My Unlikely Summer Soundtrack, 2015

I try too hard to recreate my past. I look back on some glorified time in my life and try to re-live it. The best summers are the ones where you're doing new things and making new memories. I almost made my summer of 2015 unmemorable. I feel like I saved it at the last second. I learned the most important life lessons in August.

So I can't call 2015 the best summer of my life, but it beat the crap out of last summer. Side-by-side with learning new lessons, doing new things and meeting new people... there's discovering new music. My best summers come with summer soundtracks. This particular summer was chalk-full of music I already knew but developed a revivalist love only recently. Living with people I didn't know, I was learning not to take my current friends for granted. Yet the forgotten music from my past was there for me like an old friend.

THE SONGS

"Hearts and Bones" -Paul Simon, 1983

A co-worker introduced me to this song. I thought I was already worshiping Paul Simon's greatest songs. I was wrong. This song, both musically and lyrically, is a prelude to Graceland.

"Take Me Home" -Phil Collins, 1985

I hate Phil Collins. This song is super cheesy. Why do I like it? Perhapsn it's the passionate honesty I hear in Phil's voice when he sings "I've been a prisoner all my life." Maybe it's the interestingly sonic synth progression. Maybe it's just a personal hipster bias I've gained since I found out Phil did all the drumming for Brian Eno's Another Green World. (+great video)

"I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You" -Tom Waits, 1973

I've loved Tom Waits for years, and discovered only recently that my little brother bought his debut album Closing Time. The story in this song is way too relate-able for me.

"Holy Shit" -Father John Misty, 2015

Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty, wrote this song on his wedding day: "To make a decision based on something you believe in-- to get out of the morass of ambivalence, to live according to endless contingencies and potential mishaps, potential unhappiness-- is just huge for me."

"Keeping the Faith" -Billy Joel, 1983

In my 70s-flavored summer, I realized that Billy Joel really wasn't that good. I made harsh judgments about his early career but learned that his most crucial work-- his reborn songwriter album-- was 1983's An Innocent Man. This track is a beautiful, cheeky, oldies-radio ode to youth and rebellion. Jukeboxes, leather jackets, teenage sex, classic cars, no regrets. (+great video)

THE ALBUM

Blood on the Tracks -Bob Dylan, 1975

There's something wrong with me. I learned to worship Bob Dylan from Rolling Stone when I was a teenager. I have since learned that Rolling Stone is the root of all evil. But I still liked my 60s Dylan. 70s Dylan never made any sense to me. I always considered it dry and uninteresting. I never felt inclined to entirely listen to his so-called classic Blood on the Tracks until a couple months ago. Repeatedly listening to it this summer, it's given me feelings I've never had before.

So this 40 year-old album is changing my life. Lots of artists tell stories about their misspent youth, but Dylan was never young. He tells tales of misspent adulthood. Sometimes complex and epic ("Idiot Wind") but at times straightforward and simple ("You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"). Between traveling the world and a longing for ex-lovers, everything somehow sounds sincere. The songs usually make you smile, but have the power to make you cry.

Blood has as many words as a rap album. And line after line, the rhyme schemes just flow like they were meant to be. Musically, nothing else really sounds like it. I guess it's just a 70s folk songwriter at the end of the day, but the recording of the album itself is reserved only for these 10 songs. The acoustic guitar is almost too bright, the percussion sounds on-demand, the organ is pure clarity, the bass lines are playful and Dylan's doesn't sound anything like it did 10 years prior. 

Considering Dylan's career failures from the early 70s, many people consider Blood a comeback album. But this album isn't a return to his old ways. It's a rebirth. It's a redemption, both in his career and in his life. I don't know what took me so long to love this album. It makes me see songwriting in a new light: It's possible to be frustrated with yourself but remain happy. It's part of humility. Whether it's God, an ex-girlfriend or perhaps just your own conscience, you can find your own "Shelter from the Storm."