songs for broken hearts, no.8

Ian Matthews is an unsung hero of the 60s and 70s English folk rock scene. One of the upsides to being single again is that it's allowed me to reconnect with unsung heroes. Men and women listen to and appreciate music so differently. This has been my experience, anyway. I don’t feel comfortable indulging my OCDish fixation on music factoids in the company of women. It’s such a dorky and decidedly male thing to be into and doesn’t reflect well on a guy's eligibility and potential as a mate. It suggests that you have a lot of time on your hands, time that’s wasted accumulating pointless bits of information that have no market value whatsoever. So when I’m in a relationship, I suppress a fair bit of my hunger and passion for music. I turn that part of myself off. Women just wanna hear something that sounds nice, doesn’t matter what a lot of the time, as long as it chimes inoffensively in the background, like a Bacharach tune wafting lightly through the air while you’re waiting for your prescription to be filled. Do you know the way to San Jose? They don’t need the deep background information, the what, when, where, why and how. They don’t give a shit about the tambourine and the glockenspiel and the high harmony. But the tambourine, glockenspiel and high harmony are life itself! At least they are for me. And they can be life savers, too. Do you know how many times I’ve been able to prolong amorous acts simply by shifting focus from what I’m doing to the sound of the tambourine, glockenspiel, high harmony? It can add another 3 or 4 minutes, maybe more if the song’s got some shakers thrown in. But now that I'm on my own once more, I can get back to my obsessions. And my cats can sleep on the pillow next to me, keeping the night terrors away with that calming buzz of theirs, the one that says, ‘don’t worry big guy, we still love you unconditionally, and she wasn't right for you anyway.' It won'tbe long before I'm dusting off my copies of The Monster Manual and Bring on the Bad Guys...

Mining my record collection over the past few days has been very enjoyable. In times of personal upheaval, it's good to be good to yourself and to get back to the little things that give you pleasure. Like the weather we've been having here in the Southland this winter. Warm and perfect, kind of like Ian Matthews' pleading tenor. And silence makes a very loud reply. He could probably sing any girl out of her clothes with that voice of his. ...When I was a student in England, I contemplated making a three-hour train ride to Manchester to see Ian Matthews but didn't do it. I should have. I didn't have the perspective then that I have now. Back then, I viewed him as the secondary guy in Fairport Convention. I didn't yet appreciate the importance of secondary guys. Often times they're the ones who hold the whole thing together. Not that Ian Matthews is in any way a secondary talent. Aside from his amazing voice, he has a great feel for melodies, another case of a guy who lifts you up by bringing you right down...