Music for the Soul

I'm one of those "listen to my favorite songs (or parts of songs) over and over again" type of people. Sometimes...listening to it once simply wasn't enough. I know Lewis says something about it in his Space Trilogy--an excess of desire or something to that effect. So I try to avoid it if I can. However...

Today I am working in the library. I, of course, have music playing with my earphones on so I can let it get loud if I need too. I decided to play the soundtrack from Blues Brothers 2000 which I saw when I was a...Junior?...Senior? in highschool. It was amazing. The movie, as a movie, was less then good...but the music...I couldn't stop thinking about it. I grew up in a Christian household and though I received a very diverse music education from parents that loved music, I was very naive--I really was only beginning my musical education (albeit with a strong foundation in staples like Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, the Beachboys, U2, Bread, America, Badfinger, Sinatra, the Presidents of the United States of America, etc)...but when I saw the Blues Brothers...I soared. The music was so perfect--so freeing. I quickly went out and bought the soundtrack and began listening...and as time went by I learned more and more about who was playing in the large compliation numbers (originally I knew only Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin and BB King). And I overplayed it and stoped listening to it...

Until today. Ah. Its a rare treat to abandon something that was good because you became too familiar with it and then come back to it later to find that it is as good as (and maybe better than) it ever was before. The only problem with listening to this music that moves with harmonies and rhythms that command your body's attention is that I want to join in with the music and, of course, I am working in a library. Shhh. So I turn it up nice and loud (about 75% on the total potential volume--so my ears get hot listening) and I just try to hold in all that the music brings up. Fortunately I am also alone in my little room, pasting call numbers to books...that way nobdy can laugh at me as I bounce, sway, and mouth-along to the lyrics.

I have so much energy right now, I feel like I could explode. Now that's good music.