Sunday, April 3, 2005

Indie Rock god While Listening to WZBC (Boston Colleges student radio station) Last week the Dj played a song by a guy I knew once. Not so bad in-and-of-itself. It happens every so often. On this occasion it got to me a little. I suppose it was the strongly phrased effusion that this person was a genuis of our time, a step above the ordinary genus humanus, a genuine indie rock god. I didn't exactly think of him that way when I knew him. Oh, he was a nice guy. I liked him, liked the band. We were all students at the University of Maryland. I liked him even through minor differences of view, (Liz). It's just that I always saw him as mortal. But he's not, a complete stranger made it effectively clear: of Orpheus and the lot he belongs. No one calls me a indie rock god. I'd know if they did. What's worse is that it was a good song, Cath Carroll, that they played.  I know why he wrote that song. As I thought about it, several of his songs were good: Hydroplane, Sukey, Isabel, Wednesday and Proud, Even Malcolm X Park. All better than I remembered, better than I wanted to remember. The whole incident tortured my sense of perspective on things. Only a few are allowed to be revealed as rock gods and fewer still get to live in that role outside of their youth and early adulthood. Similar maybe to being a winning Olympic athlete, unlike the original Olympics that no longer gets you free meals for life at the lyceum. One can be a life long musician, get paying gigs, be endlessly admired. If you work; though, they know you're human. 11:49:42 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2006 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 10/21/06; 3:07:25 PM.