While my guitar gently weeps

Isn't it amazing how music has evolved over the centuries. From Beethoven to Boyzone, from Elvis to Evanescence, from Mozart to Metallica, when I think about it, it makes me marvel at the ingenuity of the human mind.

However, it's so easy to become blasé about music. I listen to music for a couple of hours a day - when I get up in the morning, in the car, at work, at the gym - but I don't often take the time to actually listen to the songs. Usually, when I'm listening to music, I'm engaged in some other activity, and the songs become part of the background noise.

In almost every aspect of life, you are bombarded with music - sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes plain shite. There are catchy jingles on the radio and tv selling you everything from hemorrhoid cream to bread. TV shows and movies are rated as much by their soundtrack as they are for the acting, directing or aesthetic appeal. Live gigs have become big business and going to summer festivals has become almost a rite of passage in modern society. All in all, it's quite easy to just let the tunes wash over you.

But every now and then, I'll hear a song that quite literally stops me in my tracks. Sometimes it'll be a new song on the radio, that I've never heard before, but sometimes it's a song that I've heard dozens of times before, but never really paid attention to.

And I think it's incredible that music can have this kind of reaction. That music has the power to inspire such emotions in a person. Music can cause you to feel joy, hope, confusion, depsair, hurt, longing, lust, nostaliga, heartbreak, and so much more.

Anyhoo, on Saturday I was on the train down to London, and was listening to myPod, as usual. The tunes were pretty good, as I have great taste in music (:-D), and then Black by Pearl Jam came on, and it made me catch my breath. I've been a Pearl Jam fan for many years, and I've heard this song countless times before. I always thought it was good, but on Saturday, as I sat on the train watching England whizzing by, with myPod turned up loud, it had a heart-wrenching effect on me.

I think the combination of a very mellow and yet dramatic tune, Eddie Vedder's mournful voice, lyrics that are utterly despairing and the haunting piano just made me feel hollow inside. Towards the end of the song, the last verse, his voice becomes so anguished and wretched that it made me want to howl and weep in sympathy with his pain.

I'd forgotten that music can cause this kind of reaction; that it can be this powerful and moving.
From now on, I'm resolving to spend more time actually listening to music, rather than letting it fade into the background. And I'm dedicating this blog to Mr. Eddie Vedder for reminding me of this simple pleasure.