On 2005-12-03 18:10:00, marcwordsmith wrote:
"One of the ways I comforted myself during and after the Seed was with music. I projected very personal meanings and messages into the rock music of the day. Like the song "From the Beginning" by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, with its refrain:
You see it's all clear
You were meant to be here
From the beginning
I took that to mean that, for reasons I could not fathom, even the Seed was somehow part of the master plan for my life. I needed to believe it made some sort of sense, fit into some larger scheme.
The album Who's Next was a really big deal for me; I escaped so much into that record. It's hard to say exactly what made it feel so relevant to me. Maybe just the whole tone of it, the spiritual yearning, the hurt.
And the "teenage wasteland" refrain made really feel not alone. When Townshend sang, "Don't cry, don't raise your eye, it's only teenage wasteland," I felt like he was telling me to forget it--teenagehood would be, for me, a scarred battlefield that I could leave behind some day for better places. (And maybe many troubled teenagers, in all kinds of situations, heard it that way, and maybe that's part of why that phrase resonated for so very many kids.)
Anybody else take comfort in music or song lyrics during the Seed era in their lives?"
Marc, I don't think I got to thank you for your fearless chronicle of your experience at The Seed. But if I did Thanks again. I have always found solace in music but much more now than then. I occasionally quote something that I find meaningful from my library in here. Funny I loved rock all my teenage years and of course still do to some extent but I started branching out as i got a little older. After I went back to my dads after destroying my first marriage due to my alcoholism I found comfort in what would now be considered classic country. The songs were one after the other a serial compilation that spoke to the wreckage that I had created for myself. I would go park my car at the lake near my parents home and write sad poems, drink beer,listen to country music and cry. Later in better times I found the mood that jazz created after getting sober was useful in setting the tone for my new venture back into the dating world. But I steered toward artists from Michael Franks to Winton Marsalis to Rickie Lee Jones and though I typically get the most from lyrics I found the power of brass to move me emotionally as well. From there I ventured into the Nouveau Flamenco of Otmar Liebert which led me to search the roots of classical guitar and its heavier influences such as Andres Segovia. His renditions on guitar of Bach developed in me the interest to explore on a limited basis some classical music. Now I listen to people who by and large are are in the folk scene and obscure for the most part to the general public but who are highly respected by the more popular country musicians who often cover there songs. I find an amazing power and depth to the simple combination of an acoustic guitar and lyrics of life and love and stories of experience. So many may not have heard of people like John Prine, Doc watson, Townes Van Zandt, Lucy Kaplanski, David Wilcox, Ellis Paul, Greg Brown, Eva Cassidy, Lucinda Williams but their music forms the roots of so many others that are more popular but don't have any of the raw and passionate truth that resonates with these other artists. Many know Townes Van Zandt through the cover The Highwaymen did of the song "Pancho and Lefty". John Prines contributions are legendary in the music world but to understand the power of his music listen to his duet with Bonnie Rait singing "Angel from Montgomery" about an old couple sung from the womens's perspective. The lines in that song, "if dreams were lighting and thunder were desire this old house would of burnt down a long time ago", "Just give me one thing that I can hold onto, to believe in this living is just a hard way to go" " How the hell can a person go to work in the morning come home in the evening and have nothing to say", speak of such a deeply moving picture of despair. From Prine's most well known song "Sam Stone", about the life of a vietnam veteran after he returned home, the line "there's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes" is so simplistic yet poignant. Townes Van Zandt who's own path of abuse led to his death a few years ago had the ability to weave marvellous tapestries of words that are some of the most amazingly complex poetry I have ever heard anywhere. Yet there is a raw edge to his music that to me anyway is moving. So I tend to seek out the little known artists who have a story to tell.
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