Monday 1 October 2012

Music Monday ; Snapshots

Its music Monday and the theme this week is 'snapshots,' clear moments in time when music was playing. No, they aren't really the soundtracks of my life but will always bring me back to those times when I heard them and they sparked a certain reaction.

Lets get on with it shall we.


HIGHWAY TO HELL by AC/DC

It's the day after a mate of mine died and we are sitting in the pub, a collective of misery and shock. One of the lads pulls out some cash and heads to the duke box to try and make the difference. Two years later he was the best man at my wedding but in all reality he was the worst person to make that fateful walk.

He returns and his song selection hits hard, just so happens to be that the first two are songs many of us related directly to the deceased. He was blissfully unaware and looks awkward as many at the table fall apart a bit. 

In the brief silence between song selection number two; 'Hotel California' and number three we look at our pop picker dreading what was coming next. It started up, it took him several seconds to work out this was not the best thing to stick on, the look on his face and the blatantly poor selection brought us roaring into laughter.

I still smile when I hear it now. 





TRACKS OF MY TEARS by Smokey Robinson

I used to sing this, top of my voice, faulcetta, while staggering home from the pub. I loved the song and used to get some laughs for my painful rendition of a timeless classic. I did have a few good alternative lines, I was particularly proud of; 'if you see me with another girl, seeming like we're having fun, although she may be cute, she's just a prostitute, you're the permanent one.'

Realistically it was an early runner to X-Factor really; a talentless wanker staggers around murdering a song people love. I never got paid for it though. Cowell owes me money!





WOOHOO from The Kill Bill soundtrack

I was a stay at home dad at the time and working two cleaning jobs. I got up at 4.30 to get to work for 5. I'd finish at 7.30 and then rush home and try to have breakie with my wife and family. She'd leave for work, I'd do the twenty minute walk to school.

At that time Wig was a small baby, Roo was in nursery and Sauras was at the infants school on the same site. I had the school run to do three times a day, morning, lunchtime and afternoon. In between those times I did the housework, tidied, chilled with Wig and was trying to write a book (my first attempt and I didn't give up! Its a bit of a dog, but I didn't give up!).

Come the evening and my wife would return home, I'd try and smash some dinner down me and then  head out at 5 to do the other cleaning job till 7 30. I return around 7 45, 8ish utterly spent and then try and chill or maybe do some more writing.

Fatigue was my constant, monkey on back companion and it was tough but not enjoyable. To get us moving to and from school when all I wanted to do was die on the sofa we'd 'sing' (more chant) this on the way to and from school as 'Roo' is number twos nickname and 'RooHoo' fits nicely into this piece.

Its silly. Enjoy.





LOSE YOURSELF by Eminem

I've always been able to fuel myself into action through the right piece of music. When writing back when I first started I was sure I had something I wanted to say and that I could say it through the medium of word. I wanted to prove I could do it to myself and so I wrote but in truth I felt very much that I simply wasn't good enough and that it was indeed pointless to even try.

I'm not Hemingway and I never will be. I know now that if I can just be as good as I can be then maybe that in itself will be enough. As my writing starts to become the thing that I back as my profession I feel better, I feel like a person rightfully following a calling rather than a dude avoiding warehouse work.

I needed a pick me up on some days is what I'm saying really. This picked me up, smeared mud in my face and said 'Do it bitch!' I feel my teeth gritting just sticking it up here. Its a rallying call to arms, and words be my weapons.





This is the final one and its a goody. Its my wedding day and the church is full. The nerves are killing me and I know @mamacrow is outside, waiting to enter. We stand as she does, but she's not likely to walk down the aisle to something traditional. Nope. She likes to make an entrance.

As this boomed through the church my nerves slipped away.

Enjoy.





If you do have any suggestions as to a theme of the week then let me know.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading and listening.

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