Monday, April 25, 2011

reading music.

i do not mean reading musical notes - i mean reading about music.
when i was growing up music was not as nearly available as it is now. i would buy a magazine ('dzuboks', 'rock' or 'itd') and read about new bands and albums, and i would decide whether i liked them or not based on the photos and on what was written about them. upon eventually hearing a song or a band, i would either get disappointed or fully embrace them. one of these songs, however, baffled me.
i was fourteen when sting's album 'the dream of the blue turtles' came out. since i had never been a huge 'police' fan, i did not pay much attention to this album. then i read an essay by david albahari titled 'the songs i never dance to', about sting's song 'moon over bourbon street'. it was a phenomenal essay. i read it over and over again. no wonder, since albahari's currently one of serbia's leading novelists, living in canada. but it didn't really make me buy the record and listen to it.
it so happened that my cousin bought this album, so i eventually listened to all the songs. they were not in my taste. i found the song 'russians' so tedious. but 'moon over bourbon street' had something in it, though i couldn't really figure out what. jazz sound was not awfully attractive to me then, the atmosphere of the song was too serious and gloomy, but for some reason i started liking it. and i still do, a lot. it's difficult for me to say whether it's because it takes me back to the time i was starting to grasp new meanings, or because it's a good song, but as soon as i hear its first notes, i walk bourbon street on a moonlit night.

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