I think I’ve blogged about re-reading books we loved when we were younger. The idea was to see how these favorite books held up, now that we had a broader range of experience with which to judge them. The results have been interesting, a real mix. Some hold up, some don’t. But the interesting part is that the now-then differential in the book’s viability is an indication of how much or how little we’ve changed… no more than that. The text hasn’t changed, obviously.
I expected similar results when I started re-listening to all the music I’d listened to on AM, FM, 8-track, cassette, CD, Interweb… Any way I could get me some sound during the 20 years or so when driving 35,000 miles a year was just a part of the job. Luckily, I like to drive. And I listen to music while I drive. Always. So I have a vast repository of songs and albums and groups that kept me company all those years I scurried around for seeds like a witless field mouse.
What surprised me was the resilience of every one of those old favorites. Every one of them held up. The ones that sounded bad back then still sounded bad. Not a one of them that I’d loved in the past sounded like a stinker now. They were all good! Amazingly plain and simple. Not only that, each of those songs or albums gave me a little endorphin buzz, recalling the feeling of freedom, of infinite prospect that book scouting kindled. The music brought it back.
So, duhh. We consume music differently than we consume words. The immediate emotional experience of music is like coffee when you’re on the road… In no particular order here are a few cupfulls:
“Feelin’ All Right” – Joe Cocker; “Make Me an Angel” – Susan Tedeschi; “Red, Red Wine” – UB40; “Water from an Ancient Well” – Abdulla Ibrahim;”Big Brother” – Stevie Wonder; “Sympathy for the Devil” – Stones; “Once in a Lifetime,” “This Must be the Place,” “And She Was” – Talking Heads, and most of “Graceland” – Paul Simon…
Oh, sorry, I’ve got to pull over now. I’m getting a little sleepy. I hate it when I start dreaming on the Interstate.
But do me a favor. Before I go, tell me if you’ve ever had the same experience with old music. And who did you listen to?
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