The New Music

I just got back from a little car trip around town. I've been listening to a new (for me) station that plays really solid stuff. And they're one of those stations that plays popular tunes over and over so you've got a chance to hear them again.

I dropped off a couple of movies (late), and when I got back to the car, they were playing Boys of Summer by Don Henley. That's been one of my Jody-button songs since last November when I was standing with P-Doug in a store somewhere and he drew my attention to the beauty of the arpeggios... and I told Jody about it on the Monday. As I turned at the light, I was singing Flea's lyrics to RubyOcelot... I can see you... your brown fur shinin' in the sun... you got a ice cream cone stuck on your tongue. I can tell you my love for you will still be strong after the cookie dough is all gone... Well, the cookie dough's been all gone for a few months now. But yeah, the love is strong. Strong and tempered enough that the song made me feel good instead of bringing me down. Won't always be that way, I'm sure, but today it was.

I stopped to pick up lunch and when I came out and headed home, there was another song, new to me, and the nature of which really should have set me off. It was Not Ready to Go by The Trews. All it made me think of, though, was how brave Jody was hanging on, fighting till the end. How much he loved life and the people around him, how hard he tried to make us all happy instead of milking his own problems for sympathy. And again, the song made me happy. It virtually convinced me that Jody is still around somewhere, somehow. It wasn't quite like he was singing to me, but like he'd sent me a proxy. He wasn't ready to go, but he had to, BUT... he was letting us all know that that fighting spirit is still alive, and everything that propelled it. All those fine things still exist. What a great song. It's the first real sense I've ever had that Jody might have triumphed over death. What I thought of as the war was only the battle; he lost that, but won the war. I don't know. It doesn't make sense the way I'm telling it. Just think Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader. You'll get the idea.