Rock music? aah? my bliss, my comfort, my salvation? the only thread from my early life that I still religiously cling on to? the spirit that fuels my damaged existence?
Rock, my Saviour, my Shepherd through days dark and bright, I bow to Thee. I sell Thee my soul.
This is not a list. I dare not rank rock music.(Begone you fools? list-seekers!) This is just a collage of sceneries, colours and sounds? each tune, each beat, each guitar riff that opens it own floodgate of memories? innocent days, stormy nights? and rock-n-roll dreams.
Scene 1
Morning sunlight in the dining room? smell of freshly-baked cake lingering in the air? a 3-year-old listening attentively to daddy’s old record of what then felt funnily gibberish? Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds?
Cosy summer evenings? Ugly Kid Joe’s Cats In The Cradle? mom and dad’s laughter?
Fwd >>
Standing up in the tree house? the wind in my hair?feeling far above the reach of mundane world below? mother’s screams of’Come down and finish your porridge!’? I was far, far away to some exotic land? Whoa let the sun beat down upon my face?and stars to fill my dream? I am a traveller of both time and space? to be where I have been?. can I ever forget, Kashmir by Led Zeppelin?
Also the Sci-Fi themed song that caught childhood’s wide-eyed fantasy? The Final Countdown by Europe? awesome opening.
Fwd >>
Hiding in some dark corner? wiping moist cheeks still smarting from the slaps?’Drag your damned girl out of school! What’s the point??’Isn’t she your girl too?’? blah, blah, blah? Right, what’s the point?
The house suddenly wakes up to chants in a familiar voice from the old LP? did even daddy know this one existed in the attic? We don’t need no education? We don’t need no thought control? every schoolchild’s cry of freedom? Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd?
Fwd >>
Childhood fades into teens? Is it possible to hold on to your innocence? Believe that happier days will really come? The eager, wide-eyed 12-year-old knows the answer? as she hums fervently along with The Scorpions? Take me to the magic of the moment? On a glory night, where the children of tomorrow dream away? In the wind of change?
Fwd >>
Screams from the bedroom? bangs? sleepless, sobbing nights?’Hello? police!’? they drag dad away? drunk? mom at my bedside?’It’s ok sweetie, nothing to fear now? Like the song, you remember?’? I do? When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me? Speaking words of wisdom, let it be? let it be?
Fwd >>
Lying down on the bed? lighting up yet another joint. deciding to forgive the irreconcilable drug-addict, commitment-phobic, jerky bad-boy boyfriend for the umpteenth time? the heart-wrenching tunes of GNR’s November Rain or Patience or Bon Jovi’s Bed Of Roses filling the room?
Even Dire Straits’ Romeo And Juliet with that I can?t do anything except be in love with you and Bryan Adams’ Everything I Do? with its annoyingly cheeky-yet-hopelessly sweet demand of Don’t tell me it’s not worth tryin’ for, You can’t tell me it’s not worth dyin’ for? vouches for the essentially good-for-nothing uncompromising man? but when they say it like that? can any girl help going week in the knees?
Fwd >>
Crying? sobbing uncontrollably? cutting myself? engraving’K’ and’C’ in blood? as the news channel btch, wearing her usual fake smile, announces Kurt Cobain is no more? as his voice still spins in my head? *With the lights out, it’s less dangerous? Here we are now, entertain us? I feel stupid, and contagious?
Fwd >>
Scorned at high school for being mercilessly original? refusing to blend into the faceless yuppie crowd? listening with a wild feeling Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Californication? as it went? Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging? Sicker than the rest, there is no test? But this is what you?re craving? First born unicorn?Hard core soft porn? Dream of Californication? Dream of Californication?
Fwd >>
Joints to clove cigarettes? long nights brooding over an addictive loneliness? tormenting lines spitting unfulfilled vengeance? breaking the silence? Every night I burn, screaming the animal scream? Every night I burn, dreaming the crow-black dream? Burn by The Cure from the soundtrack of The Crow?
The darkness-ridden Temple of Love by The Sisters of Mercy? especially the haunting female voice in the background? cynicism never was more eloquent? And the devil in black dress watches over? My guardian angel walks away? Life is short and love is always over in the morning?
Fwd >>
Was it my destiny to be attracted to the evil?. Why did I dig up all these old favourites? only to discover they didn?t sound the same any more?. Or is it that they discovered me?
Where everyone hears Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run? There’s still time to change the road you’re on? as Led Zeppelin sing their visionary Stairway to Heaven? I can hear? *Here’s my sweet Satan. The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan?
Or when the hauntingly beautiful Hotel California goes There were voices down the corridor. I thought I heard them say? Welcome to the Hotel California?, my subconscious interprets *Yeah Satan, he organized his own religion? Yeah when he knows he should? how nice it was delicious? he puts it in a vat he fixes it for his son which he gives away?
It is not absurd, not lunacy? you can hear it too? concentrate? or ask me how?
This wasn?t a 20. It wasn’t intended to be. What it intended to be is what it is.
Now let me see your reactions? and don’t try to be holier-than-thou? in your soul you know you’re not?