My thirty year journey exploring the nooks and crannies of progressive rock has taken me to all sorts of weird and wonderful places, but in the end I always come back to those powerful and epic songs, the ones that leave you mentally and emotionally breathless.
I have become quite accustomed to pursuing my interest alone, only occasionally coming across fellow wanderers, meeting complete strangers who suddenly become like lifelong friends because our shared love of music binds our worlds together. "Wait, you too? I thought I was the only one!"
The wife tolerates it, though she has somehow developed a romantic attachment to attending Marillion concerts together, and the children just look at me funny.
And then the other day the boy, who is really now a young man, starts telling me about this playlist he is putting together, a collection of all his favorite songs, and his excitement reminds me of my own joy in music. I listen attentively, knowing full well how important it is to him, remembering how much it helped when others took the time to listen to me.
". . . and I'm not sure which song by Haken I want to put on, because I love so many of them—"
"Wait, did you just say Haken? Like the British progressive rock band?"
"Yeah, you've heard of them?"
I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry, but its one of those perfect moments.
Now he tends to like music from anime shows and video game soundtracks, so I have no idea how he came across Haken, but it doesn't really matter. I just know that if I had played it for him, he would have rolled his eyes and muttered something about my antiquated and eccentric tastes, and yet here he had found his own way to something I cherished.
I had been listening to the Haken album Affinity for the last few months, always careful not to play it too loud in my study, so as not to annoy the family. It turns out the young man had been doing the same in the next room.
By accident? There is no such thing.
—12/2016
Haken, "Initiate" from Affinity (2016)
Love and pain
Engage your senses
And let them carve the way
Give me
(Give me)
Focus
(Focus)
Sharpen
My view
Initiate
Live here and now
And forever or never
I observe a world jarring in turmoil
A million people waging war at the hands of a god
And I can hear them crying
Cold fires blazing before me
An affliction fast consuming and fascinating me
(Drifting)
You'll be
(Deeper)
The life and the death of me
(Into)
I
(The unknown)
Initiate
We'll make this dream last forever and ever
Tears will run dry
From my ever wandering eye
But I'm prepared to stay
'Til my dying day
I'll see things you won't believe
In tomorrow's memories
I'll do things you can't conceive
There'll be no strings on me
Open the floodgates
Form the colours and the shapes
Let there be a light
Initiate, all my senses are engaging
Open the floodgates
All the love and all the pain
Let there be a light
Initiate, all my senses are engaging
(Distance)
Tell me
(Stretches)
How does it feel to breathe?
(Further)
(From home)
Initiate
I'm drifting
(Drifting)
Deeper
(Deeper)
Into
(Into)
The unknown
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