Why Better Than Ezra Is The Best Band In The World!

I was "introduced" to DELUXE in 1995, the same year that Better Than Ezra released their first nationally-distributed album.  Surprisingly, it wasn't their first (and most successful) single, "Good," that hooked me in.  No, it was a little song entitled "Cry in the Sun" that did me in.  There was something very soulful in the sound of Tom's voice, as if each word that he sang carried with it the hope and heartbreak of lost love and timeless memories.  There was an earnestness...a longing...that registered with me then and has kept me an "Ezralite"all of these years since.  Don't believe me? Just look at the first two stanzas:

You cleaned out your room

And under your bed

Lay a picture long forgotten

With a hand to your head

You sigh out loud

As a memory rushes over

And buries you

A summer rainstorm

But the shed was dry

With a girl from Carolina

And you held her so tight

For the warmth that the rain denied

As the time has slowed to a flash...

....and that's before we even get to the "hook"!  When you read those words and really feel them, then I would humbly state that you would have to be a heartless prick to not get some emotional jolt from it.  Which of us hasn't found ourselves in that very same situation: we're going through our things...maybe some old boxes in the basement or those bags you swore you'd go through "just as soon as I get a chance"...and we find that little something...maybe a picture, maybe an old ticket stub...that allows us to travel back to a time when our lives were different...maybe simpler, maybe more complex.  The song's ability to do that to me...FOR me...is what truly makes it art in my eyes.  Surprisingly (or "not surprisingly," for those of you who are fans of this site), it was the band's new single "Absolutely Still" that got me thinking about why I've liked the band for so long.  But I soon realized that it was a lot bigger than just one band and one song.  It's about all of those times in our lives when a simple lyric, a simple note made the difference between laughter and tears...between working out our anger and coming to terms with our loss.

Music makes us better people.  Music defines us.

I like to think of music as water and that we're all scuba divers maneuvering our way from one coral reef to the next, stopping along the way to take in all of the raw beauty around us as we explore.  Music creates beauty...it opens our minds in ways writing and speaking cannot and forces us to be better than what we are.  Music gives us hope. Music makes us laugh, cry, scream, mourn, dance, and think.  To paraphrase a famous writer MUCH more prolific than me, music allows us to "rage, rage against the dying of the light."

The first two albums* I ever owned were the soundtracks to XANADU and FLASH GORDON, both movies that could best be described as "cult classics" (and for XANADU, that's being really kind).  The movies may have been shitty, but there was some great music from ELO and Queen and most importantly...THESE WERE MINE!  Owning an album was my first taste of freedom, and every groove on that vinyl was like a thing of beauty to me.  Almost every aspect of my life from that moment forward was defined by music:

*The theme music for the Channel 6 Action News broadcast always meant one of two things: either my Dad was home for dinner before going off to his second job, or my Dad was home in time for the 11 o'clock broadcast.

*I remember my sister taking the time to save my "musical soul" by introducing me to such rock legends as The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones.  If any of you remember the beginning of ALMOST FAMOUS, you know there was a scene where William (after watching his sister Anita leave for her "new life") sits down and goes through all of the albums she's left him.  It's a transformational experience for him, and it was the same way for me...except my sister went on to the Air Force instead of being a flight attendant.  Hmmmm...come to think of it...even that's pretty odd in similarity...

*My college roommate showed me that there was life beyond the Top 40 charts.  Thanks to him, I got to "meet" Metallica, Alice in Chains and Nirvana.  Funny story (well, maybe not "ha-ha" funny but more like "wow-that's-weird-how-things-turn-out" funny)...my roommate also worked for the campus newspaper doing some freelance music reviews.  One day, he came back to the residence halls with a cassette single* swearing up and down that he had heard something that was going to change the face of music as we know it.  Of course, we all bitched and moaned until I finally gave in and gave it a listen...and I couldn't predict just how right he was.  The band? Nirvana.  The song? "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Wow...just writing about it brings back a flood of memories.  My "Debbie Gibson" stage...learning to love Led Zeppelin...needing to hear "Crush" every fucking night when "The Hill" would be open for business, because good taste (and superstition) made it so...the evolution of my life as a "mix tape artist" from recording songs off of the radio (making sure to cue the recording just after the jackass on-air jock finished rambling and stopping it before he started talking again or the next song started) to burning CD's (customizable CD jewel case artwork? NICE!) to creating themed playlists on my iPod...the surprise on people's faces when they look at my iPod and find Wayne Wonder, King Diamond, Jay-Z, Pearl Jam, Depeche Mode and Frank Sinatra all on the same list...getting into a debate in the middle of a student center over who's the better artist: Lupe Fiasco or Lil Wayne.

So it's really not a matter of whether or not Better Than Ezra is the best band in the world...though don't think for a SECOND that I couldn't make the argument.  It's how music makes us think and feel, and not losing sight of that.  That's why it's so important for music programs to be better funded in our schools.  I was never lucky enough to learn an instrument when I was younger, save for a song or two on a harmonica, but I always felt that I would've been an AWESOME saxophonist.  That's why I commend programs such as VH1's "Save The Music" (though part of me thinks it's VH1's way of trying to save their souls for putting on such shit as "For The Love of Ray J" and "I Love New York").

I was going to end with something that's a little cliched, something about music being "the soundtrack of our lives."  Instead, I think I'll leave this in the hands of Charles Kingsely:

"There is something very wonderful about music. Words are wonderful enough; but music is even more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as words do; it speaks through our hearts and spirits, to the very core and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up, it puts noble feelings in us, it can make us cringe; and it can melt us to tears; and yet we have no idea how. It is a language by itself, just as perfect in its ways as speech, as words, just as divine, just as blessed."

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HOMEWORK!!

I'm not going to make it easy for you this time.  I want more than your thoughts on this post...

TELL ME WHAT "SAVES YOU" MUSICALLY!

Post up your favorite songs, your favorite playlists...whatever turns you on musically I want to know what it is and why.

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