BLFeb2021toWeb

I AM NOMAD
LIVING LIFE ON
THE “B” SIDE
By Bill Stanley
Back in the day music was recorded on vinyl records. The
record had an “A” side and a “B” side. Producers placed
the songs they believed would get the most air play on
the “A” side of the record. Their less than favorite or the
songs they believed would be less significant on the album
were placed on the “B” side. Many great songs were
“B” side recordings. Songs including, “Penny Lane” by
the Beatles, “Maggie” by Rod Steward, “Go Your Own
Way” by Fleetwood Mac, and one of my personal favorites
“Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam. I’d argue it is Pearl
Jam’s best song. I don’t know what is in store for your
2021, but I’d encourage you to grab your favorite record
and long play the heck out of it.
Push Pause Then Play
Boomers know what I’m talking about. That would be
cassettes for us Gen-X-er’s and CDs for the elder Millennial
out there; although I know CDs don’t have sides.
Although it’s fun to spin vinyl, I’m not suggesting you
go out and buy a turntable. Grab any listening device, but
listen to a whole album. Don’t just purchase one song;
stream the whole album. Find your own fortress of solitude
and meditate on every lyric of every song. Turn off
the distractions and just listen. Turn off the news, the
noise and that “sky is falling” rhetoric and be inspired. I
bet there is a song on a “B” side somewhere we have yet
to discover.
We have lost the art of listening deeply as a society, and
I believe it shows. Not just to music, but to each other. I
think a way to get this back is to turn off the phone and
listen. Many of our favorite artists have struggled the way
we struggle. They have overcome, and their lyrics are
homage to these things. I want you to hear that lyric and
think hard on what it means to you and consider how it
can motivate positive change in your life. In December
of 2020 the L.A. Times quoted Pauline Oliveros by encouraging
us to get back to “radical attentiveness.” Staff
writer Randall Roberts further explained Oliveros by saying,
“It is learning to differentiate listening from hearing.
To hear is the physical means that enables perception. To
listen is to give attention to what is perceived both acoustically
and psychologically.”
32 - Brevard Live February 2021