I'm sort of breaking my own unwritten rule right off the bat with this first entry, as "Rubber Ring" didn’t really get stuck in my head today, but its sentiment seems apropos to what I hope will be the spirit of the stuff I want to write about here, and it's one that I've always felt to be true, presciently and precociously if I do say so myself, ever since first hearing the song probably on the very day "Louder Than Bombs," the record (which is and will remain my preferred term for a music release; not CD, not cassette) upon which it appeared, came out in the U.S. on July 7, 1987.
Anyway, I've chosen this particular number to kick things off as a way of explaining my motives, straightforward as they may be. Songs are always getting stuck in my head for reasons I would need a neurologist to fully explain, but might be simply understood by saying that they live there; that for whatever reason certain songs, thousands upon thousands of them probably, have embedded themselves in my memory and from time to time, upon seeing a certain something, or hearing a phrase or a snippet of conversation, or sometimes for no reason at all, like an acid flashback for people to whom music is a kind of drug causing, as Merriam-Webster defines the word, "a marked change in consciousness," will pop up out of the blue and into my noggin, as if my brain were on subconscious shuffle. It's a way of remembering. It's almost like inspiration. It's only rock 'n' roll, but I like it.
A sad fact widely known
The most impassionate song to a lonely soul is so easily outgrown
But don’t forget the songs that made you smile and the songs that made you cry
When you lay in awe on the bedroom floor and said "Oh, oh, smother me Mother"
No, oh, Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
The passing of time and all of its crimes is making me sad again
The passing of time and all of its sickening crimes is making me sad again
But don't forget the songs that made you cry and the songs that saved your life
Yes you're older now and you’re a clever swine, but they were the only ones who ever stood by you
The passing of time leaves empty lives waiting to be filled
The passing of time leaves empty lives waiting to be filled
I'm here with the cause, I'm holding the torch, in the corner of your room can you hear me?
And when you're dancing and laughing and finally living, hear my voice in your head and think of me kindly
No, oh, Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
No, oh, Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
Do you love me like you used to?
Fun facts: With the advent of the blog, it would seem that indeed, "Everybody's clever nowadays." The sample of those words at the end of "Rubber Ring" is from an EMI "Music for Pleasure" audio recording of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." The actor speaking is Sir John Gielgud. "You are sleeping, you do not want to believe" is the voice of an interpreter on a record called "Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead."
No comments:
Post a Comment