life still goes on
12:24 pm Monday, 23 July, 2007
Right then. It’s Monday morning and I’m shattered. I’m sat at my desk listening to Queen and trying to figure out an order for my thoughts. I may as well start with the Queen story.
I’ve written before about how my sister and my dad had such a major impact on my musical taste, both completely unknowingly. Next up to them, and in fact long before them was my next door neighbours while I was a kid in Dublin. I’m the eldest of three and so of course I had started school and all that before my sisters. Our next door neighbours at the time had twin boys the same age as me. They got a lift into school every morning from their dad. So for the first few years when it was just me in school, I use to get a lift in with them.
I use to look forward to these lifts every morning for one simple reason. They had a tape deck in the front of the car and as best I could tell, there was only one tape for it. So most mornings I would get into the car and there was at some stage during the few minutes a song playing that I loved. I’d have only been five, maybe six at the time and music was pretty much a new thing to me. As it turns out, it was a Queen album which I’d later come to find out was The Works but the song was of course I Want To Break Free. So it’s pretty much the first song that I remember, I still love it. Under Pressure has supplanted it as my favourite Queen song (and I’ve described it as my favourite song more than once) but I still have a little moment whenever this comes on.
Now the reason that I bring this up is that I had another little moment yesterday. I mentioned a while ago that I had developed a fear or at least a nervousness of flying. I still have no explanation for this. I was slightly unhappy on the way over to Dublin but it wasn’t so bad. Coming back last night though, it just wasn’t good. I wonder if it’s something as simple as an over-active imagination or something stupid along those lines. I still can’t figure out what it is. Anyway I was at a window seat yesterday and there was a lot of rain going on. I had seen a plane land on the runway we were about to take off from and it threw up so much water. I was not happy with this at all. But I was sat there, unhappy, thinking pretty much that I was a fucking idiot, I had no idea what was causing this and I should just get over it. I don’t know exactly what it was but something did just click and I got over it. I wish I knew what it was, as it’d be great to be able to just think something the right way and get over something. Anyway I had the window seat and it’s generally a new view in/out of Dublin and in/out of London so I put my book down and enjoyed the view. When I was allowed (stupid regulations), I put on my headphones and started scrolling through my iPod. I was looking for some inspiration for something to listen to and I thought I may aswell have a little laugh at myself and pick a song to listen to while the plane plummets to a fiery end :)
It took a little while, obviously the big guns (U2, Radiohead, R.E.M., Dylan) all got a few minutes of consideration but after scrolling through for a little while I realised I had to go old school. OK Computer (Karma Police, No Surprises) was quite high in there but on thinking, it had to go proper old school. So the next step was of course Michael Jackson. Thinking about it, I had to go with either Billie Jean or Liberian Girl, the latter something that I often forget but still one of my favourite songs. As I was scrolling back up, I spotted Queen and I knew on the spot what the song had to be. There was no question anymore, it was to be I Want To Break Free. So the rest of the journey home was Queen and it was glorious.
I was also thinking that in a way it’s quite lucky that I can’t write anything like as well as I would like or else I’d end up writing about music all of the time.
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