My Emo

There was no emo music that I knew about in high school. That didn't stop me, though, from seeking out sad songs. Like this one, Don't Dream it's Over.My first conscious encounter with this song came when I watched Stephen Kings The Stand on TV. The powers of the Internet tell me that it came out in 1994. I remember my dad played it for me on LP. I bought the CD at ZIA, I think.

A song that had a much more profound influence on my imaginative life was Drive by The Cars.Hearing this song makes me think of Friday nights, driving to football games on the west side of town, and the complications of the high schooler's heart. In general, The Cars did much to form my imagination during high school.

A song that was more amusing to me than influential was Steve Winwood's Higher Love.I wouldn't call this emo. It does reflect, however, my fascination with quasi-philosophical conceptions of love. "Think about it," Winwood says, "there must be higher love." My trajectory of my spiritual life can be traced in that lyric.

It's odd to me how certain songs caught me at certain moments of my life. Touch of Grey got me my junior year of college.I now associate it with orange blossoms, the cheesecake factory, my father's heart attack, and the excitement of love going haywire. "It's all right."

My senior year in college was dominated by country music. I discovered Waylon Jennings that year.That was also the year Waylon died. You want to know how I learned that? My philosophy teacher announced it to the class. I was the only one to respond. Who would have known that would be my role? We continued our discussion of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Such are God's blessings.

The next song that sticks out prominently in my imagination is New Slang.This was introduced to me by my colleague and Nemesis. It reminds me of driving to ASU in the afternoon for grad school, figuring out how to make beer, and being called narrow-minded and hegemonic.

Music is wonderful.