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Existential Songs
Full results
Supplementary material for Mick Cooper’s Existential psychotherapy and counselling: Contributions to a pluralistic practice (Sage, 2015),
Appendix.
One of the great strengths of existential philosophy is that it stretches far beyond psychotherapy and counselling; into art, literature and
many other forms of popular culture. This means that there are many – including films, novels and songs that convey the key messages of
existentialism. These may be useful for trainees of existential therapy, and also as recommendations for clients to deepen an understanding of
this way of seeing the world.
In order to identify the most helpful resources, an online survey was conducted in the summer of 2014 to identify the key existential
films, books and novels. Invites were sent out via email to existential training institutes and societies, and through social media. Participants
were invited to nominate up to three of each art media that ‘most strongly communicate the core messages of existentialism’.
In total, 119 people took part in the survey (i.e., gave one or more response). Approximately half were female (n = 57) and half were
male (n = 56), with one of other gender. The average age was 47 years old (range 26–89). The participants were primarily distributed across the
UK (n = 37), continental Europe (n = 34), North America (n = 24), Australia (n = 15) and Asia (n = 6). Around 90% of the respondents were
either qualified therapists (n = 78) or in training (n = 26). Of these, around two-thirds (n = 69) considered themselves existential therapists, and
one third (n = 32) did not.
There were 235 nominations for the key existential song, with enormous variation across the different respondents. In terms of artists, the
most commonly nominated were (in descending order): Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Talking Heads, David Bowie,
Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Radiohead, and Simon and Garfunkel.
The following table gives the songs that were nominated by the respondents, in order of how frequently they were nominated and then by
artist. Comments from participants are also given for each track. Where participants gave similar comments for more than one song, the
comments are only presented with the first song.
Very many thanks to everyone who participated in this survey.
To listen to a playlist of all these songs on YouTube, search ‘Existential songlist’.
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Title (frequency)
Artist
Comments
Once In A Lifetime (4)
Talking Heads
Somewhere Over The Rainbow (3)
Izzy/Eva Cassidy/Jeff Beck
Imagine (3)
John Lennon
A generation's mass conscious, hope and vision of a world of unity and peace (conceived in contrast to
meaningless war).
Another Brick In The Wall (3)
Pink Floyd
The Wall is more than a song, but an entire concept conveying the existential through the lifespan.
Time (3)
Pink Floyd
Time - a powerful statement about the fleetingness of life.
Blowin' In The Wind (2)
Bob Dylan
The sense of the cosmic, the enigmatic, and the call for a vital response--beyond the canned and the
programatic, to great human predicaments.
Like A Rolling Stone (2)
Bob Dylan
Darkness on the Edge of Town (2)
Bruce Springsteen
About trying to create meaning and survive in the face of despair.
My Way (2)
Frank Sinatra
Mad World (2)
Gary Jules
Anthem (2)
Leonard Cohen
Seems to really capture something of the existential in the line "There is a crack, a crack in everything,
that's how the light gets in". It shows that an authentic life is not one of perfection and superficial beauty. It
is through pain and vulnerability that the real is shown.
Hallelujah (2)
Leonard Cohen
Links to the futility of life and addiction.
Is That All There Is? (2)
Peggy Lee
Excellent artistic portrayal of disillusionment with life.
Black and Gold (2)
Sam Sparro
A Day in the Life (2)
The Beatles
Turn! Turn! Turn! (2)
The Byrds
Electric Pow Wow Drum
A Tribe Called Red
A Have A Dream
ABBA
This song text shows us that failing is part of life, even when we feel life is precious, and we have the
possibility of using our resources to cope with this.
Brown Paper Bag
Alison Goldfrapp
Back To Black
Amy Winehouse
Hey
Andreas Bourani
Wonderful lyrics (in German) that express how a close friend tries to support a person who fell into a
depression. Its plain music supports this message.
Hope There's Someone
Antony and the Johnsons
Alice's Restaurant
Arlo Guthrie
Contrasts the horrors of how humans construct our collective lives (the American war effort in Vietnam in
this particular case) with what is more personal and meaningful. It’s also witty.
Galadriel
Barclay James Harvest
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The State That I Am In
Belle and Sebastian
God Bless The Child
Billie Holiday
The uncertainty of life and the nearness of death are strongly present.
Bad Timing
Blue Rodeo
Desolation Row
Bob Dylan
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Bob Dylan
Its Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding)
Bob Dylan
It's Too Late
Bob Dylan
Let Me Die In My Footsteps
Bob Dylan
Mr Tamborine Man
Bob Dylan
Señor
Bob Dylan
Where are we going in such a hurry and with whom?!
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie
Carroll
Bob Dylan
Three Little Birds
Bob Marley
Against The Wind
Bob Seger
Going against the tide but keeping sailing, so to speak.
Serebro Gospoda Mojego
Boris Grebenshchikov
Growing Up
Bruce Springsteen
Lost In The Flood
Bruce Springsteen
The here and now despairing experience of life on the streets.
New York City Serenade
Bruce Springsteen
What Kind Of Woman Is This
Buddy Guy
Existence
Bugge Wesseltoft
An instrumental level of some of my very feelings about existence.
Dirty Boy
Cardiacs
I listen and I feel like I can see angels as my soul ascends toward heaven in the glory of light! Ironically,
the angels are carrying weapons.
Is This The Life
Cardiacs
My favourite song ever, ever, ever. It makes me weep with joy. I feel strong when I hear it, like I can fly!
Coming Around Again
Carly Simon
If You Leave Me Now
Chicago
Don't Panic
Coldplay
The End Of The Summer
Dar Williams
Five Years
David Bowie
Heroes
David Bowie
Join The Gang
David Bowie
Space Oddity
David Bowie
Space Oddity deals with our fascination with technology and how it has resulted in a cosmic lostness and
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alienation from home, as characterized by Heidegger and Eric Fromm.
Wild Is The Wind
David Bowie
Love.
On An Island
David Gilmore
Orpheus
David Sylvian
What Sarah Said
Death Cab for Cutie
Crossroads
Don McClean
Vincent
Don McLean
Riders on the Storm
Doors
We're Only Science
Dot Allison
I Love To Watch A Woman Dance
Eagles
Je Ne Regret Rien
Edith Piaf
Between The Bars
Elliot Smith
Going Nowhere
Elliot Smith
Letter to mother
Esenin
I Wanna Know What Love Is
Foreigner
You Are What You Is
Frank Zappa
Mad Man Moon
Genesis
Le Temps De Vivre
Georges Moustaki
My Freedom
Georges Moustaki
My Dear Someone
Gillian Welch
Wichita Lineman
Glen Campbell
Falling slowly
Glen Hansard
Utopia
Goldfrapp
If I Could Read Your Mind
Gordon Lightfoot
Many existential themes about relationships, genuineness, honesty, loss, and distortion.
Eyes Wide Open
Gotye
A Heideggerian song if ever there was one: 'We walk the plank with our eyes wide open'.
In My Hour Of Darkness
Gram Parsons
His own epitaph.
Eyes of the World
Grateful Dead
Sometimes we live no particular way, but our own.
Songs On The Death Of Children
Gustav Mahler
How to cope with death.
MaMuse
Halleluja
Provides an exquisite musical mantra (in folk/gospel genre) for transcending and making meaning of
struggle.
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Midnight Radio
Hedwig and the Angry Itch
Drive
Incubus
Closer To Fine
Indigo Girls
Love's Recovery
Indigo Girls
About how, in our relationships, we have expectations and visions of what love should be, and as soon as
the going gets tough, we tend to abandon each other for our fantasies, not quite realizing that life unfolds
and hands us lessons that do not always fit our plans and that part of the challenge is to learn to adapt
and learn, and hopefully accept, just as we much accept that life will not meet our expectations but may
give us the unexpected gifts, that perhaps the same is true of our loves.
When My Morning Comes Around
Iris DeMent
Doctor My Eyes
Jackson Browne
About illusions, what is real versus false, and about having the courage to try and look at things as they
are…and the pain it cause, as well as the possible numbing out as a result of seeing too much…or
perhaps that by trying to create barriers to the pain, we do not see.
Running On Empty
Jackson Browne
Where are we going in such a hurry and with whom?!
Grace
Jeff Buckley
All songs have death or meaninglessness themes and under the bridge has its links to the futility of life
and addiction.
I Am What I Am
Jerry Lee Lewis
I am what I am, not what they want me to be!
Castles Made Of Sand
Jimi Hendrix
God
John Lennon
Hurt
Johnny Cash
Redemption
Johnny Cash
All I Want
Joni Mitchell
Cactus Tree
Joni Mitchell
Circle Game
Joni Mitchell
Atmosphere
Joy Division
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division
Moments Of Pleasure
Kate Bush
Somewhere In Between
Kate Bush
Bird On A Wire
Leonard Cohen
The Stranger
Leonard Cohen
Talking To Myself
Let's Active
Fuck you
Lilly Allen
Lilly Allen's songs move beyond the usual fare of modern song writing (love, love, love) and to a degree
engage with serious issues (I say degree as they are still subject to the vagaries of the 'pop' industry).
Lilly Allen often expresses the difficulties of authentic living, it is clear that being 'oneself' is resisted by
others (see the content of 'Hard out here'. See also some of the press and public reaction to her as a
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person). She illuminates the very real nature of the herd that tries to curtail her, women, all of us and bring
her/us back to the fold. In 'Fuck you' Lilly plays with 'inappropriate language' in a sweet and innocent
'hyper-girls' tone when challenging racism and homophobia. In this way I think these songs are privileging
authentic living, a coherent and respectful relational ethic and challenging the mindlessness of the herd -
even if that comes at a cost.
Hard Out Here
Lilly Allen
(see above)
Lightning Crashes
Live
Connects with our Being and the glimpses we get of the truth of life behind the illusion.
Perfect Day
Lou Reed
September Song
Lou Reed
Take A Walk On The Wild Side
Lou Reed
Describes people who live outside the norm and design and create a world outside the norm where they
feel human and worthy, loved and therefore alive.
Freebird
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Speaks to connecting with our Being and the glimpses we get of the truth of life behind the illusion.
Faster
Manic Street Preachers
Death's Diary
Marc Almond
Reflections of my Life
Marmalade
What's Going On
Marvin Gaye
The Living Years
Mike & The Mechanics
Crossroads
Mind in a Box
Mannish Boy
Muddy Waters
A political song hidden within a sexual blues classic (I am man, not a boy!).
New Born
Muse
Reawakening my existential self, precipitated early mid-life crisis.
The Thrasher
Neil Young
Red Right Hand
Nick Cave
To Be By Your Side
Nick Cave
A Place To Be
Nick Drake
A melancholic reflection on our attunement to existence.
Feeling Good
Nina Simone
Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Nina Simone
Ain't Got No...I've Got Life
Nina Simone
All Apologies
Nirvana
Cake
Opera Singer
Alive
pearl jam
We Shall Overcome
Pete Seeger
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Pleasures Of The Harbour
Phil Ochs
Comfortably Numb
Pink Floyd
Speaks to connecting with our Being and the glimpses we get of the truth of life behind the illusion.
Us And Them
Pink Floyd
Describes the experience of going round and round in circles aimlessly.
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
Love this lyric: 'running over the same old ground, what have we found, the same old fears.'
In Heaven
Pixies
When I Am Laid In Earth
Purcell
Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen
Creep
Radiohead
Exit Music
Radiohead
Imagine Dragons
Radiohead
Just (You Do It Yourself)
Radiohead
Empty
Ray Lamontagne
The anguish of loneliness.
Under The Bridge
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Everybody Hurts
REM
The human condition of dealing with loneliness, detachment and suicide is the central focus of this song.
Losing My Religion
REM
More Than This
Roxy Music
Balances a sense of meaninglessness with the potential to create meaning, and has a realistic, casual
attitude to the idea of human growth ("maybe I'm learning", "hopefully learning").
Hemispheres
Rush
Deals with the need for a repair of the Cartesian schism.
Éden
Sarah Brightman
Evoke the spiritual dimension of life.
On Your Own Again
Scott Walker
Breathe Me
Sia
I am drawn to music filled with angst, a core principle of existentialism. It connects with me in a way that
allows physical embodiment of fear, pain, and responsibility. It is a communication of the overwhelming
nature of free will.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Simon and Garfunkel
The importance of relating in difficult times.
Flowers Never Bend In The Rainfall
Simon and Garfunkel
I Am A Rock
Simon and Garfunkel
Kathy's Song
Simon and Garfunkel
Describes a loss of meaning and identity ("I have come to doubt all that I once held as true") and a view
of life as only struggle and death ("as I watch the drops of rain weave their weary paths and die…I know
that I am like the rain") but ends with a sense of hope and redemption through connection ("the only truth
I know is you") and a recasting of human love as a good enough substitute for deity ("there but for the
grace of you go I").
The Boxer
Simon and Garfunkel
Le Vent Nous Portera
Sophie Hunger
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Black Hole Sun
Soundgarden
Cabinet
Spratleys Japs
An instrumental, drifting, building 10 minute electronic masterpiece based around the sound of a single
chime that builds and builds until I am literally crying with existential sensation it nearly breaks me.
Drive Home
Steven Wilson
Land Slide By
Stevie Nicks
I feel deeply when I hear this song.
Fields of Gold
Sting
Beautiful.
Fields Of The Nephilim
Sumerland
Psycho Killer
Talking Heads
Road To Nowhere
Talking Heads
Golden Slumbers
The Beatles
When I'm Sixty-Four
The Beatles
Yesterday
The Beatles
From A Late Night Train
The Blue Nile
Strange Days
The Doors
Make Your Own Kind Of Music
The Mamas and The Papas
Where is my mind?
The Pixies
Message In A Bottle
The Police
A song about how we are all together searching, thinking we will find an answer, and what we discover is
that everyone else is also searching together, and that it is just this one, great big, massively collective
search.
Ruby Tuesday
The Rolling Stones
About a woman who takes her life in her hands in order to live an authentic existence.
How Soon Is Now
The Smiths
Existential despair.
I Want The One I Can't Have
The Smiths
There is a Light That Never Goes
Out
The Smiths
Deals beautifully with the human need to believe in something permanent versus the knowledge that
everyone dies, as well as the struggle between living fully and fearlessly (presented as a solution to
mortality) and the fear of rejection "but then a strange fear gripped me, and I just couldn't ask".
Bittersweet Symphony
The Verve
History
The Verve
Song To The Siren
Tim Buckley
Next To Normal
Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey
Not just a song but a whole play about a mother struggling with the loss of her son, suffering from bipolar
disorder and the various treatments coming with it, and trying to stay on top of her family. Her husband in
denial, deeply depressed himself, her daughter seeking her attention by being perfect (or not). Subtly
observed and and gloriously transported into music.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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One
U2
Poema Dos Olhos da Amada
Vinicius de Moraes
Pesnya O Druge
Vladimir Vysockij
Dialogue.
Ravenous Medicine
VoiVod
Deals with the objectification of the human body, alienation from the lived body.
MacArthur Park
Waylon Jennings
You Raise Me Up
Westlife
Must Do Something About It
Wings
The words say something familiar to me.
Complicated Game
XTC
The Loving
XTC
Love Will Find A Way
Yes
