If You Have Ghosts
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Artist:
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Album:You're Gonna Miss Me
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Track:
So I was going to call my whole Halloween project to a halt because Sunday October 21 was the fourth anniversary of my late wife Kirsten's death from breast cancer. (I never say "passing" because a)it implies an afterlife she didn't believe in and b) it just reminds me of farting, which doesn't seem appropriately serious for what actually happened.) So, Kirsten's deathday having passed, I was feeling a little better and more able to focus on how incredibly lucky I am now to have this big blended family, and I kind of wanted to give the monsters a rest.And then there was an outbreak of grief here on MOG. I didn't know Chris at all-(social networking is a bit dicey for those of us who are by nature antisocial)but I've been moved by all of the sadness floating around here, and I wanted to offer up a Halloweeny track that I find strangely uplifting.Roky Erickson's lyrics are usually pretty easy to decipher: there's not a lot of ambiguity in "Night of the Vampire" or "Creature With the Atom Brain" or "Burn the Flames." But sometimes, as in "Two Headed Dog," or "White Faces," or here, he gets downright gnomic. So what the hell is "If You Have Ghosts" about? I have no freaking idea, but here's what I get out of it, which I admit may be light years from what Roky intended."If you have ghosts, then you have everything."I take this to mean if you are haunted by the memories of people you've lost, it's because you made a real connection with them. And if you've lost them, you understand how precious every connection that you still have is. And, ultimately, there's nothing else important in the world. So, if you have ghosts, then you have everything.Here's to your ghosts, and mine.
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