For those of us who love music, there are few things in life that compare to the exhilaration, the passion, the high or a good concert of even a good song on your radio. Of course one of the things that surpasses it (for me anyhow) is love/romance/intimacy.It carries me places that I wish I could go in "my real life" and one question that has haunted me for years is:
Would my life be different today if I had not spent my youth drenching myself in music and song? Would some of my expectations be more realistic? Did the romance and lure of the music have a negative affect - or is it "all good"?
I'd love to hear your thoughts if anyone "gets" what I am saying here.
7 comments:
I get what you are saying Layla. Music has always been a part of my life. I was raised on a steady diet of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd etc, and branched out as I got older into other musical styles.
I love all kinds of music, but always go back to the ones I grew up on. My earliest memory is dancing around the kitchen with my mother to Just Like a Woman. I remember the light coming through the room, the smell of the cooking, the skirt my mother was wearing. I think that's what I love most about music. It connects you to a memory, a lost moment in time in such a real, tangible way. I could not imagine life without it!
I sometimes refer to rock n roll as my secular religion. I think it changed my life in more ways than I can count, but two big ones come to mind. First, it made me counter-cultural. A lot of the stuff I listen to is pretty far outside of the mainstream, but it fit in with who I was (a misfit). Second, it kept me off drugs. Most people would have the opposite experience, but I never wanted to get involved in that stuff and finding bands like 7 Seconds and Minor Threat was important when I was 15 or so. It was like having someone there to back me up.
Music was and is a constant in my life. Growing up the youngest of 6, I was exposed to a lot of Classic Rock thanks to my older siblings (and a bit of Swing and Oldies thanks to my parents). So as I was growing up whenever the going got tough, music was a solace for me, a refuge from the overwhelming confusion of adolescence. It took me to a more sane place and established or re-established some semblance of emotional equilibrium to a rather hormonally unbalanced time in my life.
Music still has that power over me and I hope it always will.
Music helped me to realize the things I truly enjoy in life and it also helped spark interest in things which are important thanks to the social messages that Rage, Dylan, and Neil Young have given. Like Bob said, it reinforced my feelings of not wanting to do drugs and drink thanks to Minor Threat. It also helped me open up socially a bit because I never really found myself until I found the music I love, it's great to have a true passion and music is mine.
Music has always been in my life, in one form or another, but it's never really "changed" it in any way. I don't have a particular song or artist that I listen to depending on my moods, nor has any one song struck me in such a way that it made a profound impact on me; with the possible exception of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". But then again, that was a different situation altogether.
I can't imagine what life would be like without music. I really can't. If forced, I could give up TV and the computer, but I couldn't give up music. Then again, it would still be in my heart and head. Like Andy Dufresne said, "that's the beauty of music..they can't take that away from you."
After watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan everything I did was connected to music. Soaked it up like a sponge. First AM radio & then listening to everything on FM side. Grabbed an internship with a local rock radio station when I was in 10th grade Eventually focused on rock journalism and interviewed scores of acts including Ronnie Spector, U2, Flo & Eddie (Turtles), Eric Burdon (The Animals), ELO, Kate Bush, and Pat Benatar. Interesting times.
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