I never really watched that much music television, but there was a period of time where I was hooked on VH1's Behind The Music. One of the most interesting was the one on No Doubt. As always, I picked the title of this post (Track #1 on Return of Saturn) for a reason. Listening to the story of how two band members dated and subsequently broke up is probably a recurring theme in the music industry. It's probably also common for torrid love affairs to produce the best music, since it's so emotional and from the heart. What's probably not as common is for the band to stay intact through this process. That's exactly what happened to No Doubt and the end result was Tragic Kingdom. I don't really know how Tony could hear and perform songs like Don't Speak and Happy Now? when he knew that they were written about him, by the girl whose heart he just broke. I guess that's why they make the big bucks now.
This week marked the recategorization of a relationship. Initially, I typed "ended a relationship", but realized that was incorrect. I guess it's impossible to predict, but it sure would be a damn shame to ruin a perfectly good friendship this way. The day after the split, I spent 2 hours hanging out with one ex-girlfriend and emailed another to tell her what had happened. We were friends before becoming couples and managed to re-establish our friendships afterwards. Our friendships are certainly different, but those friendships are a valuable part of my life and will hopefully remain that way. Why was it that I sought them out so soon? Who knows? In some ways, I don't know what I would do without them. I don't know what is considered normal and what isn't, but I am who I am. I'm certainly not going to wait until I create a list of my top 5 breakups to talk to them again.
I was really looking forward to going to a wedding and Jazz Fest in New Orleans with her next weekend. I think we could go and still have fun, and not because I want to avoid a solitary 7.5 drive. Of course, the entire world seems to be in disagreement with me. I think there were 1.5 people that thought it would be fine. I don't remember when I initially asked her if she was interested in going, but it was certainly "as friends". In many ways, that was what had been missing for a while. We stopped just hanging out for hanging out's sake. Initially, we would squeeze in an hour from both of our busy schedules, because we really wanted to see each other. At some point, it almost seemed like we got together, because we were supposed to. A mutual concession to an open time slot. It's a bummer that one of my fondest memories occurred the day before the end. We just hung out and had a good time, and that was something that hadn't happened in quite some time.
Anyways, here's to hoping I can add another ex-girlfriend to this list...
On Amazon:
Tragic Kingdom
Return of Saturn
Rock Steady
