“If I have to choose between a day when my mental illness was making me feel terrible, and a day when my mental illness was making me feel terrible, but I wrote a song, I'd take the second one."
Thanks for this! I've always loved Duritz' songs. When the first album was released, the first time I heard it in its entirety, felt like church to me. I greatly appreciate your approach to the "suffering artist" trope here. People are driven to create for so many different reasons, and suffering happens in so many different ways and contexts, that it seems ridiculous to me to try to pin either of those rivers to its banks, and dictate how they must influence each other.
Reading Duritz' quotes reminded me of the Beatles' terribly sad, lonely, confused song, "Strawberry Fields Forever", whose chorus is "Nothing is real". I'm glad that music provides a temporary solace for him.
Thanks for this! I've always loved Duritz' songs. When the first album was released, the first time I heard it in its entirety, felt like church to me. I greatly appreciate your approach to the "suffering artist" trope here. People are driven to create for so many different reasons, and suffering happens in so many different ways and contexts, that it seems ridiculous to me to try to pin either of those rivers to its banks, and dictate how they must influence each other.
I came to make a comment, but you said pretty much what I was thinking, only in clearer language 😊
Reading Duritz' quotes reminded me of the Beatles' terribly sad, lonely, confused song, "Strawberry Fields Forever", whose chorus is "Nothing is real". I'm glad that music provides a temporary solace for him.