“I still recall the taste of your tears…..”
The words quietly ring out…. stark… full of aching desperation…
This version is especially poignant and real. Stripped down from the studio track, bare, just like the lyrics… which is why I chose this to share. Just a handful of notes… and a voice…
How can you NOT listen to a song that starts with a line like that? Doesn’t that draw you, in some primal way, by its’ honesty? Maybe for me, as I try to cultivate a writer’s eye… try to understand myself… I seek out things like this that are so… real… so that I might take something from it.
I might catch a certain mood, and dwell in it for a while… trying to step outside myself to think about my own thoughts. I might try to empathize with the song… trying to picture such a figure… trying to write about this person… seeing if I can capture in words what is being communicated in the song…
Other times, it may just suit my mood. It may also give me a vessel to emote feelings that I know are festering, and unexpressed. It might give me an opportunity to cry, or laugh, or feed the flames of burning determination… to lift up my soul to higher things in the midst of the mundane. It gives me an outlet for something within me… another conduit for expression... using someone else's words.
Coming back to this NIN clip. Though Reznor is not an overly positive, uplifting songwriter, I am drawn to his honesty. Sometimes, life is not interested in lifting you up, or making you feel like a million bucks. It isn’t ALL storm clouds, but it is certainly not ALL sunny skies, either. Since life is multi-faceted, I want to share a similar selection of music and thoughts.
Something that has stayed with me these years, even when I have not listened to NIN, is the desperate power, the longing of his words that somehow resonate within me. The voice. The tone. The words. You might feel that, as well, when you hear it. It might be haunting. It might create an ache in you. You might find yourself “experiencing” the music in some way… at least, that is what I think the artist would expect.
So, give it a listen… and feel free to share what you think about it….
No comments:
Post a Comment