tinhuviel: (Syd Barrett)

The past few days have seen a good friend post several Pink Floyd songs to his Facebook timeline, a news story on Roger Waters' unsurprisingly politicized concert tour and, just now, my iTunes essentially saying, "Okay, asshole, the universe is telling you to listen to the Floyd, so I guess I'll just put you back in cosmic line. Motherfucker..."

There are often reasons for why I choose not to listen to certain songs or bands at certain times.  One reason is because of the memories associated with them.  Another is because of the pain of musical empathy.  Pink Floyd falls into that category, so I have to be careful of my mood and mindset before I partake of the auditory manna that is Pink Floyd.  

What exactly is this thing I call musical empathy?  Basically, it's when I feel the message of the music so deeply that I become that music.  I got a double dose of musical empathy with Pink Floyd.  Even though I'd heard their music before, I didn't really get into them until I was given a 45 RPM of 'On the Turning Away' by Uncle Michael in 1986. While I was reading an article in Rolling Stone about Pink Floyd, the next 45 that dropped on my record player just happened to be that record.  I heard the song for the first time whilst reading about Syd Barrett's descent into madness for the first time.  What are the odds? I felt his story so deeply, so jarringly, I felt like I was losing my mind.

It didn't help when, just a few months later, I would meet the man who would be my closest friend for 25 years, and he was very heavily into the band, particularly 'The Wall'.  I saw the movie for the first time with him.  We ended up memorising every single vocal noise on the album and the movie soundtrack.  There were times when we'd spend almost every evening after work, watching and acting out the film, or just listening to the album and singing along.  It was a beautiful time, but also a dangerous one, for me.  I was too immersed in it all, and my first bad bout with depression occurred right around this time.  It would be a few years before I was diagnosed with depressive disorder, but I think Pink Floyd awoke some long-slumbering serpent that may not have reared its head for a long time to come, if ever.

Do I regret my relationship with Pink Floyd?  Only when my mood prevents me from listening to them.  This past week has seen me in "one of my turns", so listening just wasn't an option, until today.  So now I'm bingeing and it sounds and feels oh so very good!

tinhuviel: (Syd Barrett)
I fell asleep writing a little earlier, slept for about an hour sitting straight up. Woke up feeling like I'd been struck by a freight train. And now here I am writing here, thinking about Pink Floyd. So they're my theme over on Blip.fm this morning. Yesterday it was a bit more festive, as I featured a series of Klezmer tunes to get whomever was listening to jumping early in the morning. Absolutely will "On the Turning away" be featured. That song just makes me ache. I may have to add that to my fic playlist. I wish I had "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," but iTunes won't let you buy just that one song. You have to buy the whole album and I don't have the fundage. Boo on them.

This insomnia thing is really getting on my nerves. It'd be nice to sleep more than five hours at a time, and this grabbing of an hour here and there by my body without my realising it is quite disconcerting. It's like having lost time. What really irks me is that I drank some very strong coffee pretty late in the evening with the intention of writing all night. I knew that I was going to have insomnia. Your body can just tell you these things. So I figured I'd fuel the ailment and take advantage of it. Instead, however, the body kept fading out of consciousness, even with the caffeine overload. Sometimes, I feel I can't win for losing.

Aunt Tudi and I have some errands to run later on this morning. Again, I'm overloading on caffeine so I won't be a menace on the road. I want to go and get it done and get back home before the thunderstorms start. We're due for a rough day and I'd prefer to be at home instead of on the road if a bad one comes along. I have to say that's one thing I like about the South ~ the thunderstorm. If I'd had my druthers, I would have become a storm chaser.

Okay, I'm off to write on this thing before my body decides to act the fool again.

Damn....

Sep. 15th, 2008 11:18 pm
tinhuviel: (Syd Barrett)
Rick Wright of Pink Floyd dies of cancer at age 65

February 2019

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