Lose Yourself: John Leyton: "Wild Wind"

The sound of high voices right out of some impassioned avant-garde classical piece indicate, within seconds that we are somewhere very special indeed; we are in a tiny space above a shop on the Holloway Road, a busy, bustling and somehow different place to any other in town. The man comes in singing with deep longing and urgency about wanting to be...

...elsewhere. I imagine a young man cooped up in his own room far away, perhaps new to his neighborhood, green and yet pained and miserable and maybe even (whisper it) slightly enjoying his intense misery, lifting his window open on a still cool morning and longing for the wind and rain to take his troubles away. To eventually, even, take his soul away, far beyond the earthly bounds it is currently stuck in, for better or for worse. The world is cramped in to much for him, he longs to escape, and these high female voices seem to follow him wherever he goes...

...and so he gives himself up to nature, ignores himself, dies, and is seen (along with her) by local children as ghosts, happy ghosts, happy at last. And how thrilling that loss can be, that ultimate giving up, giving in, to whatever is out there; to the universe, ultimately, with its heat, winds, weathers; to lose yourself in a way that is unifying, not isolating in the least.

Yes, we are in the Age of Meek here, facing up to his longing (or one of his longings) - to cast away his troubles, lose himself, to break into many, many particles that will feel no pain, to be liberated, to reach nirvana...but in the meantime it's another night on the Holloway Road, another space-capsule-compressed and very successful single that is leading to his most important one in a year's time.

(As sometimes happens, I thought of another song while listening to this one; not that the lyrics are much applicable, but "the nameless name of your condition" comes to mind with this song and Meek in general. If I had an iPod these would be right next to each other.)