I was thinking about how music has been used by man for eons, first as part of our oral history before writing, and is still today as both entertainment and social commentary (some more of the former than the latter, of course).
I was laid off in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2008. I have been there staring at the last dollars in checking. I have cashed in all my life's savings. Twice. I have been on food stamps, WIC, filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, gotten the job of my life. Three times. And been laid off from it twice.
That being said, I'm very fortunate to be in decent shape now.
So at various times of tribulation, I have been touched by music. I was just thinking about how music can reach out to others, to find common ground, to reach out, to empathize.
Music lets us know that as awful as our individual situtations are, there have been those in our shoes too. In that, I hope we can find strength to go on.
As a kid I was a Billy Joel fan, and his song "Allentown" about the loss as steel plants closed and killed the towns they were in was one of my favorites. In high school my new neighbors were a family from Allentown. They, like a lot of their old neighbors, moved down to follow a Mack truck plant to our state.
On May 15, 2001, I was laid off from a software engineer position. At the time my wife was pregnant with my baby girl, who would be born a month to the day later. It was, as May in Austin is wont to provide, a beautiful cloudless day, low 80s. I drove my car home, sunroof open, and this song came on:
I floored the gas on a particular stretch of (safe, straight, level) Texas road, wind whipping my hair, music at the top of my lungs. Though it has little to do directly with losing a job (except to me), I do feel the energy of the The Who and made the drive home OK. I would go on, I would find new work (eventually), we would find a way, my family and I.
One more of my favorites, which the current economic mess makes me think of, is this duet by Willie Nelson with Bob Dylan - "Heartland":
There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland
And the bankers are taking my home and my land from me
There's a big achin' hole in my chest now where my heart was
And a hole in the sky where God used to be
There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland
There's a well where the water's so bitter nobody can drink
Ain't no way to get high and my mouth is so dry that I can't speak
Don't they know that I'm dyin' why's nobody cryin' for me
My American dream fell apart at the seams
You tell me what it means you tell me what it means
[ guitar ]
There's a home place under fire tonight in a heartland
And bankers are taking the homes and the land away
There's a young boy closin' his eyes tonight in a heartland
Who will wake up a man with some land and a loan he can't pay
His American dream fell apart at the seams
You tell me what it means you tell me what it means
My American dream...
There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland
There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland
There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland
There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland