This Is Easy As Lovers Go

Photo by lolo368 on Flickr

I was talking about Dashboard Confessional the other day, so here're a few songs.

Hands Down is magic. All the angst, hopefullness, hopelessness, romance, innocence, wisdom, longing, pain and beauty of being a teenager, rolled into one perfect song. Like I said, my guitar teacher from way-back-when introduced me to Dashboard (and good music in general [meaning music that I cared about, not necessarily music that you'll like, as I'm fully aware of the large number of people who dismiss DC as being devoid of any artistic integrity, on which point I would respectfully disagree]) with this song, and the first time I listened to it was one of the most important musical moments of my life. That version was the opening track on 2003's A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, which (although I didn't know it at the time) marked the first time Dashboard had expanded to a full-band effort from Chris Carrabba's previously solo-acoustic work. Perhaps simply because I heard it first, that remains the definitive version for me, but the earlier acoustic take from the So Impossible EP is still an excellent tune, and it's interesting to hear how the song progressed.

I've probably sung along to As Lovers Go more than any other song in the world. One particular instance some to mind, of a car trip (can you tell I listen to a ton of music on car trips?) soon after I got my first iPod, when the Shrek 2 soundtrack was one of the only things I had loaded on it. I don't know how long I spent alternating between the Ron Fair remix and the original, trying to figure out what the difference was, but it seems to have been enough to drill the song permanently into my memory.

Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down (zShare) from A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
Dashboard Confessional - As Lovers Go (zShare) from A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
Dashboard Confessional - As Lovers Go (Ron Fair Remix) (zShare) from Shrek 2: Motion Picture Soundtrack
Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down (zShare) from So Impossible EP

Dashboard Confessional official website / Buy