Some deconstrutionist nonsense…
July 19, 2008
Seeing how I spend a lot of times driving desolate desert roads my mind tends to wander. Lately, I’ve been about music. 25 or so years ago (fuck, I’m old.) I spent a lot of my free time hunkered down in front of my turntable, headphones on listening to records. My favorites were The Beatles with The Who and then The Stones not far behind. Hours spent analyzing and breaking down these records as best as I could. I didn’t know an A from a C minor,(still don’t) but I knew what I liked. One thing I was never really able to put a finger on what was it was that made these bands so different and so great. Why was it that in one moment I was perfectly happy listening to Love Me Do and the next I had to hear Sympathy For The Devil or We Won’t Get Fooled Again before going back to A Day In The Life?
The other day I think I figured it out. On the other hand, this might be all bullshit.
The Beatles. You finally find the girl of your dreams but have no clue how to talk to her, whatever you want to say to her, whether it’s romantic outpourings of love or some cool mysticism to make her think you’re hipper than you really are, The Beatles are the guys you want on your side. Confident and cool.
The Rolling Stones. Flat-out bastards. They say girls like the bad boys and here they are. The Stones will insidiously sneak in and whisper in her ear and make her forget you ever existed, all while you’re busy trying to dance to Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Seductive and dangerous.
The Who. She’s gone. You’re crushed. The Who are the guys who come banging on your door at 2am and say “Come on, you sad sack of shit… get off your ass!!” They are the one who drag you out and get you drunk and get you laid and help you break all the stuff she ever gave you all in an effort to raise your spirits, knowing full well what it’s like to have a broken heart. Bold and Defiant.
Anyway, that’s my theory. It’s not much, but I’m gonna hang on to it.
Oh, Zeppelin? They are the guys who’s couch you wake up having no clue where you are or how you got there. They offer to cure your hangover by offering you a fifth of Jack.
January 8, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Wow! That’s pretty dead on and a pretty pathetic statement of my love life that you could summerize it with those bands. Not quite as into the Beatles as you were/are but the rest…
Anyway I do find a few contemporary bands manage to nail things and hard to believe but ‘Given Up’ by Linkin Park, ‘Rise Above It’ by Seether and ‘Clean My Wounds’ by Corrosion of Conformity are on my Ipod right now as an emotional boot to the head of my romantic past. Sad, but true, to quote Metallica.