The full explanation of what’s going on with this is available here, but the short version is that over this month we’re doing a little essay-ish series connected to eleven songs I associate with August. They’re organized like an album, in the order listed below. Some of the writings are more focused on the songs than others. Today, we’re wrapping up with Track 11.
Side A
1. “August and Everything After” – Counting Crows
2. “Untitled (Love Song)” – Counting Crows
3. “Goodnight L.A.” – Counting Crows
4. “Wildest Dreams” – Taylor Swift
5. “Coming Home” – Diddy – Dirty Money, Skylar Grey
Side B
6. “Rockin’ the Suburbs” – Ben Folds
7. “Meet Virginia” – Train
8. “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” – Paul Simon
9. “Paper Planes” – M.I.A.
10. “Satellite Call” – Sara Bareilles
11. “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.” – Noah and the Whale
If you use Apple Music, a good friend and reader has put together a playlist of Tracks 2 through 11 here.
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There are so many things about this song that should make it corny, and maybe they do make it corny for you. But for me, for whatever reason, it works. It works despite the spelling-out of a mantra. It works despite a few semi-clichéd lines. It works despite attempting an aphoristic all-encompassing piece of encouragement. It comes across as authentic. I think it is authentic.
We’ve talked a lot this month about some of the harder things in life. August can be a weighty time. But its ending is, for many, a beginning, and taken earnestly, this is a liberating work, especially played in the softness of one of the last summer twilights, when the warmth still cradles you even as you know darkness is on its way.
I think the piece of it I most appreciate is the bridge, where there’s a simple wisdom in the ultimate desire expressed: to die, in the end, satisfied. But, of course, I love the lyricism too, and even the sounds of some of the words—“black and blue” often click, but especially here paired with “body” after that sixteenth-note’s worth of a rest. The line about the second character’s letters home being “extended works of fiction” is worthy of a laugh, and the first character’s chaotic nobility is inspiring in its truth. And then, of course, there’s that encouragement angle. It’s just so encouraging. In the “nothing matters, so be free” way.
It’s a liberating work. One that can send you on your way.
