Misspent Youth?

Last night, I went to see El Monstero, a Pink Floyd tribute band. Those of you who love Floyd will appreciate this idea. Take the four or five best local bands in town, then take the best players from each of the individual bands and throw them together. Major talent, right? Then, toss in an intense love for Floyd tunes and some theatrics that would rival a Kiss concert and you have last night's show!

Know me even moderately well and you know I'm a music trivia junkie. At one point during the show, I leaned over and said to my girlfriend, "You can really see the research that Roger Waters did into schziophrenia in that last song." She asked me how I knew that, then answered her own question with my usual response: "Misspent youth."

Yeah, through my teens I studied and loved Floyd, Zeppelin, the Dead, the Beatles and Dylan more than lifeitself. And more than any textbook, my nose was stuck in the liner notes of a CD. Now, is that so wrong? I usually say it was "misspent youth", but really, it wasn't. Springsteen says, "We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school." He's right. Oh so right.

Floyd's tune, "Time" talks about seizing the day, that life is short, to grasp all you can in the time you have on this planet. Don't wait for life to find you, find it yourself. The one line from the song that always hits me in the heart is, "And then one day you find that 10 years have gotten behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun." God, powerful.

Throw in the emotions connected with Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" from my time spent living in Colorado, "The Wall" from high school and "Meddle" from my days that were, without a doubt, misspent, and this band's music has written the soundtrack of this dude's life. Time is never misspent when you learn something. And I did. And I practice those today. And I love the fact I may not know what a logarithm is, but I can tell you every lyric on "Wish You Were Here."

Shine on, you crazy diamond...

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