“Billy Joe told me, said everything’s lookin’ fine.”

The Lynyrd Skynyrd Band was struggling to write new material. Their practice studio, the un-airconditioned “Hell House”, was cooking under the north Florida sun. Ronnie, pissed at the lack of progress and the immature playfullness of his younger bandmates, sent them all but Gary to get Cokes. Too poor to own a car and too afraid of Ronnie’s temper to say no, the boys started up the dirt road hoofin’ it on foot, red-neck style.

”He got the place all secure, got the ice box full of wine.”

Ronnie told Gary to play something... anything. Gary found a choppy lick and looped it over again and again while Ronnie began singing about what he knew... southern life. Lynyrd Skynyrd has a dozen rock and roll classics and Ronnie never wrote a single lyric down on paper... not one. Before the other band members got back with the Cokes “Down South Jukin’“ was a completed song. Never a big hit it was, never-the-less, the song that drew me to the band.

”He said, now hurry on over and don’t be late, I got three lovely ladies that just won’t wait. We‘ll do some down south jukin, lookin’ for peace of mind.”

The song resonated with me and my high school friends. These were our guitar heroes. They were singing about their lives, but could just as easily have been singing about ours. Those guys on the record were just like us! They were country kids going to town on Friday night, looking for love, or ready for a fight, just like us! Billy Joe was having a party. “I got girls over... Where the hell are you guys at?” That was my life they were singing about. Billy Joe could just as easily have been one of my buddies.

”Now come Monday mornin’ we’ll be headin’ back to the fields. We’ll be pickin’ up cotton for Poppa and Ol’ Uncle Bill. Well, but come Friday night we’ll be headin’ to town, tryin’ to pick up any woman hangin’ around, and do some down south jukin’, lookin’ for peace of mind.”

Working class people, farm kids blowing off steam on Friday night. Yep. Ronnie even sounded like us, with that southern twang of his. His voice wasn’t perfect, but his songs were. Despite the rock anthem influences of “British Wave” bands like Free and Cream, Ronnie gave his “rock and roll” a country feel, and a country sound, that made it feel like it was ours. The east coast had The E-Street Band, and the mid-west had The Silver Bullet Band, and the west coast had... well, whatever that weird hippie-shit was that the west coast had ;), but Skynyrd, the hardest rockers of them all, belonged to us.

I was walking down Broadway in Nashville the other day and Skynyrd songs were pumping out of three different honky-tonks. Ronnie’s music is still raking the kids in forty years later. I guess maybe a lot of people are still just, “Down South Jukin’, and searching for some peace of mind?”

So clap those hands on the down-beat people, and stomp them feet...

Doin’ it, Ronnie! We miss you, brother.

The song I’m talking about is by Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars.

It’s the only song that I love to listen when I’m very sad. My sadness mostly comes from disappointment. I’ve a problem of expecting a lot from human beings, I’ve even promised myself a lot of times that I won’t expect from others but still I end up doing the same mistake.

This song brings me back to reality though I’ve got hurt already. It goes like:

″Mirror on the wall, here we are again

Through my rise and fall,

You’ve been my only friend

You told me that they can understand the man I'm,

So why are we talking to each other again."

I do talk to myself and yes the mirror too, Its like mirror is a person different from other people but very similar to me because obviously the reflection is mine,

and therefore it resonates with my feelings.

Its like the mirror told me that the world can understand me but then if it's true , why I again end up talking to the mirror again and again.

There are many others lines too in this song that i feel suits me.

Maybe the whole song is me.

This was the song that official got me into Twenty One Pilots.

I heard it in San Francisco (coincidentally, near where the music video for "Tear In My Heart" got filmed), from a skateboarder blasting his music. As he passed me and my family, I heard a snippet of a familiar voice singing the bridge of the song: "Death inspires me like a dog/inspires a rabbit".

I had been hearing Stressed Out on the radios for a while, and hearing yet another song from the same band that I thought sounded good made me decide to look into them more. From the get-go I had enjoyed both their unique lyrics and sound, and unlike other songs we heard on the radio, my family never got tired of listening to Heathens or Ride.

As I listened to their older songs, I realized that I recognized "Holding On To You", "Guns For Hands", and more from Music.ly (I didn't have it myself, but middle school was a breeding ground for kids dancing to "emo" music in the halls). I wisely decided that I wouldn't associate myself with the Clique (the fanbase, known at the time for being toxic and edgy and mostly composed of teenage girls like me) until I knew more about the band.

I've been a fan of them since Blurryface (the album that made them big), just going to my first concert from them a few months ago. To this day, Heavydirtysoul is still one of my favorite songs (even if it's considered a "basic" one by the avid fans).

Is there a place we can find happiness

Will this numbness I feel lead me to a place of happiness

The partying and the drinking only give me momentary joy

Is there a place where there is unending joy

This song makes me feel like I am understood

The song is beautiful and

"You can't run,

You can't hide.

Hold your breath,

Close your eyes.

Turn your ear to the sky.

You're not safe here anymore.

This is the sound of war."

Just when you think you are safe,

when you've gotten away from all the pain,

That's when the bombs hit.

That's when everything goes to shit.

The only warning

is the sound of the roar

and then you know

you can't escape the War.

Hold your breath,

that's your cue.

when you hear the sirens,

know they're coming for you.

You can't run,

of course you can't.

Run as hard as you can

till your very last pant.

Creation is a masterpiece,

even when you create something that destroys.

I wish someone had told me long ago

that these things are not toys.

"Just when you think you're saved,

Just when you've locked your door,

It comes like a lightning flash

And the sky is torn."

Pumped up kicks from the band foster the people is my favorite song. When I say that, people look at me like i'm crazy because the song is about a school shooting. But in reality, I really like this song because of the rythm of the song and the beat. It really moves me in a sort of way that i guess you could say motivates me. Especially when I go outside for a walk, I especially love to listen to this song.

I stumbled on this song completely by chance. It’s not often that I hear a song and am instantly touched by it. This is one.

The lyrics, the use of the sounds other than instruments in the opeining, the sharp melancholy sound of what I believe is an electric keyboard that plays a simple riff throughout the song instantly bring to life the song’s story. And even though the melody and the simplicity of the song suggest that this is something that occured long before our time (kind of like watching an old western on late night TV) it is a story that transcends all time allowing the listener feel the pain and complete loss of direction felt by the singer.

The song’s first line, “I am not the only traveller who has not repaid his debt,” invites the listener to reflect on their own losses in which no acceptance or closure can be had, making this a real easy song in which to immerse.

So strong is the feeling of not being able to accept and move on from the loss. the singer laments that he would rather go back to the night they met so that he might choose not to begin a relationship that is so all encompassing that when he loses it, he cannot move forward in another direction.

We have all felt times of incredible loss but for the most part we are able to eventually accept that what was can no longer be our focus and we find ways to go on. That the singer cannot makes this song especially heartbreaking and I feel intensely his near hostility at having to be satisfied with only the ghost of the person that he loves. To go from having “all of her” to only “some of her” to suddenly having none at all is not acceptable, and he cannot find it in himself to be Ok with the fact that while he was fortunate enough to have had that love even for a time, that time has ended.

So selfishly he says, “take me back to the night we met” so that I can tell myself not to start up with you and in doing that, circumvent the crushing weight of the pain he is now feeling.

But as everyone knows, that is not possible and so he wanders unable to pay his debt. His debt of course being, the price he has to pay for that perfect love. Becuase the eventual loss of the object of that love is inevitable and that is the price that is asked of all of us who are given love's gift.

So while I have not yet had to bear the pain of losing my soul mate, if I am to ever be blessed with such a union, I have to be prepared to pay the price or forever be trapped in fruitless travelling trying to outrun memories too painful to relinquish.

I am left feeling the weight of the singer’s burden and understand his desire to return to the fated meeting in hopes that he will be strong enough to let her go and find a different path to follow. One. which while it may be uneventful, will not leave him empty.

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

I-

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

didn't get it.

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

but you

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

were art, and

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

it's okay

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

to be afraid

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

before you break

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

the belt, the chain

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

that satiates your hunger

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

for comfort

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

if only you knew

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

what you meant to me

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

when I saw you

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

in a museum

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

in Milwaukee

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

you restored

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

my comfort

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

I understood,

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

again,

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

unphased

COME OUT TO SHOW THEM

;)

#SteveReich #COMEOUTTOSHOWTHEM