Prompt: "A song about keeping warm"
Selected by Gilson
"Keep Yourself Warm"
Frightened Rabbit
The Midnight Organ Fight, 2008
When I was first told about Frightened Rabbit, it was by my friend James who described them as "if Jesus was Scottish." I have no idea what the fuck he was talking about; James is a very intelligent man who, if a few screws had been put in differently, very well could have been the Joker. But he got the premise correct, in that he was right that I would love this band.
When Scott Hutchison, singer of Frightened Rabbit, died in 2018, I was not in a good place. Nate has talked about this year in a blog that has been linked on here before. He was closer to them, but I also felt the deaths of that year. Especially Jim. Especially when Nate told me about some of what had been going on in Jim's life previous to his passing. And then when I read about Scott, and what he had also been dealing with, and how his struggles and even his passing were strangely congruent to Jim's, I felt this very deeply for reasons that at the time I could not quite parse, but in retrospect have become painfully obvious. This was my route. I was going to be the next in line.
Life does not make sense. We cannot ask it to. We simply take what is in front of us and we move forward.
I remember listening to the song "Square 9" by Frightened Rabbit as I was driving, after Scott's death. I remember sobbing at the line "There's something I like about this year."
There are always things to like and things to dislike. Figuring out that balance is an easy prescription, but one that is difficult to fill. There will always be bad. But there will also always be good. And, again, I hope that is enough.
2 comments:
"I was going to be the next in line" is a haunting thing to write, and I'm so glad you did, man. Powerful stuff, and relatable. I'm also pretty appreciative of the fact that you were not, in fact, next in line.
Man, he really could have been the joker, huh?
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