I’ve previously written I’d like Ed Harris (pictured) to play me in a film of my life. But I’ve never mentioned what I’d like the theme music to be. I’ve now decided. It’s this. One of its best lines is: ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few’. And I have. One of the biggest is that I’ve never learnt to play a musical instrument. I thought I’d try the banjo, but my fingers are too arthritic, methinks. Though I haven’t created music, it’s been a major accompaniment to my life. Still is, actually. Now more than ever, I think. Just about all types. Classical, opera, folk, bluegrass. Even country. And Sinatra, of course. Given all this, I’ve been enthralled by the Canadian Broadcasting Commission’s series The Nerve whose six 1-hour episodes have run on ABC Radio National for the past six Friday afternoons. Sequentially they’re about music and the brain, evolution, war, spirituality, identity and emotion. You can listen here. You can’t download it – only stream it. Each episode’s worth listening to, but especially the last one which explains why music stirs the emotions, and which musical ingredients stir particular emotions. Indeed the question’s raised whether music really is the language of our emotions. I think it is. Each time I hear My Way it sends a shiver down my spine. But I doubt I want to hear Ed Harris singing it. I’d prefer Emmylou Harris any day.
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