I have a lot on my mind right now. I have a big decision before me. It’s not a stretch to say that regardless of what I choose my life will change dramatically. While I’m brooding, here are some songs about thinking.

Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel “Trouble In Mind” (Thelma La Vizzo)
Anna Fermin is one of my favorite singers, and as a bonus she lives here in Chicago. She’s got a beautiful, powerful voice and she’s a very charismatic performer. She deserves to be more widely heard than she is.

Bob Dylan “I Can’t Get You Off My Mind” (Hank Williams)
Ol’ Bob is not famous for his singing but his performance on the Grammys has convinced me that he should just shut the hell up. You can’t say that his voice is shot because he never really had a voice to begin with, but he sounds like radio static these days.

Nada Surf “Where Is My Mind?” (The Pixies)
The Pixies became college radio darlings right around the time that I got out of college, so I never had the profound Pixies experience in my formative years. I relate much more to the solo work of Frank Black. But this is a very nice cover of the classic tune.

Lou Rawls “Gentle On My Mind” (Glen Campbell)
Speaking of great singers, I’d pay to listen to Lou Rawls sing the phone book. Hearing this you’d never guess that it wasn’t originally a Motown song.

Train “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” (Sugar)
There are two versions of this song by Sugar, both of them are pretty pissed off. The acoustic version is a particularly raw indictment of a toxically jealous lover. The song came out when I was in the same situation and that acoustic version has always moved me very deeply.

At any rate, this version is nowhere near as emotionally charged as the original but the lyrics are still there.