The first series of songs very relevant to my life that I heard on my car radio were on September 10 - the day of my cousin Jason’s funeral. I heard these songs in a row on the radio, on my way home: Franz Ferdinand (a Scottish indie-rock band), ‘Take Me Out’ I think they’re considered kind of ‘avant-garde’/artsy, and I’m almost certain that I had never heard them on the radio up to then. I was surprised when the video for the song was played a few months before – last June or so - at the neighborhood bowling alley, which continuously plays various videos on a series of large screens while people are bowling. I think this song was just to get my attention, since it’s definitely a song I like and it’s rare stylistically compared to so many run-of-the-mill rock songs. (then switched from DC 101 to a classic rock station, 100.3) This song then played: Heart, ‘Crazy on You’ That one really got my attention that something was up. It’s another Heart song, ‘Magic Man’, that was part of my visions from summer (and fall, I think) of 2010 - visions that made a lot of sense only last year, for me - regarding an IT or math professor. I thought at the time that the prof who suddenly started appearing in my mind and stayed there for months was just fictional. This started around the time that I was taking a software development class (classroom course, with a real professor!) to complete an undergrad prerequisite for an MBA in information systems. That’s not the whole story for ‘Magic Man’ – would take a while to explain – but anyway it’s one of the most significant songs of my life. At the time, I had never told anyone about this. It was just someone in my mind, with no resemblance to Jason or to anyone I knew or had ever seen (from what I could determine later, he seemed to be a friend and possibly also relative of Jesus). The next song on 100.3 that afternoon: Led Zeppelin, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ By that time I was getting a little freaked out. (After all, at least on the surface – I don’t know if there’s some double meaning – the song title and lyrics have a strong association with a funeral.) And then, what next? John Cougar Mellencamp, of course! (He’s the most famous musician from Indiana besides the Jacksons. And Jason and I both happen to be from Indiana originally.) The song that played? The only John Cougar Mellencamp song I like: ‘Authority Song’! I thought the lyrics were “I fight authority…and always will!” Well, I was involved in a years-long legal battle on behalf of someone (prior to that date), and a friend was then going through a legal battle at the time – and used the same law firm as I had, on my recommendation. At the time, this friend was going through a very painful situation – just as the legal battle I was in was very painful and expensive, and lasted a long time. So yes, sometimes I feel that I am fighting against authority. On the other hand, I also represent authority in a way, since I work for the Federal Air Marshal Service, which is under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. I discovered that the lyrics for Mellencamp’s ‘Authority Song’ are actually “I fight authority; authority always wins”, but whatever – what I heard was the first version! So I’ll go with that one, in terms of relevance to my life. For some reason as I heard ‘Authority Song’, I also imagined Jason trying to dance to it - and that was pretty funny. He probably was dancing to it, or trying to, since I rarely imagine goofy-seeming stuff like that. My impression at the time was that Jason got bored of his funeral and burial and decided to start “kicking it up” a bit via the radio. Still, at the time I was quite shocked because I never knew Jason (and I doubt he ever knew about me while alive); he was apparently wandering around the DC airwaves very soon after passing away (on Sept. 1)…and yet he easily pinpointed and led me to some interesting songs that represent significant symbols and/or events in my life. https://youtube/watch?v=mXOO7QVHgXs&list=RDmXOO7QVHgXs
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 01:06:59 +0000