#HAWMC Day 11: Theme Song

HAWMC Day 11: Theme song

Imagine your health focus or blog is getting its own theme song. What would the lyrics be? What type of music would it be played to? Imagine if your Health Activism had a theme song. What song would play when you open your blog page? What would the music sound like? What mood would it capture? Would it make you want to dance? Sing out loud? Cry?


I had fun trying to find a theme song, because I love music and have an eclectic taste. It changes depending on my mood and music has such a great effect on me. I had help from my mentor„ the Chronically Awesome Jules, when it came to deciding on a specific song for this exercise. Jules listened to two of my choices and asked me to consider how the song of my choice, as “theme” song for my blog, would fit, and also to imagine it as being that component which would wrap up the blog (I’m paraphrasing here, so forgive me If I get your words wrong, Jules!) This was a brilliant question because it helped me make a choice and feel strongly about it. By having me define what made my choice “theme song” and in a way, defend my choice, it made me feel secure that I had chosen the “right” song. That Jules, so clever! ;)


While my runner up song: “Little Girl Blue”, as sung by Janis Joplin (I know it was originally sung by Nina Simone, but I relate more to Janis’ version), captures the melancholy (is that a condescending/romanticized term that fails to capture the desperation of depression? hmm) is a song which never fails to move me because of how well it captures not only the melancholy but depression, I didn’t find it to be quite fitting. Maybe “Little Girl Blue” would be a better fit if my blog were solely about what it feels like to be stuck in the Rabbit Hole. When I am in *that* place, that is how I feel, who I am. Alice *is* the “Little Girl Blue”. Another aspect of the song which makes it so moving is how well Janis lets down her guard and allows the audience to “feel” her vulnerability. That is what makes a great artist. And Janis Joplin, while a tortured soul, was a great artist, who let others feel her vulnerability, a trait which I admire and which inspires me.


However, for the purpose of MY blog, I chose to go a different route, but no less powerful. I chose a song which has hardly any lyrics at all. But it doesn’t lack for describing how I feel:


Theme Song:
Pink Floyd, The Great Gig in the Sky
(from Dark Side of the Moon)

The first time I heard this song I got goosebumps (and still do). It is just the most powerful song I have ever heard. It’s not just something I listen to, because Clare Torry did such a great job of conveying such emotion that I “feel” so much when listening to this song.


In the beginning of the song, I can envision myself, as “Alice” taking a tumble down the “Rabbit Hole” which symbolizes my falling into the darkness that is depression. This song, through the wailing voice, is how I would describe what falling into a depression feels like.


As the wail intensifies, I am much like “Alice in Wonderland”, lost in my depression, in my darkness, in my pain. This is what my pain feels like, the agony. But it also represents losing control, letting go completely, as I go through an inner transformation.


During the second half of the song, as the voice gets softer, I relate it to giving birth to a new self. Having undergone a metamorphosis, I find an inner peace. And while it is a painful and powerful experience, in the end I come out of it stronger.


What makes this song perfect for ME is that if someone were to ask me, “How are you feeling?” I would tell them to listen to this song. And if they understood it, then they would know how I feel, by simply listening to this song. No words are needed. Because it is felt. Not that this song is *exactly* what it feels like when I’m in the throes of my depression or in the midst of a Crohn’s flare. But, close enough.


While I was *sure* that *this* was the right song, I chose to try an experiment, to reassure myself that I was choosing the right song. I played The Great Gig in the Sky as I read *each* piece I’ve written. To have it as the background music as well as to see if it really woud be a “good fit”. And it is. This song perfectly captures what I hope the reader can take from reading my blog.



If THIS picture were set to music, it would be the Song “The Great Gig in The Sky”, because it’s as if this picture and what it represents were set to music. Death, darkness, but there is also light. Freedom, release, rebirth?



Pink Floyd: “The Great Gig in The Sky” facts/background info:
When the band was working on Dark Side Of The Moon, most of the songs didn’t have titles. They referred to this as “The Religious Section” or “The Mortality Sequence.”

Pink Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright wrote this song, which is about life, gradually descending into death. Hence the angrier and more intense first half with a dying person refusing to “go gently into that good night.” The second half is gentler, as the dying person gives into the inevitable and fades away. In the March, 1998 issue of Mojo, Wright explained: “For me, one of the pressures of being in the band was this constant fear of dying because of all the traveling we were doing in planes and on the motorways in America and in Europe.”







@hipsteralice
April Blogger in Residency
Alice in Crohnsland for

http://www.whatthejules.com/april/313-hawmc-day-11-theme-song