When I was asked to think of a song that made me ambivalent, I failed miserably.
Its been nearly 36 hours since I was presented with this challenge and I managed to rediscover a high school classic.
Right Me Up - State Radio
Side note. For those who don't know State Radio, (which I hope is few) they were a band formed by Chad Stokes after he disbanded from Dispatch. Sadly I stumbled across an article from College Humor titled "Guitar for Douchebags" and this article went to talk of how the reader would now only play songs by The Dave Matthews Band, Dispatch, the RENT soundtrack, and anything country in order to get ALL the ladies. I was sad to find out Dispatch/State Radio were labeled in the same category as the others mentioned. End side note.
This song is a story about a man named Manny. Manny suffers from what appears to be severe Down Syndrome. It goes on to talk of how Manny does not ask for comfort from the world. He doesn't seem to want people to pity him. Chad goes on to sing about how Manny is a happy man and is going to travel the world someday. Manny never misses a beat. The moral of the song is, whenever Chad is feeling down on himself, he looks to Manny to "right him up."
This song makes me feel ridiculously joyful. When I am ever feeling a little down on myself, I pull up this song to have Manny "right me up." When I first came to college, I listened to this song almost every second of everyday due to struggling every step of the way my freshman year. Whenever I fail an exam, I listen to Chad tell me the story of how Manny always got him back on track with a positive attitude. He reminds me not to get hung up on the frivolous things of life.
After Manny fixes my sorrows, I begin to think of his story on a much deeper level and become gloomy and angry with myself. I become gloomy because I realize that this man wakes up with more struggles on a day to day basis than I will ever have to face in my entire life. I hate to think that someone as happy as Manny has to go through these undeserving struggles. It seems unfair. I begin to think "Why him and not me?" I then become angry with myself due to me bitchin' and moanin' over something like a C+ on an Italian exam. Or a cracked iPhone screen. Or Netflix buffering for more than 30 seconds. Men like Manny always seem to make me a little more grateful for the things I am able to take for granted on a daily basis.
So once I become gloomy and angry, I have to restart the song to cheer myself up...its truly a vicious cycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jza3P3PBeQ4
Sad sidenote as well: I love Dave Matthews Band. I'd say I'm sorry, but I am not.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great example of ambivalence. I think it really speaks about an artist who can take a situation like the one you've described and turn it into a song that moves people. I like your list of first-world problems in the end, it was a nice touch. Grammatical sidenote: I noticed two 'its' that should should be 'it's'. End sidenote.
Watch out for Mish the grammar police! Just kidding. I just noticed that you wrote something about grammatical errors on Dave's blog, too. Those small things eat at me as well.
DeleteHaha yeah, I apologize. 'It's/Its' just gets to me. But I know you righted me with my hyphen use! Which I'm pretty sure I'm still using incorrectly, so you'll have to school me a bit more specifically someday.
Deleteits all good.
DeleteThis post was really, really relatable. I think we all have those moments where we question our right to complain about something, and when I have a moment like that, I try to remind myself that we're only presented with things we can handle. So maybe in the song Manny does have a hard life--but he rolls with it. And maybe you or I are presented with smaller struggles, but because of who we are, we can only handle that much. That was pretty deep, and it kind of just blahhh came out.
ReplyDeleteBut I think that this was a good example of ambivalence, especially because you talk about how it's a vicious cycle. That was a great observation. If something makes you feel both good and bad, you definitely are going to get caught in a never-ending circle. It's kind of how I feel about dark chocolate, among many other things.
This was a better example of ambivalence than I think I would be able to come up with, and I think the concept of a song that can make you feel both guilty and comforted is a relatable one. I also like the backstory you give about listening to this song constantly during freshman year.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't sell your own tragedies short: waiting more than thirty seconds for something on Netflix to buffer is, in fact, a hellish experience.
Good commenting here. You present a moral quandary, and it's always good to remember those worse off and get some perspective from that. Then again, is that what the worse off are there for--to make us feel better? No, of course. I think of the dwarf in Woolf.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, on the other side of the coin, this is presenting the "people are starving in Africa" conundrum. Does such a fact preclude us from feeling joy? We have the term "first world problems," but everyone's pain is real! I once read an article, relatedly, that suggested that people in third world countries have first world problems too.
I also like the ambivalence and the post. I just listened to "Right Me Up," which I'd never heard. Coincidentally, "The General" by Dispatch is the song I most associate with my freshman year! That said, I think the song is notable enough musically to deserve some comment on that front. What can you say about the way that it builds, or about specific phrasings? No more "You had to be there" writing! :-)
Good stuff, A.
DW
I really like this post. I think everyone has a go to song for when the world's got them down, but yours is particularly interesting, because of the subject. Happiness coming from a mix of positive attitude, and that "My problems really aren't that big of a deal" feeling. Also glad to see a State Radio song, I haven't heard that name in way too long
ReplyDelete