Exactly one year ago on this day, December 30, 2018, my best friend passed away.
Not only my real best friend here in New York City, but he was also my mentor and advisor for this website. My best friend owned a unique Sci-Fi themed website, https://galacticwyzedome.com, for the purpose of “Gathering Information On The Hidden Wonders Of This Planet”. He was one of the reasons I started my website because he had his website earlier than me. The reason I switched the platform to WordPress was also because of him, he used WordPress. My best friend regularly advised me about website development and outreaching potential readers with the social networks that he was good at (I still admire his social network skills because that’s what I really have to improve more). He was the best supporter of my website. He read all my articles even he was ill. He always sent me his support by clicking likes and posting warm comments. Getting feedback is actually one of the hardest parts of a website. TRIPMUZE has visitors every day, but look at this website, this hasn’t succeeded to receive feedbacks yet. Probably my best friend knew the difficulty to have regular feedbacks posted on the website. His feedbacks were true encouragement to me. We also shared our same dream, making our websites successful. But he is not here anymore.
We were also music buddies. We talked about music a lot. Though our type of favorite music was different, one common thing was we liked to dig out hidden/unknown talents. Just like this website. Indies, underground…we were nerds, lol. We went to concerts together, too. One of the concerts we went together was Flying Lotus (read FLYING LOTUS CONCERT REVIEW. BROOKLYN STEEL, BROOKLYN, NOVEMBER 6, 2017 (MON)). Going to Flying Lotus’ concert was his dream as FlyLo was one of his most favorite musicians. My best friend was so excited to see Flying Lotus at his ultra-hyper 3D concert. That became my best friend’s last concert experience.
The loss of my best friend was the reason I couldn’t update TRIPMUZE for 8 months this year. I didn’t touch its social networks, either. It wasn’t my first experience losing my friends, and each loss was devastating. But facing to that tragedy, the death of my important best friend, I was done. It was hell. It was a nightmare. We were best friends. We spent together until his last.
I was fortunate I had my friends who supported me a lot as well as being able to receive proper therapies during my difficult time. Still in pain but grateful that I am moving on now. I am also very thankful that the readers from all around the world visited my website every day. Even TRIPMUZE wasn’t updated at all for 8 months long, there was no day this website didn’t have traffic. Always more than two digits. I knew my best friend in heaven would never allow me to stop my website because of his death. Giving up my website wasn’t my option, either. However, starting again was very, very difficult in painful grief, especially when a lot of our memories flashed back. Seeing a certain number of daily readers was an absolute encouragement to me. Thank you very much.
My best friend requested me to write about a song on TRIPMUZE while he was still fine. That was Heart’s “These Dreams”, their #1 hit song in 1986.
His request was a bit surprise for me because I thought rock was not his type (his main favorites were underground electronic and hip-hop). He told me he was impressed by the beautiful melodies and the promotion video when he was a kid, thus “These Dreams” became his favorite ’80s nostalgia. What a coincident. When my best friend was amazed over his TV in New York City, I was also attracted to that song in front of my TV with the exact same reasons on the opposite side of the earth. 30 years later, we were best friends in New York City and talked about our memory with that song. We really can’t predict our future. I didn’t either promise or decline his request at that time because basically TRIPMUZE reviewed albums as whole packages, not singles. But Kareem, this is only your request I couldn’t do and last request to make it come true now.
“These Dreams” was Heart’s very important song to boost the success of Heart album that had already released two top 10 hits, “What About Love” (#10) and “Never” (#4). Heart’s first experience reaching #1 pushed the self-titled album to the top of the chart for their first time as well. The presence of “These Dreams” is definitely one of the strongest among Heart’s discography. Most of all, that was the beautiful power ballad that washed anybody’s mind and took us to fantasy with the pure flow of heavenly melodies. Second, the heaven themed promotion video perfectly synched with both lyric and melodies. It was also notable that the song was Heart’s first single Nancy Wilson took the vocal, not her sister and the band’s frontwoman, Ann. Ann Wilson’s solid rock vocal was always amazing; bold, powerful, and emotional. But with “These Dreams”, Nancy’s sensitive vocal was a perfect choice to express the lyric better. The song, Nancy’s vocal, and the music video were a perfect combination to give listeners dreamy effect, no matter men or women, like my best friend and me.
I listened to “These Dreams” so many times while I was in grief because the lyric matched my situation. The lyric was about the night time fantasy of a person who was dealing with the pain by losing someone, but the dream faded away when the person woke up. This beautiful song was dedicated to Nancy’s friend who passed away. I recalled my best friend talked about the song after he was gone, and I felt like I was temporary healed by listening to the song that shared with my emotional state. It was a good example that music could rescue from troubles. Needless to mention, I am listening to “These Dreams” while I am writing this.
“These Dreams” lyric: https://genius.com/Heart-these-dreams-lyrics
The self-titled album was often described as Heart’s come back album because of chart performance after “hiatus” and production difference with their prior albums. Regarding commercial performance, maybe. Heart hadn’t had platinum status since their 4th Dog and Butterfly in 1978, and their first three albums sold more than a million copies in the U.S. alone. But their 5th Bébé le Strange in 1980 reached gold status, and though Private Audition (6th, 1982) and Passionworks (7th, 1983) failed to receive certifications, all charted within the top 40. All of their albums prior to Heart maintained higher than satisfactional quality. And there was only 2 years interval between Passionworks and Heart. That wasn’t exactly hiatus.
Heart rather made a new start with the self-titled album by their production evolution, and their rebranding succeeded to give listeners a fresh impression that the band made a comeback. Simply saying, a more mainstream approach. Their music shifted to more hard rock that was getting trendy in the era like Van Halen, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi. Bolder, edger, and sharper sound instead of their previous blues-rock/folk-rock sound. More outside songwriters rather than the Wilson sisters who were the main songwriters before (Heart didn’t write “These Dreams”). Heart got LA rock sound with a new producer though they still partially had cloudy Pacific Northwest sound (the band was formed in Seattle). The sound production was a lot more modernized than the last album. The reason for making the album self-titled was simple; new Heart. And that was a perfect choice. The result of their changes was dynamite. The worldwide success especially the U.S. with 5 times platinum. #1 on both album and single charts and 3 other top 10 singles.
Loosing their old sound doesn’t mean disappointment. Though their self-titled was neither better nor worse than Heart’s previous albums (Heart’s classic albums were pretty good), the album contained many impressive songs other than the hit songs, such as “The Wolf”, “All Eyes”, “Nothin’ at All”, and “What He Don’t Know”. Ann’s rock vocal performance was more dynamic than before. The album had strong elements to build Heart’s golden era.
Let me allow to write about one more song relating to my best friend. “My Friend” by a Cincinnati, OH, based rock band, Blessid Union of Souls. I really loved this unknown song contained in their self-titled album released in 1997. The lyric about true friendship supporting each other when really needed was heart touching (though the romance was included on the lyric), the duet of Eliot Sloan’s soulful vocal and Emosia’s hot and dynamic rusty blues vocal was thrilling, and the background was the sparkling chemistry of dramatic rock ballad and church. The song was my instant favorite upon listening to the album as well as other songs. Definitely one of the best songs singing about friends.
“My Friend” lyric: https://genius.com/Blessid-union-of-souls-my-friend-lyrics
I listened to the song every time I was on the way to my home from my best friend’s place at night after taking care of him. While thinking about our friendship and believing in his recovery. That beautiful song was my fuel and motivation to support my friend. Real friendship is timeless. I couldn’t let him listen to this song, but I am sure he is listening with me now. The self-titled album was pretty good, too. I will review the album in another opportunity.
***
Unfortunately, losing someone important is unavoidable in our life. Please, please tell your loved ones “I love you” while you can. Your loved ones don’t have to be your spouse, lovers, parents, children, or other family members. The person can be your best friend like us, your important friend, or someone you respect. The gesture makes a whole lot of difference in our lives. Fortunately, my best friend and I did. With the words, I am sure my best friend is in a better place, and I have no regret about our friendship.
Please also do not blame yourself even you couldn’t tell “I love you” or couldn’t be together at your loved one’s final moment. We can’t predict our life, and there are many occasions we can’t be together. Nothing is your fault. Your loved one will understand your unconditional love in the higher place and be together with you. The real relationship is eternal even we are not physically together.
HEART, HEART
OVERALL POINTS: 87/100
- Eternal dopeness: ★★★★
- Overall integrity: ★★★★★
- Songs: ★★★★+1/2
- Originality: ★★★+1/2
- Song orders: ★★★★
- Vocal: ★★★★★
- Background: ★★★★+1/4
- Production: ★★★★+1/2
- Strong songs: “If Looks Could Kill”, “What About Love”, “These Dreams”, “The Wolf”, “All Eyes”, “Nothin’ at All”
EXTRA (NOT COUNTED TOWARD THE OVERALL POINTS)
- Title: C
- Album cover: C
