The Delicate Sound

I realized today that I could clarify my statements regarding mood and music. It really comes down to whether you want to the music to change your mood or sustain it. Sometimes you just need to wallow in misery - roll around in it and really get your hands dirty with misery. That is the case for sustaining your mood with music. To go back to what I was saying in my previous post, sometimes you want to change your mood or more accurately: you want the music to change your mood.

For thirteen years I have been sending an email to a group of my friends from college on this day with that subject line. It generally revolves around what I am thinking, what I have been reading and most importantly what I have been listening to. The music part is the key because thirteen years ago today my best friend Bob Suwala died. The recipients have shrunk in numbers due to moves, lost addresses and the general and gradual disconnection of modern life. Bob’s girlfriend, his housemates, bike riding buddies and the many people he knew. Bob was the most connected person I knew when he was alive: he had an internet connection from school and we spent a lot of late (very late) nights perusing and posting to the Usenet groups in particular alt.rave. This was in 1990 - 1992 and the web was still but a glint in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. Bob and I shared a passion for music particularly electronic music – in those days it was house and becoming techno. Hardcore wasn’t really a term yet and ...

Music can be bi-directional for me: it can change my mood or I can change the music to fit my mood. Either way it is a symbiotic relationship of a sort. On my short drive to work each day I listen to my own personal radio station in the form of my iPod. I always like the songs as a whole but they are not always what I want to hear so I find myself skipping a lot – particularly in the morning. Sometimes my iPod really feels my mood and plays a lot of good songs in a row. Sometimes I get frustrated and skip the whole way to the office. I listen to albums in their entirety more in the morning than at night. I also find that an album or group of songs will seem great in the morning but after a day at work, the same songs can have little or no relevance to my mood. Today iPod Radio played Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti (Disc 2) in its entirety. If “Down By the Seaside” cannot put you in a good mood, you have issues. Led Zeppelin will be available on iTunes in November. Rock on!