A Musing on Music and Thought

Well I've been wanting to make one of these for a while now, and I finally got around to it. Still getting the hang of it...hopefully I'll catch on.

I've been listening to a lot of Devin Townsend lately. At the very least, he's an amazingly talented musician and an overall genius. His solo project (The Devin Townsend Band) is music that is so unique and eclectic, and I couldn't even dream of the different types of music he listens to in order to develop such amazing stuff.

It would be quite awesome to be able to think on such a level that I'd be able to write a complete work of music on my own. To be able to think in terms of every instrument, how they all work, how they all sound independently and together, all of that just blows my mind.

To his credit or discredit (I'm not sure which, in terms of making the music) , he was on drugs for a while. I'd like to think he could make that amazing type of music without being under the influence of some substance, but I guess I'll see once his new project debuts this summer.

I think it's safe to say that all positive actions are done better when sober, or at least all that I can think of. Not to say that we should all live in permanent sobriety, but all progress is best when the mind is in its purest state. Some might argue that the mind works better when in an altered state, and I can't honestly refute that, but in terms of purity of thought, sobriety wins. After all, drunk words are sober thoughts, which implies that the physical expression of these thoughts is more likely when under the influences, but the thoughts are still present when sober.

I'm not fully sure how this relates to music...if maybe the mind can conceive (or dream of?) music when pure but expresses it better when under influence? To me that seems flawed, because there are plenty of sober musicians out there, but I guess there's always the question of whether they'd be better if they had their mind unnaturally altered. Personally, I feel like if the mind is pure, the thoughts are pure, and therefore the music is pure as well. The addition of outside influence may as well be using another mind entirely, because if it really does spark new or altered thoughts, they were not that person's pure thoughts anyway...OR, if we are applying the "drunk words are sober thoughts" principle, then the influential substance merely gives the person the courage or outlet to express the thoughts that have been present the whole time. If that's true, then the person, the musician included, only needs to be honest about their thoughts to gain access to the full power of their mind, and has no use for the influential substance, or at least this use is void. Sorry Bob Marley. Sure this is a lot more difficult than Bobby's alternative, but I feel (and I'm sure many will disagree) that this difficult way would also be much more fulfilling.

This makes the whole idea of being fully in touch with the self seem extremely easy (which it definitely isn't), but at least it's a start. If we aren't afraid of our own thoughts (or of what other people will think of them) , then it seems that we can be much more knowledgeable about ourselves, our thoughts, and the rest of the world.

PARALYZED, TERRORIZED,
IN MY EYES I'VE ALWAYS FALLEN
END THIS LINE, ENDLESS LIE
ENDLESSLY SO PIXILLATE ME
PARALYZED, TERRORIZED,
IN MY EYES I'VE ALWAYS FALLEN
END THIS LINE, ENDLESS LIE
ENDLESS LINES BUT STILL I'VE FALLEN

-Pixillate, Devin Townsend