Here's a thing I want to write.

I think it will be short, but it's heartfelt.  And there won't be any video links.

I am a great reader, I find solace in reading books, many of which I may have read time and time again.  I even read bad books, knowing that they're bad books, but just because they have something about them that I like.  My favourite books drive me mad, because I have to leave them for at least a year, say, before I can read them again.  Ain't it a bitch.

But music isn't like that.  [Oh god, oh god .... he's going to talk about music again!  Guards!  Guards!]

No, come on, give me a moment.  I was just browsing through some stuff on YouTube.  I know many people decry the comments section on YouTube, and yes, often it is full of moronic observations or abuse or ..... but sometimes you see people lay their lives out.  It's not always easy reading.

By coincidence, this afternoon I have read comments from two different people who have had recent tragedies in their lives, and decided to let it out by talking about music that they thought relevant.  In one case, the song in question was an undoubted work of art, in the other, it was a complete piece of garbage, trust me.

But that's not the point.  The point was that the music gave them a focus, and an emotional release.  A lot cheaper than hours in analysis.

I have never sobbed my heart out at a paragraph of Dickens, Tolstoy, Amis or Sayers, or at a single line of Plath or Housman.  I could give you three or four split second moments from some songs that would reduce me to primeval slime.  I think in one case, simply the studio ambience that precedes any actual sound made by the band would do it.  That's what music does.    

That's all I wanted to say.  

Ah, christ.  Let's all cheer up.