…And In The Songs We Sing
There’s this Nico Walker quote I love from Grub Street Diet of all things.
(The entire Grub Street Diet piece is excellent and well worth reading)
“As I said, the DJ switched to hip-hop sometime around 10.
The DJ played “Juicy.”
Everybody still liked that song.
The song has held up.
Probably because it has never gone anywhere. There has never been a night in all the 30 motherfucking years, almost, that it’s been since that song came out — not one — that 100 DJs didn’t play that song in 100 venues in this city. Not even during the lockdowns. People were at it then, too.
And if there are parties in Brooklyn, Christopher Wallace may well come through.
He appears when he’s summoned.”
This is a capital T truth - Juicy will live forever and ever amen. Wherever people gather and drinks are sloshed into plastic cups and the kinetic buzz of joy crackles in the air - Biggie will be there.
I love that idea so much for numerous reasons.
The first being the Pharell principle:
Biggie is no longer a formidible physical presence among us but there’s no denying that his spirit lives on. I mean, hell - my almost three-year-old rocks a Biggie t-shirt on the regular.
Kid is super proud of his homemade pepperoni and corn pizza.
For those who actually knew and loved Christopher Wallace, the ache will always remain but having the ability to hear his voice whenever you miss him and the knowledge that there are millions of other people who can conjure up the same to bring them clarity and joy?
It’s pretty amazing.
Springsteen said it best. I mean, that’s kind of his thing, right?
“They’re with us every step of the way, you know.
My dead father’s still with me every day. I miss him, and if I had a wish... Oh man... I wish he could have been here to see this. But I visit with him every night. A little bit.
That’s a grace-filled thing.
And Clarence, I get to... I get to see and be with Clarence a little bit every night.
And Danny, Walter, and Bart, my own family, so many of them gone from these houses that are now filled by strangers.
But the soul, the soul is a stubborn thing.
Doesn’t dissipate so quickly.
Souls remain.
They remain here in the air, in empty space, dusty roots, in sidewalks that I knew every single inch of like I knew my own body as a child, and in the songs that we sing.
You know, that is why we sing.
We sing for our blood and for our people.
Because that’s all we have at the end of the day.”
It is all we have and somedays, it feels like not enough and too much…which is actually a pretty apt summarization of life itself.
The second reason I love Nico Walker’s quote so much is the last line - “he appears when he’s summoned.”
I’ve always harbored the belief that musicians are mystics and that they’re not too far apart from being mystical themselves. I mean, if Kurt Cobain wasn’t a pre-Raphaelite angel, I don’t know who is.
It makes sense musicians would appear when summoned. Like less nefarious demons at Robert Johnson’s Crossroads or the djinn in American Gods.
They show up because you need them.
Two of my favorite movies of all time are True Romance and High Fidelity and they share a commonality - an excellent scene featuring the lead interacting with his favorite musician.
I love True Romance so much, I walked down the aisle to the theme from the movie - You’re So Cool by Hans Zimmer. Pretty much all of the scenes are my favorite scene but the scene between Clarence (Christian Slater) and Elvis Presley (played by Val Kilmer rocking the shit out of the gold suit and sunglasses) is a classic.
He appears when summoned and encourages Clarence to murder his new bride’s former pimp.
I mean, what would be more romantic than that?
In High Fidelity, Bruce Springsteen appears to give sage advice regarding closure to Rob Gordon (played pitch perfectly by John Cusack and even more pitch perfectly by Zoe Kravitz in the truly excellent streaming adaptation of the show/novel. Seriously, what the fuck, Hulu? Canceling this show made no goddamn sense at all)
This makes sense to me on a molecular level. Who better to seek advice from than the Boss himself?
It’s different for everyone.
Will’s been obsessed with Let It Be by The Beatles lately and for him, I guess he’d call on their wisdom - “When I find myself in times of trouble/Paul McCartney comes to me/Speaking words of wisdom/Let it be.”
I love that idea so much, though. The notion that the clarity, comfort, affirmation or love you seek can be found by conjuring up a musician, regardless of their place upon this mortal coil.
There are thousands of songs that hold up. Find one you love by rubbing the trackpad or caressing the cardboard that covers the vinyl and summon someone who makes you feel joy and makes your world make a little more sense.
You deserve clarity and comfort. You deserve joy but most of all, you deserve to hear your favorite fucking song.
