Something happened to my little family a few weeks ago that's had quite a profound effect on me. I can't go into it, because it's being dealt with accordingly, but it's got me thinking.
The way I've always dealt with crisis is through music. I'm a true believer (in a totally geeky way) that it's a healer, and that's how I'm coping with this particular blip. My beloved music and lyrics.
See, I think it's the words that actually get me through something. I guess any song can mean something if you really want it to, infact, most of my novels are either named after my favourite songs or inspired by them: The Adventure (Angels and Airwaves), Keys to the World (Richard Ashcroft), (Just Like) Starting Over (John Lennon), but now I have a new object of my desire, to get me through this new crisis, The Enemy.
My sister's been talking about them for ages, and I had intended on going to see them live, but was due with JB, however in April this year (yeah, I know, bit late!) I bought their album "We'll Live and Die in These Towns". OK, I guess the fact they come from Coventry strikes a chord, because I'm not too far from there myself, plus, I've worked there a far bit too, so I know those streets quite well, but it's not that, that's got me, it's the lyrics.
An article I read somewhere described The Enemy as "British Gunslingers", and do you know, I really like that. A cross between The Jam and Oasis, surely it doesn't come any better than that, so, today, moshing in the kitchen with Little Fella, I get the sleeve out like the geek I am, and start singing those lyrics, and it touches me really deeply,
"You spend your time in smokey rooms, where haggled old women with cheap perfume say, it never happens for people like us you know, well nothing ever happened on it's own, and well the toilets smells of desperation, the streets all echo of aggravation..." (All tracks written by The Enemy - "We'll Live and Die in These Towns").
This really stands out to me. First, and ironically, I was raised on an estate just like the one above, and even more weird, after 12 years away from "This Town", I now live on the neighbouring estate in a very desirable area, but NEVER forget my roots, and I guess that's the point.
I don't want to bark on about class and politics, although I'd love to, but these kind of lyrics strike me in the heart. Oasis are another brilliant band for doing this, as are The Smiths and Pulp and older days Stereophonics. Lines such as,
"...had enough, you let me down" (The Enemy), "Take me out tonight, because I want to see people and I want to see life..." (The Smiths), "...maybe you're the same as me, we see things they'll never see..." (Oasis), and finally, a brilliant lyric from Pulp's Common People, "You will never understand how it feels to live your life with no meaning or control..."
All these songs at some time have had real meaning in my life, but none more at the moment than "We''ll Live and Die In these Towns", the actual song at full beam (if you can!) is totally mind blowing, it's a real angst moment.
Sweet irony is, that thing that happened to my little family I mentioned, those responsible, hang about on that estate I grew up on, well, I guess there's some truth in we live and die in these towns - but not me and my lovely little family.
xxxxx
