As the night defines the day, death defines life. It’s the limitations, the finite nature of experience brings meaning to our world. While we wish that moments in our lives would never end, we know in the back of our minds that the knowledge, the understanding that things will not last forever is what makes us cherish the time that we have.
If a song never ended how carefully would you listen to it? If a football game never ended, how would you know who won? If we stayed forever young, what would be the point of life?
Jay-Z’s fifth single “Young Forever,” from his album, The Blueprint 3 question the idea of immortality.
This song features the English pop artist Mr. Hudson who has worked as a producer for artist like Kayne West while having a successful solo career of his own.
Many rap songs find their footing in popular culture based more on the hook as opposed to the rapping itself. Many of my favorite rap songs while having quality rapping initially only appealed to me because of the vocal chorus like my personal favorite rap song of all time (not necessarily one that I would argue is the best) “Ghetto Superstar” featuring the melody from the Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers hit “Islands In The Streams” (written by the Bee Gees!!)
It only took three seconds of the opening vocals by Mr. Hudson to catch my attention and convince me to get “Young Forever.” This choice was made easier by the fact that Jay-Z is one of the greatest rappers of all time who never fails to provide interesting and technically fascinating raps.
The opening vocals are a combination of youthful naivety and doubt. Mr. Hudson sings about wanting to have a great experience last longer stating that he would rather die young or live forever never growing old. In the next line he sings that he wants to be forever young but then asks himself “do you really want to live forever?”
Jay-Z provides his own perspective on life comforting us in the first verse that great memories will they never end because they never leave our memory and “all we have to do is hit rewind.” He encourages us to live in the moment and that being young is a state of mind. This is why at the end of it “when the director yells ‘cut’” Jay-Z says he’ll be fine. Maybe it's in memories that we find comfort or in living in the moment as Jay-Z describes in the next verse “fear not when, fear not why, fear not much while we’re alive” when thinking about the nature of death.
The one assertion Jay-Z discusses that I question is that he will live forever as his names is passed down in storied. I think about my grandfather who recently died and how many people a generation from now will remember him? A couple dozen, maybe more, maybe less. Does this make his life any less meaningful? I don’t think so but what I do know is that him being young forever or having immortality wouldn’t guarantee his life meaning either.
The idea of immortality and wanting to be forever young is a reflection of our own insecurities we have about the way that we spend our time in our lives. Are we doing something meaningful with this blessing of life? If your answer is no, you probably wish you could have some more time but if you feel like you do then you're living a life without regret, a life proud to have lived with no fear of death.
I'm not there yet, but one of these days I hope to be.
Showing posts with label afterlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label afterlife. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Feels Like Home by Randy Newman
Linda Ronstadt recording
Chantal Kreviazuk recording
Chantal Kreviazuk recording
When I left home to go to college I never imagined that there would be any other place that I would call home.
I grew up in Mercer Island, Washington, which is a small suburb of Seattle that lies in the middle of Lake Washington. There's a tradition in my family of moving away from home. My mother and father came to America from Taiwan, my brother went to college at New York University and it only seemed to make sense that I would take opportunity to explore another part of the country. My brother went to a great American city so I chose Chicago to be the city that I would explore and I applied and got accepted to Northwestern University.
My freshmen year, I missed home a lot. I met some great people through Marching Band and my parents visited as much as they could but it was hard. I remember some nights feeling lonely and lost. My home seemed so far away and at times it seemed to physically hurt how much I wanted to feel the comfort of being at home. At those times, I would think about my parents coming over to a country in which they didn't even know the language, leaving all their family and friends and I would tell myself, if they could handle that, then I can make it at Northwestern.
As time went on, I joined a fraternity and lived in a frat house for three years. Slowly without thinking about it, I noticed that I would refer to my dorm room as "home." Sometimes people would ask if I was talking about my "home, home" which referred to my home in Washington or my "home" which was my dorm room. I don't remember the moment when I started thinking about my fraternity house as my home and when that happened I didn't seem to miss my "home, home" as much.
Maybe it was because I had made great friends and knew the town of Evanston and Chicago better, but I missed home less and less as my years at Northwestern progressed. I found that this happened again when my wife and I moved in together to Downers Grove another suburb of Chicago. When we first moved there I found myself missing home but as I began to know the town and feel comfortable in my surroundings I started calling it home and missing home less as the time passed.
After two years in Downers Grove, my wife and I moved back to Evanston and somehow our condominium felt like home quickly. I had lived in that same condominium during graduate school but something while Diana was finishing up her undergraduate degree at Northwestern but it never really felt like home during that time.
What my made condo feel like home so quickly? What was it that turned my Downers Grove apartment, my fraternity house and the house in Mercer Island a home? Is it about the building itself, the surroundings or is it something closer to the heart? Maybe the answer to this questions lies in “Feels Like Home” by Randy Newman.
In 1993, Randy Newman, most known for the music he composed for the Pixar films Toy Story and Monsters Inc. presented a musical he composed based on the story of Faust by Goethe and also utilized elements from Milton's Paradise Lost. The story is based in modern day with God and the Devil fighting for the soul of a University of Notre Dame student Henry Faust. The character of Martha who is trying to trick the Devil sings “Feels Like Home.” The setting and purpose of the song is to deceive but the emotional truth describing how people can bring us to the feeling of home is intimate, honest and genuine.
This song is about intangibles. Emotions that we can’t describe in words, so instead of trying to explain these emotions, Newman illustrates specific moments and situations that helps us feel theses magical and indescribable moments.
The song begins describing the emotional meaning that physical aspects can bring. Newman describes “something” in the eyes that makes him want to lose himself in his love’s arms. He hears something in her voice that touches his heart that makes him feel an emotion that he hopes will last forever. It has been said that love songs make sense when you finally fall in love and unless you have seen and heard that “something” that is being described it’s impossible to really know what Newman is singing about.
It is all of this that Newman sings “Feels Like Home.” This is a feeling of comfort, warmth and being safe. It is something that we see in each other eyes and feel in each other’s presence. It’s in our pain and in our happiness, which we work to express to each other. Though it is impossible to completely understand each other’s emotions through this struggle, we begin to better understand each other and even more so ourselves.
I don’t think home is just a building and I don’t think it’s just the people. It’s the joy in our lives, the struggle in the dark and a place in our heart. Home is a feeling that represents the best parts of ourselves and this feeling reminds us that no matter how far we travel, home will always be with us.
"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule."
~Frederick W. Robertson
I grew up in Mercer Island, Washington, which is a small suburb of Seattle that lies in the middle of Lake Washington. There's a tradition in my family of moving away from home. My mother and father came to America from Taiwan, my brother went to college at New York University and it only seemed to make sense that I would take opportunity to explore another part of the country. My brother went to a great American city so I chose Chicago to be the city that I would explore and I applied and got accepted to Northwestern University.
My freshmen year, I missed home a lot. I met some great people through Marching Band and my parents visited as much as they could but it was hard. I remember some nights feeling lonely and lost. My home seemed so far away and at times it seemed to physically hurt how much I wanted to feel the comfort of being at home. At those times, I would think about my parents coming over to a country in which they didn't even know the language, leaving all their family and friends and I would tell myself, if they could handle that, then I can make it at Northwestern.
As time went on, I joined a fraternity and lived in a frat house for three years. Slowly without thinking about it, I noticed that I would refer to my dorm room as "home." Sometimes people would ask if I was talking about my "home, home" which referred to my home in Washington or my "home" which was my dorm room. I don't remember the moment when I started thinking about my fraternity house as my home and when that happened I didn't seem to miss my "home, home" as much.
Maybe it was because I had made great friends and knew the town of Evanston and Chicago better, but I missed home less and less as my years at Northwestern progressed. I found that this happened again when my wife and I moved in together to Downers Grove another suburb of Chicago. When we first moved there I found myself missing home but as I began to know the town and feel comfortable in my surroundings I started calling it home and missing home less as the time passed.
After two years in Downers Grove, my wife and I moved back to Evanston and somehow our condominium felt like home quickly. I had lived in that same condominium during graduate school but something while Diana was finishing up her undergraduate degree at Northwestern but it never really felt like home during that time.
What my made condo feel like home so quickly? What was it that turned my Downers Grove apartment, my fraternity house and the house in Mercer Island a home? Is it about the building itself, the surroundings or is it something closer to the heart? Maybe the answer to this questions lies in “Feels Like Home” by Randy Newman.
In 1993, Randy Newman, most known for the music he composed for the Pixar films Toy Story and Monsters Inc. presented a musical he composed based on the story of Faust by Goethe and also utilized elements from Milton's Paradise Lost. The story is based in modern day with God and the Devil fighting for the soul of a University of Notre Dame student Henry Faust. The character of Martha who is trying to trick the Devil sings “Feels Like Home.” The setting and purpose of the song is to deceive but the emotional truth describing how people can bring us to the feeling of home is intimate, honest and genuine.
This song is about intangibles. Emotions that we can’t describe in words, so instead of trying to explain these emotions, Newman illustrates specific moments and situations that helps us feel theses magical and indescribable moments.
The song begins describing the emotional meaning that physical aspects can bring. Newman describes “something” in the eyes that makes him want to lose himself in his love’s arms. He hears something in her voice that touches his heart that makes him feel an emotion that he hopes will last forever. It has been said that love songs make sense when you finally fall in love and unless you have seen and heard that “something” that is being described it’s impossible to really know what Newman is singing about.
It is all of this that Newman sings “Feels Like Home.” This is a feeling of comfort, warmth and being safe. It is something that we see in each other eyes and feel in each other’s presence. It’s in our pain and in our happiness, which we work to express to each other. Though it is impossible to completely understand each other’s emotions through this struggle, we begin to better understand each other and even more so ourselves.
I don’t think home is just a building and I don’t think it’s just the people. It’s the joy in our lives, the struggle in the dark and a place in our heart. Home is a feeling that represents the best parts of ourselves and this feeling reminds us that no matter how far we travel, home will always be with us.
"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule."
~Frederick W. Robertson
Monday, November 10, 2008
Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton
Today I’m going to a funeral.
For the fourth time in my life, I am preparing to say goodbye to someone who was once in my life and now only lives in my memory and in my heart.
When someone passes on in our lives, most things in our lives are the same but when we think about that person, our memory reminds us that they are no longer here in our world. It doesn’t matter that you may not have seen that person every day when they were alive. Just knowing that someone is out there caring about us brings us comfort and being reminded of our loss makes our heart ache just s little bit, just enough to bring us back to how it felt to lose them. That feeling never leaves us and that is why "Tears In Heaven" is speaks so deeply to our souls.
Eric Clapton in known for many things. People wrote graffiti with the words “Clapton is God” in London and sarcastically nicknamed him “Slowhand” early in his career because of his virtuosic guitar skills. He composed some of most memorable guitar licks in popular music history and influenced generations of guitar players with his blues and rock infused playing.
Then in 1991 Eric Clapton’s four-year-old son, Conor fell from a 53rd-story window to his death. It was a tragic accident and Clapton was distraught for months afterward. He wrote this "Tears In Heaven" with a friend, Will Jennings for the film Rush. The song garnered critical and commercial success and Clapton featured it on his album Unplugged.
The lyrics are simple and understated but reveal great depth of emotion.
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven
Will it be the same
If I saw you in heaven
I must be strong, and carry on
Cause I know I don't belong
Here in heaven
Clapton asks his son if he will recognize him in heaven and if there relationship would be intact if they met in heaven. What he is really asking is if his son will forgive him. There is a tragic level of self-blame. When coping with tragedy we often blame ourselves in an attempt convince ourselves that we had control over the uncontrollable. He is saying that his son is in heaven because he could not protect him. He hopes that his son will forgive him, but regardless he feels that he does not deserve to be with him in heaven.
After the instrumental break, Clapton reassures himself that his son is in a better place.
Beyond the door
There's peace I'm sure.
And I know there'll be no more
Tears in heaven
Clapton is reassuring himself that his son will find peace as he know he is leaving his son taking his tears of loss with him.
Playing an instrument with a high level technical ability with incredible speed and accuracy takes years of practice. Notes however doing create meaning, it is how they are played. In the first 13 seconds of the song, Clapton is playing guitar with no other instruments. He balances lines in the lower strings with melodies in the higher strings. The lower notes and the higher notes are like two different instruments responding to each other, mostly playing apart and coming together at specific places. The guitar does not only provide harmony but depth and lines in a single instrument. The guitar responds every vocal line with slight subtle nuances and melodies. The guitar cannot communicate lyrics but reassures Clapton by being present. The guitar is like a friend in a time of need. Sometimes by simply being there makes all of the differences.
The instrumental break features a duet between Clapton’s guitar and a slide guitar. The slide guitar answers the melody that Clapton folds into his guitar lines. This playing may not seem impressive but it is mature. The song is not about Clapton’s guitar planning, it is about the emotion that he is trying to express. Through his artful, precise and careful playing of each note, we almost forget about the playing and focus on the emotion itself. Great musicians play in a way that the music disappears and all that we experience is pure emotion.
Clapton’s singing like his guitar playing is never overdone. It is simple, intimate, and mournful. The ease in which he slides up to the high note right before the instrumental break expresses a feeling that comes from the heart through a voice that is bare and open with nothing left to lose. The simplicity in his singing is all the more powerful because it doesn’t tell us how to feel but creates a palette for our own feelings.
One of my grandfathers died more then six years ago and I still don’t feel like I know what to do with those emotions. I don’t know if I’m really over it. I don’t know how I’m suppose to feel and I don’t know how to really make his death mean anything.
Music does not provide any answers.
The power in music is that it reassures us that we are not alone in our emotions. Listening to "Tears In Heaven" doesn’t make us miss that person any less but it does remind us that someone else out there feels the same way we do. We are reminded that we are not alone in our emotions and even though it doesn’t change our emotions it makes us feel better about our emotions knowing that they reflect the humanity and the experiences that we all share.
Today at the funeral, I will not be alone. I will mourn and be comforted sharing meaningful emotions with others. Sharing our lives with others honors the people who have passed on because it is the times that we shared our lives, our emotions and our hearts with ones we have lost that make the people we morn mean so much to us.
I miss the people and in some ways, it seems ungracious to hope for more time with these people in heaven when we have been so blessed to share in their lives. I don’t know if I belong in heaven, I would like to think so but I do know that it is the time spent sharing my life with the people around me that brings a piece of heaven into my life every day.
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