Mood Music

I am a moody person. Anyone who hangs out with me will tell you that. We aren’t talking axe-murderer anger or suicidal depression, but I do get a little manic and a little down. Well, to be honest, I get a lot manic and a lot down. Yes, I know there are meds for that and can attest that they are tasty.

Meds aside, there are some things that affect my mood more than others. Family crises get to me faster than anything else. If one of my sons is having problems, I have problems. When my siblings are have issues, I have issues. Dealing with my ex-wife can push my buttons and make me a kind of manic mad, but to be fair she has been easy to get along with lately. (I really need to send her boyfriend a thank you card.) The one thing that can change my mood faster than anything else is music.

Playing my guitar is one of my favorite – and least expensive – forms of therapy. I have been playing more than a couple decades and enjoy it. Do you have those things you do just for yourself? This is one of mine. If other people enjoy it, too, that is great; however, I enjoy playing while sitting on my back patio on a warm summer night with all the lights out. The other evening I did just that. It was dark out. The only sounds were the nighttime lullaby of insects accompanied by a Fender acoustic six-string. I played for about half an hour and stopped to take sip of from a high-ball glass. It was not High Ball. It was a Comfortable Coke. During the interlude, a voice called from over the fence, “Please, don’t stop.” My neighbors had been there the whole time I was playing “Stairway to Heaven”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “Wanted Dead or Alive” and a whole litany of songs that I can’t remember now. I gave them another thirty minutes before calling it a night. It was a good mood kind of night.

This got me thinking about how music influences moods in me. I have several playlists on YouTube that express my moods at the time, but each can have an amazing impact on my moods. (The seemingly incessant commercials lately affect my mood, but I digress.) I have one playlist called Fun that has everything from Brad Paisley to Spin Doctors to Gin Blossoms. It is playing right now as I write, making me smile thinking about some friends of both genders who could be the topic of “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”.  This playlist is great to have on to keep my A.D.D. in check, giving my mind extra stimuli while I write, so I don’t go off on tangents about things like friends who can’t be wrong. (It doesn’t always work.)

The most influential playlist is not the Fun one. There is another called Sadness that can drag my into the depths of sorrow as I hear songs that bring back memories of lost loves, missed opportunities, and mistakes that still bother me today. There is one song in particular by Hinder called “Better Than Me.” Hold on one while I play it. Yeah, this one does it. It is about a man telling his lost love that she can do much better than him.

I told myself I won't miss you

But I remember

What it feels like beside you

I really miss your hair in my face

And the way your innocence tastes

And I think you should know this

You deserve much better than me

That song reminds me of more than one lost love. It is one of those where I look at myself and all my selfish times. Brad Paisley’s “Whiskey Lullaby” is another that reminds me of paths that I almost took when my life fell apart a few year ago. But these sad songs serve as cautionary tales for me, not just an opportunity to wallow in self-pity and self-loathing. Most sad songs have become that for me as I have matured. Well, I try to make sure they are not pity parties.

Then there are the ones that just simply Rock It. That is what my playlist is called. It has everything from Skillet’s “Awake and Alive” to “Pain” by Three Days Grace to Nickelback’s “S.E.X.” As I look at the songs I chose to exemplify my Rock It playlist, I wonder what I was thinking as I chose those. I’m pretty sure I put them on there on different days. But these songs are good to get me up and moving, or angry if I need it. These are the ones that move me and spur me to action.

As I look at all of these, I wonder what it is about music that moves me. Is it the beat? The harmonies? The kicking guitar solos? Yes. It is all of those for me, plus the poetry that touches me. It is the words set to music. Poetry read aloud can be moving when read well, but add the music and you really have something. Poetry has enlivened the hearts of minds of people throughout history. Homer still captures the hearts and minds of modern man as do the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. Perhaps the lyrics of “Love Bites” by Def Leppard will not stand the test of time like those classics; however, if those words touch one person, they have significant meaning.

For me, it is the poetry mixed with the music – country, jazz, rock or classical, well maybe not classical – making all the difference. It is the way lyrics add depth to the music and the way the music increases the impact of the words. Music is the perfect example of the sum being greater than the individual parts.