"Down by the Seaside", Physical Graffiti
Meow, "Down by the Seaside", a tiny chunk of my heart. Soothing and rollicking, I love love love. In a way, bad songs are easier to write about than really good songs. Especially one like "Down by the Seaside", which is so captivating and significant. I love the guitar, laden with tremolo, mingling with the intricate electric piano. Together, its utterly magical. Just the tone of the guitar, and that solo-esque interlude -- its truly majestic. The entire song wriggles between electrifying and that grandiose underwater, mesmerizing feel. "Down by the Seaside" makes me dizzy, extends my entire being into intense glee. And oh, its just a song. But I think that in itself is the most beautiful thing. To be so moved by something that is all in all quite simple. Its that sound as Jimmy's guitar dips and soars. Its so delicate and I simply revel in the sound in an unknown way. I can't say why these things make me feel the way they do, but they do! And if I look back at myself years from now, and think, "Oh, silly. It was just a song." I feel bad for me then! Its the greatest thing in the world for me. right now. To have a divine romance with words, and anticipate what the next word will be. Letting them serendipitously flow from me freely. Or having to stop and deeply ponder what I can say that can crystallize my emotions, or some momentous sound on a record. Searching for the word, finding my voice, playing a single track over and over to GET it. I get it. "Down by the Seaside" is bite-sized happiness, and that is something that most be affably embraced. As the guitar floats, and Robert Plant coos, and the electric piano has sunken in so deep that its a part of you. As everything becomes quickly sinister and becomes deliciously funky, and yet just as quickly, transforms back into the lilting ballad that makes me feel indefinably GLORIOUS. The slow and crawling warmth which resounds from JPJ's keys just before every verse -- its simply perfection. Its everything all at once. And to think, Physical Graffiti holds endless moments like this. "Black Country Woman" and "Boogie with Stu" are practically boring, but to have such divine greatness elsewhere makes it that holy record to me. And its something I knew all along. I just want to shake my body and sigh, because that's what it does -- and I want to translate that into words. Am I getting it across, I wonder.
Mostly its this encompassing moment of truly indescribable feelings. Of really wanting to write. Of being truly, truly inspired! It makes me feel as I have the most extraordinary gift in the world. And I'm so grateful to utilize it. And I'll just keep learning to crystallize those emotions and splatter them all over a page. I want a bubbling stream of passion, I want to read these prose and feel those emotions. That's the goal.
