5 Essential Folk Rock Hits For Major Life Milestones

It's the most commonplace thing in the world to pair music with life events, such as weddings, graduations, breakups, or even getting annoyed at traffic (for which we direct you to death metal). But if there's one genre of music we can count on to be thoughtful, heartfelt, and up to the task of accompanying life's most major milestones, it's folk rock.

Folk rock comes equipped with all sorts of poetic, singer-songwriter, corner-of-the-cafe stereotypes. Yes, some songs capture the poetic soul of folk rock better than others, but not all folk rock songs are applicable to major life events, nor encapsulate those events if they are. The songs we're highlighting in this article do both, and are also universal enough to fit most listeners' lives. And even though we're focusing on folk rock, we needn't limit our choices to folk rock's mid-'60s heyday, although — let's be honest — that was its heyday for a reason. Finally, we're sticking to truly major life events; if you want some music to cope with a restaurant bungling your order of pasta, that's on you.

Some of the songs we've chosen are big enough that practically everyone knows them, such as songs by James Taylor and Cat Stevens. Others are lesser known, but no less worthy of attention. So get your playlist ready and let's load it up. 

The first time you hear Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love," you'll swear you've heard it before. It sounds like a forgotten folk standard that Dylan received in a dream or a lost song from the American folk revival of the '50s and '60s, gospel influences included. Dylan's 1997 track from his return-to-form album, "Time Out of Mind," is as exquisitely composed as it is brimming with loving sentiments. It's a no-brainer choice for a wedding, even down to a bride and groom dance.

The verse lyrics for "Make You Feel My Love" all lead to one final conclusion that just might leave wedding attendees teary-eyed: "To make you feel my love." Lead-ins include, "When the rain is blowing in your face," "When the evening shatters and the stars appear," and, "I could make you happy, make your dreams come true." The bridge caps the entire song with, "I've known it from the moment that we met / No doubt in my mind where you belong." Scraps of these lines sound recycled from countless other songs, but somehow, Dylan makes the whole thing not trite, cliché, overwrought, and mawkish, perhaps thanks to his craggy voice. But if that voice doesn't make you feel lovey-dovey, then just can toss on Adele's 2008 cover (there are about 350 covers to choose from).

No matter what, Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" is a true, modern classic in the truest folk rock vein. It's the ideal vehicle for a couple wanting to express the inexpressible to each other.

Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" from the 1970 album "Tea for the Tillerman" says so much with so little and leaves so much unstated and unneeded, yet understood. The song's sweet, gentle music, coupled with Stevens' equally sweet and gentle singing, does much of the talking in the way that a simple hug does. It's the perfect song for someone expecting a child, who's just had a child, or who has a child growing evermore independent in the most bittersweet way possible.  

"Father and Son" speaks to the same universal concerns that define all parent-and-child relationships: the need for a child to make one's own decisions, a parent's trepidation at watching this happen, the slow understanding of one's parents over time, and so forth. The song also looks much farther down the road than the initial feelings of awe and duty that arrive along with the birth of a child. The song looks far enough ahead down the line to see one's own child — in this case, a son — going through the same things as oneself, and looking back on his own father in the same way that each father before him has done. This is why the song's lyrics, spoken from the perspective of both generations, ring especially poignant. But, "Father and Son" needn't be only about fathers and sons; its sentiments and statements apply to any combination of parent and child. 

For a person in his early 20s, as Stevens was when he wrote "Father and Son," the piece stands as a monumental piece of empathy and foresight. And even though Stevens' direct inspiration for the song came from the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century, it remains about parenthood in the most universal way possible. 

When a loved one dies, music is going to play some part in the grieving process. Whether you're doing one of those newer "life celebration" bacchanals, an all-black-attire funeral in the dripping rain, or a simple ceremony following a quiet cremation, music is going to play some part in the grieving process. While it's impossible to choose one song to bundle up all forms of mourning, we're at least sure that James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" is a solid choice to accompany you as you recover.

"Recover" is the key word here, as "Fire and Rain" is a nuanced song that conveys much more than mere sorrow. As the chorus says of both joy and sadness, which live as two sides of the same coin, "I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end / I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend / But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again." The song doesn't offer any magic solutions for getting through grief (nor do such things exist), and merely states in an unforced way that those grieving can take comfort as they will.

Take heart, divorcees: Your life isn't over. But with divorce comes enormous life changes, especially if you throw children and property in the mix. There are plenty of ways to cope with the purchase of a one-bedroom apartment and terrier sidekick, like throwing on Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" or some other classic rock song every divorced boomer's playlist needs. But if you want to go the less emotionally over-the-top route, and also carve a way through feelings that's neither one-dimensionally resentful nor regressively juvenile, we'd give our recommendation to Joan Baez's masterpiece, "Diamonds and Rust," a song from the '70s that nails the meaning of life.

Baez's exquisitely composed lyrics do a lot of the heavy lifting, especially at the song's conclusion: "You who are so good with words / And at keeping things vague / 'Cause I need some of that vagueness now / It's all come back too clearly / Yes, I loved you dearly / And if you're offering me diamonds and rust / I've already paid." If you've been through heartache, these lyrics likely evoke more than a bit of something in you. The general idea of diamonds and rust is also critical here, as relationships foster good times as well as bad.

The rest of "Diamonds and Rust's" lyrics are far more context-specific than its finale. Baez wrote this song about her and Bob Dylan's relationship, after all. But listeners need not have every single word of a song apply to their unique circumstances in order to be moved by a song, especially one by Baez.

The title sounds passé, but "Forever Young" is a great song for growing older. We're talking about the 1974 Bob Dylan song, not the 1984 "Alphaville" song (which isn't a cover, but a separate song altogether). Dylan's "Forever Young" doesn't extol youth as a virtue in and of itself and worship naivety, nor does it wish to cling to the past, bemoan the present, and fear the future. Instead, its lyrics read like a letter to oneself as you age: "May your hands always be busy / May your feet always be swift / May you have a strong foundation / When the winds of changes shift." 

It's true that Dylan wrote it for his son, but if you hear its lyrics like your own voice speaking to you, then the song sounds like a set of reminders about how to hold on to the best parts of yourself over time. Since age will come no matter what, that's arguably the most we can do.

We're leaving a specific birthday unspecified because any major milestone could suffice — at least older than young adulthood. Being 30 years old, 40, 50, etc., comes with its own set of reflections and perspectives that the younger you would have likely never foreseen. This is especially true if you've passed through the other life events we curated songs for here. And as changes accumulate over time, big and small, fast and slow, it's important to remember the kind of wishes that Dylan bestowed upon his son back in '74. These are the kinds of things that one's younger self would have wished for one's future self — and which you would still wish for.