“‘Cause I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all.”
It’s an old cliché. I think I’ve seen it in movies multiple times.
I was thinking all that yesterday when a character said that. Another character said, “Cliché,” and the third character said, “Three Days Grace, “Pain”, 2007.”
I gave the character help, looking the date up for him. He’s supposed to know these things, but he came up short (cliché!). I always think Three Days Grace could be a rock group from the previous century. Well, honestly, that’s when they started, so, it fits.
My wife gets credit for this one. She’s singing a few choruses from it as she goes about her day, so my stream took off and ran with the rest of the song.
From the good ol’ days of 1979, here’s Queen with “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
I was thinking about the our entanglements through love and sex, blood and money, politics and hopes, and all the other ways we become entangled. Crazy dreams played a part, as did my writing process as I work on April Showers 1921, coupling and uncoupling plot twists and character arcs.
And lo, a song did rise in my stream, a song from 1975, when I was but nineteen and serving in the military in the Philippines.
A true legend and Nobel Prize winner (the accepting of which became another facet in the complex musician’s life), here’s Bob Dylan with “Tangled Up in Blue”.
Listening to it always makes me nostalgic for what I thought was going to be.
Today’s theme music popped straight into the stream from memories and dreams. Here’s Rufus and Chaka Khan with a song that Stevie Wonder wrote, “Tell Me Something Good”, from the year I graduated high school, 1974.
Today, thinking, through it all, I’ll rise and fall, (and laughing at myself with a small head shake as I did), I thought that those words sounded familiar. My mind stumbled around for a while, tripping over other songs, almost tripping over cats, sipping coffee (and almost spilling coffee) until, wait, wait for it, wait for it…
A face appeared. A guitar riff followed. A voice popped into the stream.
Ah, yes. Having clues, I dashed to the Internet! A little later, the answer was mine: My Chemical Romance, “Welcome to the Black Parade” (2006).
Well, after that time dredging the stream for what it was, I had to feature it. Besides, the video is interesting, don’t you think? The whole thing is a little pop, a little rock, a little punk, a little drama, and a little surreal, don’t you think?
You’d think that today’s theme music originated with feeding the cats or something, but, no, this one started with a dream.
The dream had to do with a man that I’d met and the movies. Throughout the dream, he was either trying to get me to go to the movies with him, be in a movie with him, or make a movie with him. A cheery, energetic guy, I never quite understood him or what was going on. But I recalled him saying, “Just how deeply do you believe?”
After thinking about the dream and feeding the cats, that phrase started Nine Inch Nails, “That Hand that Feeds” (2005), streaming through me. “Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds?”
I’ve always had a place in my heart for the Clash, and I like the hard-edge they bring to today’s theme music. “I Fought the Law” by the Bobby Fuller Four was a hit when I was ten. Featuring clear and easy lyrics and a fast beat, I heard it on AM radio and picked it up and liked singing it. It was a decent song.
Over twenty years later (1979), with the Clash’s almost smug, sneering, raw cover, I felt it was more correct. Then, on reflection, I recognized, no, this is more about our cultural shift regarding music, and the evolution of taste. My mother disagreed. She liked Fuller’s smoother version.
I also thought it was humorous and odd after “White Riot” that the Clash recorded “I Fought the Law”. While the subject matter, an unlawful resistance theme, was similar, the songs’ structure were different. I decided the Clash were being ironic with their cover of “I Fought the Law”.
The trigger for releasing the song into my stream last night and today was a conversation with my spouse. I said, “I’m going to the ATM for some cash. Need any?” As I went, I thought, “I needed money ’cause I had none.” Naturally, the chorus followed. Fortunately, my ATM card worked, my account had cash, the law wasn’t involved, and the only fighting was within myself about how much cash to take out.
Here’s both versions. Hope you enjoy one of them. Cheers
Oh, those dreams. After those, I was hunting for an energy jolt. After reading some Dave Grohl comments about Billie Eilish, and thought, yes, she will work.
I like her work because it’s a change, although, honestly, “Ocean Eyes” (2015) was weirdly Enya-esque, prompting thoughts about cycles.
“you should see me in a crown” (2018) doesn’t remind me of Enya. It reminds me of exploration and alienation while sourly mocking invitations, judgments, and expectations.
Count my cards watch them fall
Blood on a marble wall
I like the way they all
Scream
Tell me which one is worse
Living or dying first
Sleeping inside a hearse
I don’t dream
It’s musical art, an expression about a generational segment, in my bones. Don’t mind the spiders. She doesn’t.
After another night of multiple, interesting dreams (some involving playing games), I was mocking myself this morning. “These dreams go on when I close my eyes,” I said to the cats, who were not looking at me nor listening to me (because, the cats were all thinking — I could see it in the spread of their whiskers, the glints in their eyes, and the tilt of their ears — “The others are here, and who knows when one of those other cats will lose it and attack me, so I must stay vigilant!”), “but it feels like I’m thinking about them every second that I’m awake.” Of course, I was close to the song lyrics from “These Dreams”, a 1986 Heart hit.
“These Dreams” sounded different from Heart’s earlier music, IMO, but I liked the song. (Confession: I like songs ’bout dreams. It might be because I dream often, and seem to remember them.) Of course, the band’s line-up had changed, too, another reason for the different sound. Not long after buying Heart’s album, I discovered that Martin Page and Bernie Taupin wrote the song. Ah, hah.
The other aspect of this song, heavily noted during the song’s time on the pop chart, was that Nancy Wilson sang lead vocals instead of Ann, even though Nancy had a cold.
It’s another feline inspired theme-music day. I petted Tucker and fed him, then fed the others, and then started my coffee and breakfast. Tucker, though, stayed with me, standing by me wherever I want. I finally asked him, “What’s up? Is this stand-by-you day?”
So, for Tucker, here’s the Pretenders with their 1994 song, “I’ll Stand by You”. Not that he was looking sad, or had any tears in his eyes. Quite the opposite, he was tail-up.
Michael Seidel, writer 