This is a story of how pirating music made me discover an artist and buy a CD. It happens to me quite regularly — I’m one of those people who end up spending more money on CDs because they “steal” music and end up liking it.
Many months ago, I was crawling around P2P networks downloading songs, and amongst other artists, I was trying to grab anything I could find from Joan Baez. Joan Baez sung my childhood soundtrack, and I’ve been listening to her on and off for over 20 years. Most of what I used to listen to was on LP or tape and stayed at my parents’. I bought a “Best of” a few years ago, but I wanted to hear some of those songs I used to love when I was little. (Note that, as a first side effect of finding Joan Baez songs online, I started listening to her more again, and that made me start completing my CD collection of her albums.)
Anyway, in the bunch of things I downloaded at that time, there was a song called You’re Aging Well, that she was singing in duet with Dar Williams, the composer of the song (though I didn’t know it at that time). I quickly started liking the song, and in particular Dar Williams’ voice. Around that time (weeks, months?) I realized I owned a CD which contained another track sung by Dar Williams: What Do You Hear in These Sounds.
You’re Aging Well, in particular, grew on me. I added Dar Williams to my wishlist, and when my Dad offered me stuff from Amazon for Christmas, I put The Beauty of The Rain in my shopping basket.
The CD arrived two days ago, along with lots of books (mainly Isaac Asimov — I’m going on a robot binge just now). Well, no regrets, the album is exactly what I expected, and I like it a lot.
While I was listening to it for the first time, I took out the booklet and had a look at it. Beneath the lyrics for each song, Dar Williams has added a comment about it. I like that. Two comments in particular stood out for me.
Have you ever read the book, ‘The Dance of Anger’ by Harriet Lerner? It’s great!
No kidding, The Dance of Anger was the book Dar Williams’ CD was sitting upon when I opened up my box from Amazon. Aleika had recommended it to me, and I had included it in my One-Time Order From Amazon With Dad’s Credit Card. How neat is that?
The chorus of this came into my head while I was being rolfed! It drives me crazy when people say that depression is the best source of art. This song was my determination to transform my new happiness into new ideas and even better art.
I personally feel vers strongly against the idea that suffering is necessary for creativity. I’m glad to hear an artist feel that way, too. Thanks, Dar!
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