Vertical Horizon
Song #9 Vertical Horizon’s Everything You Want
Why I Picked It: I had a couple of songs rolling around in my head, but because the Buffy/Xander shipperdom I have long been affiliated with has picked up steam (unfortunately not for “yay, this shipperdom is actually gonna happen” reasons), I was reminded of a song that reminded me of the shipperdom: Vertical Horizon’s Everything You Want. Side note about the B/X link, I am a semi-retired fanfic writer and helped founded the online B/X community. You can laugh, but it’s been very good to me and my writing, and the B/X fanfic community is one of the best – though I might be bias.
Why I Like It: It captures the idea of unrequited romance so well – which for the most part in B/X shipperdom was the storyline. A boy liked a girl who didn’t like him back. As the character Angel was a prominent aspect of the series as Buffy’s love interest, there’s even a line about that: Listen and wait for the/Echoes of angels who won’t return.
What I like about the song is the idea that perhaps the “You” in the song realizes that this person is a great person and they should be interested in them, but they’re not. And one of the best things about this song is perspective, because the last chorus is a change in subject and you realize that the singer IS that guy:
I am everything you want
I am everything you need
I am everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
I say all the right things
At exactly the right time
But I mean nothing to you and I don’t know why
As a song writer, I find it difficult to switch perspective and meaning easily without being really cheesy. I find my song Invisible Girl really cheesy for that reason. Don’t get me wrong, I like my song, but it doesn’t have the same finesse of chorus transition.
As this song reminded me of the premise for the fandom years ago, I find it funny how the song might still apply but with a switch in the “I” – that perhaps I can still find it applicable even in a major switch in storyline. And I love that.
Ultimately, it’s just a great song. Check out the music video on Youtube.
-cct
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song from their 
album. John Butler Trio is an Australian-based band that I learned about from my friend Cela. Cela had spent sometime studying abroad in Austrailia and when she came back they were playing at – of all places – the Borders bookstore on Hollywood/Vine. They proceeded to absolutely floor me with their musicality, especially John Butler’s guitar playing.