That's why we listen.
Sure, we want our eardrums to be tickled with nice sounding melody and we want our feet to stomp along to a good beat. But we all know that a great song goes far beyond any of those musically theoretical appreciations. When a human being sits down with an instrument and sings their own words, when they express the raw emotion of their soul...
Everyone listens.
Not just with their ears though. It doesn't matter whether it be with a harp, a guitar, a piano or even a carved empty gourd that he/she pounds against the ground. I believe when someone pours themselves into a song, when they really dig deep into their present condition and express themselves with absolute raw honesty, something very spiritual occurs. As we sit and listen our hearts open up and things we weren't even really sure were there inside of us begin to bubble up from places we didn't even know existed.
The greatest artists of our time are the one's who have, in some mysterious and ethereal way, tapped into the deepest parts of us by giving us glimpses of what lies deep within them. We begin to see way beyond their exterior and are invited through melody, rhythm and rhyme onto the front porch of their hearts. Sometimes it's beautiful, other times it's dark and tormented.
Johnny Cash
John Lennon
Bob Dylan
Jimi Hendrix
Michael Jackson
Kurt Cobain
Talk to any avid fan of the aforementioned and you'll get much more than the appreciation of their musical ability. As genius as their ability may be, each one left their mark far beyond things you can measure with things like record sales and fame. These artists connected with the world at a whole other level. They tapped into something big and grand and by allowing themselves to be fully expressed through their little guitar,microphone,dance floor etc., they cracked out of being just mere performers and embraced the mantle of being prophets to their generation. These artists, along with many other geniuses can all tend to have a similar thread that beyond any possible genre or style, binds them together. We use the term eccentric genius to capture the way people like this throughout history seem to blaze forward miles beyond the pack. Mozart, Einstein, Howard Hughes all fit this bill as well. The sad part of all this is that these insanely gifted individuals are all bound together in tragedy as well. In some way or another, they all somewhat lost the plot altogether while completely losing their minds in the process. Nearly all of them ended up dying way too young.
If these classic icons can be considered prophets, they would be the MAJOR prophets of the Old Testament. These guys would be considered the heavy hitters like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They carry a ton of street cred an everyone know's them by name. Then there are some other dudes that I really admire just as much as any of those other guys, but they often aren't on the cover of Time magazine or gracing headlines around the globe.
Guys like...
Justin Vernon
Dallas Green
Dustin Kensrue
I guess you could classify them as the MINOR prophets, you know, the Habbakuk's,Haggai's and Amos's. The guys that tend to get a little passed over for their more epic, dramatic and often tragic counterparts.
I listen to these budding genius' pour their soul into their music and something inside of me is unlocked. It feels as if I'm being literally transported to a whole other place when I listen to them strum their guitars and belt out their heavenly melodies. I listen and the immediate reaction I experience is that I want to play just like them. I'll be honest though, I tend to go beyond just musical appreciation with these guys as well. If they were to wear cool little western flannels at a big show or on tv... I tend to find myself skimming through my local Op shops with a bit of 'plaid vision', subconsciously scraping together my identity to the people who so eloquently portray a huge part of what I really want to be.
At some point almost a decade ago I decided to pick up a guitar. Contrary to any kind of logic or reason I began to strum my chicken fingers against those steel strings and also attempted to force melody to emerge from my deep, gravely and seemingly unpleasant/tone deaf vocal cords. It all changed from that point on and there really was no looking back. Hundreds of absolutely terrible and meaningless songs have ventured out into the atmosphere from within me since those early days. All the while their have been a few that seem to resonate with people in ways that I couldn't explain even if I tried.
Sometimes a song will resonate with my family or with some of my best friends. Sometimes with complete strangers at big church service gatherings and sometimes they resonate with drunken strangers at bars and pubs.The moments when someone tells me that something I have created touched them in a meaningful way seem to transcend any other kind of affirmation I could ever receive. Their seems to be an indescribable joy that comes from knowing that something that is completely and entirely of my creation, can go beyond me and make a real and significant difference to another person.
There will always be people we look up to in whatever thing we find ourselves being passionate about. A Michael Jordan, a Hemmingway, a Kelly Slater or a Bob Marley. When I began to sit down and attempt to relay my heart and soul through a guitar and microphone it didn't take long for me to find others that were really good at it and that I could only hope and dream to emulate.
(Part 2 coming soon)
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