My teenage daughter has been on a big Elton John kick. She saw him in concert recently and I never even saw him. Anyway, I’m 48 and haven’t seen many concerts at all. But that’s not what’s on my mind. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much music can affect our moods, and the music choice we select when we are in certain moods.
This is certainly not a new concept, and people much smarter than I am have realized this and used it to help better line their pockets in various ways. But that’s okay. Lyrics are today’s poetry. And when combined with beautiful sounds, music “sings” to us in ways poetry cannot. My wife and I were talking the other day about how smells do such a wonderful job at nudging memories to the front of our brains. And I said that music pretty much can do the same thing.
I am a musical score junkie. I don’t want the rock and roll soundtrack to a movie. I want that background music that gives us the highs and lows of our cinematic heroes. From Glory to Gettysburg to The Holiday (who doesn’t love Hans Zimmer?), my emotions are fed through these wonderful songs.
But sometimes a pop song like Someone Saved My Life Tonight is what the nostalgic side of our personalities need to hear on the menu of life. The lyrics launch me back to the seventies and my friends and I are rolling around on the basement floor. I’ve been listening to it as I write these words, and it makes me long for those simple days that I now see were so carefree. They are much more precious to my memories than what I experienced while living the moment.
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