Memories Can't Wait

This is why I like David Byrne. He's quite for a long time and then spits out something brilliant like his ruminations on the past, present and future of music as art, consumable and durable good (June 5 entry). (Uncovered via Boing Boing.)

Quoth Mr. Byrne:

What then becomes valuable in many cases is what music means to people — beyond the actual recording. Part of this meaning is in the song (or whatever) — and not necessarily in the specific recording of it. What it expresses, how it moves people, the worldview and ethos it embodies. Many of these qualities can be in the composition and exist apart from the recording and interpretation of that composition. People like "The Rite Of Spring" but are not everyone is super fussy about which recording they are hearing. Well, some are, but you get my point.

The other part of what music means is embodied in the singer, the band or the composer. It’s not even in the music and can’t be recorded, at some of it can’t. For some of this music the actual musical and lyrical content is almost irrelevant. For some pieces of music what it’s about is the relationship, the connection to, the singer, with their style, attitude, behavior, beliefs and looks more so than with the music, which is more or less relegated in this case to being the soundtrack to the lifestyle and philosophy. At best the music and everything else surrounding it — the videos, the gossip, the reputation, present a common front, a gesamtkunstwerk type piece that embodies what matters to a person.

Except for the part about a gesamtkunstwerk, that's what I've always felt. It's all about the connection and the meaning. People ask me why I like certain bands, songs, writers. My only answer can be, "I don't know. They just hit me." Sometimes I feel as though the singer/writer is an extension of my own emotional psyche. Others I only care about the melody. The way certain people can string a finite number of notes together into something fresh and exciting amazes me to no end.

But, in the end, it's the songs and what they mean. Not their context, but what they mean to me. That's why I constantly pursue music. Because I never know where the next track in the soundtrack of my goofy life may lay. It may be a steaming hunk of crap, or it could be "the one" that clicks with me.

In honor of Dave:

David Byrne - Sock It 2 Me (Missy Elliot Cover)

Now go buy Byrne. This is my favorite post-Talking Heads. It's the one that connected.