After The Gold Rush

I go through weird phases in the music I happen to be listening to at any given time. Recently I decided to re-read “Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography” that put me back onto a Neil kick (which drives the wife nuts).
There is something about Young’s music that affects me in many ways. While I typically shy away from his work with Crosby, Stills and Nash (boring music made by boring people to me) his other works often bring back memories from my younger days.
For instance, when I listen to the albums “After The Gold Rush” and “Harvest,” I’m taken back to age 18, driving back from Grand Casino dead broke with a few of my friends.
The song “Heart of Gold” being played in the moon light as were cruising back home with nobody saying a word and licking our financial wounds was quite something.
Then if I hear the album “Tonight’s the Night” I’m taken back to my early 20s, once again on the road, traveling with the same friends to Wisconsin to see Tom Petty on the Fourth of July.
The doomed song fit with the doomed mood of the concert. People were passing out from alcohol and sun in the middle of the show.
The album “Freedom (featuring the hit song “Rocking in the Free World”) reminds me of working retail jobs in a mall. I don’t know exactly why except I just happened to listen to it a lot at work.
But it’s weird how music can do that. If I listen to The Beatles’ “White Album” I’m brought back to my wild and crazy teenage years.
Springsteen’s “Nebraska” and N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” remind me of a relationship that ended when the girl I was dating dropped me for some dude who worked at a sandwich shop while I was in college.
In a few words, painful and liberating and a little confusing.
But these music kicks come and go. I can be a casual listener, unless something sparks inside me for some reason.
When I first moved to Worthington about 11 months ago, I was on a huge Devo kick. Due to the fact they seem to be a required taste for the ears, this kick really drove Gina nuts.
What sparked in that scenario? I read a biography on the band.
Writing this, I realize I tend to read up on bands quite a bit, for no explainable reason.
I just want to know more about them. This helped when I was working in record stores, but it seems strange now that I’m working in the world of journalism.
What will my next kick be? Who knows? I could be watching a movie and suddenly will have the urge to listen to Nirvana’s catalogue for days on end.
I used to have Bob Dylan kicks, but after I’ve grown older, his music means nothing to me. I used to love Dylan, but I came to the conclusion one day that his lyrics were a bunch of nothing draped in psycho-babble.
But for now (and I apologize to Gina) I will be on a Neil Young kick. When I go home tonight, I will jam to “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” his first album with Crazy Horse.
I don’t know why, I just want to.