“Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here!”
― Dumbledore to the Great Hall, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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I can't think about Car Seat Headrest's 2020 album "Making A Door Less Open" without celebrating what little I know of the life of John Lennon. I don't know what about it - maybe the chant of nine nine nine on "Famous," (I tend to mishear lyrics but it works,) or the fact that my first fave Car Seat Headrest album "Twin Fantasy" always made me think of "Double Fantasy" by John Lennon. I don't know many John Lennon songs - I grew up on Jealous Guy and Imagine, and then when I got older, I discovered some more. Watching the Wheels is so darn beautiful. I just associate John Lennon with peace. And I guess the breakup of the Beatles was a big symbol for me of political turmoil and the way it affects people's personal lives. John Lennon turning from the public eye disrupted people's core values and identities. The band's music was profoundly connected to modern life -- people depended on it. The 2000's film, Across the Universe, a 1960's-70's period movie, an innocent love story artfully inhabiting the Beatles music, captured the way the war and race politics of the 1960's dominated young people's lives and relationships on their journey into independence. Lucy forms a relationship with an Englishman, Jude, and soon finds herself entrenched in Vietnam protests, and wonders at how it happened. Her dedication makes her feel estranged from her family, except for her brother Max, who is drafted and finds himself entrenched in Vietnam, and wonders at how it happened. People get swept into the wide world and Lucy holds fast to her friendships even when it requires outstanding resistance. In Lucy's story, she joins a protest that is too radical for her boyfriend, Jude, and insists "We should all be radical!" American civil rights issues feel separate but closely-related to her protest against the Vietnam War, which is the focus of the plot. In "Making a Door Less Open," the idea of being committed to a thing to the point where your life is on the line, to being part of "some sort of war," and kind of waking up to the consequences -- it's modern and unique, but also calls back to an era of innocence, love and war already set to popular music in my head. |
AuthorWe are Kieran and Michelle, two 32-year-old William & Mary grads living in Virginia. Archives
March 2024
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