Magic of Music

Well, I just heard Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day perform live for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Singing along with Letterbomb from American Idiot, I'm reminded of how much these guys helped me during a difficult time to process a myriad of emotions, singing with them to mitigate the horrors and the heartfelt and troubling joys. Yes, Billie Joe behaved badly with his "f" bombs and throwing (can't believe it), throwing his guitar on to the stage, but the genuine smile he gave at the end of the performance, after forcing the tuxedo wearing and evening gown auditorium crowd to get up on their feet, makes me smile, too. How old will these guys be when they stop rocking? They will never stop rocking. It's not Billie Joe's fictional characters that especially get to me; it's the energy and the emotion and the deep seated love and the acceptance of flawed humanity... And as I'm writing and listening to the show, Donovan is being inducted, harking back to Catch the Wind, which is the early Donovan I love. His acceptance speech is a poem. Poet/Philosophers? Perhaps that is the appeal. And music, it makes you move.