Love Letters 2 Rock N Roll is celebrating its first anniversary, and has asked past contributors to write something detailing what we really, really love about music. I, um, ducked the question, and wrote this instead:
You love music. But what do you really, really love about music?
I have a sound in my head.
If you want to be highfalutin', you could say it's an audio equivalent of Plato's Forms, an abstract ideal that represents the perfect sound, beyond human realization, just outside our mortal ability to craft and replicate in this mundane real world. If you prefer to remain grounded to the planet we inhabit, you can call this sound a mere (?!) joyous reflection of every song I've ever heard, every tune I've ever loved, and every fantasy I've ever entertained of the promise of pop music.
But it's neither. It's an AM radio, tuned to an imaginary station that never existed. It's as real as dreams, as corporeal as passion, and as timeless as memory, experience, grace, hope, ambition, disappointment, and love. It kinda sounds like The Beatles in 1965. Also James Brown. The Ramones. The Bay City Rollers. Otis Redding. Chuck Berry. The Everly Brothers. The Sex Pistols. Paul Revere & the Raiders. Prince. The Go-Go's. The Isley Brothers playing "Summer Breeze." KISS singing "Shout It Out Loud." The Monkees being The Monkees. The Flashcubes. God, The Flashcubes!
What do I really, really love about music?
Everything.
I can't narrow it down more than that. I love the way music makes me feel, even when the feeling is melancholy, like how The Kinks' "Days" reminds me that I recited the lyrics of that song at my Dad's funeral, or when some random tune recalls past betrayals, lies, or heartbreak. Lyrics. Hooks. Harmonies. The drum, the bass, the guitars. "It's My Life" by The Animals blows me away every time I hear it, its self-assured wall of melody unerringly prompting me to marvel at the precise, perfect placement of each note, each lick. Everything in its place. "Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa." "On Broadway." Badfinger's "Baby Blue." Bowie's "Life On Mars?" "God Only Knows," and the entirety of Pet Sounds. "In The Midnight Hour." "Laugh, Laugh." "Freedom" by Wham!, ferchrissakes. "I Only Want To Be With You." "I Wanna Be With You." "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend."
On my blog, I have an ongoing series called The Greatest Record Ever Made. Notice the singular rather than the plural "records;" an infinite number of records can be The Greatest Record Ever Made, as long as they take turns. ("September Gurls.") You live your life within each song as it plays. ("The Tears Of A Clown.") Your faith is fully invested, without reservation, and your belief is rewarded with each never-ending spin. ("Kick Out The Jams," muthas and bruthas.) The allegiance is eternal, immortal...at least, until the next song plays.
Do you believe in magic? I do. And that means I'm unable--unwilling--to dissect music's appeal. That would be like trying to tell a stranger about rock 'n' roll. Well, actually, I'm eager to do that. But my discourse will retain its reverence, its delight, its wonder, its awe. My cranial transistor is tuned to Sly Stone, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, Rotary Connection, Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, The Shangri-Las, P.P. Arnold, The Smithereens, The Four Tops, and to a bunch of singers and groups I haven't even heard yet. But I will. I'll hear 'em all. What do I really, really love about music? My God, what is there not to love? And how would we even know how to love if we didn't have it?
The beat's cool, too. I do dig the beat.
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