
Another Light
“If they say who cares if one more light goes out, in a sky of a million stars? It flickers, flickers.
Who cares if someone's time runs out? If a moment is all we are. We’re quicker, quicker.
Who cares if one more light goes out? Well, I do.”
An artist expresses their emotions through their respective craft. Be it a poet, singer, artist, actor or anyone in a related line. It goes far beyond entertainment for the masses. It starts with a deep internalization of what an artist feels and what is the best way in which s/he can give it a form of expression that would be relatable for everyone. They’re able to attenuate complex emotions and give it a form of expression.
A couple of days back, the world was given a shock when it learnt that Chester Bennington had passed on after having taken his own life.
Now, Linkin Park is one band that has been a big part of everyone's adolescence in particular. Anyone who would have started listening to music would have had a Linkin Park song within the first five that they ever heard. And that was no different for me either. It was my first, and my favourite band of all time and it always will be.
No matter how my tastes have changed over the years, from listening to Linkin Park when I started out on listening to music to begin with, to Bon Jovi, Green Day, Limp Bizkit, Sum41, Creed and Coldplay through my school years, to transitioning to the likes of Dylan, Mayer, Aerosmith, Scorpion, Pink Floyd, Springsteen and the likes, once I got into college, LP has been that One band that has Always struck a chord.
Now I honestly did not care if they changed their style over the years. Linkin Park is one band who would get a free pass for life, from me. And yes, I even enjoyed what they were trying to do. What they were trying to communicate was the same thing, they had just cut down on the distortions heavily, probably to make us listen more closely, to what they had to say.
Unfortunately, the world did not like it. As a result, they started to fade out. Just because people couldn’t take the way in which they wanted to express themselves.
We take our heroes for granted. Its quite plain and simple. What if we were in the shoes of the frontman of the band. One minute you’re filling up stadiums in Texas, performing in front of a packed crowd and the next minute you’re being told that you’re just a have been. Put in the frenzy that comes with that kind of stardom that you have built over the years. And I end up getting cranky if I don’t get my eight hours of sleep.
Now people blamed it on alcohol addiction and substance abuse. But that was just a means to cope with all of the things that were going on in the persons life. The culmination of everything that ever happened to him had led to this. But no one bothered to ask the right questions. I mean we couldn’t hear what was going on over the screeching, screaming and riffs on the electric guitar.
‘Hey, he’s performing in front of such a huge crowd, what could possibly be wrong with him.?’
But everyone started asking the right questions when it was too late to do anything about it. They heard the voice after the music stopped playing. And now that we rewind the old tracks, it all seems to make sense. The message that he was trying to put across. To look around, take everything in and reach out to others, because you never know who needs it.
I mean, they did the same for us while we were growing up right? Giving words and expression to the angst that we might have been experiencing.
The lyrics on the top are from one of the last songs that the whole band recorded. It has minimal instruments and basically Chester singing. Almost like an ode to what he had been trying to say all along.
So no, we wont let his memory go in vain.
If there is Anyone who wants to talk about Anything at all, do not hesitate in the slightest to give me a nudge. I, in the interim will make it a point to ask everyone who I meet to ask them how they’re really doing, or how did their day go. And give a friendly smile to any passer by whom I make eye contact with.
