The Wee Democracy

music is funny.

or at least, my relationship to music is funny. my likes and dislikes can be described as mercurial, at best (thanks, GRE hit parade!) but there was many a time in my past that my sister played some band or singer that i loathed at the time. sometimes, i wanted actually to throw the cd out the window, or to stab myself in the ear with a q-tip to get away from the wretchedness of the sounds. but then, despite my protests, the music began to grow on me. bob dylan, joni mitchell, the cure, bjork come immediately to mind, and now i can't imagine my musical landscape being complete without them. crazy, right?

my pal damon has sliiiiiiiightly similar affects on my landscape, the only notable instance, though, being neil young. i used to dislike him intensely, and now, i like a few songs. i'm not rushing out to buy any neil young albums anytime soon, but like i said, i got a few NY mp3's. come and get me, RIAA!!

anyways, it was usually one song that got me to convert to liking the aforementioned bands. 'shelter from the storm' in bob dylan's case, 'carey' in joni mitchell's, 'trust' from the cure, and 'joga' by bjork. neil young did a good cover of imagine, right after 9-11, and had a couple of good songs in some movies i like, so that helped his cause.

but there are times when i hear a song, say on an album that i own from a particular band, and i like it. i may not remember it, and it certainly doesn't get the song of the day treatment in the old democracy.

and then, one day, out of the blue, i hear the song in a movie, or a tv show, or, as was the case yesterday, during a montage after the marlins beat the yankees in the world series. (cry like a bitch, posada). anyways, as they were getting ready to cease broadcast of the post-game ebullience, they played this highlight reel of the whole series with the coldplay song 'the scientist' playing over it all.

i didn't recognize it at first, but knew it was coldplay. i've got their second album, but i'm never good with song names. i looked it up in the album, put it in and played it. it was so good this time. now before, i used to like 'a rush of blood to the head' more than most other songs on the album, but this one is giving it a run for its money.

there is just something about attaching some other form of media, or some other memory to a song that ... makes it better. sometimes, if you play it at just the right moment in history, you can attach a bittersweetness to it, and then that just makes you yearn to recapture that particular instant, song and all.

example: joga by bjork. i love that song. as stated before, that was the song that was the door opener to the rest of her music. and when i hear it, i don't think about hearing it the number of times i'd heard it before, but i think about how my sister used to pick me up after work at a local mexican dive. i know i heard it in that car on those rides home, and it was a good time in my life. so i hear that song and it takes me back to that moment. but if you attach it to a different moment, that moment won't ring true, or the song won't have the same impact.

i ramble.

chelsea hotel no. 2 was on tv last week, and it made me want to listen to it and other leonard cohen songs many a time. elliott smith - can you imagine good will hunting without elliott smith? or can you imagine listening to miss misery and not thinking of good will hunting? it's like a symbiote circle.

that's why i say, music is a funny thing. i'm glad we have it.

and if i start my own band it's going to be called one of two things: todd gack and the smoking dutchmen OR mr. mysterio and the wholigans


feeling: slightly melancholic....reminiscent.
thinking of: hopes and dreams for the christmas season this year (it's closer to wintery, today's climate, hence the mood)
song of the day: the scientist - coldplay