Listening to Music (Not Facing It)

I'm listening to Led Zeppelin's first album.

The imaginatively named one. Later they got pretty
lazy with the names.

I love me some Led Zeppelin. My history with this band is lengthy and complicated and will in fact be featured in my book, because it says a lot about my evolution as a person.

But forget all of that right now.

We'll cover that in another session.

I'm listening to the first Led Zeppelin album on headphones, which is my favorite way to listen to music. Radios suck at reproducing music, and even the best speakers can't give you the intimate experience of hearing all the nuances of a song. Headphones are solitary and immediate, which is how I prefer to absorb life as a whole. You know, like some kind of emo sponge.

Google image search never ever lets me down.

I didn't grow up listening to Led Zep on headphones, as I did the Beatles and David Bowie and Bob Dylan. I know every note and echo of those artists, but I'm a virgin when it comes to Zeppelin. It's a pretty overwhelming experience, and I'm digging the hell out of it.

Listening to music on headphones also has the ancillary effect of shutting out everything happening around me. I think I was subconsciously aware of that as a teenager, and right now I'm deliberately taking advantage of it. There are toxic elements in my environment that are soothed, if not eliminated, by being immersed in the privacy of headphones.

I never realized that "You Shook Me" had such an awesome Hammond organ solo in it.

I never realized how much overdubbing occurred in Led Zeppelin's music (after all, even Jimmy Page can play only one guitar at a time), yet it sounds utterly raw and live.

It makes me think there are many things in my life that I've overlooked, taken for granted, dismissed without knowing what I was missing.

I should prick up my ears and listen to what my life is trying to tell me.

It's a little more dissonant than "Your Time Is Gonna Come," but no less heavy.

Honestly, I'd rather just listen to Led Zeppelin on headphones and ignore everything else.

But I've got to face the other music sometime, right?

Right.