“Music should be an essential part of every analysis.”
-Carl Jung
One of my favorite books published in the past few months is written by one of my favorite artists, Jeff Tweedy, who is the founder and leader of the band Wilco. I finished reading it in a couple days, too quickly for it to appear in the What I’m Reading section of here.
In World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music, he writes about 50 songs and the way each of them has affected, or influenced, his life. You might have seen his comments on one of the 50, a particular Dolly Parton tune, mischaracterized in headlines from media outlets in the interest of clicks.
In his book, Tweedy shows us how a song, if you’re anything like me, is much, much more than a piece of music.
The song Bill Bailey has the power to take me back half a century, to when my mom sang while she bathed me.
Tie a Yellow Ribbon evokes memories from about the same time, when she would sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the excess dough, to create a little treat for me that she baked with her pie crusts.
Speaking of pie, Don McClean’s elegy to Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it, and it has every time since. In my early teens, American Pie gave me an acceptable reason to shed tears, and amounted to a little valve I could open, to express some of the sadness I carried in my heart.
A particular line from the 2015 Jason Isbell song, Something More Than Free, brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes each time I think about it, let alone hear it, because it connects me with the part of myself who, since he was that little boy in the bathtub, has ached for love, and longed to be seen.
And the day will come
I'll find a reason
Somebody proud to love a man like me
My back is numb
My hands are freezing
But what I'm working for is something more than free
- from Something More Than Free, by Jason Isbell
These are only a couple examples of the power music has had in my life. I failed to mention how it has helped me understand myself, how it has shaped my identity, and how it’s connected me with others. To put it succinctly, my world is black and white television without music. With it, I not only see color. I see it in high definition.
So, this week’s journaling prompt in The Path to Self is about music.
Please feel free to mention a song that is meaningful to you in the comments.
Glossary of Feelings entry V
Bemused (adjective)
bewildered or confused.
lost in thought; preoccupied.
mildly amused, especially in a detached way.
This Week in History
February 4, 1934 - Painter and sculptor Fernand Léger was born in Argentan, France.
February 5, 1934 - Henry Aaron, Baseball Hall of Fame right fielder who hit 755 home runs, was born in Mobile, Alabama.
February 6, 1819 - Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as a British trading port.
February 7, 1569 - King Philip II od Spain forms Inquisition in South America.
February 8, 1855 - The Smithsonian Institution Building 'The Castle' first opens to the public on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
February 9, 1775 - British Parliament declares Massachusetts colony in rebellion.
February 10, 1957 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie, died at age 90.
What I’m Reading
“Palm Beach Is Having a Category 5 Identity Crisis,” from Vanity Fair
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, by David Sedaris
How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back, by Jeff Tweedy
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, by Dan Kindlon & Michael G. Thompson
What I’m Watching
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me on HBO
What I’m Listening To
Joy, Phish
The Little Willies, The Little Willies
Blues in my Bottle, Lightnin’ Hopkins
Journaling Prompt for the Week #6 of 2024
What is the first song you remember hearing in your life? What memories do you associate with it? Describe what you see in your mind’s eye when you hear it or think about it.
Check out “The Manifest Mixtape,” a community playlist on Spotify.
Have a great week. Thanks for reading.
Old Chunk of Coal. It was originally written by Billy Joe Shaver, but the one I heard is covered by Young Summer.