If we could pick 40 songs that define our lives, what would they be? What would be the criteria? How would we pick them out of the thousands of things floating around the aether?
I decided to answer this self-made challenge, and create an autobiography in the meantime. Yes, yes, who will really care about what songs are important to me, or what lyrics resonate with me. And to that I answer I do not know. All I do know is that wherever I go or whomever I speak to I always find songs that mean a lot to people. Why? Who knows. We do not spend enough time with what means something to us or trying to see why it struck us in that way when it did. But there are enough shared songs out there to create meaning for everyone.
#1: Handle With Care -- The Travelling Wilburys
Year: 1988
Record: Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1
Written by: Traveling Wilburys. This song was inspired by a box in Bob Dylan's recording studio labeled "Handle With Care". All of the Wilburys contributed to the song.
Handle With Care
This song represents all I have ever wanted from someone. And, coincidentally, all that the beloved Rachel has given me.
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
This may be Roy Orbison's one trick pony on this song, but it is genius. He was more than "Only the Lonely" and proved it on this album. For those of us on the cusp of lifetime loneliness his voice put feeling to what we were afraid of the most. Remembered for one thing and one thing only from 25 years ago. Cue the fast forward to 2016 reunion, alone and drunk.
Been beat up and battered around
Been set up and been shot down
You're the best thing that I've ever found
Handle me with Care
This is the single item I could ever tell my wife that made sense. Why? Who cares. How? Just do what you do. Handle me with care.
When I first heard this song back in 10th grade, George Harrison touched my soul with a hot poker. It was a plea from a pseudo-dark place. My Dad was gone but not forgotten, showing up in the bars downtown to upbraid my friends for being drunk on school nights. He was drunk on work nights every day from 1950 to 1992. I was allowing him to crawl in drunk through my bedroom window twice a week, risking a tongue lashing from Mom for doing so but realizing that it was better than an ass kicking from Dad. He hit much harder than Mom, and knew where to place knees and elbows,
Handle me with care.
Why? I'm broken. Mentally shot and ground down. To drunk sometimes to realize what is best. Handle me with care. Orbison's lament is powerful for those who are lonely but also meaningful for those who are not. I still have a lot to give! Who doesn't? At the end of our ropes we look for those who would use us as an escape route, climbing to a place where we want to go ourselves. It makes us worthy of being alive; worthy of being the people others see us for but for which we remain blind. Such is the way of the depressed and self-abusing.
Won't you show me that you really care?
Is this sex? It is for some. For everyone, it is being with someone. Being present for the talks, naked and clothed. Being present for the failure and the success. That is how I have failed. I am absent in most days. I've leaned on Rachel for 20 years. Take her away and I fall apart. When she is angry it is an earthquake of unknown supports. My leans cause anger, always have and always will. Can I stop this slide?
I've been robbed and ridiculed.
You damn right I can.
I decided to answer this self-made challenge, and create an autobiography in the meantime. Yes, yes, who will really care about what songs are important to me, or what lyrics resonate with me. And to that I answer I do not know. All I do know is that wherever I go or whomever I speak to I always find songs that mean a lot to people. Why? Who knows. We do not spend enough time with what means something to us or trying to see why it struck us in that way when it did. But there are enough shared songs out there to create meaning for everyone.
#1: Handle With Care -- The Travelling Wilburys
Year: 1988
Record: Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1
Written by: Traveling Wilburys. This song was inspired by a box in Bob Dylan's recording studio labeled "Handle With Care". All of the Wilburys contributed to the song.
Handle With Care
This song represents all I have ever wanted from someone. And, coincidentally, all that the beloved Rachel has given me.
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
This may be Roy Orbison's one trick pony on this song, but it is genius. He was more than "Only the Lonely" and proved it on this album. For those of us on the cusp of lifetime loneliness his voice put feeling to what we were afraid of the most. Remembered for one thing and one thing only from 25 years ago. Cue the fast forward to 2016 reunion, alone and drunk.
Been beat up and battered around
Been set up and been shot down
You're the best thing that I've ever found
Handle me with Care
This is the single item I could ever tell my wife that made sense. Why? Who cares. How? Just do what you do. Handle me with care.
When I first heard this song back in 10th grade, George Harrison touched my soul with a hot poker. It was a plea from a pseudo-dark place. My Dad was gone but not forgotten, showing up in the bars downtown to upbraid my friends for being drunk on school nights. He was drunk on work nights every day from 1950 to 1992. I was allowing him to crawl in drunk through my bedroom window twice a week, risking a tongue lashing from Mom for doing so but realizing that it was better than an ass kicking from Dad. He hit much harder than Mom, and knew where to place knees and elbows,
Handle me with care.
Why? I'm broken. Mentally shot and ground down. To drunk sometimes to realize what is best. Handle me with care. Orbison's lament is powerful for those who are lonely but also meaningful for those who are not. I still have a lot to give! Who doesn't? At the end of our ropes we look for those who would use us as an escape route, climbing to a place where we want to go ourselves. It makes us worthy of being alive; worthy of being the people others see us for but for which we remain blind. Such is the way of the depressed and self-abusing.
Won't you show me that you really care?
Is this sex? It is for some. For everyone, it is being with someone. Being present for the talks, naked and clothed. Being present for the failure and the success. That is how I have failed. I am absent in most days. I've leaned on Rachel for 20 years. Take her away and I fall apart. When she is angry it is an earthquake of unknown supports. My leans cause anger, always have and always will. Can I stop this slide?
I've been robbed and ridiculed.
You damn right I can.
No comments:
Post a Comment