Music... food for the soul, the best medicine for the heart. Come and take a trip along memory lane with me...
Ahhhhh, it's time to relax,
and you know what that means,
a glass of wine, your favourite easy chair,
and of course this compact disc playing and your home stereo.
So go on, indulge yourself,
that's right, kick off your shoes, put your feet up,
Lean back and just enjoy the melodies.
After all, music soothes even the savage beasts.
'Time To Relax' - The Offspring
How One Album Changed My Life
I've always been a nice kid: a good student, a friendly daughter... you could say I was too good to be true.
I never even realized I had a dark side up until that one day. I was 16 and as innocent as any 16 year old can be. I can recall the moment that changed my entire life as if it was yesterday.
Me and a friend were sitting in her room, and she was telling me about this brand new CD she had just bought, and asked me if I wanted to listen to the music.
Some Background Info
You should know, I was 10 in 1987, so my childhood had mainly been filled with colorful pop-idols wearing rollerskates and fluorescent leg warmers; Madonna, Mel&Kim, Wham!, Rick Astley, and all that ultra commercial Stock, Aitken & Waterman music.
Fortunately, my parents were into good music, so I also grew up with lots of tunes from The Beatles (no Rolling Stones, however. My stephdad was a real Beatles fan, so the Stones were not allowed to be spoken of, lol), Simon&Garfunkel, Donovan, David Bowie, Tom Petty, Jimi Hendrix and more of what we now call 'Golden Oldies'.
All this to say, I had been listening to music, but hadn't experienced the real power that is released when you find the music that simply ís you at that point in time.
The Earth Stood Still
Back to my friend's bedroom, in the year 1993. Being 16 year olds in a country that was being taken over by far-right political parties, we were very proactive in our fight against racism. The album she introduced me to appeared to be right up our alley.
It was Bodycount's Copkiller...
A version that still included the titlesong, which had to be taken off the album afterwards.
Following its release, the song was met with strong opposition, with critics ranging from President George H.W. Bush to various law enforcement agencies, with strong demand for the song's withdrawal from commercial availability, citing concerns of promoting anti-police sentiment.
Wikipedia
To say the album rocked my world would be an understatement. The loud guitars, the dark, often almost satanical lyrics, the aggression and power behind the entire album... For me, it was the start of a new era.
I still like the album from the first till the last second, but if I would have to choose my favorite song, it would be 'Momma's Gotta Die Tonight'.
In the song, Ice-T kills his mother in a very violent way after finding out she is actually a 'racist b#tch'.
I listened to the album like a zillion times. It gave me a way to express all the rage I didn't even knew I had in me.
More
Discovering Bodycount was a turning point in my life. There was a whole new world of music out there. The next four years, I listened to grunge, hard rock metal, rapcore, punkrock,...
Bands like Clawfinger, Rage Against The Machine, Metallica, The Offspring and many more gave me the opportunity to get rid of all my anger and frustration.
I still play them sometimes when things start to pile up inside and I need a way to channel out the agression. And when I do, I scream along every single word of every single song.
There are no words to describe how releaved I feel afterwards... every time again...
Unicorns & Rainbows
When I was 20, in 1997 to be exact, my life took another huge turn. Again, music was the most important factor. But it was more than just the music.
When a friend introduced me to the psytrance scene back in the early beginnings, I knew I had found my music, my people, my tribe. At last, I found home...
But that's a story I'll save for another time. The emotions related to that music, to that entire scene, to that part of the story, are completely the opposite of the ones I described in this post, and are so complex (in a positive way) that I will need to do some long and hard thinking about how I can explain how these last 20 years in the psytrance scene have made me the beautiful person I am today.
Music Is Life!!
Images source:
Pixabay
