A while ago one of my chums and I were emailing back and forth about the phenomenon of rediscovering a song. I’m not talking about when you just recently heard that NKOTB song and unbeknown to you and mortifying-ly, you still held all the lyrics in that great melon on top of your shoulders. What I am talking about is when you’ve heard a song a bajillion times, you probably even know the lyrics, but you’ve never REALLY LISTENED to them. Or maybe you understood to the best of your knowledge, but then life happens and your life experiences broaden and now the song you’ve heard dozens of times all of a sudden makes SO MUCH SENSE to you and your life. Well, my friend, recently had this happen to her and blogged about it. And now, here I am blogging about it as well… and now here I am blogging about blogging. Okay, wait, back on track.
So, I was listening to my ipod at work, probably on shuffle and this Ben Folds song came on. The first track on the above tape. It has a sad feeling to it, as does a lot of music I really love. All of a sudden I hear the lyrics “Elliott, man you played a fine guitar and some dirty basketball” and like that I got chills. Now, I’ve had this album since it first came out and it’s only now that I have realized the song was about Elliott Smith, another sad singer/songwriter that I love. I had the fortune/misfortune of seeing him live before he died. I say fortune/misfortune because I got invited to a private show for a different artist and then discovered Elliott was opening. Beyond thrilled, just slightly. Now comes the misfortune. He never made it through his songs. He attempted over a dozen of his songs, but would have to stop. He apologized to the audience and explained it was because he had fallen asleep on the plane in a weird position and had no feeling in his hand. Each song was like a little heartbreak when he just couldn’t finish it. At this point I had already heard about his substance abuse issues and worried it might have more to do with that then the poor circulation and nerves. I found an article here by a critic who mentions the performance. It was probably within a year I was sitting in my mom’s classroom. I was working at the middle school myself at the time and I was on her computer when I read that he had died. No more new music, no more chances to see him live and be redeemed. After hearing the Ben Folds song I checked out Elliott’s wikipedia page to discover there have been several other artists who have written song for or about him after he passed. Rilo Kiley’s “It just is” and “Ripchord” and Rhett Miller’s “The Believer” to name a few.
So, as I’m composing this post I’m listening to a Ryan Adams station I’ve created on Pandora and guess what. The Ben Folds song above just came on. More chills.
