Didn't really want to spend any longer in the upstairs bathroom, so we're walking back down the stairs now - often music (of every kind) fills every room in this house - but sometimes, when I'm on my own and 'over-thinking', the most evocative track is Dogwood Blossom by Fionn Regan. Beautiful and melancholic.
Keep climbing into my head without knockin'
And you fix yourself there like a map pin
On this ghost of this street where I'm livin'
I'm in a chrysalis and I'm snowed in
Darling, darling that dam's gonna give
It's inevitable the way that you live
Bottles in brown paper and a mouth that slurs
All the shit that it stirs
Let that dogwood blossom
There'll be hell to pay in heaven
For you take every street home
What happens when you're into deep to break
Loneliness keeps you constantly awake
What happens when the passage of time appears
You see yourself as a child and it brings you to tears
You say that you're troubled and you always have been
Uncomfortable in your own skin
So you contemplate the riverbed
Turn off the dark thoughts in your head
Darling, darling that dam's gonna give
It's inevitable the way that you live
Bottles in brown paper and a mouth that slurs
All the shit that it stirs
Let that dogwood blossom
There'll be hell to pay in heaven
For you take every street home
It is a very maudlin song, and not one that I’m familiar with. I don’t like the idea of silence and if I am alone in the house I will put either the radio on as background sound or play music.
ReplyDeleteIt was more recently used as the poignant ending song for This Is England 88, along with a hard dose of reality.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you like the idea of silence P?
I seek silence when I'm writing, reading, thinking about writing/thinking and writing, or just classical tracks, no words. Otherwise yes, usually radio or something off my i-tunes library.
Do you have favourites to do particular types of working activities to?
One of my top faves of the past was Radio Birdsong.
http://www.radiobirdsong.com/page003.html
I think I like to have noise in the house so that it doesn’t feel empty. Whilst I am happy with my own company, I like the idea of background noise at all time, even when writing.
ReplyDeleteI’ll occasionally select music, depending on my mood, but usually I put itunes on shuffle so that I get a good mix.
At the other house we play vinyl – but this would be hopeless if you were trying to work, as you have to turn the record over after 20 minutes or so…far too time consuming!
Yes, I can understand the feeling of emptiness in a place, and eventhough I'm saying that I need silence sometimes, it's very rare that any space is totally silent.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting that you still have a vinyl collection (one that actually gets played) and also to hear that incompatibility with old technology and current working practices!