A Moment on Art

I’m listening to Gram Parsons’ version of “Love Hurts” via Hype Machine, struck still by how fresh the song sounds, 35 years after it was first released. Emmylou Harris sings harmony, and their voices blend together so seamlessly that you can’t help but wonder what they’d have done had Gram’s demons not done him in so young (or if he’d have killed himself anyway after hearing Nazareth’s cover). So much raw, genuine emotion in that voice. Love DOES hurt, goddamnit, and this song makes you feel it. The Grievous Angel didn’t make it, but the angelic voice that remains, that of Emmylou, sure does. Thankfully. I spent a long obsessive weekend listening to her “Songbird” box set a couple of months ago and gained a whole new appreciation for her art...
Art is what makes us human, keeps us connected to the beauty that exists in the world, makes us think and inspires us and occasionally offends us too. Music, for so many of us, is an outlet without which life would be unbearable. The comfort of a familiar voice, a resonating lament that reminds us that these feelings aren’t always unique only to us, the joy of hearing a spectacular voice or searing guitar solo or thrilling live performance or an unstoppable rhythm or whatever it is that blows your proverbial skirt up, that raises the mundane to a higher plane, if even for the briefest of moments.
Art pulls us up above the everyday, of the have-to and the routine, of the forced smile and professional facade that barely conceals the beastly beating heart of the wild soul that seeks nothing more than escape, nothing more than the chance to thumb its nose and raise its middle finger at The Man.
Art enhances our emotions, makes the good better, adds contextual beauty to the intimate moments that define us and provides a richness to the experience of this short ride on the planet, the one lap we all get to run. Art reminds us that there is more, that life is deeper, that what we do for a living isn’t really life but rather a means to an end.