7 Comments
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NickS (WA)'s avatar

First, my sympathy for an incredibly taxing year.

Second, this was a powerful like, "I didn’t leave with a cure or a victory. I left with a truce." I could really feel the weight of that.

Chase Roper's avatar

Thank you, Nick. For the sympathy and also the Power Like. I can feel it on this end ✊

Shawn Kilburn's avatar

Powerful writing about a powerful song. I’m glad you’re ok.

I also had to learn how to not be my own worst enemy.

Chase Roper's avatar

I wish I could say that I know I’ll never set myself up for stress, grief, or heartbreak again but wait until I get to posting about “Spiraling Shape.”

Thanks, Shawn!

Steve Goldberg's avatar

Powerful piece, Chase. I'm glad you're home and hopefully recovering, if not recovered. It's no longer a metaphor when your brain literally hemorrhages during a time of heavy stress. A truce is certainly better than continued warfare. Here's to hoping that the truce will turn into lasting peace.

The "precious and few" line is a reference to the song "Precious and Few" by the early 1970s band Climax. The song's lyrics are: "Precious and few are the moments we two can share." It's a love song, and TMBG takes that message and turns it in on itself. It's powerful and dark. It's not done as a joke, but maybe a little it is.

It's kind of confusing, but there was the British Climax Blues Band that eventually changed their name to Climax, then another band in the U.S. called Climax Chicago Blues Band that then dropped the Chicago to avoid confusion with the band Chicago...I might have some of that wrong, but I was reading all about it, and my takeaway is that bands in the '70s really were obsessed with climaxing.

Chase Roper's avatar

Woah! I knew about the precious and few line’s origin a tiny bit but certainly not the degree of music history knowledge you’ve got.

What a convoluted turn of events!

And thank you for the nice words, Steve.

Kevin Alexander's avatar

Holy shit. I'm glad you're on the mend!