Sunday, February 11, 2007

Not a Waste of Time

Don Henley lauded as MusiCares Person of the Year (USA TODAY)

For some reason, I'm reminded of being in the car on a dark deserted highway and listening to the radio late on a Saturday night during a lovers call-in hour. And the caller dials in to request 'Wasted Time' by The Eagles. You can hear the hurt in the caller's voice, and they say..."This goes out to ' X '... I want them to know I'm thinking about them and I'm sorry." And you wonder what solace someone could get by calling into a radio show. And what are the odds the person in their thoughts is even listening. But it doesn't matter. Music can soothe you at your darkest times and it can help with life's answers, if only for three and a half minutes. And why is it that being alone on a dark roadway, lyrics just seem to make so much more sense?

If hearing this song doesn't make you feel anything, you must not have been listening...or you don't have a pulse. Regardless of what you think of The Eagles or Don Henley, something resonates with this song that is so rare in music today. I think it is emotion and honesty, not Nickelback kind of emotion, but real emotion. And it makes you feel it in the way only (great) music can.

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