When I look through the music I have, the first thing I associate with it (normal or bizarre) is when I bought it and what I was doing at the time. If forever briefly, the music can take me back to that place, living life and (simultaneously) getting into the songs.
Around this time in 2002, I bought this album.
It is a game of youth, matching lyrics to your current situation. And these were things I likely didn't notice at the time...I was too busy doing some of the activities mentioned above.
From Second Hand Store
So you burned your bridges and headed downstream
Never know until you try
Spent your fortune on riverboat queens
'Til the river ran dry
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So you keep on following directions until
Pretty soon you passed it
Guess you should've know better and still
It was fun while it lasted
I had just got out of a long, complacent relationship and moved out on my own...and the song refrains "Any Way the Wind Blows." Living and working in Hollywood, I didn't want to move too far, and I found a furnished place at the base of Laurel Canyon, north of Sunset. A perfect place, it was not, but it had a location that couldn't be beat. Easy drive to work, and to the valley to hang with the returning Dillon. I could walk to nearly anywhere on the Strip, which helps if you're drunk. You also don't realize how long you're walking with all the shit going on. The place seemed to find me, and it was (for the most part) good.
From Indian Summer
And it's not as easy as it used to be
Finding time to let my mind wander
I can still hear them calling
Indian Summer
Not that work life was improving, at all. The wheels were spinning, the volume unending. It could've been worse: a "friend" around this time asked me to co-sign a loan for him, so deep in debt...this is what happens when you graduate college and "moving to LA" is the end of the goal. We stopped talking roughly after I turned him down. Did he know how hard I worked to get that cash?
But anytime it would get me down (daily, as it turned out) I could walk around the lot and smile - shit, this was at least progress. Remember when you said you'd be doing this, and your father didn't believe you? Nobody said the line to the top, whatever that is, is straight.
From At the Station
(Not lyrically, but it reminded me of the theme from "Fridays" which is always a plus)
From Tomorrow
Tomorrow, made up my mind
Gonna get busy, come from behind
Today, I'm staying right where I am
Break a few rules, make a few plans
There's thousands of things to keep you from doing
What you want to do
And if it's this, then it's that
Back where it's at, and you're never through
When the aforementioned things did change, I wanted everything else to...as if life is that much of a switch. Balancing a desire for change is hard if there are moments and things in your life that you want to stay the same. After a while, mentally it seems easy (pushing away the cop-out) to drift back. There's comfort in knowing, but little excitement.
In my new place, I was one dart across the canyon to the hills. And I would wander. My entry was the Chateau Marmont, and on nights the kitchen door would be open, dining room empty. It's a room service kind of place, after all. Many times I passed the ghost of Belushi, and each time he looked out of shape. But we'd nod, and I'd move on.
Up and up I climbed to Hollywood Blvd...an aspect few seem to realize: it's up there, too. A perfect vista route, there was inspiration all around. At the time it seemed like a good walk: peaceful and relaxing. I'd continue to Kings Road, which I'd take back to the Strip and the then-Hyatt House Hotel. Once or twice, on the walk back, I'd see someone I know at a bar's patio. "Hey Trip - did you just walk from up there?" Yeah...(yawn) "I forgot, you just moved. You're in the hills? That's awesome! You want a margarita?"
The album ends with Life's Been Good...no need to go over that ground.
Over and over it goes...but you ask anyone who writes for this blog (well, either of us) and we can both tell you: a clearing of the mind, when you do something as simple as switching up locations for any length of time, does wonders for the soul. It gives you life anew, and there will be a moment, either in the hills of Hollywood or at a bar, in a Hawaiian hut, or whatever...that you realize your life is Gold.
