my careless contagion

The Smiths' How Soon Is Now? is iconic. Check out the lyrics . Certainly not a run-of-the-mill 80s song. It came out in '84 but didn't pick up steam until later. Do the lyrics make more sense when you know Morrissey (the singer/coauthor of this song) is vegetarian (since age 11) turned vegan? No wonder so much of his music is sad and "beta," as the kids would say. (Eating meat helps men produce testosterone.) Maybe that's why I want to talk about this song. It's about longing. It's about love. It's about longing for love. Saw a license plate recently that simply said, "SIMP," which I understand.  I realized perhaps too late in life the driving force of my being was the search for love. Just wanted to be loved. Looked everywhere for it. That search was behind all major failures and was the wound that drove the most virulent sins. Little did I know there is no human love that can satisfy, and only God can love me fully and in a way that hea...

Lewis Capaldi released this song in 2019. He is afflicted by Tourette Syndrome, when a person's body has uncontrollable tics. I remember a customer at a job I worked was very nice but then he'd devolve into tics, including flipping the bird repeatedly. And then he'd be kind again. Anyway, if you look up live performances of this song, you'll see Lewis struggle to sing, then the audience sings it for him. It's rather touching, but also sad because the poor man can't even sing his own song.  Sadness should be what you feel when you hear this. That's the odd thing for me. Given my past and inability to find love (even though it was probably right in front of me), I should be overcome with some sort of emotion. I'm not. I am completely unaffected by this song, its sentiment, lyrics, music, etc. It's a well-crafted song, though I feel nothing. Perhaps the fact that it says, "used to being someone you loved" instead of something like "someon...

Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley is forever ensconced in pop-culture for a number of reasons. It's a simp anthem.  It's infinitely meme-able . It's white people acting white. It's catchy. It's relatable. It's some impressively well-styled ginger hair. And the song is impossible to hate!  Go ahead and watch! The manly voice and boyish face are a cartoonish mismatch. This song came out in 1987 (Rick was 21), but it remains a part of popular culture. Kids today would probably pronounce it "cringe," but that's okay. There is a difference between good cringe and bad cringe. This is good cringe. Feel free to indulge. My favorite part of the video is the barkeeper. He really enjoys it when the goofy, white folks are getting down and can't help but show off.  This song is basically an auditory version of this blog. Pause and consider the lyrics. Haven't I said all of those things a million times? Is this blog good cringe or bad cringe? Admitt...

Haha, oh man. This one is loaded. I'm pregnant with thoughts as I sit here. This one is from the vault. B.J. Thomas' Hooked On A Feeling came out in 1968, but it lingered on radio for decades. It is another simple song that has a lot going on. This is a song from my childhood that still echoes in my mind. It's a good one, and let's look at why.  Let's get this out of the way. The television treatment of this song is laughable. You could put up a blue background, some lighted Os and a ladder as props and background, and then overlay the video shots ... and ta da! It was probably high tech back then, but now it makes us cringe. And B.J. looks incredibly polished. His image after this is decidedly hippyish. He died in 2021, sadly. Another great song from B.J. is Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, which we won't discuss today because today we're doing a happy song. He's got some really good songs, which he shared with all of us.  What struck me about the...

You're forgiven if you wondered aloud why I'm writing about this song. Nightcall (irritatingly one word) was made popular by its inclusion on the Drive soundtrack. The movie was released in 2011. If you go on the internet at all, you've seen screenshots and memes from the film. It's popular among men who have trouble expressing how they feel. "Literally me" is the most common meme related to Drive.  Ryan Gosling's character (who is simply called Driver in the credits because he is never named) is not exactly a good guy, but he does some good things. The movie has brutal moments, which is why I won't recommend watching, but it is a pretty good movie if you can find an edited version. I won't give away the movie, but it really resonated with a lot of men. A lot of guys will probably go to the Barbie movie (also starring Gosling) and yell out, "Literally me!" I hope so. Maybe I will too. See you guys there!  The song is dark, as is much of t...

In my world, this song always existed. Indeed, it was released in 1977, the year I was born. It was covered numerous times, including by NOFX (about two minutes in length, complete with the expected punk-rock irreverence, and with some vocals by Bad Religion's Greg Graffin). It's a good song and robust, having survived several decades. I guess I could say some of the same about myself since we're the same age. It's one of those songs that builds momentum. It starts fairly quiet and slow but eventually takes off like a jet plane. It has a fairly fast tempo for a classic rock song. The song has so much momentum, it simply fades out at the end, which is the easiest way to end a song like this. The cover art is curious, especially if your eyes are drawn to the dangly bits of the man's outfit. I wonder whose idea that was.  The vocals are perfect. I don't even know how he does some parts. The yelping inflection on "go" and "your" gets me every ti...

The song doesn't matter. It's a good song. A catchy pop song. I don't know if it's a love song. It's a when-something-good-is-about-to-end song, maybe. A good radio song. It's actually quite hard to craft a simple song like this. It's much harder to leave it simple than to embellish it and  adulterate the heart of a song with too much music. A lot of people don't realize that a somewhat narrow band of music is appropriate for radio because of the frequencies used to broadcast. Some sounds don't come over the airwaves very well. When I listen to songs for, say, a post like this, I use my Bose headphones because the sound is better than the iMac speakers. But, I also know I'm listening to a digital reproduction of a performance. If you listen to something such a CD, which almost no one does anymore, you have to realize it's compressed. It's a digital copy of a live event. So it's ones and zeroes. All the quirky, spacey sounds are lopped...

I don't know if she still reads here. I don't know if she thinks about me much anymore. I really don't know much, but I know she means the world to me. I see her trying. She's afraid. She's holding on to what she knows. She's afraid of what she doesn't know. I wish it was easier. Someday it will be. I know she'll be okay. I know because my Father told me.  When someone has been through hell in a relationship, they don't have the same fire to begin again. The fire is gone, but the need for love remains. The struggle of that person is a spectacular thing. It is a precious fight for sanity and safety and to not lose oneself in love. I want her to know it will be okay. We will both be okay. Because neither of us are in control. There is One who is in control, and He knows our struggles. He sees every tear and frustration, every moment of terror. Every fear. Every time we look in the mirror and wonder if they see what we see. Every moment we see that slip...

If you haven’t seen the movie Pure Country, then this is just a song. If you haven’t read anything else here, this is just a guy's short blog post. If you have done either of those, this is for you.  *** Sometimes loving someone means giving them something they need, regardless of what one wants or the cost to self. Someone precious to me showed me what that looks like. I miss her, though I understand, and seek to do for her what she does for others.  Thank you for reading. And God bless. New blog:  a-better-hope.blogspot.com And my other blog, None Dare Call It Treason.

Social Distortion's album White Light, White Heat, White Trash was released in 1996. I wrote previously about a track (I was wrong), which I recall seeing on MTV's 120 Minutes in probably late 1996 when I was home from college some weekend. I didn't know I'd later see the band play many times or that they would become a major influence in my life.  Crown of Thorns was released 25 years ago on the same album and remains relevant. Though it didn't mean anything to me for years, today it does. It's clear the singer/songwriter, Mike Ness, went through "the program," meaning some sort of mind-control protocols. The marks are all over his music, his life, and his body. (Once you know what to look for, you spot it right away.) Mass media, in turn, uses these programmed individuals to program the rest of us. I was thinking about a song on the radio the other day (Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar, who I also saw perform) and how it was blatant programming, ...

She found me lost and alone wavering like a metronome born into a hateful world she swallowed me in her arms and I was never the same One woman can change a man  one love, one touch, and one forever if you don't believe me just look at me now She loves me at my worst lifts me up when I feel done grants me access to a new world where I don't have to be perfect She's knows I'm just a man but treats me like I'm better, made of something swift and strong and forever young She also sees the scars etched deeply in my flesh I stand naked before her but she never judges What I am is changed her love changed me rearranged me put me back together better even made me look at myself and not hate what I saw Now I see why God gave woman to man what a blessing, what peace what a stunning realization so different from what I've always known And so I love her, too,  the same as she loves me with everything I have until my last breath what a beautiful woman to make such an ugly m...

Perhaps Love by John Denver sums up what many think of the concept of love: it's confusing. What is it? Like light refracted through a prism, it gets scattered. Many tried to explain or reduce it down in meaning, but it persists in baffling mankind. Perhaps also baffling is how many John Denver songs are about love. (I don't have a CD player in my car now because it is too new, so I'm mining YouTube for John's songs.) Here's another one. The version I'm most familiar with is the duet with Placido Domingo, but I like this version better. Apostle Paul, when writing about God (and, by extension, God's love), said, " For now we see through a glass, darkly;  but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." In Paul's time, glass was not clear as it is now; it was full of impurities, so you saw shadows instead of people. It was a good description of us trying to grasp the fullness of God's love. In our ear...