One thing I have found in my current relationship is it’s really nice to be with someone who shares my interest and taste in music. However, it has recently occurred to me that we appreciate it for entirely different reasons. This intrigues me even more since our tastes are very similar in most regards. I think it is interesting how people can end up loving the same things, but got there on their own unique path. I suppose music is only a very tiny example in the big scheme of things, but nevertheless interesting.

For instance, I have always related to music in some regard. I always had an uncanny ability to listen to a song, interpret it’s lyrics, and apply it to my own feelings or situation. This may be the main reason I have such a passion for music in general. I love the way a song can so brilliantly capture a feeling through a lyric you wouldn’t have dreamed up in a million years. I even love the ones I cannot necessarily relate to because some people can write in a way that can make you feel exactly what they are trying to convey,  and to me, that is an amazing gift. I have also come to the conclusion this may be why I enjoy writing so much. Maybe not so much in the lyrical sense, but in general. I hope to someday have that effect on someone. I think that is the ultimate for any sort of artist. To feel related to. To be understood on some other level than merely the surface of things.

I was a very angsty sort of teen that spent hours upon hours by myself in my room. Sometimes I was depressed. S0metimes I was happy.  Sometimes I was creative. Sometimes I was high out of my mind. Whatever the situation, there was always a song to suit the occasion. I would steal my favorite lines and scribble them on the covers of my various journals, books, etc. I even had a bible I had jotted down a line from Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” on the inside cover. (”Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”)..I thought even Jesus could appreciate such a sentiment. My mom said it was blasphemy. But she couldn’t even name the song, so of course her opinion wasn’t of much value to me.

I grew up somewhere along the way and would appreciate different tunes for more and more reasons every day. Some of them for relatable reasons. Some of them for pure therapeutic reasons. Some of them for nothing more than the simple appreciation of awesome talent. I sent my dad entire songs, written out in letters while he was in jail. I figured that maybe someone else could inspire him more so than I even could. An outside perspective, so to speak. He seemed to appreciate this. In any case, lyrics can be quite poetic, even without the melody to back them up.

I realize now that perhaps everyone appreciates music (or other art for that matter) for their own reasons, and that maybe my reason isn’t quite unique, but also not universal. But music most certainly is universal and always will be. It’s gotten me through some of the roughest times in my life and enhanced some of the best. I never did take any anti-depressants or other assorted meds, but i have an entire pharmacy’s worth of albums that are just what the Dr. ordered. No warnings or side effects either..unless you count the ‘parental advisory’s’.