Staying Positive - 4th of July Edition

“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”

We're Gonna Start It With A Positive Jam

I'm finding, more and more, that adult life gets rough: it's important to keep in mind the things that make it worthwhile.  The things that bring you joy, peace, or satisfaction.  To do anything else is to descend into cynicism and pessimism, to fall victim to the default setting of work-eat-sleep-repeat.   As the Hold Steady said, it's important to start things with a positive jam.

Off the bat, this isn't a new song by any means.  In fact, it's a decade old at this point, released back when I was a mere Freshman in High School.  And it's a song that would have spoken volumes to insecure little Freshman-me, alive with the glory of punk and teenage rebellion.  But 10 years and several doses of reality later, I can't get this song out of my head.  For starters, it's just plain good: catchy as hell, with a slow build to a final verse that feels triumphant and cathartic.  I've never been a massive Say Anything fan, but "...is a Real Boy" is an absolute classic, one of the hidden gems of the early 2000s, lost among the mess of Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, and My Chemical Romance.

But good songs don't necessarily stick with you.  I like to think that things get stuck in your head for a reason greater than chord progressions (though, who knows, maybe I'm looking for meaning in all the wrong places).  But I think what gets me about this song is the simple, emotional honesty of it all.  It's in the first line - "Here I am, laid bare, at the end of my rope".  That kind of honesty is hard to come by in all the posturing of modern music - it's certainly not something that comes naturally to me.  But maybe it's something that should.

It's a punk rock anthem about how he knows that the simple act of writing this song will ruin his chances with Molly, but he goes ahead and does it anyway.  Because what else would he do?  How could he be anything other than himself?