It was Badly Drawn Boy who, for me, put his lyrically inspired finger on it with the line: �Songs are never quite the answer, just a soundtrack to a life.� Only one song has ever saved my life, and it wasn�t for the reasons to which thousands of teenagers on rooftops or with razor blades might ascribe. In the crush right at the front REM�s Glastonbury set, being buffeted from sweaty pillar to drunken post, when falling down means you�re never getting up again; a slow, lighter waving song like �Everybody Hurts� was my only escape from being trampled underfoot. And whilst music may not have turned my life around, as it has some people�s, it has often put into words some of my strongest ideas, values and passions. Not an answer to these, perhaps, but a soundtrack nonetheless.

The earliest songs to my soundtrack would have to come from the Levellers. I could pick any of the songs that I grew up listening to (thanks to my Levellers obsessed sister) from their magnus opus �Levelling the Land�, but I�ll stick to just a few. �Another Man�s Cause� is perhaps the most chilling and the most powerful anti-war song I�ve ever come across. Decrying the futility of wars and mourning not the loss of life, but the loss of reason as yet another soldier loses his life in the service of someone else�s abstract ideals; this song moved me as a child and continues to move me to this day as we find ourselves in a war for Bush and Blair�s morally bankrupt cause. Another from that album is �The Boatman�, a song of unfettered freedom, aspiration, longing dreams and the will to mend wings once clipped by those who would deny them. It captures the all too often trampled spirit of the Travellers and of oppressed minorities everywhere, trying to make their own way. A spirit encapsulated in the fist raising power of their opener with a line that defined a generation: �There�s only one way of life, and that�s your own!� With songs like these, it�s little wonder I turned out the way I did.

It was the Levellers who also cautioned, in their anthemic �One Way�, that �All the problems of the world won�t be solved by this guitar.� It�s a crucial reminder that songs may stir you to action, but you must act. Still, powerful political songs continue to be amongst the most meaningful to me. The Clash�s �Spanish Bombs�, a tribute to the socialists and anarchists who fought in the Spanish Civil War, never fails to get me going. I could say the same for �If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next� by the Manic Street Preachers; if only for the brilliant quote from a Welsh farmer on his way to fight Franco: �If I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists!� And why not?

I would add a few more songs to my soundtrack for special significance. ABBA�s �Dancing Queen� is for teacher, inspiration and Peruvian expedition leader, Elizabeth Bradley, whose spirit of adventure and appalling taste in music didn�t die with her. The Byrds� cover of �Mr Tambourine Man� and Mama Cass� �Make Your Own Kind Of Music� are in there because even in winter, they make it summer.

And I�d end on the Pink Floyd classic, �Time�; for a cup that I like to keep half full and a reminder to never waste a day or wish away the hours. After all, songs are never quite the answer, but they are a soundtrack to life, and life�s a precious thing.

Salman Shaheen was born in 1984 and is an aspiring young writer, currently studying social and political sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge. He won Suffolk�s National Poetry Day competition in 2002 and has since grown to be widely published amongst the small presses. Showcases of his work have appeared as featured poet on Strange Road, and on the Laura Hird Site, Black Mail Press and Expose�d, amongst other places. He writes regularly for Varsity, Cambridge University�s award winning weekly newspaper. After becoming the paper�s Literature Editor, Salman interviewed Jill Paton Walsh, and later brought Benjamin Zephaniah to its pages. Salman is currently working on a novel, focusing on disparate lives thrown together and ripped apart by the London bombings and by a dangerous game of one-upmanship between the external forces of Islamic extremism and white pride. Salman was a co-host, alongside Jon Snow, on the Channel 4 children's news series, First Edition, interviewing key figures, including Olympic Gold medallist Sharon Davies, on a variety of topical issues. He also played an aeroplane pilot in a Channel 4 News reconstruction, has appeared as a contestant on the Weakest Link and as an extra in the recent Hollywood film Vanity Fair - wearing a pink turban! Being a bit of a hippy, Salman enjoys spending his free time at festivals, gigs, parties and raves. An anti-war activist and political campaigner, Salman loves mixing his two passions, politics and writing. A firm believer that the pen truly is mightier than the sword, Salman writes in the hope that it can make a difference. To read a selection of Salman�s writing on the showcase section of this site, click here

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.