4th of July

I am not that familiar with the songs from the band the Killers, which put me at a disadvantage last night. We were at a 4th of July Party where they were the principle entertainment. Their music clearly derives from the long seam of heavy metal with more than a few connections to the founding band of the MC5. At the same time, their lyrics, as best as I could hear, dealt with the more gentle forms of the male frustration that forms the principal themes of that genre.

A young mother was dancing near us. She clearly knew the music well and was enjoying herself. She her son, who was roughly 2 and a half, in her arms and swung him as she danced. He thought all the attention was a hoot and screamed with delight. Dad, who was probably a vet, appeared from time to time, to give his wife a hug and a reassuring smile.

The mother danced on and on. It appeared that this was her courting music, the sounds that reminded her of the time four or five years ago, when she and the young man in the crowd were developing their relationship and asking if there if they had the ability and interest to make a long term commitment. The sound was not the least intimate and the lyrics, as they occasionally burst out of the noise, dealt with ideas that shake the adolescent male: finding a place, trusting women, controlling the urges that permeate consciousness. But the music represented the time that they had met. They both had survived that time. Now that song spoke to them of accomplishment and progress.

I'm not sure that she would have better appreciated the evening if she had a fuller understanding of the song lyrics. We communicate some fundamental ideas by very simple means. By rhythm. By touch. By common experience. She danced and danced. Happy to be at the event. Pleased to share it with her son.