Rock Interlude

It's the calm between storms. I don't have much to say, but that never stopped me before.

I've started listening to rock again for an extended time for the first time since I started listening to classical music. It's not that I've started disliking rock music, but the bar has been raised on which rock music I like. Generally I've been listening to Queen when I feel the need to dance around and bounce off the walls. Saturday, when I was in pursuit of a stray Queen album, I stumbled across the Pretenders live album, which has the amusing title of The Isle of View, and remembered that I used to really like the song "Sense of Purpose". I listened to it and I still really like it; it never fails to make me smile.

So I got a yen to listen to what I call "adult rock," full of sex and pain and laughter and survivor's humor. When I used to listen to rock, I used to trash my CDs. I've since cleaned up my act and treat my classical CDs well, so I decided to replace some of my favorite rock CDs, and off I went to Tower Records. I bought:

• Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live


• Petel Gabriel: So


• Peter Gabriel: Us


• Bonnie Raitt: Luck of the Draw


• Bonnie Raitt: Longing in Their Hearts
  
• Paul Simon: Graceland

(Ouch--the cost. I've been buying expensive lingerie too. I better watch it, or I'm going to be living on Diet Coke for a while. I suppose that's one way to diet.)

I thought about going to the gym for the first time in months, figuring that if I wanted to thrash around in the pool without much of an audience, now was my chance, but I wanted to listen to my CDs. I decided to take the long route to the gym and listen. In fact, I was driving for over an hour listening to the live Peter Gabriel album and to Bonnie Raitt. Some highlights: listening to "Steam," throwing my little Honda around a curve as if it was a sports car, unconsciously hitting the gas on Santa Teresa, and looking at the speedometer and going "Whoops." (But officer, it was Peter Gabriel's fault I was speeding -;)) Doing something similar on Love Sneaking Up on You.

Falling to pieces on "Blood of Eden". I've always admired Peter Gabriel as a songwriter and singer because he doesn't hold back, and man, oh man, is that song painful. I can never sing it because I'm crying too hard to make a noise.

I can hear the distant thunder
Of a million unheard souls
Of a million unheard souls
Watch each one reach for creature comfort
For the filling of their holes

Singing my heart out on "Dimming of the Day" and momentarily closing my eyes while driving because I was so into it. (Whoops. Friends don't let friends sing and drive.) I've always felt that song deeply and still do.

Trying to sing "You," choking on the opening lyrics, and then rallying for my favorite lines:

Isn't it love that keeps us breathing?
Isn't it love we're sent here for?

I finally did convince myself to go to the gym and park. However, it was midnight by that time, and I figured that if I went swimming at midnight, I'd be up for hours. I went home instead.

Today I've been cleaning to the sound of the CDs. I have a long way to go, but I've made a good start. If my hours stay sane at work, I hope to put in an hour a day on the place; that's the only way that I'm going to get everything done. Right now, I'm taking a breather. I plan to wash the kitchen floor, do some work on the rowing machine and with dumbbells to say that I got some exercise, take out many bags of garbage, sort through my backlog of mail to pull out those few bills that aren't on automatic payment, and call it a night. Oh, and practice voice. I need to start practicing voice again.