Intermission 1 - Sometimes we all need a little Stairway

(I'm using intermission posts to discuss things that I don't want to wait to post and that don't necessarily fit in my current series of posts.)

I started this post several months ago and I’m finishing it now because I feel that it’s time. I’ve been going through my old music on my computer, playing song after song, trying to rid old demons from my bones, and I’m left awestruck at all the memories that come flooding back.

I used to live in Chatham-Kent, which is only about an hour and a half from Detroit. As a result, I was able to get some of the best radio stations you could ask for, and with my little trusty alarm clock (which I still have ... thing must be like 22 years old) I would often stay up quite late on non-school nights and just listen to whatever I could pick up. Mainly it was classic rock but I also tried to incorporate a little oldies, with splashes of motown. It was amazing. It was just me and an endless stream of some of the greatest songs of all time.

See, for me, music has always been a powerful force in my life. Growing up, I spent good chunks of time by myself, and music was something I gravitated too with natural ease. Beyond simply being a form of entertainment, it became an outlet for my feelings, blending in seamlessly with the events of my life. It was a sage teacher, offering advice and providing words to the feelings I had but could not communicate. Furthermore, it never failed to elicit some of the strongest emotional reactions from me that I’ve ever really felt. Whether some of those now are simply nostalgic remnants of the past, I’m not sure. But here’s a little trip down memory lane.

- Whenever I hear More Than a Feeling by Boston, I still think of a girl who I had the biggest crush on back in early high school.
- I used lyrics from NIB by Black Sabbath in a letter to another girl who I liked for several years
- Cat Scratch Fever by Ted Nugent was a staple song before every swim race
- God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne and Learning to Fly still make my eyes water because they are such beautiful songs
- Eruption by Van Halen and Riff Raff by AC/DC still sends shivers up and down my body
- Baba O’Riley by The Who being called Teenage Wasteland still pisses me off and The Seekerby The Who still amazes me at not being a more popular song
- Anything by The Stooges or The Velvet Underground still reminds me of being in high school, dreaming of getting out someday and moving on to greater things
- Anything by Led Zeppelin still makes me feel happy, while Achilles Last Stand reminds me of a girlfriend in undergrad

When I initially started this post, I’d spent the night catching up with my friend Ali, who was in Ottawa visiting. We’d parted ways for the night and I was waiting to catch the bus. Now, if you know anything about me, you’ll know that I detest waiting for the bus, preferring to walk when it’s convenient. I reached into my pocket and found my 80GB iPod, fully charged before I left. So I did what seemed the best thing to do ... I started walking, under a bright moon, along an open canal. As I walked, I drifted between Jimi Hendrix to Alice Cooper, from Alice Cooper to KISS, and settling from KISS on Led Zeppelin. And I found my way to a live version of Stairway to Heaven. And I listened. And I felt good. See, it had been a rough few months, and for some reason, the Stairway made me feel better. It reminded me of my past. It reminded me of better times and the fact that good times would be coming again. It reminded me that, wherever I go and whatever I face, I’ll always have the music as a constant in my life. And I walked on, thinking of all the people getting out of clubs, where they’d spent hours listening to incomprehensible remixs of old classics and the latest pop tunes. Music that lacked the soul and passion and feeling of the old stuff. And I felt all the better, like I’d rediscovered a great treasure that I had lost, and that it was all mine for as long as I wanted. And the demons of that time were bested and quieted. And I was reminded that sometimes we all need a little Stairway, if for no other reason then to help us keep on keepin’ on.