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| Blogs > lonelynights63 > Your traces on me |
Life is just a perpetual suicide
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Life is just a perpetual suicide I’m sure that many will be surprised, even shocked by the title of this post and even more will think that it will be at least more than gloomy...But wise people never hurry to jump into conclusions like the Chinese used to say (and the American Indians too if I’m not mistaken and in this case it should be noted that their origins can be traced in Asia, having a lot in common with the Eskimos who in turn come definitely from some old tribes that existed in Japan on a parallel with the one that eventually prevailed and is none other of what we call today simply Japanese). Just try to come to think of it...We all know what awaits each one of us someday, right? Nothing more than the end of life...And like a line of Roger Waters from Pink Floyd’s «Time» (off «The Dark Side Of The Moon») says each day just brings us closer to that. So we could very well say that just by continuing to live we commit some kind of suicide... But of course this is just a philosophical oxymoron which doesn’t actually mean anything. Because there is no real alternative to that unavoidable course towards death except only one thing...To actually commit suicide, to put an end to your life yourself before that comes because of any factors that have not to do with you. Of course there is this option too...But according to my philosophy, from my point of view, in the way I see things or whatever else you might want to call it that is just unacceptable. That is the reason really that I couldn’t ever like my friend’s Ghraios2’ favourite poet, Kostas Kariotakis. It’s an ideological matter much more than one of taste or even of aesthetic...To me suicide is something that is only done by cowards, by real chickens if you like. People that have just the necessary average of personal strength stay here and carry on, even continue fighting if that too has to be...until the very end, whenever and in whatever way that might come. I really think that there is one and only way for anybody to do that, even to achieve that if you like and that is like I - and many other people of course - do it. And that is by somehow facing every day like it is the...very first that you are born, to put it more simply what we usually say «today is the first day of the rest of your life». That in turn just means at first to never forget that the past is just memories, it doesn’t really exist any more and to make a fresh start, to start all over again every single day. And by «starting all over again» I mean one or maybe two very simple things, every day to try to know, to learn or even to understand better something new, something more about yourself and the world around you (and that includes the other people and pretty much everything else that sees the eye...maybe and some of those that it can’t see) and then to use that knowledge, that experience to do, to give, to offer something...again first to yourself and then to some other people, many or not, that depends in any case and for any person but it has to be at least a few others except yourself. That’s all really, nothing more, nothing much and not anything that is difficult or even complicated... Now as for those that they don’t want or even they can’t do that...I’m sorry but like I said above ‒ and this is really one of the very few things in life that I’m absolutely sure that I’m right in my opinion about it ‒ there is no alternative, there is just no other way. So I would probably like not to be that blunt but I’m afraid that the cynic in me ‒ and this time more than any other - doesn’t allow me to do otherwise: If somebody can’t do that he/she should really consider the ultimate solution...and that just means the actual suicide, putting an end to it all. At least that’s what I’d do in such a case...Of course that’s an absolutely theoretical/philosophical point of thought, I wouldn’t ever suggest that thing to anybody personally just like I can’t ‒ and I’m not willing to do that too ‒ force on him/her to do like I do, to go my way regarding the issue. But I really have no doubt...and no mercy probably about something. If you can’t do, you can’t give even the slightest to yourself and anybody else too there is really no point, no meaning in living. Anybody that wants it that way is free to do it of course...but at least he/she should not get in the way of those of us that we like to and actually do it. If you can’t be of any help in something, anything…the least you can do is not to be an obstacle too. And I don’t think that this is too much to ask from anybody, it is just fair... This week’s ‒ normally it would had been posted yesterday ‒ song is not a typical «love song», not even like most of those I post on Fridays...but it is a love song nevertheless. Somehow it picks up from where the song that I posted on New Year’s Eve («The Greatest Love Of All») stops, it’s like the next and final stage to that if you like. Because today’s song is really a love song to the one and only person everybody should really love and continue to do so before he/she loves anybody else or he/she is loved by somebody: Himself or herself...That’s what really David Bowie is talking about in «Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide», the last, finishing song on the masterpiece/milestone that 1972’s «The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars» was. That record was the epitome of the «concept album»: The story of Ziggy Stardust, an alien who comes to earth and becomes a rock star but that doesn’t mean that everything comes up roses for him. On the total contrary, he has to go through a lot of trials and turmoil before at the end he can find his inner peace, makes amends one way or another with those around him and - the most important thing really ‒ learns how to maintain the balance between those two. Ziggy you see is an outsider and not in just one but two ways: First he comes to a world that it's not his own and then he reveals a creative personality, something that always makes those that have it more or less outsiders. And being an outsider pretty much means that you are often lonely, if not really alone... So Ziggy has first to accept, adapt and eventually deal with that while at the same time expressing his creative side. And if that isn’t difficult enough he has to do it in a very unpredictable environment that first heralds him almost as a kind of god but when he (obviously and like it would happen for anybody in such a position...) fails to meet the too demanding expectations that are laid on him it turns to be very hostile making him a pariah if not an escape goat. Ziggy has no other way but to compromise. Being twice an outsider he can’t but also compromise twice, as both an alien and a creative personality which just means to get used in nothing more or less than he actually can as for the first and being content in receiving (positive of course...) feedback only from those who appreciate him for nothing more or less than what he really is and not for what they think him of being as for the second. That’s the last and greatest lesson life holds for him and that’s why he comes out of the experience not only alive but also stronger and at the same time humbler and eventually just much wiser than before... But of course Ziggy is also a facet of the creative persona called Bowie (a creation of a very talented but equally sensitive and terribly shy at first young man from London named David Robert Jones), the first, most glamorous and - perhaps because of that - the more famous of them. Many believed at the time that this specific facet was made under the great impact ‒ if not actually the influence ‒ of Iggy Pop, still then the singer of Stooges and stated of course the name (Z-iggy) of the hero as a proof. Probably there is an element of truth in that and Bowie himself somehow gave the game up when he kind of reversed the grammatical procedure by naming his Zowie but I don’t think that he needed so much a prototype for Ziggy, at that period more than any other his fantasy was not just fervent but really wild...One way or the another, from the picture the first two lines paint, one not only of the most beautiful but also most striking ever to be committed on<b> vinyl </font></b>(back then, afterwards it was CD and nowadays I guess only MP3) to the last word of the song, while he talks about and through Ziggy he means as much ‒ if not much more ‒ himself. Just like it happens through the course of the whole album too and so the double compromise of Ziggy at the end is also his own double compromise...The compromise he needed to make as for to fit his quite great and explosive creative personality into the rather narrow limits of the typical rock musician of the time while continuing to make a living out of what he was doing which just means that any «eccentricity» of his music had to be filtered as to attract through the novelty but never to alienate the audiences. He managed them both by accepting, adapting, dealing, changing and even…mutating when that was necessary and in that way he not only survived ‒ in all possible senses of the word ‒ but he also moved on to even greater things shortly after. The only difference between that «alien» of music and Ziggy is that he never got to be something even resembling humble, in fact he always seemed to miss even the meaning of this word on the contrary of that of the word arrogance...But whatever, I for one can forgive the Thin White Duke one or two faults just for the incredible worth of his work! Talking about himself though Bowie ‒ even if he didn’t wanted it which is rather possible in this case ‒ was also talking and about other people, at least those who can see and recognize parts of themselves in his work. So I can’t but dedicate specifically this song to those that I know for sure that they do that: First of all Ghraios2 because you know him from here, Andy, Nick, Peter...although he’s pursuing that in South Africa and I haven’t seen him for quite a few years, the only woman I ever found that has the guts to do it till now and with no purpose of stopping (there were a couple of others but they threw in the towel very early) and thankfully I’m happy for watching that every day and last but not least...my ‒ not ‒ humble ‒ so ‒ much just for once self. All of us lived and are still living on the edge although each one maybe in a different way, all of us are «rock ‘n’ roll suicides» of some kind but we are also...survivors! Like Bowie everyone has to make his/her one or more compromises (of a different kind and decree) at some point and we all have done ours to manage both of the above. But we made it and that’s why - and despite any difficulties we might have gone through - we are still here and we will be till the very last day, living it like it is the very first one! And that just because we feel - and that means we are too - both «young enough for rock ‘n’ roll and too young to die» (to paraphrase on purpose a Jethro Tull title) and because we are aware of the great truth the even greater Neil Young (for having and the American view on things) taught us all with that «Hey hey, my my/Rock and roll can never die/There's more to the picture/Than meets the eye»...Being able to see the big picture means that you know that a lifetime is just not enough for the too many things that are to be learned and experienced and that makes even more those that are to be done, for ourselves and others. And that is also the reason why the wish for a great weekend is only for us this time...the rest of you that I don’t know about can have just a very good one! Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette The wall ‒ to - wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget Ohhh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide You're too old to lose it, too young to choose it And the clock waits so patiently on your song You walk past a cafe but you don't eat when you've lived too long Oh, no, no, no, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide Chevy brakes are snarling as you stumble across the road But the day breaks instead so you hurry home Don't let the sun blast your shadow Don't let the milk float ride your mind You're so natural, religiously unkind Oh no love! You're not alone You're watching yourself but you're too unfair You got your head all tangled up but if I could only make you care Oh no love! You're not alone No matter what or who you've been No matter when or where you've seen All the knives seem to lacerate your brain I've had my share, I'll help you with the pain You're not alone Just turn on with me and you're not alone Let's turn on with me and you're not alone Let's turn on and be not alone Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful Oh gimme your hands...  Just me but with all the ego left at the door... |
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1/10/2009 9:19 am |
1st coincidence....was thinking today to post the song time of Floyd's as weekend song... as for the rest i just agree so fucking much with you....even about the suicide part and you know that especially on that matter i am kinda sensitive....clown in the shadows
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i am no elementary school teacher... but i could imagine this post (4/5th school kids) as a good exercise to be practised and taught in a music class... Just wonderful!! Love the song!!!!! milk float?
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aha... jajaja.
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