Power of Music

by Leigh Silbernagel in Celebrity News, Editorials, Honoring Lives, New Releases, News, Opinion Posts

4 Aug 2008– The paradox which fascinates me the most is that of music.  Music is the only thing worth fighting for, living for, and dying for because of the power it has over the human soul, but never has music started a war (with the exceptions of the social revolution of the 1960s and the pop-revolution of the 1980s which then spawned the Religious Right’s overzealous counterrevolution). To the cynics among is, music is constantly delegated to the sidelines, constantly minimized as nothing more than a catalyst for pretentious attention whores’ way of drawing attention to themselves and fulfilling their obsessive compulsive need to be different and express themselves *insert sarcasm here.* I pity those cynics, for not being able to be a part of something larger than themselves. Rather than write a post about a new band that I like, or a concert that has already passed, this week I pose that we reflect on the songs that have mattered most to us throughout our lives. For myself, it is Guns N Roses, Sweet Child o Mine, among others of course. Here’s why that song means so much to mean, and no, it is not because it is on Guitar Hero.

I knew that when he saw me, he would hug me hello, but that did not make me any more prepared for the inevitable.  So, when he hugged me as he said hello, I froze and it turned into an a—out hug. We talked, then he went one way, and I went the other way.  Minutes passed, he said, ‘okay, I am going to go outside now,’ and I said with attitude, “Oh by the way, the hug you gave me earlier s—ed. You need to work on that.” And he said, ‘Come here I’ll give you another hug,’ took a step forward and I scoffed- “No, that’s okay,” jeering at him as I put up my hand, “I don’t want a hug.” And he said, “COME HERE.” took another step forward, put his arms around me, pulled me in and held me there. And in that moment, it was like he knew… without being told, and I thought I was in “Sweet Child o’Mine at the part where Axl sings, “if I stare for too long, I’m going to break down and cry.” That was how I felt: if you keep hugging me like this, I’m going to lose it and start crying. And then he said, “That oughta hold you for a while.”

On a side note. Axl Rose’s and Guns N Roses’ Chinese Democracy is supposedly finished and the only reason why it has not been released is because it is tied up in the bureaucratic red tape of the record labels.

-leigh silbernagel; 4 August 2008