Heroes and GOATs, Part 4: Don't Axe Me Why

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka

I love books, devouring at least a couple of dozen every year. But I still found this quote was a bit much. Arty, Snooty, Masochistic, No Fun, etc. You know, the Severn Deadly Buzzkills. 

When I plop down on the couch with a book, it's often with a Yeungling and a jumbo bag of Chex Mix. I'm not thinking come on Franz! Bring it on! I want to enjoy the reading experience, because it's gonna be a while before I finish. Whereas, as I described in the last post, one album can wreck you and then another bring you joy, in the space of little more than an hour. 

Plus, books are way more, well literal, so I'm more likely to enjoy them via my brain than my heart.  And the reverse is true for music. It was more of a 50/50 deal back when I was younger when emotions ran high no matter what the art form. In any case, both then and now, I can relate to this quote much more when I think of it as pertaining to albums instead of books. But don't blame Franz. Books were his albums.

Last time I also gave some shade to all time best-selling albums. Some clarification may be in order. When I looked at the list again I saw very few bad records. Oh, there were many to which I was indifferent, but there were quite a few good ones. Rumours, Thriller, Tapestry, etc. Jeez what's not to like? Their placement on the list is an argument for the notion of music being "universal".

But here's the question I always ask myself, and now I'm asking you:

Do any of these albums just destroy you? Do any of them re-arrange your molecules? Or as our friend Franz would put it above, do any take an axe to that frozen sea within you? I could be wrong but I'm thinking no.

Last time I asked how you first experienced your favorite music. Was it with friends? As part of a community? Out on the street, perhaps via a passing vehicle (my recent experiences with the latter notwithstanding)?

It happens more when you're 13 than when your 65. And when I turned 14, I experienced this community less and less. When the whole world didn't recognize Allman Brothers at Fillmore East as one of the all-time great records, I realized that me and the world needed some time apart. This was merely my version of teenage rebellion. A silly overreaction but the joys were becoming more solitary and more personal.

Do you and your larger community still agree on what was good? If yes, I congratulate you. It must be great to be able to always enjoy music with other people, and to come out the other side of it intact. If you compare your GOAT lists everyone will smile and nod very sincerely because even if they don't all love the same thing, they'll know the same thing and be able to relate to it.

But to me, your personal GOAT list should be weird and embarrassing. If not, you're just not listening hard enough. 

It's not that everything you listen to should threaten you with an axe. But everything that does will make it to my GOAT list. 

And Franz has one more thing to say to us: 

Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light.