I've been meaning to do this for awhile, but I've been too much of a chicken shit. Now that I have come to certain realizations, I feel I'm strong enough to tackle this beast. Once upon a time, I did a Myspace-esque survey on that other blog, the one I regret ever creating and the one I cannot destroy. Every day for thirty days, I wrote about a song that applied to that day's theme. I did this at a very complex time in my life that was riddled with bad choices and negative effects. All my fault. I wrote some terrible, unsavory things. Because I cannot delete the things I wrote, I figured the next best thing is to do the survey again and replace the bad with the good and undo some hurt. I am doing this to rectify the sins of the past and to show how much I've changed since those dark days.
Day 1 -- Your Favorite Song
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" -- Blue Oyster Cult, Agents of Fortune (1976)
My loving of this song has absolutely nothing to do with the Saturday Night Live sketch, by the way. I don't think it's a "funny" song or a punch line, I think it's the greatest song ever written. First of all, the melody is hauntingly beautiful and the instrumentation is badass. It rocks and it soothes. It's passionate without being over the top or distressing.
But really it's about the lyrics. On one's first listen, one might think it's a song that glorifies suicide and welcomes death. That is a literal interpretation, yes. Stephen King has actually said that "DFTR" partly inspired his novel The Stand, which is about a super flu killing most of the world's population and the survivors' attempts to rebuild society. To me (and I'm aware this may apply to only me), "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is about overcoming one's fear of commitment. It's about letting go of what's comfortable (and not good) and accepting and embracing the unknown which you must trust is going to be better.
I can "hear" Tyler singing this to me. If I "take his hand" we can "redefine happiness". We can "be like they are", meaning all the people that have found true love. Then there's that whole last verse:
Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn't go on
Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared
The curtains flew and then he appeared
Saying don't be afraid
Come on baby... And she had no fear
And she ran to him... And they started to fly
They looked backward and said goodbye
She had become like they are
She had taken his hand
She had become like they are
So yeah. Tyler is "The Reaper". He is not killing me, but guiding me into "the next life". And I am not afraid. I shouldn't be afraid because he is taking me somewhere better and where I ultimately belong. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" will always remind me of the journey towards happiness he took me on.
Also, this song came out the year Tyler was born. I don't think that's mere coincidence.
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