Like most people, I’ve always been easily affected by music. Songs that drive me in sorrowful, fiery, or bittersweet directions mean the most to me, and even as a child, songs with a world-weary overtone would weigh heavy on my heart; but I was—and am—drawn to them like a magnet.

Today in the offices of Jose el Retardo, a fellow staff member caught my attention by singing Jackson Browne’s Doctor My Eyes, and it immediately made me stop whatever useless task I was up to and wax horribly nostalgic. It’s dogged my steps all day, and I’ve gotten relatively little accomplished. Upon hearing this song on the radio, even when I was very young, a shadow has always been cast over my mind. Obviously I had no clue what Browne was talking about, but my kid-brain was nevertheless troubled by the notion that this man singing was up against the wall somehow, and getting no relief.

Don’t get me wrong, agents of cool. I am NOT a Jackson Browne fan by any stretch of the imagination—Lawyers in Love could be in the top twenty of all time bad songs; oh how I hate it—so don’t get yourself all in a tizzy over my nerdish admission. But come on, you have to give it up for Doctor My Eyes. It’s just so damn sad. Maybe it’s because his vocals on the song are the most vulnerable of any of his recordings that I can remember—indeed, when Browne practically yelps out the line, “You must help me, if you can”, he truly seems at the end of his rope. Or maybe it’s the plaintive lyrics. I don’t know, but as I get older, this song only gets more and more haunting in a bizarrely pleasant way.

Listen for yourself, and then tell the Jose community what songs weigh heavily on you: