Worf101
10-08-2008, 05:32 AM
I was home yesterday afternoon and I was feeling it. I felt old, tired, discouraged, fearfull of the world I was leaving my 15 year old son. I had a full-blown, first class "case of da blues". Watching sports talk didn't help and neither did the talking heads on the news. I'd recently bought a DVD "Bob Marley and the Wailers - Live at the Rainbow" but had never watched it. I popped it in and sat back prepared to be bored.
Why bored you ask? Well for a time I was lead singer in a local "reggae" band called "Pangea". Nice enough guys, good musicians and decent blokes but the repetoire was almost 85% Marley and if you do anything too long you can come to hate it. I left the band after I felt I'd sooner stick my head in an oven rather than sing one more Marley tune.
So on went the DVD which was a note for note recording of a 1977 show at the Rainbow Theatre. I sat back and closed my eyes as the familiar songs began to wash over me. But not being visibly "distracted" the words and lyrics began to hit me.
"One good thing about music, when it hit if you feel no pain."
"If you get down and quarrel everyday
You're saying prayers to the devil, I say
Why not help one another on the way
Make it much easier"
"Cost of livin' gets so high
Rich and poor they start to cry
Now the weak must get strong
They say oh, what a tribulation"
I sat up and watched, some of these lyrics 30 plus years old, just a relevant, even more so because it now applies to the "First World". Soon I found myself transported in a dub trance right along with him and the rest of the band. I felt transfixed, then calmed and finally... uplifted. I've played music for money since Nixon was President, it's been a part of my life since I could recognize it. I always felt that "music heals" now I KNOW it does.
My son found me sitting there and crying a little. He's always concerned when crusty dad "gets emotional". I told him that watching Bob Marley play and sing was like watching a "prophet of old from the days of miracles." I don't think he got it, but I did. Music heals, it'll help get you through hard times it can even wash away the blues.
Da Worfster
Why bored you ask? Well for a time I was lead singer in a local "reggae" band called "Pangea". Nice enough guys, good musicians and decent blokes but the repetoire was almost 85% Marley and if you do anything too long you can come to hate it. I left the band after I felt I'd sooner stick my head in an oven rather than sing one more Marley tune.
So on went the DVD which was a note for note recording of a 1977 show at the Rainbow Theatre. I sat back and closed my eyes as the familiar songs began to wash over me. But not being visibly "distracted" the words and lyrics began to hit me.
"One good thing about music, when it hit if you feel no pain."
"If you get down and quarrel everyday
You're saying prayers to the devil, I say
Why not help one another on the way
Make it much easier"
"Cost of livin' gets so high
Rich and poor they start to cry
Now the weak must get strong
They say oh, what a tribulation"
I sat up and watched, some of these lyrics 30 plus years old, just a relevant, even more so because it now applies to the "First World". Soon I found myself transported in a dub trance right along with him and the rest of the band. I felt transfixed, then calmed and finally... uplifted. I've played music for money since Nixon was President, it's been a part of my life since I could recognize it. I always felt that "music heals" now I KNOW it does.
My son found me sitting there and crying a little. He's always concerned when crusty dad "gets emotional". I told him that watching Bob Marley play and sing was like watching a "prophet of old from the days of miracles." I don't think he got it, but I did. Music heals, it'll help get you through hard times it can even wash away the blues.
Da Worfster