A Musical Interlude

OK, let's see, recently I've nattered on about people, places, websites, TV shows, books, games... What's left? Music? OK, sure. That sounds good.

Currently in the CD player at home is R.E.M.'s Out of Time, which, as I recall, I was listening to while doing the dishes the other day. R.E.M. isn't exactly going to make the list of my all-time top favorite bands -- Out of Time is the only album of theirs that I own -- but I do quite like some of their songs.

I didn't always, though. I had a great tendency in my teenage years to enjoy bashing my sister's tastes in music (which, oddly enough, are really quite close to my own these days), and I have a fairly strong memory of her listening to R.E.M.'s "Stand" (which I now regard as being one of their better songs) while I mocked it for having lyrics which didn't make any sense. I tended to do that a lot, I must admit. I was always very big on lyrics -- and still am, for that matter -- but I was also incredibly literal-minded as a kid. I've since come to realize that song lyrics, like poetry (which I also tended to diss) don't necessarily need to express simple, concrete thoughts, or to take the form of complete sentences, or even to make perfect literal sense. They can also work if they're emotionally evocative or involve clever wordplay or poetic allusions, or whatever. (Of course, even a song with stupid, inane lyrics can be worth listening to if the tune's good enough to make up for it, but that's a different matter.)

So, anyway, if you're reading this, Kath, I hereby apologize for all the times I made fun of your tastes in music when we were kids. You were right, and I was wrong! (There, how many times do ya hear that?) And it's absolutely typical of me, really, that I didn't start to develop an appreciation for the music of the 80's until they had already turned into the 90's. Perpetually behind the times, that's me.

Where was I? R.E.M., right. I particularly like "Losing My Religion," because it always reminds me of the final episode of Blake's 7. OK, admittedly, lots of things remind me of Blake's 7 in general, and the final episode in particular, because, hey, that's just how my brain is wired. But that song really does it: "Oh no I've said too much/I set it up..." If you're familiar with the episode in question, you really should be nodding at this point. And if not, well, you've missed out. It's hands-down the most memorable single episode of an SF TV show, ever. (Well, OK, I suppose the final episode of Babylon 5 might count as an exception. I, rather surprisingly, haven't actually seen it, but I've repeatedly been given the impression that it could reduce grown, emotionally-repressed men to tears. The final episode of B7 is more likely to inspire stunned shock or copious amounts of swearing (or both). But I guarantee you, love it or hate it, nobody who's seen it has ever forgotten it.)

Hmm, maybe I just shouldn't set out by deciding that it's time to talk about music. I seem pretty much incapable of actually staying on that topic. Oh, well...