Soundtrack To My Life True

Everything is more intense when you're younger. For me, music was like air, like food, like water. I had to have the music, and I wanted to feel something when I listened. Excited, happy, or thoughtful, I couldn't be objective about it. This actually became a problem for one of my friends.

Darien was a singer-songwriter who listened for certain elements in popular songs, and based his opinions on the presence or absence of these items. I distinctly remember his excitement when the Rolling Stones released Emotional Rescue in the early 1980's. Darien loved the falsetto; I didn't like it because Mick Jagger sang like a girl. Darien was thrilled by Nina Hagen's five- octave vocal range; I thought she screeched. We listened to some of the same music, but there were differences of opinion.

I never asked Darien about his opinion of True by Spandau Ballet. But I remember the song. It had a haunting, almost ethereal quality. Knowing all the lyrics seemed unimportant, as did being able to hear all of them. They were breathy and heartfelt and spoke of loss. I connected to True somewhere in my soul, and the song mattered to my younger self in an undefinable method. I don't know why I felt this way, but I still feel the spirit of that belief and the certainty of that memory. True has lingered in my heart, and always will.