punchdrunklove

oh, lots of memories from those 2 years.

but i agree that the question could be extended to: what stories of your life were touched by the art of someone you’ve never really known or to what extent you could bring those songs close to you.

there’s somewhat of a therapeutic effect of roughly 40 or 50 LW songs on me that, desirable or just beneficial, i learned to embrace. acknowledging it is important, but the cool thing is that other people do it too. when someone is familiar with songs like ‘everything has changed’ and see you listening to it 30 times straight they wonder why the hell is that and take you for a beer and a bicycle ride (true story). halfway i was told that was because of that song (“why are you so sad, why were you listening to that”). turns out i was not exactly sad. EHC is a very soothing song and i frequently listen to the same song 20-30 times straight. but the thing is: the thought process of this particular person was quite unique. he basically remembered about the song, the sadness of it (he likes lucinda and he knows that i’m quite fond of her work) and it was nice that he took seriously – albeit literally – the bond between artist and fan. and it’s not very common to be taken seriously as an enraptured fan. there’s a good deal of mocking.

and of course a song that you’ve listened to a lot in any given place will shape that place. that happened quite frequently in buenos aires, when i walked morning, afternoon, night and after hours throughout streets, parks, unfamiliar with their ways, their handshakes (men kiss each other on the cheek when greeting, which is something ALIEN in brazil), their language (ok, no, i’m fairly versed in spanish). but i’m not gonna talk about ‘copenhagen’, although i’ve given away the references. the thing is: you can find your ways through a city by being brave and exploring it, but a song always helps. i mentioned buenos aires because i was there when i came up with this thread and i decided to live there from setember/october on (forever), working as as freelancer (which is exactly what i do now, i work for publishing houses in rio and são paulo, esp. proofreading, but more than that), and i’m throwing my arms around a city in which i can hardly say i have a friend (yes, i spent 45 days there, but most of that was quality all-alone-time). but i adore buenos aires, an extremely captivating place, crazy delicious in its ways, and i’m sure that if i were to write something here weeks ago i’d say something about the city, besides the story i’m about to tell. and i’ve listened to LW a lot down there.

the nicest thing is when you can use a song to reconnect with people, and something along those lines was maybe the most thrilling achievement LW has ever done to me. for an awful lot of reasons and incidents i got myself a (severely) broken relationship with a friend of mine. months (months, months) later i sent a very dry, very polite e-mail, as if nothing had happened, going on and on about this LW song, ‘reason to cry’ (he never heard of her before). we were close, but our lives rarely crossed, we don’t have mutual friends and we studied at different universities etc. so i started narrating the song to get to the big finish, the “if our eyes shall meet somewhere down the road/ will you stop and be sweet, or will you just walk on?”. those verses actually bothered me since i’ve listened to the song for the first time and i was a matter of weeks until i sent the e-mail. because that’s ok – as in: it doesn’t hurt much – to be ignored as a matter of stupid pride since we don’t have anything/anybody in common, and basically no-one took notice of the incident and we stopped being conscious of it to a certain point. (that’s why i thought this was really a wreck and could not be solved.) but the idea of being ignored in an almost miraculous instance of casual meeting (i’m taking ‘down the road’ quite literally as ‘on a street’) was too harsh to let slide by. so, the e-mail is just me narrating the song and “if our eyes shall meet somewhere down the road/ will you stop and be sweet, or will you just walk on?” at the end. and i got a “I’ll stop and be sweet” for an answer. i think this is my favorite Life Event associated with lucinda williams.

sorry for the earlier meltdown (it wasn’t one!). albeit enthusiastic i’m easy-going and relaxed, that shouldn’t have sounded like that.