The Sound of Silence...

Hey there, Penny!!! I have good news for you! Today's blog is a tribute to you(admittedly, in a very convoluted way!!).
While there are obviously a fair few girls(and perhaps even boys, who knows?) named Penny in this world, I have never met any of them. Neither do I recall any Penny in any book or movie.
Except one.
Penny Lane, the role played by Kate Hudson in one of my all-time favorite movies,Almost Famous. And that is who I was thinking of when I named you Penny.
The movie is all about music, and the love people have for it. Penny Lane is a groupie in the movie, following a band around because she loves their music.
(Btw, in case anybody is interested, the name "Penny Lane" itself comes from one of the Beatles' biggest hits "Penny Lane", which actually describes a street in Liverpool where McCartney and Lennon spent a lot of time playing as kids.)
So, today I am going to talk about my passion for music and why I think other people share this passion of mine.
Aside from involuntary activities like breathing and blinking, I think the activity I spend the most time in is listening to music. I'm listening to music when I'm walking to school(for those of you in India,school means University,lest you think that I've been shunted back to high school after an evaluation of my knowledge of chemical engg.), when I'm in my lab, when I'm alone in my house, when I'm in the gym...basically whenever nobody is talking to me. As a result, I can't imagine life without music and I sincerely thank the person(s) whose work led to the invention of portable music players. ( Speaking of which, I got a new MP3 player yesterday!! It's awesome! :) )

But, the strange thing is, I led a perfectly normal and happy life without music some years back, without even knowing that I was missing something. I still very vividly remember the very first music cassette I got. It was the soundtrack of the movie Dil To Pagal Hai(which puts the year of this transition of mine around 1997-98). And the rest, as they would say if I had become some great music composer or something, is history! Initially starting with Hindi movie songs, I progressed to Hindi "pop" albums(Junoon, Silk route etc.) , to English Pop( Bryan Adams, Savage Garden types) to rock(Guns N Roses) and I have now moved to decently heavy metal(Iron Maiden, Metallica).

The question which occurs to me is why I(and so many others) are obsessed with music.

One obvious answer is we just like the way the music feels to our ears. Which is definitely a major reason.
But methinks that for people like me, it's much more than the music. It is the lyrics that drive us.
And I think that the reason I like the lyrics so much is that they let me view myself as a much more...well...what's the word..cooler person, I would say, for want of a better word.

These songs make you think that what you're going through is much more emotionally upheaving and much more difficult than it actually is. Ok, enough talking in the abstract, I'll give you an example-
New blood joins this earth
and quickly he's subdued
through constant pain disgrace
the young boy learns their rules

with time the child draws in
this whipping boy done wrong
deprived of all his thoughts
the young man struggles on and on he's known
a vow unto his own
that never from this day
his will they'll take away

they dedicate their lives
to running all of his
he tries to please them all
this bitter man he is
throughout his life the same
he's battled constantly
this fight he cannot win
a tired man they see no longer cares
the old man then prepares
to die regretfully
that old man here is me

you labeled me
I'll label you
so I dub thee unforgiven

-"The Unforgiven", by Metallica

Now this song is exactly what I mean. Whenever I'm feeling that things haven't quite gone my way, it's easy to put on this song at full volume and join Metallica in blaming the world for my misery. I mean, isn't it romantic to think of yourself as " deprived of all his thoughts, the young man struggles on", "he tries to please them all, the bitter man he is" and then in the end there's a beautiful way of blaming whoever you want for your misery in "so I dub thee unforgiven"

But the irony is, most of the guys who listen to these songs are teenage guys like me(well,I'm still a teenager at heart, dude!!! 18 till I die and all that rot) who have led confortable lives, safely enconsed in their shells, with no reason to truly be angry at anyone. Come to think of it, I guess that is the reason that we need these songs. As I said, it lets us look at our mundane lives in a much cooler light.

And the thing is, when you have listened to as many songs as I have, you can find songs for just about anything and make it sound much more interesting than it actually is. Again, a few examples.

Like,if you are feeling sleepy, listen to this-

Tuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin
Till the sandman he comes
Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight
Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
Off to never never land

-"Enter Sandman", by Metallica


See, how much more fun it is to go sleep picturing yourself being forced to sleep by some mysterious sandman?

Or, if you are feelimg nostalgic about home when on a trip, here's the song for you-


I'm sitting in the railway station.
Got a ticket to my destination.
On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand.
And ev'ry stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.

-"Homeward Bound", by Simon and Garfunkel


I would think that this is a much better way to picture yourself than thinking of yourself sitting in the dust and muck of a railway station, worrying about the unfinished work at home.

Had a fight with a friend and made up? This is a song a friend of mine sent after we had worked things out-


Try to see it my way
Do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on?
While you see it your way
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone
We can work it out
We can work it out

Life is very short, and there's no time
For fussing and fighting, my friend
I have always thought that it's a crime
So I will ask you once again

Try to see it my way
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong
While you see it your way
There's a chance that we may fall apart before too long
We can work it out
We can work it out

-"We Can Work It Out", by The Beatles

Anyway, I can give you dozens of other examples, but I hope you already got the point.

But one last thing I would like to mention. If a person is ever fool enough to fall in love, the only good thing is that there are an innumerable number of songs to describe every emotion he can go through.
Especially if he realises that what he's doing is not good for him. To see what I mean, take this-

Your cruel device
Your blood like ice
One look could kill
My pain, your thrill
I want to love you, but I better not touch (Don't touch)
I want to hold you but my senses tell me to stop
I want to kiss you but I want it too much (Too much)
I want to taste you but your lips are venomous poison
You're poison runnin'thru my veins
You're poison, I don't want to break these chains.

-"Poison", by Alice Cooper

The fool clearly realises that he's made a big mistake, but he can't resist. I can't imagine a worse fate. Thank God I was never in all this "jhamela" :)

Well, I clearly shouldn't start talking about songs that are about love or I'll be here all night.
As it is, this blog is pretty long and Penny is showing a low disk space warning.

So, I'll close this one with a line from a song about music-

I listen to my words but
They fall far below
I let my music take me where
My heart wants to go

-"The Wind" by Cat Stevens

Bye for now, Live long and prosper!

P.S-The title of the blog is my favorite Simon and Garfunkel song "The Sound of Silence"