I’m in love with everyone and everything they’ve ever done
Written by Benjamin "Benny" Burwell St. Maur // June 18, 2007 // The Conservatory // 3 Comments
What does it say about me when, Tuesday night at karaoke at British Bulldog (I’ll admit I was slightly drunk), Tim Cook sang T Rex ‘s "20th Century Boy" and I remember thinking at that moment that it was the greatest song ever written?
I think it says I fall in love easily. With people, with musicians, with music.
Because that’s not the first time. There was a moment not long ago when I was sitting at my computer, in the early hours of the morning, and I was listening to–hey, you know, I even have a blog post I wrote about it then! Oh, the wonders of electronic records.
This was at the end of January, this year. I wrote:
"I just had one of those epiphanous moments, nearly one a.m., sitting all adaze at the computer, listening and listening and hungry for it and realizing in this moment that The Cocteau Twins are the greatest band in the world. I think this year for Christmas I’m just going to give everyone I know a copy of the custom-mixed (pre-remastered) four-disc Lullabies to Violaine. I can’t think of anything more important to pass along. This music is peace-making. You hear ‘Three-Swept’ and you’re just sort of–OK. You’re just well."
Granted, I tend to overdo it with the hyperbole, but at those moments it just comes at me. It’s gripping. I think once, in high school, I made a similar claim about The Album Leaf.
For the record, it’s not always a fleeting thing. Maybe neither band is the best ever, but to this day I still hold The Album Leaf’s One Day I’ll Be On Time as one of my all-time top-ten albums, and Liz Fraser‘s is still my favorite voice in pop music.
I’d like to know how far my obsession goes, and I’d like to read about moments when you’ve thought–extremely seriously, even if the sentiment didn’t hold its strength for long–"This is the greatest song I’ve ever heard" or "This is my absolute favorite band of all time."
Am I generally alone on this? Does anyone fall in love with music this extremely? And is it healthy to idolize and adore perfect strangers so heavily?
3 Comments on "I’m in love with everyone and everything they’ve ever done"
I know that feeling. Like when you here a song for the first time and wonder how you’ve been living with out that song in your life. Or sometimes you see a band and think “wow, these guys are the coolest thing my senses have ever experienced.” Then you get home, pop in their album and discover that you might have jumped the gun on this one. Maybe your senses were overwhelmed by something other than the music. Good songs come and go but some will stay with us our whole lives. Even if other people have never heard them.
“Maybe your senses were overwhelmed by something other than the music.” That’s an excellent point. Sometimes the whole show experience–the music itself, plus the band’s presence, plus the lights and all the people and the sweat–becomes bigger than the music itself. But sometimes you come home and listen to it and it’s smaller and it’s different but it’s more personal.
I’ve also noticed that this tends to happen more often with bands I’ve never been able to see live, so they exist only in this magical floating musical space where their music is part of the soundtrack to my life and not part of a touring band’s set list.
And some of my all-time favorite songs are by bands that no one else seems to have heard of. I’ve thought about writing a feature on some of these songs or bands, to try to give them wider exposure, but then at the same time I’m selfishly afraid of giving up that magical “I’m the only one that’s ever listened to this song” feeling. I can’t decide.
That “”I’m the only one that’s ever listened to this song” feeling,” is a hard one to give up. i find that it’s a bit of fear. like, if i tell someone about this song and they don’t immediately fall in love with it i will have to question why it is that i love the song so much. i will have lost some of my validation that this was the song that anyone who heard it would instantly be reawakened to life.