Giggling Again For No Reason

For whatever reason, music doesn't always have the same effect on me as it did in the past.

Sometimes -- and it's not all that often -- a song will seep into my head the way it used to when I was younger...

When I was a freshman in college, Tears for Fears released THE SEEDS OF LOVE CD, and I was literally obsessed. I remember sitting in the lecture halls of Syracuse University, and rather than pay attention to the professors, I would scrawl the lyrics to the various songs from the CD and relive the music over and over and over again.

And yes, I still have those notebooks (Why? I don't know), but it takes me right back there. It's the Fall of 1989. I'm trying to find myself, trying to fit in, trying to understand who I was then. And there is something so passionate about those lyrics and how the music stuck with me. I couldn't wait to get back to my dorm room and listen to the song again.

As I hit my late 30s, it just doesn't seem to happen like that anymore.

That is, it doesn't USUALLY happen.

But when Alanis Morrisette released her new CD, I downloaded it -- more out of obligation than anything else -- and I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of good songs, but one in particular really stood out to me -- and has that same effect on me that TFF had back in the day...

GIGGLING AGAIN FOR NO REASON.

I don't know what it is about this song -- is it the weird hypnotically techno beat to it (reminiscent of Madonna's RAY OF LIGHT?)? Is it Alanis's oddly catchy new-agey/self-empowering lyrics? Is it the notion of running away and driving up the 5 and leaving everyone clamouring for answers -- reclaiming one's life? Is it just that rare intersection of music/life hitting where a song can break through all of the clutter in my life and remind me how important music can be?

Who knows? But I can't get it out of my head.

I think I'm going to go write the lyrics on my notebook and remember, fondly, a more innocent time in my life.