Powerful Stuff...

Hello again, I hope you're all well and happy to have made it this far through the week, I know I am extremely relieved. Anyway, I thought this post should be on a somewhat lighter vein than recent ones and so it's about music. Now sadly, I am not nearly knowledgeable enough to give detailed analysis of song structure etc but I do know how it feels when a piece of music seems to reach into your very soul. I have often thought, music is one of those rare things which is common to the whole human race....from the very beginning of civilisations across the world, the need to communicate in this way has been of vital importance.Wherever you go, it's around you..ok maybe not in a language you understand, but when you hear it, you can feel what's being said - be it joy, sadness, triumph,love, hate..the list goes on. I think music just has a way of slicing through all our apparent 'differences' and shows, we all are pretty much the same underneath it all.

Throughout my life, certain songs an instrumental pieces have come to almost symbolise times or people - when I hear them, I am transported back to moments, which for any number of reasons, have great personal meaning for me. As an example, I had a very close friend who tragically died, but whenever I hear Marc Bolan seeing 'We Love to Boogie', I can picture us, dancing around the house and laughing so hard. After she was gone, I avoided hearing the song for years, it was almost too painful to be reminded of my loss...until I went to see the movie 'Billy Elliott' ( not knowing the song featured in the soundtrack). As soon as the familiar opening bars rang out through the cinema, I felt myself smile because, for the first time, in such a long time, I didn't think of her as a tragic loss...I remembered the sheer joy of her friendship. Now, it's one of those songs I play when I feel a bit flat and down..because it brings her back and makes me think of myself at that age, when everything seemed not only possible but extremely likely.

More recently, as regular readers will know, things have not been easy in my life..even those things most people would consider essentials have been hard to find. I have shared this time with my daughter and one evening, we were both finding the struggle and extreme circumstances, a bit too hard. As we wandered aimlessly along, we noticed the local cinema was showing 'The Greatest Showman', it had just been released and I am not sure either us knew much about the plot etc. After checking our hopeless finances, we realised we had just enough to buy two tickets, so, without any further debate, we bought them. I should stress, it took ALL of the money we had, but the thought of being able to escape our situation was just too good an idea, so we trudged into the cinema both feeling pretty low. But when we came out ? Oh my...we were almost high ! We walked down the now deserted street, singing the songs from the show...so many were empowering and uplifting, even my normally less than theatrical daughter, was performing at the top of her voice ! The strange thing is, even though the next morning, nothing had changed...it was as if we had been given a huge lift, the world seemed less dark and we had hope again...I completely understand if that sounds like a terrible overstatement, but it's the simple truth and a perfect illustration of how powerful music can be. My only sadness, is I will never be able to personally thank the cast...because without that night at the movies, who knows how spiritually  low my daughter and I might have sunk. I truly believe, music has the power to connect people - as in my example - Keala Settle who sings 'This is Me' from 'The Greatest Showman' lives several thousand miles away from me...but on that particular night, we were briefly connected.



If you ask people what their favourite song might be, it's one of the few questions which universally makes someone smile, because they invariably pick one which has a memory attached...obviously this happens just before they exclaim, 'I have so many special songs !' and then try to somehow organise them in some kind of list of importance. I am the same !

Personally, some of the most profound moments with music have been connected to relationships...when you're with someone special and the song starts..for whatever reason, either the beat or the lyrics seem to touch you both at the same time...and you're just overwhelmed. It's almost primal, how the music affects you..but it's also magical in its way, for a few words, a few drumbeats and a soaring guitar can make you lose every hint of an inhibition and force you to move in time with another person. You see ? Now you can understand why I called this post 'Powerful Stuff ' !

Obviously, on the flip side, like me, I am sure you've had nights when you're sure your heart is broken, and so you play every sad song you can remember...I have even Googled lists of the most heartbreaking songs, so I have a soundtrack for my misery..haha I don't know why, but there is something verging on pleasurable, when you're singing - often drunkenly in my case - about the pain of a broken heart. Again I think this illustrates my notion of being connected to the singer, after all, you reason, they get it, don't they ? They know what this feels like, that's how they can sing about it...whether or not, in reality, they're as happy as clams !



I know I am not saying anything here which is especially profound, but I hope I have made you start to think about those songs which mean something to you....Life is hard for most of us, so if we can find something which lifts spirits, makes us smile or, better yet, makes us dance down the street..that can only be a good thing....until next time...


Take care out there xxx


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