Friday, September 03, 2004|
Lakes Stevens Elementary (current ipod playlist... ) 1. Cars (Original Version) - Gary Numan & Tubeway Army 10:04:24 AM  say it here
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...safest... First the jet lag, then the mind lag... a month back and it has taken me a while to adjust. I just feel off and out of it--outside of it all the time. I have barely left the Upper East Side. Don't feel the usual need to roam around the city, to see shows, new art or just--roam. And being back in NY reminds me intensely of my ex. I am writing quite a bit but when I am not doing that, I go out to Carl Schurz Park and sit outside with the dog by the East River trying to empty my mind. Perhaps I am just bored or mildly depressed? There's a lot going on but it is definitely an amorphous transition period right now... So, the one thing that gets me going right now--especially when I have to write--is music (as always, my saviour, thank God). What am I listening to?? The new Morrissey (brilliant, the best solo work ever), the new Fall compilation 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong (puts EVERY wanna-be contemporary 70s-brit-punk-inspired band to SHAME) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Soundtrack and Modest Mouse's classic Lonesome Crowded West. God, I love music. Will I love it this much on my deathbed? Somebody play James Brown for me before I go. One of the first things I had to work on when I got back was a bio/story for my musician friend. The task was to write it from a fan's perspective--a fan who has just discovered this musician subject and as a result has fallen in love with music all over again. To conjure this feeling, I thought of the first song I was truly in love with: Gary Numan's "Cars." It's the first song I ever blasted in my room. It used to get me so worked up I used to get up on my bed and jump so high--up and down, up and down--I nearly hit the ceiling. I was only 8. So I wrote this paragraph about that and I share it with you since it is no longer in the bio: I still remember my first record: Gary Numan’s “Cars.” It was 1979 when I first heard it on the radio. It was sandwiched in between two disco songs I can’t even remember and it stuck out like a sore thumb. It’s difficult to explain why... It had the same structure as most music back then: a repetitive tune sung over a danceable electronic beat. There was even an artificial sounding tambourine used during the chorus (why?). But I think what made the song special--what STILL makes it special is how the voice and the lyrics worked together to somehow send the listener some kind of secret message. The lyrics, if you pay attention, tell of a guy who says he feels most secure in his car. But the voice, which thinly disguises a growing desperation, is that of a person who has realized he is trapped by technology--this almost 20 years before OK Computer. Did I understand this at 7? Probably not. But I knew I liked it because it was weird, it was catchy, it made my heart skip a beat whenever it was played on the radio. And when I finally got it on record, I never tired of listening to it. I have had several similar encounters with music, but they have rapidly diminished in recent years. I can't remember the last time I felt that way about music. This is slightly fictionalized. I never owned the single I have had many emotionally intense encounters with songs/albums and I can remember the last time I felt that way about music: The Walkmen's Bows+Arrows purchased just a couple of months ago.
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12:06:05 AM say it here
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Last update: 10/1/2004; 8:51:46 AM .
