove,…

success and isolation envy and betrayal paranoia/surveillance

Mean Street

Van Halen

Mean Street is a portrait of urban confinement rendered as both trap and identity, opening Fair Warning with a bleak,…

urban poverty desperation and survival belonging despite hardship

Celebrate

Common

A party track built around a repeated chant of togetherness and excess, where Common trades his usual introspection for…

celebration and excess loyalty among friends upward mobility

California Roll

Snoop Dogg

A breezy, sun-drenched ode to Los Angeles life that runs its title's double meaning -- rolling a joint and 'going with the flow'…

California/L.A. mythology cannabis culture seduction and courtship

Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

The Velvet Underground

A closing-track litany that names a small cast of the dispossessed—people with literally nothing left to their name—and turns…

poverty and dispossession resignation found community among outcasts

Junkhead

Alice in Chains

Junkhead is a first-person monologue delivered from inside addiction, voiced with unsettling contentment rather than confession…

addiction as identity self-justification and denial alienation from mainstream values