Thank goodness it’s Halloween because if I eat any more candy from the trick-or-treaters’ bucket my wife is going to kick me out, but more importantly, I’m going to explode…
Without question, Halloween as we known it is designed for little kids and high schoolers. The young ones get to be Spiderman or whatever superhero is all the rage today and have a free pass to eat as many Starbursts as they want, high schoolers get to go on haunted hay rides and try to sit next to their crush, then suffer through a scary movie at the cool friend’s house in hopes that same crush will either give or look to you for comfort, and aren’t those really the peak Halloween experiences?
I’m 29 and solidly in the limbo of being too old to do more than go to a house party in a hastily thrown together costume and not yet having kids to go trick or treating with. While I could just let this one pass, there’s a nostalgic old man in me that yells when I try to let an event go by without doing something to celebrate it. This is where most folks my age turn to scary movies. Cuddle up with the wife, make some popcorn, tell her I’d never let that monster get to her, sounds like a good time, right?
Not to me it doesn’t.
I’m not ashamed to say I’m not a horror movie guy. They just get to me, which is the point I know, but why freak yourself out right before bed? Last year we watched the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I had to stay up and watch an entire Hawaii game until like 2 in the morning to wipe it out of my head. Yeah, that makes me a scaredy cat, it is what it is.
So what’s a guy like me to do if he wants to get in the spooky season mood without watching exorcisms or demented murderous children?
Listen to music.
But not just any music…
Spooky music. Songs that lift up that hard outer shell, that slide under your skin and prick you right where you’re most vulnerable, in the pit of your stomach, in the buried corner of your mind. Lyrics that remind you of what you have yet to do, and worse, what you’ve done. Songs that speak to that little nagging feeling of being behind and it being all your fault.
If you’ve got the nerve, listen along with me:
American Aquarium – “Losing Side of 25”
I took a different path I guessCame out of the other side just fineThat losing side of 25
Fortunately this one ends with a positive spin on it all but the genius simplicity of the line “That losing side of 25” crushed me the first time I heard it and the song still reminds that I’ve got a whole lot to do in these next few years to get the house and kids (though I do have the great wife part down).
Chris Stapleton – “Was It 26”
Those two years run together like whiskey over iceMelted into memories like somebody else’s lifeI’m glad to say, I’ve come around, But if I could have one wishI’d like another try at twenty-five or was it twenty six?
Anyone else have some regrets on how they spent their mid-twenties? Just me? Yeah, I didn’t think so…
Morgan Wade – “The Night”
My mind likes to talk about everything I’m not
And even worse, everything I am
Those two lines are some of the best I’ve ever heard… While the revelations you can get from a night of deep, spiraling thinking, I wouldn’t call it a fun experience. This song will certainly get you in the headspace for a nice tailspin.
Zach Bryan – “A Boy Like You”
If you were the darkness, then she’d be the sunThere’s some things in life that you can not outrunThe fact that she was meant for so much more than you
While this song is about a breakup, it can certainly be a metaphor anything in life that you’re holding back by holding on to. Will things be better if you let go? It seems scary, but may be the only choice you have…
Drayton Farley – “Pitchin’ Fits”
So tell me I’m still breathing, I’m gonna be okay
Tell me you’re still here and you won’t ever go away
Tell me I’m not dying, just need to get some rest
Tell me all this trying will pay off in the end
Have you been trying? Putting in the effort but still don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere? Than maybe don’t listen to this one, unless you’re ready for a catharsis…
Ashley McBryde – “Sparrow”
Sparrow, oh, it wouldn’t trade nothing for the way it feels to flyIt ain’t fair though, how you miss the ground when you’re out here in the sky
What they don’t tell you about going out and trying to do something is that you’ll miss what you left behind, even if you were itching to leave. The small things that didn’t seem important suddenly become all you want and you have decide what really matters to you.
Giovannie & The Hired Guns – “Can’t Answer Why”
Sometimes I think a little too muchSometimes I drink a little too muchSometimes I can cross that lineAnd I can’t answer why
What exactly is it that makes us act the way we do? How’d we pick up these habits, these routines, why do we accept what we do and refuse what we don’t?
Kip Moore – “Payin’ Hard”
My life’s a credit cardPlay now, pay laterAnd I’m paying hard
Kip is the king of putting a self-reflective song at the end of his albums and this one from Wild World is one of his best. As much as we want to think our choices don’t build up and follow us, they certainly do, and when that bill comes due, it can be tough to swallow.
Lowdown Drifters – “If I Had A Dollar”
I know it’s all my fault, I was born this way
And even if I had somewhere I could place the blame
I tried to blame it on the whiskey, but in the end, what difference did it make
Yeah I tried to blame it on the whiskey, but in the end, no difference did it make
The only thing worse than remembering a mistake is having a tally of every one you’ve ever made. It would help if they were actually paid in cold hard cash, but this is another one about trying to account for things you’ve done…
Luke Combs – “Growin’ Up and Getting Old”
It’s when you start thinkin’How much time left you gotIf there’s more sand in the bottom, or the top‘Cause that hourglass we have don’t last foreverBeen thinking ’bout it more and more, these daysIt’s like the less you have, the faster that it goesIn the middle of growin’ up, and gettin’ old
Really, this whole thing is about trying to figure out the strange middle ground of old people telling you you’re still young while trying to be a grown up for the first time. Having everything be on you but feeling unprepared and realizing that there’s so many other big things (a house and kids for me) that still need to happen.
Truly, I and many people my age, are just trying to deal with being in the middle of growing up and getting old, and that’s plenty spooky enough for me this Halloween…
