Over the weekend, I was listening to This American Life on NPR – it is one of the best story hours in any entertainment medium, and every episode is terrific every week. Ira Glass is a genius in my book.
Anyway, the story this past Saturday was a replay of one I had missed that aired last summer. The narrator who has broken up with her boyfriend is wallowing (wait – let me capitalize that) WALLOWING in her misery, laying on the living room floor in her pajamas listening to Phil Collins break-up music. (I can picture this, can’t you?) Possibly for days, she’s incapable of forward progress through the pain. This apparently goes on long enough that she decides she has to take action by writing her own break-up song. However, she’s not a song-writer, so she struggles.
As luck would have it she talks to a friend who knows someone who is working on the Phil Collins tour and he/she/it arranges for the narrator to have a 45-minute phone call with Phil Collins – about writing break-up songs. And the story goes on from here – with Phil Collins’ recorded conversation with this woman included in the narrative on NPR.
I have to tell you, I’ve never been a huge Phil Collins fan. Genesis? Pretty okay for pop/rock. His solo career? Very spotty, in my opinion. But this conversation with this woman, about heartbreak, about finding the voice you need to communicate the pain of heartbreak in a song, is truly a winner for him. I actually got to the point where I really liked him – he sounded like an average Joe miserable human being, just like we all are occasionally. (I’m not sure he writes music laying on the living room floor in his pajamas, but he has definitely been miserable – 3 ex-wives kind of miserable.)
Anyway, if you’re a Phil Collins fan (or not), if you’re in the middle of WALLOWING, if you broke up with your girlfriend/boyfriend/other, or if you just want to hear a good story, go to this link and pay the ninety-five cents to download the podcast and listen to this tale of woe, hope and kindness. You owe it to yourself - it will make you smile.
Photo credit: drummerworld.com
