Rhapsody in Blues

Music is just incredible.

It constantly amazes me just how much music can effect me. Us. Everyone.

Some people don't organize their cd's. I've been one of those for a while, not because I don't want to, I just never have thought to do it since I got my super-huge cd case.

People who do organize their cd's, (and I say "cd's" because that's the main form of music media now), do so differently depending on the person. Some do alphabetical. Some do chronological, by release date or purchase date.

Me? I used to do it by mood, then alphabetical.

I'll give you an example.

In the "melancholy, sad, and/or depressed" section of my cd case, the following would all be found:

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Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around

New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

Oasis - What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute.

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

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Let's take it one at a time.

Johnny Cash. His voice is pure sadness when he's not trying to be upbeat and funny. If you haven't heard this album, stop reading this right now and go buy it, or find it by any other means you may have.

New Radicals. This hits in this category because I connect it to a time period where I was depressed. It also makes me think of snow, and winter-after-Christmas. It's for those times when I'm feeling chronological-introspective-depressed. That's when you look back at your past, and rethink each and every move and decision you made, and somehow latch onto that, and add to your depressed state. It's...a sweet, lonely feeling.

Oasis. Yes, I know, some of you hate them. I, personally, don't. I found them when I ran out of Beatles, at a very, very difficult time in my life. I have trouble listening to them anymore. It makes me too sad. I sink too low. I take it only in measured doses.

Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm betting no one else in the world would have this in the "sad" section of their case. I like two songs on the album. That's it. One is halfway perky, and okay. The other is track number four. "My Friends." This is my deep, sad, dark song. When I'm really, and truly depressed, as deep as I go, this song comes out, and goes on repeat. I own the cd just for that song. It's played very infrequently.

Smashing Pumpkins. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I don't actually have this album right now. I did for years. I got it after the problems connected to the Oasis, but before the echoes of those problems had died. The discs are full of thoughtful songs. The kind of thing I want to listen to while I write or draw. Music you can fall into, and still find your way out quickly.

Wow. That was a huge off-topic ramble, but I suppose it does help illustrate what I basically said in the first sentence.

Music has an incomparable interaction with the human mind. A single song can symbolize and file away a relationship until it's heard again. A song can bring back smells, tastes, sights, feelings, and any other number of things. A song can take us over, and make us sing it, and repeat it in our heads, like a demonic possession. A song can make a person fall in love with you. A song can make a person leave you. A song can make a person hate you. A song can change the entire mood of a room, whether it contains a drunken party, or two orderly rows of pews and a pulpit. A song can bring back smells, tastes, sights, feelings, and sounds, even if one has forgotten those things completely.

It is the closest thing to magic that we have.

It's incredible...but I've said that already.

(Also, notice how big of a dweeb I am. I made them in alphabetical order by name, using last names for solo artists, even in my little list I put on here. Sad, sad, sad.)