song

my mom told me that when i was 5 or 6 years old i had four copies of "electric avenue" on record. i had four because i would listen to each one over and over again until it failed to play. it's funny to think you can wear a song down to nothing by simply loving it too much, but i guess that's what i did. i don't know why i chose that song. more to the point, i don't know why that song chose me, but maybe somewhere eddie grant thought, "there's a sad and scared but hopeful little girl over in the bronx who needs a very bubbly friend..." and, voila, over skipped his song. i do not remember playing each record til it cracked or even how very much i loved that song. i do remember, as vividly as i see this computer screen, how that song made me feel back then. over 25 years ago, and i still have the feeling in my self of listening to that music and knowing, for 3 minutes, what it was to be free and real and something very much alive. i listen to it now and hear so much more of the meaning- the intended meaning- than i ever could have understood at 5 years old. but, oddly enough, it didn't matter then. i just loved that song....

i don't know what it is about songs and about music that is so all-encompassing, but i think it is amazing. maybe it's the simple truth that people move and breath because of energy and rhythm and music is energy and rhythm. at its best, it's all the energy and rhythm of being human expressed in its fullness- it's elation or heartache or anxiousness or bliss, but it is sincere. i think that's the word. sincere. the songs that remain my closest of friends are not pretentious or overwrought, but so sincere. i listen to jose gonzalez's "hand on your heart" or phil collin's "in too deep", bon iver's "skinny love" or michael jackson's "human nature" -- that is just to name a few-- and it's the same feeling i get when i am in the company of a good friend having the kind of conversation where you feel nothing but loved and understood and they feel the same. . . . all is right in the world. . . . for at least a few minutes. . . .


thanks to the following for helping me through. . . .and thanks for following me. . . .
-all songs mentioned above
-nu shooz "i can't wait"
-fleetwood mac "everywhere"
-peter gabriel "solsbury hill"
-paul simon "call me al"
-shanice "i love your smile"
-lisa loeb "stay"
-nirvana "lithium"
-thao "bag of hammers"
-joanna newsom "en gallop"
-kimya dawson "tire swing"
-phil collins "throwing it all away"
-ccr "looking out my back door"
-melanie "brand new key" (thanks for that one, mom)