Monday, January 09, 2006
A Jagged Decade On
Nine years ago, Dant introduced me to this girl. She had curly, long, dark brown hair. I thought she looked like a horse. Her face was rather angular and long, and when she smiled, her set of pearly whites were neatly lined up inside her mouth that it looked like a mare grinning back at me. Physically, she didn't exactly fit the conventional definition of female attractiveness.Many a times, we'd sit in his room, smoking our Marlboros and mucking around till wee hours of the morning, and more often than not, end up skipping the morning classes. Sometimes we'd sleep together on the mattresses strewn around the bedroom floor. Don't you get funny ideas now, there was no menage-a-trois happening there.
Horse-face always sang to us. She had this voice which was strong and determined, a voice unlike any other. When she belted out her tunes, I was always mesmerized by her lyrics. It was deep, passionate, realistic and raw. Lots of anger too.
Over the weekend, we were lazing around the room with the TV on. Suddenly, I heard that all too familiar voice. It was horse-face! In no time, there I was, still in bed in my pajamas and face unwashed, singing along to the songs she sang to us in Dant's bedroom many, many years ago. It was a documentary, marking 10 Years of Jagged Little Pill, the album that introduced her to the world.
My, my horse-face, you sure have come a long way!
I don't have that particular album, but I was amazed to find that I still know the words to most of the tracks from Jagged Little Pill after all these years. My personal favourite would have to be Ironic, followed by Head Over Feet.
I went out to Tower Records that very afternoon and began my search for the album, but to no avail. The friendly staff at Tower Records Mid Valley also did a check with the other outlets and then confirmed that none of the outlets have it in stock, and she's not sure if they will replenish it. There was an acoustic version of the album though, horse-face released it to mark her 10 year anniversary of Jagged Little Pill but I refused it because I wanted the original one, the one I grew up with.
Sitting in bed that morning, listening to her lyrics a decade later, the songs were refreshingly new. Listening to her songs as a 16 year old, I had my own 16-year old interpretations and meanings which I associated with the songs. As a 25 year old today, the songs now carry a different meaning for me. It's natural I suppose. But the beauty of it all is that I still love songs from Jagged Little Pill, and amazingly I still relate to it, albeit on a different note altogether.
Fuck. It's been almost a decade. Time flies.
This entry is dedicated to 2 people: To Horse-Face, thank you for such brilliant music... and to Dant, "Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you, when you think everything's OK and everything's going right, and life has a funny way of helping you out when you think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face"
Posted by Doreen at 3:40 pm
