Is Melancholia Supposed To Feel Good?

It's always the case, in my experience. You do something online to service people who genuinely give a shit about the music and eventually, typically, the people not cordially invited to the party (or, presumably, any parties judging by their social skills) try their best to ruin the fun. Except that they don't ruin the fun, the fun just moves someplace else and they're left in the same miserable place as they were already. I remember when the police used to try breaking up outdoor raves in the 80's. It didn't stop people enjoying both music and company, it just made them smarter, and they went underground. It also made the police seem ineffectual. Sadly so. No one wanted the police to appear so petty and joyless. I guess we wanted the police to seem cool, like we want fans of music to appear cool. It's sad when they (fans and police) come across like mosquitoes. I don't even squash tiny insects, yknow?

And so here we find ourselves, on blogger.com, continuing the party. Please spread the word about this place. It won't be long before negative creeps find and pollute this place too. Let's enjoy it while we can.

Speaking of raves and the 80's, I kinda miss the days when musicians were expected to be unapproachable. When it was all about music. When there was no means of getting a reply from a musician apart from actually writing to their fanclub and maybe getting a response. And when going to all that effort the last thing you wanted to say was "I think you're a fat cunt", right? At least I didn't want to say that.
Don't get me wrong, in a day and age when we get to speak to supporters of our music I value the opinions, thoughts and general presence of anyone who actually cares about music. I love communication. But I do tend to move away from extreme negativity. Just uproot and move. I have to. It makes me angry, and I really don't like feeling such anger, especially at people I'm supposed to be making music for. It makes me entertain thoughts you probably wouldn't believe I harbour.

Still, there was an emphasis on the music in 80's that isn't there anymore.
With this in mind I thought I'd visit some music that meant a lot to me when innocence shaped my listening pleasure. Some of it might strike a chord with you, some of it might make you feel sick, but the beauty of this era of info-lution is that switching off is as easy as opening up a new window.
Back in my day you'd have even remotely relevant music programmes on TV maybe once a week, now you have youtube. And with attention spans evolving into such flimsy forms of distraction, so desperate that insulting accessible musicians becomes a modern method of approach, it's time to wonder "did rock stars get too close to the fans?"



I'd never heard of Steve Hackett before hearing this song. After hearing more of his stuff I find difficult to picture him playing music like this, but then it was around the time of punk, and I guess that movement affected everyone, from pop guys to prog rockers. This time its effect was rewarding.
Still, some stuff on the radio was completely unaffected by punk, yet still proved to be essential purchases for me. records I will cherish to my dying day.

I remember hearing this one morning and I was still laughing so hard, hours later, that I scrabbled together my pennies and procured the single that afternoon.



Probably around the same time scale two singles with the same title came out, both of which I still treasure in their original sleeves.





Can I just mention that at this point in this blog that I realise you can't be having nearly as much fun as me listening to this stuff, but maybe, just maybe, someone out there remembers these selections and is feeling the same pull of melancholia. It's that possibility that keeps me doing stuff like this. Its that belonging that makes me even continue to make music.

Like, for instance, if someone loves this track even half as much as I do then I have done something worthwhile here this evening. And that is enough for me.



And this... (although it has been used in movies recently). This really makes me feel young again. I don't miss youth but I do miss innocence.



I guess I came here tonight with nothing to say except that I'm stuck in Helsinki missing my family, and wishing that music today made me feel something close enough to how I felt as a child. Then I came across this video and realised that music DOES make me feel like that sometimes, I guess I just feel a little jaded from being neck deep in the sport, y'know?

Anyway...



I guess feeling melancholy isn't so bad after all. Right?

Right?!?

In that case why do I feel so fucking sad?