Blue Demon
01-27-2011, 07:41 PM
I'm going to start a thread on "personal essays" about songs that have meaning to the person writing the essay. There are no requirements in terms of length or the song. It just needs to have a special meaning to you, positive, negative, happy or sad. I'm going to do one as an example.
I have picked Sometimes You Can't make It On Your Own by U2
February 13, 1996 started like any day for me at the time. I was 12 years old and had been to school, was doing my home work, etc. and had just finished eating my supper when we got a strange phone call from a friend of my older brother's who had said that there were several police cars outside of my Dad's place. (My parents were separated and had started the divorce process at the time, and thus lived in different houses and my brother and I lived with my Mom during the week and at my Dad's on weekends.) I got the feeling that something very bad had happened, but wasn't sure what. After a couple of hours of uncertainty, my mom returned home with a friend and the look on her face confirmed my worst fears. My Dad was found dead by next door neighbours after he had not been seen around after a few days. I would later find out he had taken his own life.
<i>Tough, you think you've got the stuff You're telling me and everyone you're hard enough</i>
My Dad had not had a very nice up bringing and had lost his father, apparently a great man, at a young age and was raised by a mother who didn't want anything to do with him. He started putting on a front of toughness that continued into adulthood. While he and I had a good, yet somewhat strained relationship, the one between my parents, as well as between my brother and father were not too good. This is what eventually led to the divorce process.
<i>Listen to me now. I need to let you know you don't have to go it alone.</i>
I always felt that he didn't have to do what he did. There's always help. All he had to do was look for it and ask. He had family to support him...professional help could've been sought...there were ways to help deal with this new challenge.
<i>We fight all the time You and I...that's all right We're the same soul</i>
My had had gone through some fights...we, deep down, had somewhat similar personalities....easy going, good sense of humour. My dad's easy going nature, unfortunately, was pushed to the background. We were similar, and were sometimes at odds. I felt some regret shortly after his death that we had fought a bit not long before.
<i>And it's you when I look in the mirror And it's you that makes it hard to let go</i>
I'm always told that I look like my father. Everyone who ever knew hime says that, as I get older, I look more and more like him. It sometimes makes it hard to move on. Time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds, it sometimes just makes it easier to deal with it. or a while it was hard to start letting go of some of the memories associated with that period in my life.
When I first heard Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, off of 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, I listened to the song and I couldn't help but cry. It did somewhat describe how I felt about it all. It was also comforting to know that others were also struggling to deal with the loss of a loved one (Bono wrote the song in response to his own father's death.) and I took comfort in that fact and it has also helped in the healing process that is still going on to a degree, almost 15 years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjtWlulx3eA (embedding disabled by request)
I have picked Sometimes You Can't make It On Your Own by U2
February 13, 1996 started like any day for me at the time. I was 12 years old and had been to school, was doing my home work, etc. and had just finished eating my supper when we got a strange phone call from a friend of my older brother's who had said that there were several police cars outside of my Dad's place. (My parents were separated and had started the divorce process at the time, and thus lived in different houses and my brother and I lived with my Mom during the week and at my Dad's on weekends.) I got the feeling that something very bad had happened, but wasn't sure what. After a couple of hours of uncertainty, my mom returned home with a friend and the look on her face confirmed my worst fears. My Dad was found dead by next door neighbours after he had not been seen around after a few days. I would later find out he had taken his own life.
<i>Tough, you think you've got the stuff You're telling me and everyone you're hard enough</i>
My Dad had not had a very nice up bringing and had lost his father, apparently a great man, at a young age and was raised by a mother who didn't want anything to do with him. He started putting on a front of toughness that continued into adulthood. While he and I had a good, yet somewhat strained relationship, the one between my parents, as well as between my brother and father were not too good. This is what eventually led to the divorce process.
<i>Listen to me now. I need to let you know you don't have to go it alone.</i>
I always felt that he didn't have to do what he did. There's always help. All he had to do was look for it and ask. He had family to support him...professional help could've been sought...there were ways to help deal with this new challenge.
<i>We fight all the time You and I...that's all right We're the same soul</i>
My had had gone through some fights...we, deep down, had somewhat similar personalities....easy going, good sense of humour. My dad's easy going nature, unfortunately, was pushed to the background. We were similar, and were sometimes at odds. I felt some regret shortly after his death that we had fought a bit not long before.
<i>And it's you when I look in the mirror And it's you that makes it hard to let go</i>
I'm always told that I look like my father. Everyone who ever knew hime says that, as I get older, I look more and more like him. It sometimes makes it hard to move on. Time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds, it sometimes just makes it easier to deal with it. or a while it was hard to start letting go of some of the memories associated with that period in my life.
When I first heard Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, off of 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, I listened to the song and I couldn't help but cry. It did somewhat describe how I felt about it all. It was also comforting to know that others were also struggling to deal with the loss of a loved one (Bono wrote the song in response to his own father's death.) and I took comfort in that fact and it has also helped in the healing process that is still going on to a degree, almost 15 years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjtWlulx3eA (embedding disabled by request)