February 3, 2020

Discovery

My friend Brian Green spends a lot of time on YouTube trying to discover new songs and new artists. From time to time, he will send me a link or the name of a singer and suggest I check it out. He doesn’t inundate me with messages and I think is careful with what he sends me. He doesn’t want to incur my wrath and risk the chance I call him useless. Over the years, he has introduced me to some great music.

Leon Bridges, especially the song River, was a revelation and it became the song of the summer at the cottage.

I think it is fair to say he derives considerable pleasure in the discovery. And, I suppose, in sharing that discovery. We both own enough music to last us a thousand lifetimes and yet we continue to seek out more. We might play the parlor game of the five albums we would take on a desert island but five never seems to be enough.

At times I feel like the Kevin Kline character in The Big Chill who says there is no good music made after 1975. I know, of course, that isn’t true but I suspect it is a cross to bear should I be forced to.

The Big Chill is a seminal film for me and a lot of people from my generation. Setting aside the stellar cast, it is one of the first movies, if not the first, where the songs from the soundtrack actually play as part of the film. Think about Ain’t Too Proud to Beg playing while they clean up the kitchen after dinner.

For me it is the funeral scene when Karen, played by the venerable JoBeth Williams, is asked to play one of Alex’s favorite songs on the organ. We hear the opening chords of the Stones’ You Can't Always Get What You Want and the camera reveals the knowing and barely constrained smiles from the rest of the cast as they all immediately recognize the familiar strains. And I too am smiling. Sitting in the Capital Theatre in Ottawa. Like them. At the same moment. Like I am in the movie. A shared moment of discovery.

I like it when Brian sends me songs. My life has been enriched because of artists introduced to me by others. BB King and Muddy Waters from my cousin David. Van Morrison from cousin Joe. Tom Waits from an ex-girlfriend whose name escapes me but Waits is forever etched in my brain. The list is honestly too long.

But it is not as good as when I discover them by myself. And as great as discovering a new song or artist is, nothing compares to the pleasure of discovering when you are not looking for it.

Looking for China and stumbling onto New York City. Or not looking for anything at all and waking up in Honolulu.

Am not discounting the radio, new CDs, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music or concerts. The majority of my music discoveries have come from those avenues.

No, I’m talking about when your mind is not even thinking about music and then a song is gifted.

Let me make it easy for you.

It is summer 2001 and Shrek is walking through the forest when a piano starts to play and we are suddenly treated to John Cale’s dulcet tones. “I heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the Lord.” It is the song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. Rufus Wainwright covered it on the soundtrack. The famed Jeff Buckley version was used, and ‘discovered’ by viewers, in scenes in The West Wing, the O.C and in dozens, possibly hundreds, of other television shows and movies.

Close your eyes and try to remember how it made you feel.

How you said to yourself and to others, “How do I not know this song?”

That is the joy of discovery.

For me, it is Dylan’s Things Have Changed playing over the credits roll at the end of The Wonder Boys.

The usher had to throw me out of the movie theatre because I sat, transfixed in my seat.

I knew of Steve Earle. I had even seen him in concert. But I had never heard him and the Del McCoury Band play Pilgrim until watching the last scene of You Can Count on Me. A gem of a movie with Mark Ruffalo and Laura Linney. I have watched it ten times and the last scene makes me cry every time.

And then Pilgrim plays as the bus pulls away.

That was a discovery.

And then last night. Nora from Queens. The second episode is very funny. The star, Nora Lum but stage name Awkwafina, nearly stole Crazy Rich Asians. I look her up. On YouTube I find her acceptance speech for winning the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy or a musical for her role in the Chinese language The Farewell. 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Uncut Gems was 93% and it was nearly unwatchable. As were the last six movie biopics which firmly confirmed my status as the family curmudgeon.

It is 11:00 pm.

Okay. I rent it and press play.

It is lovely. It is very good. A small movie examining culture and family dynamics. It has a really nice ending. Not Hollywood. Just subtle and nearly perfect. And a song comes on. I don’t know it. It is also lovely and just fits perfectly.

I pause the movie.

I look it up.

Jesus.

It is a cover.

Come Healing by Leonard fucking Cohen.

How do I not know this song?

The cover by Elayna Boynton.

I listen to it again.

And again.

Then listen to the Cohen original.

Then again.

I rewind the movie and watch the scene again with the music.

Another discovery.

The movie ends and the credits roll.

A song begins to play.

It is in Italian. It seems so out of place. But it is pleasing to the ear. And I like Italian.

And so I listen a bit more closely.

I know this song.

Hey, I know this song. It is 1:30 am and I am alone in my living room in my house in Boca Raton.

“I know this song,” I say out loud to no one.

Nobody can hear me nor can anyone see my smile. If they could, they would see it is the same knowing smile of Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum and William Hurt.

I look it up.

It is called Senza di Te by Fredo Viola.

It is an Italian cover of a 1971 classic by Harry Nillson.

No I can’t forget this feeling
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that’s just the way the story goes
I can’t live if living is without you.

Another discovery.

It is 1:30 am.

Tomorrow I will text Brian Green and tell him.

The end.