Song Stories: Blue Monday

 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.

Matt Jenkins has been kind enough to share a story.  Here it is: 

Growing up in LC in the 80’s, there was plenty of pop music and metal. I love both. A wonderful memory I have is from 8^th grade. After basketball practice, I needed a ride to the Driftwood Library. It was about 6 pm and, of course, just a little dark and rainy. A friend on the team was getting picked up by his big brother, who was in high school, and I was going to catch that ride. I ended up in a rusty 70’s Honda Accord hatchback with about six people (but it seemed like twenty). This, I think, was the first time I heard a subwoofer.

 

FUCK! They were playing AC/DC and getting high from a Pringles can made into a pipe with a carb. I was all in. I still remember inhaling and looking down at the Pringles guy with his mustache. Nemo? But AC/DC is not my song story. The song that rocked my world was “Blue Monday” by New Order. It was just such a different sound and for a kid who already had designs on leaving LC and trying to see the world, it was a revelation and a break from the pop, the metal, all the other common forms of music. AC/DC might rock a sub-woofer, but that beat on “Blue Monday” was, and still is, so fucking electronic that it’s like a digital heartbeat. It seemed to transport me into the future, a beat from far away big cities. When I think of all the things that have happened since, the advent, rise, and domination of the Internet and social media, all the various forms of digital culture from the human genome project to AI, to electric cars, that beat in “Blue Monday” was calling to us. How could we not know? This present moment used to be the unimaginable future.

How does it feel?

(http://www.williamlmoore.tumblr.com)

New Order "Blue Monday"