It has been so gloomy outside and I attribute this decline in weather to my strand of overly morbid thoughts. This is a very tiny example but I took a cab to work today and considered bringing my laptop. The only thing that stopped me was my weird premonition that I would be walking in the road, drop the laptop, and watch on the side as a car's right front tire drove directly over it. Why would I have such a graphic image of something that is highly unlikely?
I specifically wanted to bring it with me to condense my iTunes that has gotten extra furry with all these extraneous songs that I will never listen to - and most importantly - will never fit on my iPod. I haven't synced that monster in a really long time. I have one of those last generation, tiny video iPods that claim to hold 2,000 songs but really hold about 1,900 on a good day. I have no music videos, thanks to my deletion of Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and John Mayer Trio's "Who Did You Think I Was", due to my assumption that this was what could've been holding my iPod back from carrying the traditional 2,000 songs. Wrong. It just lies to my face and forces me to delete songs I planned on listening to one day, most recently from Scissors for Lefty and Stereophonics (is that even their name?). I'll live I suppose but it makes me angry, especially because I'm coming really close to deleting songs I'd rather not... it's getting down to a decision between downloading that Sade song or leaving that second version of "House of the Rising Sun" - and that's not a decision I want to make. I love all my adult contemporary songs. Sometimes I think my iPod would make a 45 year old man who loves lite FM and good guitar jams really happy.
LIVE COMMENTARY: I'm at work right now and just sold 6 tickets to Killswitch Engage to a couple young bucks that I could clearly see smirking in the direction of my stereo which was blasting John Mayer's "My Stupid Mouth" which lead me to say, "I guess this is a little different than Killswitch, huh?" and they nervously laughed as if I had read their mind. I work at a hard rock venue in the middle of Central Jersey, by the way.
Speaking of John Mayer, this morning I watched his performance on The Tonight Show of "California Dreamin'" and it brought me right back to the feeling I normally have around this time when I've just purchased three sets of tickets for his summer concerts, begged friends or strangers alike to come with me, and already started planning what to wear. I know how that sounds and I'm okay with it. I'm smart enough to know how stupid I am - and how much of a cliche that is. I've lost friendships, relationships, and acquaintances due to my undying love for John Mayer. Funny how mature adults appreciate him for what he is but people under the age of 25 seem to think they must uphold some secret music code that forbids them from liking something as "uncool" as John Mayer. He dated Jessica Simpson! He's not worthy of the guitar praise! He's on the cover of US Weekly!! The horror! The shame! But really, who cares? Listen to "Covered in Rain" and "In Your Atmosphere" and tell me he's not all heart in the same vein as '70's style singer/songwriters like James Taylor or Todd Rundgren - with better guitar playing.
Many elements of John Mayer make me cringe, which I'm sorry to say, but that has never taken away from his massive talent and extreme dedication to his craft. As he famously said, he could be having sex with a grapefruit and still make the same music. His current sparse style, contrary to his debut album, transcends much of what his contemporaries are doing and shows his growing musical sophistication. I love when there's space to breathe within a song.
Listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment