music for getting my guy on
Don’t ask me to explain in any detail cause this isn’t an intellectual endeavor, it’s more experiential, but I suppose it does say something about the kinda guy I am. First, there’s Al Green. And then of course there’s some Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley and James Brown. Oh and the longing of Chet Baker. And as one would expect there are songs by the the Who, the Kinks, the Pixies, the Beatles, Velvet Uuderground and even the Beach Boys (apologies go out to a certain girl that I’m not including the Doors or Stones here) plus a whole smattering of stuff from 70’s AM radio. But man oh man, I was surprised, way surprised, to hear Glen Campbell last night and have a moment of getting my guy on. Tapped right into something prehistoric, prehistoric in relation to my own personal history.
no zepplin? no jesus lizard or fugazi?
sounds like you got your own list for getting your guy on.
never thought of that before – maybe some sinatra, neil young, otis redding, and pete townshend. but it’s pretty much the feeling of self, and within that, genderness, i think.
i like those pep. i hear ya on frank sinatra, or as this 29 y.o. was saying to me the other day, i feel you. funny thing is i can almost see the pete townsend and neil young in you. or course who doesn’t see the zep in ned. i think gender is pretty down in there, down in us deep, unconscious even. b/c the world starts deciding what gender means for you, sometimes even b-4 your born.
the funny thing about sinatra is that i used to think he was an empty suit. after his death the publc radio station in austin went crazy playing his music for days, then i saw ‘slums of beverly hills’, with a guy singing ‘luck be a lady’ in his tighty whities – that made me laugh repeatedly – something about the sinatra-bath i’d just experienced (my workplace was all pub radio all the time) and this humorous take on it transformed my concept of sinatra. now i can get into his jaunty stuff (‘come fly with me’) and his melancholy – makes me think of a different time and i’m glad my horizons expanded beyond my adolescent rejection.
a few years ago phil asked about heroes (it’s bizarre how much i’m ruminated about the question since) and in trying to come up w/ a list most of the people who came to mind weren’t so much heroes as examples – which gets to how performers/artists can help us find a path in the world. doesn’t mean we think they’re necessarily noble, just that they show ways to be in the world. and i think part of that is about gender, as you say. yeah, i’d say townshend and young are a definite part of my mix.
pep, i’m in a rush here. but you write some of the best comments. you really do.
i love sinatra’s version of ‘fly me to the moon’.
i’m down with how you see heroes as examples of folks who show us how to be in the world. to that end if we’re really lucky, maybe we can all be somebody’s hero.