These records, from Random Record Night, made me feel this way:

Wanda Jackson, Sings Country Songs

Another Wanda Jackson album. This one of really nice and sweet and sorrowful country tunes. It’ll make you break your heart and it’ll give you strength to stand. It’s melodramatic and it’s so great. I was cooking a vegetarian korma when I was listening, which means, when my gal asked me, “Do you like this record?” I respond in some way like this: “Oh, geez, I have no idea…yes? Yes. Well, I’m not really listening. I hear it. I hear all the sounds, and I know what it’s about, but I don’t know any of the words.” That kind of sums up how I listen to any song of music. Or any sound. Or any person talking. I don’t really know how to pay attention, I guess. Anyway, check out Wanda’s hair. And check out those geese she’s sitting near. I wonder, if at any point during the photo shoot, those geese just chased Wanda all over the place. I wonder what she sounds like running from geese. Does she have a playful smile? What does she do with her hands? I wonder if her hair stays in place.

Johnny Cash, Ride This Train

This is a really great album. I love it. Everyone should listen to it because it’s really a great and true Johnny Cash album. The End.

Biff Rose, Children of Light

I started this record off and I thought to myself, “Hey, Self, you like this Biff Rose record, don’t you?” And then all the songs started to sound exactly the same. And even though it wasn’t supposed to be a big joke of an album, (you know who Biff Rose is, right?) it kind of has that feel of someone making a big joke, but attempting to make it also be serious while sounding funny and serious at the same time. So, this one turned into a big drag for me. I just let it slip right through my mind.

James Baldwin, Black Man in America, Credo 1

And then there’s this. It’s a radio interview that Studs Terkel did with James Baldwin. I’ve listened to it several times before. There’s so many secrets in it. So many. It just spins and spins and spins. Goes around and around in your head until you think to yourself, “Hey, now what? What are these two fellas talking about? Hmm, I…well, okay…I think I understand it.” Then you go to bed and don’t sleep AT ALL. It confuses me and that’s why I keep listening to it. It’s why I read the same books over and over. It’s why I get stuck on listening to one song from beginning to end, beginning to end, again and again and again. It never gets old to me cause there’s always something I just don’t know. Something I couldn’t pay attention to the first time. Something I know I’m missing. Something I’ll never understand.