I tend to wander all over the place on this blog, but don’t get me wrong, there’s a focused structure and intent to it all. Time to give you a peek behind the curtain…
Dana Ditty – Rule 1: Keep the content to Loss or Grief. This is primarily a music blog about bereavement and the many forms it cruelly cultivates. I allow myself the freedom to move fluidly throughout this matter, ripping off the band-aid and blurting out whatever bounces around in my oft-rambling, a little-too-truthful mind…but the underlying goal here is to not stray too far off the beaten path and stay on topic.
Dana Ditty – Rule 2: Feature music Dana hasn’t heard before. If a song is foreign, one can’t have any preconceived feelings or memories attached to it. Hopefully, that made it easier for you to connect with the music/lyrics – although only you and the Gods will know if that’s true or not.
Dana Ditty – Rule 3: Make an effort to keep the music accessible and agreeable. While most of our musical tastes overlap…in some genres, we are world’s apart (ie. MUMFORD AND SONS MAY BE THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO FOLK MUSIC, EVAH). I don’t expect you to connect with – or even appreciate – every song, but if they allow you to feel marginally less alone in your Loss…then in my heart, this lil’ project has been a resounding success.
Dana Ditty – Rule 4: Never use the same band twice. I never wanted this to be a static experience for you. Changing up the bands every day – and as a result, the music genres – conceivably ensures that you are not being bombarded with the same sad song over and over again.
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I must admit, when you told me you were coming home earlier than scheduled, I was excited…but also a bit relieved. I’ve come to find this music blog incredibly cathartic and filled with purpose…but these weird, self-imposed rules I placed on myself have started to creatively box me in as of late. Think about it. So far, I’ve had to unearth 32 different bands that have tight, accessible songs about Loss that you’ve never heard before…and then I gotta relate that music to some aspect of your perdition. The first three weeks were a breeze…but as my catalog of grief-based songs started to thin, I found myself at odds, racking my brain for more content.
Last week, I reached out to several audiophile friends of mine to solicit more songs about Loss. None of them explicitly knew what was going on in this blog…so I got a lot of music that was either inappropriate or had already been deployed. That being said, there was one suggestion that I hadn’t used yet which was consistent from all of them: LCD Soundsystem’s Someone Great.
For me, LCD Soundsystem is one the most prolific electronic rock bands to grace the 21st century. I’m not going to dissect this song (Kristen Hellwig does an excellent job of breaking it down in her Medium essay Why “Someone Great” is the Best Song About Loss Ever Written)…but I must say, I’m a bit conflicted on burning my LCD Soundsytem blog post on Someone Great, especially since I’ve been sitting on a different LCD Soundsystem jam for a couple weeks now, waiting for the right time to drop it into your ears.
My anal-retentiveness knows no bounds….
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Rules, rules, rules. Aren’t there supposed to be no rules to grief? Good, because I’m breaking Rule 4 this weekend. Today is Synthpop Saturday, so have fun tapping your feet to the whirling sounds of synthesizers, drum machines, and glockenspiels. Tomorrow, you’ll get a more hopeful LCD Soundsytem ditty, but for today…well, prepare to have your heart broken when you peruse through the lyrics. There’s a reason why Someone Great has been consistently lauded as one of the most consummate songs of the past two decades – in it’s warmth, lingers an inconsolable amount of human despair…
Someone Great
I wish that we could talk about it – but there, that’s the problem…
With someone new I couldn’t start it – it’s too late for beginnings.
The little things that made me nervous are gone in a moment.
I miss the way we used to argue, locked in your basement.
I wake up and the phone is ringing – surprised, as it’s early.
And that should be the perfect warning that something’s a problem.
To tell the truth I saw it coming – the way, you were breathing…
But nothing can prepare you for it – the voice, on the other, end.
The worst is all the lovely weather – I’m stunned, it’s not raining.
The coffee isn’t even bitter -because, what’s the difference?
There’s all the work that needs to be done – it’s too late for revision.
There’s all the time and all the planning…and songs, to be finished.
And it keeps coming,
And it keeps coming,
And it keeps coming till the day it stops.
I wish that we could talk about it – but there, that’s the problem.
With someone new I could have started – it’s too late for beginnings.
You’re smaller than my wife imagined – she’s surprised you were human.
There shouldn’t be this ring of silence…but what are the options?
When someone great is gone…
We’re safe for the moment.
Saved for the moment.
Dana's Ditties 