Here is a deceptively simple question: What makes "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," a terrific song
my relationship with Richard Thompson is the most popular tune was always a confused one. I love it, but I do not know why. In passive listening, this seems like a pretty boring, melodramatic love ballad. In a word, it's cheesy . However, I can not listen to it without risking his chin quivering.
for years, without much thought devoted to the question, I unwisely took his old-world Irish vibe just his romance that resonates with me (yes, Richard Thompson, the British, but the song feel Irish). Half of the blood in me can be traced back to Ireland ... but I have to go back only as far as the late '70s to use memories of drunken relatives sing "Danny Boy" and "Harrigan" or some such folk songs. Anytime I hear the sound of Celtic guitar or flitty drone and bagpipes, well I by reflex. Mix in the lyrics of star-crossed lovers and the young man's death, and you have an effective recipe for drawing melancholy out of me - whether it is an art snob in me, like it or not
., but the song is much, a lot , and more.
For those of you who do not know the song or story, I'll give you a synopsis:
Girl (Red Molly) meets boy (James) when he notices on his cool motorcycle (1952 Vincent Black Lightning)> Some unspoken courtship occurs> Boy proposes marriage, a girl, but discovers that her seriously: "I am dangerous man / because I fought the law since I was 17, / I robbed a man more to get my Vincent machine. / I am now 21 years, I can do 22, / and I do not mind dying, but for the love of you. "> They marry> Boy gets shot during a robbery> on his deathbed, the boy sums up his existence:" in my opinion, nothing in this world / House 52 Vincent and a red head girl "> boy died, but not before handing the keys of his motorcycle valued at a girl / woman.
On the surface, it's laughably simple story that is filled with dubious morals. James is a sturdy criminal, for one thing. If you are robbed of some well-known purposes - such as food or rent, or even some desperately wanted a motorcycle - it would be one thing. But none of these have been the case. At the beginning of the song, James is already is his motorcycle. And the second verse, it is his girlfriend, too. These are only two things that matter to him. So why, if you really loved Red Molly that he changed his ways, so you might have a life together?
Because of its one-dimensional existence is exactly what she likes about him. And thus, this is what we love about him, too - because he is all that we are not
.is a kind of James Nietzschian Übermensch ("Superman"). He has no fear of pain or death. He has no children to take care of. Never emphasizes more money. He suffers no regret. And he certainly does not envy other people's grass may be greener.
James is who he is.
Now, I understand how underwhelming it sounds. So what, right? Each of us is who he is, is not it? Wrong. We are all, each one of us, someone else. And none of us knows anyone.
-known documentary filmmaker Errol Morris was once asked about the interview process. Specifically, he asked why he believed people were willing to open up and speak honestly to the camera. "I'm not sure that we are truly privileged access to our minds," he said. "I do not think we have any idea who we are ... we are engaged in a constant struggle to figure out who we are." The interview process, he believes, is the means by which some part of this approach can be granted. Like meditation or counseling, the process themselves isolated from the outside world - and non-stop bombardment of stimuli IT projects - let the white noise to disappear ... and then listen to what ostalo.Istinu.
, but even for those of us who can come, personal truth only in brief moments:. Deep sleep, Freudian slip, a breakthrough on the analysts couch
I remember the night I first heard "1952 Vincent Black Lightning". I sat in the bar at the Khyber, alone, waiting for my friend T. My memories of this distinguished for two reasons. First, upon hearing this song I heard before I had the distinct suspicion that I knew my whole life. The feeling is comforting and surprising at the same time.
Another thing I remember is that I continue to embarrass me on this day.
T. kasno.Otvaranje the band was about to go on. More and more hipsters are floating to the place and gathered in small groups. My self-confidence began to build. I felt like a pariah sitting by itself. (Brunette is a jukebox with a tarantula tattoo she was laughing about her friend I ?) I could take. So I looked down the far end of the bar, as if I saw someone I knew down there and pitched my eyes as if to say: "Hey!" I even lifted my glass and toasted the air-invisible man. It's pathetic. I just can not sit there, my lonely self-clean, and wait for my friend. No secret to avoid ridicule of foreigners (which probably never happened), I had to act like someone else -. Cooler, more social version of ourselves, a version that ran at a random friends wherever I was
Erroll Morris argues that we can not really know. But the reality is harsher, we can not be true to who we think we are. The alternative version of Greg I was adopted at the Khyber: I did it for foreigners . And I'm certainly not the only one, all we have done something like this, not only under tension uncomforable social situations. We get different versions of himself in various day-to-day context. What are you when you are with your boss? Your father? Your priest? Your friend is the most successful?
is the first noble truth of Buddhism is: Life is suffering . The second is: origin of suffering, attachment . Perhaps the complexity of existence can be reduced to those two simple statements. Each of us has attachments. We are connected to what we love, what fear, what we find inspiring, what I find boring, what we feel is right, what we feel is wrong, and on and on.
James is the opposite of us. He does not I suffer, even after a shotgun blast to the chest. For James was able to do what we, as a well-rounded in real life, people can not: he avoided all the pitfalls and liabilities and the existential weight of the world (except for two: his motorcycle and his girlfriend, a red-headed). He even has his own unique vision of death: "The angels and ariels leather and chrome / swooping down from heaven to perform [his] home" - as if it is almost charming, you can picture him smiling as lights go out.
the richest irony is that only the attachment can be linked with James. Through our attachment to the songs and lyrics - the mysterious art of music - we can perfectly embody his reductive and remarkable spirit, if only for a short time. 4:43 For we are listening to this song (or 5:16, and live tracks above), we indirectly as James does not exist: a full, unbridled freedom
.Kris Kristopherson wrote, and Janis Joplin famously sang that "freedom is just another word for nothing to lose." And that's the difference, right there. We is always something to lose - some are desperate to keep an attachment to. We love "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", not for romance or melancholia. We love it because we love the idea of how impossible it is James. The manner in which it never will be
