The Four Right Chords Can Make Me Cry

Thursday, July 17, 2008

It's hard for me to write without music. In fact, I sometimes find it's hard for me to do much of anything without music. Somehow it helps me better organize my thoughts if my situation or environment has the right soundtrack. But if that soundtrack is wrong, as it often is, then I get caught up in correcting the music instead of focusing on the situation at hand.

It's rare that I get silence in my head. If music isn't playing externally, there's a good chance that I still have something playing in my head, and unless it's the perfect song, I feel the need to replace it with something more appropriate.

This all sounds a bit neurotic, but, then again, music plays a much larger role in my life than most. I don't always know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. My friend Josh and I share an appreciation for obscure music trivia. We carry around such a wealth of useless music-related information, that we feel the need to thrust it on other people (who often could care less) when we're not around each other. Does it improve my life to know that Pearl Jam's original name was Mookie Blaylock or that Jeff Buckley and Gwen Stefani both went to the same high school (Loara High School in Anaheim, CA)?

My obsession with music is nothing new; I'm just trying to figure out why it's been the most enduring.