Songs That Shape a Life: YorkeDaddy's Journal
Think of, for a moment, a song or an album that means something to you.
It doesn't have to be your favorite album or song. It doesn't have to be something you often revisit.
If you're on this forum, that means you share a passion. Everyone has a passion or passions for something, and for all of us, music is a central dynamic in the roller-coaster ride that we call life. Some people are casual music listeners that just listen for enjoyment or because they like to dance, and there's nothing wrong with that. But then there's us. I personally feel a direct emotional and psychological connection with the music I truly love, to the point where people unlike me have trouble understanding what exactly it is I feel about some songs and why I even feel it.
That's why this is going to be a hard journal to write, but not one that I will get bored with. I could gush for days about what some songs mean to me, but it will never really come out right. These are relate-able works of art that have guided me through processing some of the deepest, most complex emotions that frankly no one in the history of mankind has been able to truly articulate. If you've ever truly been in love with someone, have you ever heard or read a definition that honestly encompasses the feelings that accompany such a powerful emotion? The answer is no, because it's impossible, but artists have come damn close to describing that feeling and dozens of other feelings, and those are the songs that touch me the most.
Enter August of 2012. Where am I at this point in my life? I'm driving three hours from my home to begin the most important chapter of my existence: I'm moving away from my parents and starting college. I'm on my own. I was scared and worried, but outside of my inner conscience I came across as excited and optimistic, so I guess I'm just a compulsive liar. What song could have possibly helped me relate to something as amazingly profound as finally leaving the comfort of your parents' protection and guidance?
Now, as a disclaimer, I am in no way, shape, or form a seventeen year-old girl. But what I am is a human being, and this song is one of the most raw displays of humanity that I've ever heard, which is why it's one of the most timelessly wonderful songs I will ever know. Frankly, I don't even know much about Broken Social Scene. I've listened to most of their stuff and I hardly even like any of it. But somehow, someway, way back in 2002 when they were working on "You Forgot It in People," they came up with something so powerful that it transcends what almost any other song has conveyed.
Now, you may not agree, but I am speaking from the heart. I would have this song on repeat for the next six months or so. I know every word because there's only a handful of them, and they are repeated over and over until the message is engrained in your brain until you will never forget them. "Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me", approximately eighteen times in a row for almost the entire 2/3 of the song. It sounds so silly but overwhelms me with emotion every time I hear it. Even today, playing this song, I flashback to those first few weeks, sitting at my laptop in my dorm room, realizing that a new chapter in my life has began and there's really no going back.
"Used to be one of the rotten ones and I like you for that/Now you're all gone, got your make-up on, and you're not coming back". Amidst feelings of being lost and not ready for the future, Broken Social Scene crafted something that hit all the right notes in my heart. While I'm no longer in such an emotional state, I still come back to this song to remember just what it was like. It's a nostalgic song, reminiscing of things passed while foreshadowing the future, and it's a song I'll never forget.
Thank you for reading, if you did. I plan on continuing this journal and each entry will be in a similar light, so if you really want to read about how music and a listener can really connect, this is the journal to follow.
Last edited by YorkeDaddy; 01-25-2014 at 02:37 PM.
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