Song Stories: Half A Person

 When Wil and I started the This Wreckage ‘zine over 30 years ago now, the idea is that we would have people submit material that we would throw in each issue as is and put it out to the world.  What we didn’t realize going in is that most people do not want to actually share things like that.  We struggled in finding material to achieve our albeit ambitious goal of a monthly issue. 

However, in a small way, I’d like to float out a similar request we used to do every issue, but with more of a singular focus.  I am hoping that anyone who reads this would be willing to send some kind of story of a certain song that means something to them.  This could mean a short story, an essay, a drawing, a photograph, a poem, a few words, I don’t know.  One of my favorite things is to tie music to pretty much every waking minute of my life.  It’s a problem really.  There are hundreds of songs that evoke a lot of emotions for me for a variety of reasons based on their being nearby at the time.  I absolutely love hearing and reading other people’s stories along these lines.  I don’t care the genre or the artist, or my personal history, if any, with the song, I find these stories endlessly fascinating.

I’m hoping to encourage any and every one who might be willing to send some of their stories to me via messenger, or via email: tangledrec@hotmail.com.  I would like to share them here, on this site, if given the permission.

Please ask any questions you may have.

Jimmy Rattanasouk has been generous enough to share a story!  Here it is:

“16, clumsy, and shy”. Anyone who feels music as part of their life can relate to these lyrics. I first heard the Smiths on an AM station in high school, it was the music that became my lullaby. It wasn’t until college that I found out the name of the band. I was fortunate to find out about the band, and the song, and sound that felt like me that then turned into a romance.

In college I found someone that smelled like the Smiths, made my life feel like I was a Smiths song, and gave me an ending that a Smiths song could only expect. Other Smiths lyrics may be more appropriate, but Half a Person can capture any emotion, “Call me morbid, call me pale. I've spent too long on your trail. Far too long chasing your tail, oh”.

At 19 I made it to England and had to make the pilgrimage to Manchester to trace the chalk marks I made in my mind of this song. The song was based in London, but it was really Manchester for me. I went to the “why WCA” and as expected there wasn’t a vacancy for me. I walked around the downtown tracing my fingers on the walls of old churches going out of style and bridges that held up the city people for centuries that weathered like the parents of the same folk who walked them. I went to a Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza from the counter girl who couldn’t understand me and sounded like she was speaking Gallic, but got my personal pizza and ate it on the bridge overlooking the many canals of the city.

I thought about staying at a nice hotel since I had some extra money, but decided to just take the 6 hour train ride back to mirror the train ride I took that morning. The first ride was for the hope of discovery the city of the Smiths. The second part was to remember what I discovered. And I still wanted to feel 16, clumsy, and shy.

The Smiths "Half a Person"

Thanks so much Jimmy!