One of the drawbacks of being a classically-trained musician is that even the naffest rock music can hook you, just because it has slightly more of a harmony or a melody or whatever than the latest non-musical rap/dance/drivel that's going on in the charts. For example, my sister-in-law loves Yanni, and my brother thinks Jean-Michel Jarre is great.
I personally was impressed, sad to say, by the cod-opera stylings of Jim Steinman. He wrote all of Meatloaf's biggest hits, and two of Bonnie Tyler's - 'Holding Out for a Hero' and 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'. So I stuck them all together on a cassette that I then never played again.
I think I've grown out of 9-minute epics with wailing rock guitar and repetitive piano chords, but one of them struck me with its lyrics, that actually seem quite clever. The singer is recalling events from the past, the death of his best friend, parental abuse, and losing his virginity:
It was long ago and so far away, oh God, it seems so very far.
And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car.
And objects in the rear-view mirror may appear closer than they are.
It's a good metaphor, no?
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