Monday, April 11, 2011

Music and Emotion

The conversation I had at dinner was so special, I needed to write it down. My husband's friend was over and a conversation about movies which made us cry segued to music. My sixteen year old stepson remarked that he doesn't understand how some songs can make people cry. Practically in unison, my husband, his friend and myself said that someday he would. I explained to him that at one point in his life he will experience a traumatic moment where his heart is broken and he'll find the one song which completely captures his mood...that totally gets him. This song will be so perfect that even though it's tortuous, he will want to play it over and over again.

The adults in the room proceeded to name off their said meaningful song. Mine is Black by Pearl Jam. After a particularly angsty period of my senior year in high school, I found myself with a broken heart. The boy I confided my true feelings to (after mustering up every ounce of courage my being possessed), had not reciprocated. This, combined with the uncertainty of what my post-high school life held, turned me into a weeping zombie. Black was my heartsong.

To this day when Black comes on the radio, I always sing these last lines the loudest and they still make my voice thick with tears:

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be the sun in somebody else's sky, but why, why, can't it be, can't it be mine...

As far as I'm concerned, Eddie Vedder and Stone Gossard are the lyrical gangsters. Black is forever woven into the patchwork quilt that is my life. Any tears spilled were worth it and I don't regret any heartbroken minute.

Do you have that "one" song and similar memory?

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