Meloncholy music and Me

Allotta alliteration...

Right, music. Seems to be a (wait for it) theme (HA!) of late. Point? Point is none of my music is comfy. (None might be stretching it but tough.) It all evokes some... flavor is the best I can describe it. I've read and studied about synesthesia and this ain't it. Maybe. What it is for me is the whole friggin emotional package the tones, words, and memories plus my current state of mind (which lemme tell ya is dicey) all adds up to.

Case in point: James Taylor's Greatest Hits. I cannot listen to that album. I can listen to the songs, but not the album. WAY too loaded with associations to a uh, rough time in my life. The Cars Heartbeat City... given to me for my 17th birthday by a semi-girlfriend. My best friend's sister whom I was encouraged by their family to take to a couple dances... "But, Eric, your parents know me..." He shrugged. We went. That album evokes my basement bedroom, the smells, the emotions, the images of moving from CT back to Ohio in between my junior and senior years in painfully vivid detail. Lunacy. That was 24 years ago... twenty four. Almost 25. The only thing in my world aside from family that's been around nearly that long is the '88 Honda Accord I managed to wrangle from my parents.

Yet it can crush me.

ELO, Kuiama...
Elvis Costello, Almost Blue and loads of others
Billy Joel... Glass Houses, The Stranger... big mojo
Madness
Dire Straits
David Bowie... holy cow, hugely powerful

Anyhow, I could just list my iTunes library, but that's 8874 songs, 543 artists (I think that's off, maybe that counts albums).

I hate being so easily affected by external influences. Some days it's much touchier than others. Today being an extremely sketchy. Probably a result of stress from a couple of job interviews, neither of which I've heard back from. One I WANT (working in the ER), the other not so much (working with troubled kids and their families. Loads of paperwork and crap). Actually not at all, but I will take it if offered and since I don't want it odds are it'll be offered.

Gah... lost my train of thought. I'll be back.