Is It Like Today?

This song has been playing in my head all week. When a song is in my head for several days in a row, I imagine it is trying to tell me something, so I try to focus on it and let it speak to me.

Once I had "Footloose" on repeat in my brain for about a year and a half. I listened to it, I read the lyrics, I watched the movie, all in hopes that its message would become clear and so would my head. I guess it just gave up and went away by itself eventually. Maybe I was not the chosen one.

Today's song is from 1993, when most of my music feelings were born. In this World Party tune, the lyrics tell of someone who seems to have a lot of anxiety about the world and eventually gets the hell out and ends up on the moon, where he continues to have anxiety and some existential angst.

But he's not just escaping, he's seeking answers: first by measuring the stars, then by hanging out in Greece, and finally by meeting God in space. But this knowledge doesn't help him feel any better about life:

And sometimes it was faith, power, or reason as the cornerstone
But the furrowed brow has never left his face

I suspect the whole "sad intellectual" trope was invented by intellectuals who thought they were better than everyone else but also wanted to be pitied for their moodiness. Like, "Being gifted is a curse, why can't I be ignorant and content like these poor assholes, etc." But I like this song and its protagonist, and I don't want it to be about a tortured genius. That's boring.

So because this song is catchy as hell and I really enjoy the piano bits, I will imagine that this song's message is more about the search for answers being a lifelong process that doesn't need to wrap up neatly. That maybe being really worried about everything is itself the gift if it keeps you questioning "kings and empires" and looking for solutions to problems.

Maybe I'm thinking too hard.



Also please enjoy this bonus cheesy-effects VH1 version: