swan song

So, on my trip, I got caught up on some reading, (no, of course not NAPLEX/MPJE reading). I finished Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, and I loved it. Seriously, this book was meant for me to read. It's about the author's relationship with music and how that relationship is affected by his personal relationships, and most likely vice versa. He so gets me. 

"On paper, the songs would be meaningless. But if you had my brain and if you had my ears and if you had ever spent an autumn afternoon on a balcony with Quincy, talking about how our day-to-day life would be different if werewolves were real...well, you would love 'New York Groove' more than you would love yourself." 

This is, in a nutshell, how I feel about music and my relationships, be them friendly or otherwise. And the point of this blog is to convey why/how those songs and bands are more than just lyrics and notes to me, and how they are me. 

He does a lot of lyrics to lovers (geez, that word bums me out), comparisons, which I totally dig, mostly because it turns out we are the same self-destructive person when it comes to “relationships.”

I have so many songs that me make think of certain people, that take me back to another time, another place. I'll have to save that for a different post, because I hate to lose my four readers over incessant ramblings of stupid boys and broken hearts, (at least for today). 

Another book that tackles music and its effect on people: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. 

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music..because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out...It's the best part of us, probably."

Can I get an Amen? But back to Killing Yourself to Live.... 

"Remember how it was before you and I finally got together? I spent a year killing myself trying to make you love me, and it was a heart-breaking process. It was like I was singing 'Layla' to you every single night, and all you did was sleep with George Harrison." 

When I read that, I felt complete. Someone out there understands what I'm trying to say. Someone else pretty much lives their life in terms of song. I'm not alone!!! 

"I love KISS because the world makes sense when I think about them. Art and love are the same thing: It's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you."

Taking Back Sunday is my KISS. Brand New and Jimmy Eat World and The Black Keys and so many other bands are also my KISS. My world makes the most sense when I listen to them (or any decent music, for that matter), and so it's much easier to speak and think in their terms, because that's where I feel comfortable, at peace. It's where I belong. And Chuck Klosterman gets that (I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together).

So, if anyone was wondering what the point of this blog is, this is the best way it can be explained. Music means more to me than almost anything. I don't know how to not function in music. Every memory, every night, every life event, has its own theme song. And this blog is my attempt to share the whys and hows of them. 

I feel that when I'm old, I'll look at you and know the world was beautiful.