We all know how music can have an effect on your mood and bring memories flooding back, the power of music as far as I'm concerned. Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 brings me back to my last year of high school, soon to graduate and whether it was realized or not, change was everywhere. That Joshua Tree album and specifically that song was the soundtrack of my life at that time, and even now, nearly 320 years later, I still find it fresh and new sounding...rock music but not really rock music. I wore out my record playing it so much.
I drive a little faster, and that's saying something, when Tom Petty's Runnin' Down a Dream or She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult comes on...turn up the volume and enjoy the music, let it move through you and into the car...machine do my bidding. Twist and Shout takes me to that scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, every time. ABBA on the radio and I am reaching for my phone to bug a dear friend with the music playing in her ear or on her answering machine...she proclaims to hate ABBA.
So many songs so many memories, emotions and reactions. In turns I can become a drug waste, a rebel with a cause, an anarchist and a thoughtful romantic depending on what song is playing. Link Wrays Rumble and I'm John Travolta strolling through Jack Rabbit Slims with Uma Thurman, high as a kite and drinking $5 shakes. I hear Sunday Bloody Sunday in my head when I'm thinking about injustice in the world. Air drumming to Run to the Hills or anything by Rush...usually while driving and Jesus of Suburbia gets my teenage angst up even though I am coming up on 49 years old. Music Baby!!!!
That is why music is so important, like poetry, it moves us, inspires us and fills us. It has the power to take us to new heights and soothe us when we need it most. The sound track that has played in my life stretches back to Elvis on 8 track that my mom had all the way through to Mumford and Sons today. While I still enjoy the oldies I do have some appreciation for some new music...on that subject, freak boy Gene Simmons from Kiss gave the best reason I've heard on why I still like the music I like. When asked why Kiss was still popular he turned to the audience and asked a guy what he listened to when he was 12 and 13 years old? He replied, almost pandering, that it it was Kiss, see...the music you listen to in those formative years is what will almost always stay with you.
Side bar here....this is stricltyy me speaking here, I have five guys that I feel you can call them the 'man'. In no particular order, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Neil Young and of course Leonard Cohen. Who's on your list?
And while music has had the most influence in my life for mood and behaviour, there have been other media as well. Case in point, I watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad the other day and soon afterwards, as I walked through WalMart getting cut off by moronic morons, I wanted to Walter White their asses..I'm certain I was even snearing like he would have, with a cold hatred and a plan to dispose of the bodies...if people only knew. My daughter texted me to let me know she was out of work early and my reply was "I'll be there shortly, a few homicides first" Watching The Walking Dead and I'm debating which weapon would be best when shit got real...I have to go with the sword.
Of course, not all movies and shows propel me to murder; other and more meaningful emotions and reactions come from watching...oh I don't know, just about anything....think The Shawshank Redemption, Seven Pounds, Apollo 13, The Blues Brothers, Cloud Atlas....and on and on. You get the idea don't you? And just to show that I have a sensitive side, Serendipity and Love Actually, The First and Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies....I'm cereal. Oh, speaking of which, MASH and West Wing, my two favourite shows ever...humanity, humour and ideals. Throw in Seinfeld and I am the master of my domain.
So put down that Cheech and Chong inspired fatty, stop tapping your toes to Uptight as we prepare for Chariots of Fire running on the beach and a Rocky style workout punching the crap out of some beef carcass....see, I could do this all day.
Ciao
D
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