There are certain songs that just resonate with you. Whether that song recreates a moment in time or is just one that you really like, these songs are the songs that helped create the person you are and were a constant companion in the journey called life.
Today we continue exploring those songs in my life and what they mean to me. This is Those Certain Songs.
The Song:
Title: Open Every Window
Artist: The Posies
Album: DGC Rarities Vol. 1
The Lyrics:
Well I know you’ve made a practice
Of closing all your doors
But promise me you’ll open every window
There’s a hundred different reasons
For the cracks you cover over
And the balancing will add to your confusion
But the maze is in your mind
Look for days, but you won’t find
There’s nothing here that hasn’t been before you
Thank whoever, that tomorrow
Isn’t looming any larger
Because there’s plenty left to occupy the meanwhile
And you really like to travel
And you really love to feel at home
But neither seem to happen at the same time
And the map is in your head
As you’re lying on the bed
Being blown away by everything before you
Before you
If you were paid for being honest
You’d have nothing left to live on
And all your debt would stack up very neatly
And in the back of your head
Is a lock in your spine
Full of tension and regret
Because you never really stopped to think it over
That the maze is in your mind
Look for days, but you won’t find
There’s nothing here that hasn’t been before you
Before you
What it means to me:
If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you are probably aware of my love for the band, The Posies (Heck, in fact, one of my earliest blog posts was about them). The Posies were a band that really stood out to me in the early 90’s and would go on to become a band I could never get enough of. Some time in 1994, in my search for more music from the ill-fated band, Nirvana, I found a compilation entitled DGC Rarities Vol. 1. Little did I know that that CD would contain a track from a band that I would end up falling in love with for the rest of my life.
The song was entitled Open Every Window and it really came about at the perfect time in my life. I was still in high-school and was unsure of where I wanted to go in my life. Oh sure, in your teens your life is wide open with every possibility before it, but when you are a teen, you tend to forget that fact. To you, every choice you make has such monumental repercussions that even the slightest accident will brand you a failure forever. While in the 90’s this was far less true than it is today, with the rise of social media and the like, but it was still a frightening prospect. Your actions, your words, your style might be remembered forever and you might never live those days down. This song, however, begged to differ. (To be honest I can’t imagine life as a teen today with everything being recorded, documented and broadcast, my hats off to all of you going through modern teenage angst. That mythical permanent record has become a reality in more ways than one!)
This is a song that, to me, was about limitless possibilities and how that even if you close all of your doors, there are plenty of windows to open up to find even more options. Hearing this for the first time made me realize, even if it weren’t entirely consciously, that I had a wide world before me. That I could really do what ever it is I set my mind to do. This song would go on to become a mantra for me. Something that I would send to friends who were having personal crisis, or just needed some sage advice. Ironically the next song I would find of theirs was entitled Limitless Expressions and man it too is a song about how the future is wide open but also reminding you that you have a chance even when you are being held back by something or someone. Seeing that it was on an album called Home Alive which was dealing with learning to defend yourself against oppression and abuse, it had other implications as well, but nonetheless impactful to me. This song too remains a favorite to this day.
Open Every Window is one that manages to make it on pretty much every play list I make, whether it is the official Those Certain Songs playlist (that I might share with you one day) or just a playlist of favorites, it is a mainstay for sure. I also still listen to the Posies to this very day some twenty-five years later and have even had the chance to see them live from time to time. Although they have yet to play either of these songs at the show’s I have been to, I think that one day, they just might.
Till then,
Late to the Game 11/14/2020 (originally 2/1/2020)
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed Those Certain Songs. If you would like to read more about music you can find my Music Reviews Here.
Additionally, I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and also check out some retro tv goodness with the ongoing series Retro TV Reviews.
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