I’m listening to ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’ by Pink Floyd and the music has inspired me to dabble in this blog till my eyes call it a day. I remember first hearing another one of their great songs - ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ during 12th grade when the line between school and ‘life’ was nothing more than the edge of a cliff. Indeed, I was ‘Learning to Fly’ and had ‘High Hopes’ of riding the waves of wind unhindered. More on what became of these ‘High Hopes’ further on up the road of this blog; it’s the transition from schooling to college that I’d like to linger with.
The end-years of the journey at St. James’ School were especially interesting, artistically. Having been exposed to thin-layered bubble-gum pop all my life, 11th and 12th grades exposed me to more meaningful music thanks to a couple of friends who brought it to my notice and an ever-expanding mind that was drilling through the ‘why(s)’, ‘how(s)’ and where(s) of life with a sharpness that could pierce through stone and drill through ice. The first rock album I ever heard and loved was Sheryl Crow’s self-titled album with thought-provoking numbers such as ‘Maybe Angels’, ‘Everyday is a Winding Road’, ‘The Book’ among others. The sound was different; gut-wrenching, hair-pulling, liberating music oiled by words that said ‘something’. And then, ‘Time Out of Mind’ happened and Bob Dylan quickly became a window to the world just as Sheryl Crow was the door that led me to it. Was I becoming a ‘rebel’? No, I wasn’t but I wasn’t going to call a spade a spade either; not until I turned it over and over a hundred times to ask those key questions, ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘what’.
In my next post, I will dwell on the influence of rock-music on my poetry. Till then, happy writing and goodnight!
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