After a while, he gave this refrain a break and started singing in a voice that was grizzled by age and alcohol. He sang what seemed to be an endless love song. In general, it was tough to make out the words, but there was one memorable moment of lyrical clarity, when he built up unintelligibly to a climactic, wheezed, “I need you” punctuated by a falsetto sob. As I listened to this rather lengthy song, I noticed a few feet to my left a young Asian man studying a music score. As he leafed through the pages, he fiddled with his iPod, queuing it up to the page he was looking at—not something you usually see outside of a music library. I assumed him to be an aspiring conductor. I stared curiously, trying to figure out what music he was studying. Finally, I caught a glimpse of the cover: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. The conductor was clearly annoyed with the drunk, turning his iPod's volume up and edging away. I, on the other hand, was enjoying this juxtaposition. Here in front of me was an illustration of one of the biggest reasons that I love music—it can take so many forms, and mean so many different things to different people. Music can be a drunken pastime to an aging alcoholic, or the object of intense study and focus for a conducting student, and it can exist in both of these forms within a 5-foot radius. Amazing. Big Z Remixes - No Good With Faces (feat. Jack Johnson & Too Short) (YSI) (filesavr)
The other day, I was standing on the 1 heading uptown. There was an older, black, drunk man sitting in front of me. He was probably in his 50s, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and clearly not at all bothered by the put-together, after-work crowd around him. For a while he did nothing but sit there repeating the phrase “Your boss kicked your ass today!” His tone suggested that he took some satisfaction in the fact that we were just leaving work and he was already drunk.
1 comments:
It says you like cool jams.
I do like cool jams.
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