One of the most powerful things about music is that it is the soundtrack of our lives. Fellow music fanatic Sharon Hepworth started a music challenge on Twitter for the month of July. Each day, fans around the world will select a song from their life and describe what it means to us. These are my songs. #SoundtrackToYourLife
Day 16
My college years were the era in my life when my passion for music exploded. Going to school in Boston, I was lucky to catch so many great bands coming through the New England corridor. I was also writing album reviews every week for the school newspaper, combining my love for music and writing. And I was surrounded by people with all kinds of musical interests. I absorbed the music in all kinds of environments: bars, stadiums, theaters, mosh pits, and raves. Throwing Copper is one of my favorite albums from this special season in my life. I caught them at Brandeis University’s Gosman Center. The Oklahoma City bombing occurred earlier that month – and the band dedicated their power ballad “Lightning Crashes” to the victims and the city.
“Lightning Crashes” is a bit of a musical anomaly compared to the rest of Throwing Copper. Throughout the album, Ed Kowalczyk’s vocals and the music give us heavy doses of quiet-loud-quiet dynamics. The shifts are sudden and explosive. But with “Lightning Crashes”, the track is one steady crescendo. The tension doesn’t catch you by surprise. Instead, it lures you along past the second verse and chorus only to finally unleash itself in the bridge, like a grunge-era “Stairway to Heaven”. The song brings me back in time when it seemed Live was on top of the music world.
“Pale blue colored iris, presents the circle, and puts the glory out to hide.”