In June 2003, my father committed suicide. Two months later, i went to a trip to Reunion Island that had been planned long before, with my girlfirend at the time, for a three-weeks holiday of alternately hiking the circuses and lounging by the lagoons. That was were I discovered Reunion Island music, and most notably the music of Danyel Waro - courtesy of the boyfriend of a friend's cousin whom I knew only remotely but whose address I had been given before leaving.
Bwarouz (2002) was his latest LP when I came to Reunion, and it has this song, "Dodo".
It features only the voice of Danyel and the band's choir, plus various percussive instruments, as the maloya genre has it. And it says repeatedly this : "Dodo mon papa" - that's "Good night daddy". Hearing this repeatedly, in a foreign land, in a derelict cabin at the other end of the world in a semi-junglized prairie, while tripping to the local zamal, hardly two months after my own father had taken his own life, was something I have never recovered from. I can never listen to that song again.
Foo Fighters Wasting Light could not have come at a more timely and important point in my life. The summer of 2011 was a desolate one for me. The entire summer between grades 10 and 11 was one giant blanket of depression for me. Typical general anxieties were getting the best of me, an awkward 16 year old at the time, who did nothing but drum and listen to music. Up to that point in my life, I had never truly experienced depression. On top of depression simply running in the family, I didn't have a great year in school grade wise, very good friends were moving away, and I didn't want to do anything, see anybody, be anywhere. It's a horrible feeling and I wish it upon no one.
Toward the end of Summer, my dad and I took a trip to Detroit (just over an hour from our home) to one of the fancy 2 story malls on the outskirts of the city. Inside the mall's FYE I found a used copy of Wasting Light, which wasn't more than 5 months old at the time, and on a whim picked it up because Foo Fighters were experiencing a huge mainstream resurgence and I had been listening to my sister's copy the Colour and the Shape quite a bit. In Wasting Light I found not only music I very much enjoyed, but a healing power in the music. It had a wonderful vibe for me in its production. This was the first album I ever listened to that could reset my mood and wash away any and all negativity inside of me. This sounds hyperbolic but I'll never forget that feeling. Upon repeat listens, Wasting Light continually made me much happier and I was soon out of my summer rut. Since then, depression comes and goes, as I'm sure it does with a number of you, but if I ever feel it coming on, Wasting Light is there for me just like it was 5 summers ago. I know Foo Fighters is not the most popular band on this site, but they will always mean the world to me because of this record. _________________ Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.
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