I’m crying.<\/p>\n
This weekend the buzz was about "Inception".\u00c2\u00a0 Movies are great, but they can’t touch you like a song.\u00c2\u00a0 Like "Message To My Girl".\u00c2\u00a0 By Split Enz.<\/p>\n
You haven’t heard it.\u00c2\u00a0 I had it on a cassette.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember playing it in my old car with my old wife.\u00c2\u00a0 It reminds me of a time gone by.\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike the greatest music, it loses nothing over time, it’s still alive today.<\/p>\n
My favorite Napster downloads are "Liar", by Argent, a cover of "Like A Rolling Stone" performed by Michael Hedges and "Message To My Girl" by Split Enz with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 I wasn’t going to write about "Message To My Girl", but I found it tacked on in a video to the song I did want to write about, "Amsterdam".\u00c2\u00a0 The live version of the latter is not as good as the studio take.\u00c2\u00a0 The recording is not perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike the impression I got from the title, the two songs don’t run together, there’s a break, they’re separate.\u00c2\u00a0 And then Neil Finn sits down at the keyboard and renders the essence of music.<\/p>\n
Music is not about perfection.\u00c2\u00a0 Because life isn’t either.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the illusion being proffered.\u00c2\u00a0 That if you just get enough plastic surgery, your life will work.\u00c2\u00a0 But ask Heidi Montag.\u00c2\u00a0 And Kim Kardashian may be smiling in public, but she’s got a string of failed relationships behind her.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s crying on the inside, but smiling for the camera.<\/p>\n
We’re all crying on the inside.\u00c2\u00a0 But we can no longer show it.\u00c2\u00a0 But what do we do with these emotions?\u00c2\u00a0 Music used to speak to our inner life, before it became about hits and videos and money.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it was always about money, but before you could make enough to buy a professional sports team, the main driver for music creation was feeling.\u00c2\u00a0 The goal was to get what was inside down on wax.\u00c2\u00a0 Frequently, it wasn’t even about the recording, but the evanescent live recording.<\/p>\n
Which is now captured.<\/p>\n
At first Neil Finn’s vocal is so perfect, you can’t believe it, you’re stunned, it’s as good as the recording.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he stretches and reveals his frailties.\u00c2\u00a0 The same way you adore someone from afar and get to know them and discover their imperfections.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, this rendition of "Message To My Girl" is humanity on parade.<\/p>\n
And "Message To My Girl" is so good, I’m always interested in what Mr. Finn does.\u00c2\u00a0 On the last Crowded House album there’s a song that still shocks me when I hear it on my iPod (twice at random in the last week!)\u00c2\u00a0 That track is "Silent House".<\/p>\n
"Amsterdam" is not as good as either.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s a killer change that touches your heart and makes you want to see the band live, to get ever closer.<\/p>\n
Either you’re a flash in the pan, playing to everybody on Top Forty radio, or you’re playing to your fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t worry about anybody beyond the ropes, maybe they’ll hear the sound and come ’round, but odds are they won’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Your only hope is your core supports you and testifies to its friends, dragging them to the gig (which must be priced low so they can go!), playing them your music.<\/p>\n
We’ve been taught otherwise.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything in life is quantified, as if you carved a notch in the headboard every time you had sex.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not true.\u00c2\u00a0 Life is really a bunch of unconnected moments that we try to make sense of.\u00c2\u00a0 And we make sense of them by going to the gig, to be touched by life. That’s what we all want.\u00c2\u00a0 To stop sleeping alone.\u00c2\u00a0 To be in bed with someone we trust, who loves us. That’s the essence of not only relationships, but family.\u00c2\u00a0 We bond together to protect ourselves from outside influences, trying to bring us down. Can you take a risk?\u00c2\u00a0 Can you reach out and try to connect?\u00c2\u00a0 You’d be surprised how few can, even though they’re dying to do so inside.\u00c2\u00a0 And so many of those who cannot substitute music.\u00c2\u00a0 The nerds, that’s what they’re getting from their fandom.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a substitute for sex.\u00c2\u00a0 Not quite as good, still pretty great.<\/p>\n No more empty self-possession<\/span> This is not what you expected, probably not what you want, not even what I had planned.\u00c2\u00a0 But if one is willing to follow the music, if one is willing to be open and free, one can live a life of transcendence.<\/p>\n
Now I wake up happy<\/span>
Warm in a lover’s embrace<\/span><\/p>\n
No one else can touch us<\/span>
While we’re in this place<\/span><\/p>\n
So I sing it to the world<\/span>
Simple message to my girl<\/span><\/p>\n
Vision swept under the mat<\/span>
It’s no New Year’s resolution<\/span>
It’s more than that<\/span><\/p>\n\n