#240) "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World - Last post, I said that for the sake of emotional health and sense of well-being, I try to avoid music that is too melancholy, too sentimental and downtrodden. I also never really buy into songs that go too heavy with the preaching and moralizing: whether it's trying to tell me how I should or should not be living, or that I should care more, or that caring less is okay, or that everything is going to be okay, or that I'm super special in every way, have every reason in the wide world to love myself to death...I need neither the advice nor the validation of strangers, even (or especially) celebrities. Truth be told, I've always had, at best, a love/hate relationship with the concept of celebrity and the celebrities in our midst, and have always bristled whenever I thought I was being unwittingly conscripted by the media into the service of "celebrating" them, which in this day and age is more or less a fucking 24-hour onslaught.
And like a lot of people, music is very personal to me. When I hear a song and decide I like it, I hardly think of the artist or his/her message at all. The song pretty much becomes mine, almost as if I'm the one who wrote it. To that end, I don't want to be the one being spoken to, because (in my brain) I've become the one doing the speaking.
I think musical performers who are true "artists" (as OPPOSED to "celebrities", perhaps...) understand that this happens, expect it even...or may even (and I know this sounds fruity) consciously release their work to the public for just such interpretation and adoption.
Sometimes though, an objectifyingly preachy, "you're-okay-and-everything's-gonna-be-okay" type song gets it right. Mostly what makes 2001's "The Middle" listenable (and thus, its sermon/message palatable) is its clean, crisp sound; the whole thumping bass/driving beat thing is hard to ignore, hard not to like. But I admit, I also like the way it approaches its sermon: the words are hopeful, rather than sappy and self-serving, less a sermon, really, more like advice from a friend; that is, advice I have sought out, rather than the unwanted (and sickeningly potent) self-esteem booster shot modern artists seem to like to poke into the arms of their fans with every other single they release.
I know it's always been there, but inarguably there's been a noticeable uptick in the amount of gratis emotional therapy being dispensed on Top 40 radio in the last ten or fifteen years. Millennials are being assured and reassured again at an unprecedented rate that they are special, worthy, sparkles on the water, a firework in the sky, a roaring sea, a burning fire, perfect in every way (or good enough), by artists, who - let's be honest - really give no more of a shit about them than artists cared about their fans in the time of Generation X, or the Baby Boomers, or World War II, or the Roarin' 20s...or the Roman empire, for that matter.
But yes, at the end of the day I know that I should just shut up and consider myself fortunate that I'm one of those who doesn't need that.
And I'm not totally jaded. Again, sometimes a song gets it right. I really believe the world would be a much happier place if everyone kept the healthy, spirited lyrics to "The Middle" in mind each morning when they got out of bed to face a new day.
Mostly, though, I just like the way it sounds.
"Hey, don't write yourself off yet / It's only in your head you feel left out, or looked down on..."
#241) "Do You Realize??" by The Flaming Lips - Another song looking to teach a lesson, yes...(well, sort of)...but one that takes a philosophical approach to subject matter that flows much deeper than merely self-worth. The results are a potent gospel that everyone - everyone - should listen to, and heed.
In fact, once again, the lyrics are too important to gray out:
"Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?? / And instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know you realize that life goes fast, it's hard to make the good things last / You realize the sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round..."
#242) "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by James Brown - What makes this song great is also the musicality, the spraying horns and electric guitar flapping in the breeze, sharing the stage with Brown's inimitable singing style - "funk" in its infancy.
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is one of those songs I don't realize I like unless I'm actually listening to it. Then I'm grooving, baby...I can't help myself. Papa's got a brand new bag each new time.
There's a message in this song too, come to think of it....which it totally gets right.
"He ain't no drag, he's got a brand new bag..."
