A Small Encouraging Sign

 

That Filter On The Receiver Built Into Your Brain

   Everyone I know has a favorite song, or favorite songs. Songs that hit them in a special way that is fairly indescribable, songs that hit them in such a way as to cause abrupt changes in their moods or dispositions.

   Songs they just absolutely love and can listen to over and over and over again.

   The weird thing is, If I asked fifty of my friends and associates the name of the particular song that is their favorite song and why, I'd get fifty different answers and fifty different explanations.

   I've proven that to myself over the course of the past several decades, because one of my favorite conversational ice breakers is "What do you consider the worst song you've ever heard?" 

   I ask that question simply because I nearly always get an instant reply, much different from when I ask "What do you consider the best song ever written?"

   Ask a person what song they consider the worst song ever and they'll shoot off an answer as if it had been sitting on a launch pad waiting for the "go" signal, and there is rarely ever the need to ask for an explanation why, as that is always part of the answer to what they consider to be the worst song.

   Songs they just absolutely hate and hope they never have to ever listen to again.

   I have heard a wide range of people declare with ferocity everything from brief statements that such-and-such by whomever is the worst song ever because "It sucks, and the band couldn't play their instruments to save their lives" to "Well, when you consider the complete disregard for harmonics, an apparent aversion to melody or rhythm, aural textures that visually would resemble oatmeal, and a compositional structure that defies all known musical contexts, such-and-such by whoever must be viewed as infantile and without a shred of merit, much less listenability."

   However, when I then ask the follow-up question, what do you consider the best song you've ever heard, I get a lot of hemming and hawing, and, usually, a broad range of quantifiers for best songs in specific genres, from specific points in history, and from a very large and diverse spectrum of performers.

   For example, I'll hear "Do you mean best Pop song, best Hip Hop song, best Classic Rock song, best old school Soul song, best Country song, best old school Classic Pop Soul Country Hip Hop song? The list goes on and on...and the explanations for the various songs considered the best are just as diverse...everything from lovely poetic lyrics to great power chords to incredible bass lines to beautiful voices to fantastic rhythms to soothing gossamer-smooth guitar strumming...it's amazing how much people will elaborate on what a song they love does for them.

   About the only commonality to the answers regarding worst or best songs is that almost everyone universally agrees that they knew the first time they heard the particular song they consider worst or best is that it was indeed, the worst or best song they had ever heard. 

   It seems very few people (in my experience) gradually grow to hate or love a particular song..it's hate or love at first listen.

    Also, most people that give me answers to the question regarding the worst song will add comments such as "and I hope I never have to hear it again, or, "that's the sort of music that South American Dictators use to break down political prisoners," while most people that give me answers to the question regarding the best song will add comments such as "this is the song that changed my life," or "This is the song that opened my ears to what music really is and could do." 

   

   

Bonfires In The Wasteland Of The Past

In his mind it's still 1999

And ain't nobody going to convince him anything other

He's paid up on his rent so don't get hellbent

On his fixation with being itinerant

Still thinks Norton was f'n great in Amex History X

And was cheated out of Best Actor by that Italian funnyman

Hitchhiked across the country to get to Rome (NY)

Turned out to be 3 days of heat, expensive water, and a bad high

Yeah, he really loved being 21 in 1999

Yeah, he wastes a lot of time wishing he was still stupid enough

To believe it was always going to be a party forevermore

To believe he would always be able to simply score

 

The Man Who Lived In The Moment, Each & Every Moment

 

People wondering about him, toiling over preconceived notions

About what he was thinking, about what he wanted, about who he really was

Not a one of them had the slightest clue and he never gave an indication

He wasn't anyone or anything they had ever experienced before

Didn't have an agenda, wasn't lookin' to get over on anybody

Just wanted to enjoy each and everyday as much as possible

Never asked questions, didn't want to know anyone's history

Didn't care at all if you liked him or not

Never pushed any buttons, never let on if his had been

Smiled as if the whole world was simply full of friends

Didn't demand proof that intentions were good or untoward

Just wanted to enjoy each and everyday as much as possible

Just wanted to enjoy each and everyday as much as possible

Just Like

Just like flowers

Just like sunsets

Just like waves crashing on a rocky shore

Just like a walk down a shady lane

                          On a blazing hot day

Just like colorful tropical fish

Just like the aroma of fresh baked bread

Just like the view from the 86th floor

Just like hot chocolate with little marshmallows

                          On a cold winters day

Just like kittens

Just like puppies

Just like an engrossing book on a long flight

Just like the flash of orange, brown, yellow and gold

                           On trees in the fall

Slightly Crazy Weather

 

Up And At 'Em

Nothing gets one out of bed quicker

Than waking up next to someone you know

But never actually wanted 

To wake up next to.