Thursday, February 15, 2007

Soundtracks



Every life has a soundtrack. The iPod in my life has exacerbated this. I remember moments in my life sometimes by what I was listening to.

Jury Exams at Fordham: Jimmy Eat World
Backpack through the Maroon Bells: Pearl Jam & Alicia Keys
Europe: Sufjan Stevens
My grandmother’s passing: Dispatch and Breathing Machine
The Bighorns: James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and Garth Brooks.
Sr. Semester (The spiral): Rufus Wainwright, Deathcab
Today: Cat Stevens

Now Cat Stevens’ music has a special place in my life. I have to admit since his reincarnation as Yusef Islam I have yet to get into him. His music is the music of my parent’s and uncle’s. I have fond and distinct of my namesake singing “Moonshadow” around the fireplace at our cabin followed by the classic “Peace Train,” Then we would all join in on “Father and Son.” But I think if I had one song that I had to listen to for the rest of my life (and this is meant to be taken merely as a slice in time, of course I reserve the right to change it in the future) that song would have to be Cat Stevens’ “The Wind.”

I hear the opening chords, and get goose bumps, every time. And these goose bumps aren’t little chicken bumps. The first time I had to shave my body for Conference championships in swimming I made the mistake of not wearing pants coming out of the shower in our hotel, and the goose bumps hurt, I felt physical pain. I get these goose bumps from just the opening chords. The song was originally released in 1971, prior to his conversion to Islam, and I think this is interesting, not because of the huge difference post-conversion, but it hints at the allure of pacifism and choosing your own path.

So. On to my impressions.

I listen to the wind
To the wind of my soul
Where Ill end up well I think,
Only God really knows
Ive sat upon the setting sun
But never, never never never
I never wanted water once
No, never, never, never

I have an idea of what he is going through here. The obvious here: the transition from graduation to life, which is rough. And if you have read my previous posts about it, I went through my own business chronicled in vague details here. The second lines jump out at me from a couple of different angles. Our first backpacking trip as a family was navigating the Hole in the Wall canyon in the Bighorn Mountains (Outlaw Canyon). We underestimated the amount of time it would take us, we thought we could do hot breakfasts in the morning, I spilled a dinner, our water purifier broke, in short, we got stranded and were 3 hours short of having a Sheriff flyover search and rescue. We had run out of water and were drinking right out of the river and I had survived on one fig Newton to climb the 1100 or so vertical feet to get out of the canyon. The second verse goes like this:

I listen to my words but
They fall far below
I let my music take me where
My heart wants to go
I swam upon the devils lake
But never, never never never
Ill never make the same mistake
No, never, never, never

This is a verse that has developed a new meaning for me. In the recent past I have had issue listening to myself, believing myself, knowing what I should do and second-guessing my past. I have said that it’s easier to forgive others than to forgive myself. To me, this sentiment has vastly improved, and I am not looking back.

This song bumped it’s way along on my shuffle on the flight today, and it was the last two lines which gave me strength to assemble myself and prepare for the week. So if you feel so inclined. Get the song on iTunes, download it (il)legally, leave me a request in the comments and I’ll email it to you. But I am curious as to your impressions of it.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home