Blog Number 415

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have been listening to a lot of music lately.  This is normal so if you knew me real well then that last sentence was unneeded.  But few people know me real well so I felt it was a necessary statement.  Ecclesiastes 1:8b says "...the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."  Well my ear is never filled with hearing.  I try to listen to music with positive lyrics but lately I have drifted toward a darker side.  I used to shy away from certain groups altogether but as I have gotten older perhaps I have gained understanding or compassion.  The things that people sing about are not so different than my experiences or at least close enough so that I can relate.  I have (2) CDs by Stone Temple Pilots now (both for $1 each).  I have heard that some of the band members had trouble with drug use so as I listen to this band I play a little game called "Where they high when they wrote these lyrics?"  Let me give you a sample from the song "Still Remains"...

1 Pick a song and sing a yellow nectarine
2 Take a bath, I'll drink the water that you leave
3 If you should die before me ask if you can bring a friend
4 Pick a flower, hold your breath and drift away...

Line 1 has to fall into the "yes, they were high when the wrote it" as it makes no sense in any context that I can think of.  Line 2 is a toss up as it is just gross enough to be a real fetish.  Line 3 seems sincere and even sounds like something I would have said to my wife while we were engaged (not that I would not say it now, just more likely to have said it when I was newly in love).  Line 4 is another toss up.  All in all, this chorus was probably written while stoned but with brief moments of clarity thrown in.

My recent attention to lyrics is probably due to 35 minutes worth of extra listening time while on the treadmill and the phenominal lack of terrain change that the treadmill offers.  With no sensory input from the eyes, the ears search for something to fill the gap.  I will be taking the next 4 days off of the treadmill as the family travels to South Haven in Michigan.  My mother and her boyfriend will be there along with my brother and his wife.  Throw in our 4 and the 8 of us will be there over the long holiday weekend.  Then it is off to Decatur, IL, for the son and I (wife and daughter will ride home with my mother) so we can go to the Stellar Kart concert.  I like their music well enough (though their lyrics are rather simple) but I did catch some video posted on their Facebook page of them in concert.  I think it might be a looooong concert if you get my drift (the lead singer did not sound as good as he does on the CDs).  I am sure I will have a blog or two about it.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon