Currently Listening To
This album sends a chill up my spine.
Do you own any music that does this–that brings the past to your feet. Ever listen to a song that slaps you in the face?
I rediscovered this album tonight. I had it once on my Walkman–the ungreased plastic cogs humming during the quiet parts. I listened to it on the plane to Switzerland in 1989, looking down at the neat, European countryside below, contemplating solitude and absolute freedom; I listened to it curled up in a fetal ball in my third story room of my Swiss host family’s 300 year-old house thinking about America’s sins. I heard Street Fighting Years as I gazed out of the Swiss train as it sped me to Aarau, to my high school. By the time I got to This is Your Land, I was walking up the neat steps of the train station to my first class which was Ancient Roman history–taught by the coolest and smartest of teachers who bought us beer once school was over (at Pickwick’s Pub)–from the man who taught me that Rome had a prehistory. I never knew about the Etruscans. The furthest you get into Rome in American schools is Cliff Notez’ Julius Caesar.
Belfast Child is the one that really makes me shiver.
I’m outside my home–kicked out for being a conservative rebel in a liberal rebel’s house.
Really alone.
I’m there right now. The album was worth buying tonight.
You all have music like this don’t you?