Music is soothing my savage beast again.
When times are busy, and verging on the stressful, when I can’t see any gaps in my diary, I have to disengage a little so that I don’t implode. I have to give myself over to something else. Especially if I’m not sleeping well.
So I write a big list, sometimes starting with a list of lists, then get very specific. I don’t at this point need to do any of it, merely organise it. Then put it away, close it, temporarily forget it in the knowledge that it has been remembered elsewhere.
Then I stop.
At these times I always head for the same things. There are pieces of music and songs that press my reset button. I love listening to new music, but that’s for a different state of mind. For the reset, it has to be the same old things. And I have a playlist that I stick on shuffle, lie back and let my brain get on with it all by itself. It knows what has to be done.
I am Kloot – Proof
Janis Ian – Tea and Sympathy
David Bowie – Oh You Pretty things
Radiohead – 15 steps
Peter Gabriel – We Do What We’re Told
Elbow – Great Expectations
Agnes Obel – Riverside
Clem Snide – Bread
David Gilmour – On an Island
Doves – Break Me Gently
David Lynch – Wishin Well – actually this is a new one (to me), but it snuggles in happily among the others…
And there’s a few more on the list, but this’ll do for now.
