Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Antiques and Old Songs

I'm having a troublesome day today; whichever way I turn there's a prickly barbed-wire bush throwing out its sharp tendrils to entangle me.
I think they call it One Of Those Days.
I was thinking about antique furniture and how people value a rare and old object for things aside from its functionality, and how one of the things they value most is their exclusive ownership of that object.
It's very different with old songs, the audio antiques, because their value is in their generality and the way people want to share them. Sometimes I think about owning nothing but the thoughts in my head and the words that come out of my mouth, and how different that would be.
I am throwing away masses of stuff at the moment- old memories, clothes that no longer fit, things that I thought would be useful but weren't; the charity-shop bin bag is puffed up and bloated with my past, fake valuables and awkward disappointments.
Just think, if you owned nothing, you could imagine your environment in a different way every day! Sometimes, in order to be a better guitarist, I pretend I'm someone else who plays better than me, or in order to be unafraid in certain situations, I pretend to be someone I know who isn't frightened by anything. I find this works very well. You should try it.

1 comment:

ANTHONY said...

That was The Eagles-"One of these nights"
Don Henley/Glenn Frey
Almost as popular as McCookerybook/Evans