YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 88 (Memento Mori)
(Originally finalized on August 2, 2024)
Preface: I had some other themes planned, but I'm gonna have to push them back, because I've recently been to a funeral, and I wanted to share some music while it still felt poignant. I loaded over a hundred songs into a playlist, so this is really only going to be a tiny sliver of what I have, but I wanted to do a theme generally focused around songs you might play at a funeral, with an emphasis on songs that encourage meditation on mortality - a memento mori, if you will.
Monday: Pink Floyd - Time [Dark Side Of The Moon, 1973]
Comments: As a band that lost a founding member to psychosis during its formative years, loss is a prominent theme in Pink Floyd's music. And while Wish You Were Here is an excellent track to reflect the desire to see someone who has been separated from you (whether by death, estrangement, or just the inexorable pull of our scattered lives), no song better encapsulates the creeping futility of existence than Time, from an album I find myself wanting to listen to in its entirety every time somebody I know passes away. "Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines."
Tuesday: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Castles Made Of Sand [Axis: Bold As Love, 1967]
Comments: In the vein of Dust In The Wind by Kansas (another good song for this theme - but I'm saving it for something else), this unassuming track from The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "hump" album (the one that gets forgotten between their first and their last) paints a poignant metaphor for the impermanence of all things. Although it can certainly apply to our own lives, I find it even more meaningful seeing the state of a man's empire reduced to rubble, much like the kingdom of Ozymandias, reclaimed by the desert. "And so castles made of sand slip into the sea... eventually."
Wednesday: Black Country Communion - Cold [2, 2011]
Comments: Closing out the sophomore album by 21st century supergroup Black Country Communion - featuring Joe Bonamassa (guitar wunderkind), Jason Bonham (son of Led Zeppelin's drummer), Glenn Hughes (who sang and played bass in Deep Purple), and Derek Sherinian (former keymaster of Dream Theater) - it was a revelation to me when I realized that this song isn't about a falling out, it's about literally losing a friend. Morbid though the subject may be, it's one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite 21st century bands, and it serves as a reminder to all of us that our days are numbered. As Glenn sings in another Black Country Communion song: sooner or later, I go with you. "And I realize this was meant to be, and I need some time to grieve."
Thursday: Keef Hartley Band - Born To Die [Halfbreed, 1969]
Comments: Keef Hartley was a late discovery for me, despite following Mick Fleetwood as John Mayall's drummer in the Bluesbreakers. Fresh off that gig, Keef formed his own band, and recorded the album Halfbreed. When I heard the song Too Much Thinking (something I have a habit of doing), I was sold. This bluesy, 10-minute vamp titled Born To Die perfectly showcases the guitar-heavy style of the era, as well as the generally melancholy tone of the album. From a strictly pragmatic perspective, it does seem as though we are born to die, and that everything we do is futile - in the final analysis. "My life, it don't mean much. Guess I'm just born to die."
Friday: Bob Dylan - In My Time Of Dyin' [Bob Dylan, 1962]
Comments: The more obvious choice would be to pick Bob Dylan's original Knockin' On Heaven's Door over this cover of an old folk standard (later recorded by no less illustrious a band as Led Zeppelin), but that song almost feels quaint compared to the banshee wailing present on Bob Dylan's debut album - recorded when he was still hungry, and before he became the voice of his generation. With multiple songs about death, it's another album I tend to listen to whenever the reaper strikes close to home - and one that you can only fully appreciate when you've got some intense emotions of your own stirring inside. "In my time of dyin', don't want nobody to mourn. All I want for you to do is take my body home."
Saturday: Robert Plant - Darkness, Darkness [Dreamland, 2002]
Comments: In 2002, Robert Plant - who had reinvented himself since singing for one of the greatest rock groups from the '70s - released Dreamland. It was a different kind of album for people who were expecting something akin to Led Zeppelin, but it features a number of interesting covers, the best of which is this track, which breathed new life into an old song by The Youngbloods from 1969. It's a somber tune for a somber mood, playing off of a concept touched on by Simon & Garfunkel when they sang "hello darkness, my old friend" in The Sound of Silence. There are times in everyone's life when only darkness can bring comfort. "I have felt the edge of sadness. I have known the depths of fear."
Sunday: The Allman Brothers Band - Ain't Wastin' Time No More [Eat A Peach, 1972]
Comments: I wanted to finish this theme on a note that could, conceivably, be interpreted as uplifting. Written by singer Gregg Allman, shortly after his brother and guitarist Duane (together, they were the eponymous "Allman Brothers") was killed in a motorcycle accident, you know this song is sincere. But even amidst this tragedy, the band carried on - because they knew it's what Duane would have wanted. I like to say that funerals are for the living, and it's important to remember that even though we've gathered together to mourn someone we've lost, what's left at the end of the day is a lot of people who still have a life ahead of them, and maybe a little more perspective on what's important. "I ain't wastin' time no more, 'cause time goes by like pouring rain."