I remember Mrs Barron teaching us the Scottish play in high school. One of my clear memories, apart from Richard Kasselman almost making her swear for asking a dumb question, was her harping (rightly so) on the use of the word rapt. Now to the average pleb, the use of the word would have meant nothing of importance, but to her the word was all encompassing and her teaching resonated that. Thanks Mrs B. There is something that, as I get older, I find myself getting rapt in. There is a moment, a very special moment where one tends to lose themselves in. To be precise, it usually happens on the train between the verse and the chorus of a song.
One of the reasons I need to be open to the idea of a higher power is because of Mr Bruce Springsteen. Before you start a witchhunt and burn me at the stake, hear me out. When you listen to The River or Thunder Road you can’t help by be moved by the words, the emotion and the general bossness. It’s at that point that I need to remind myself that he has the genetic make up, barring some attributes of course, as I do. What sets him apart?
Let’s use another example. Take a second to listen to Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. Some might deem it to be unremarkable, but when you listen to it knowing that lead singer Ian Curtis killed wrote the lyrics with the pain that would eventually drive himself to take his own life. That, I’m afraid, can not be of chance. There must’ve have been some, in this particular case, tragic godly intervention.
My list could go on forever.
I write this stuck in a loop of Marianne by California Wives, a very underrated indie song from a few years ago. One can only wonder what the creative process was for the band members to come up with a catchy hook that can find myself absolutely rapt in a few minutes at a time on Spotify.
I think that as much as we attribute the bard and his talents as a sign of gifts that go beyond the normal human, so too can we attribute the ability and the general fucken genius of people like Bruce, Tom Petty, Ian Curtis and the rest (a list too long to even fathom).