— "Tom and Jerry," right?
— "Tom and Jerry." What a jerk. Someone help me. A masterpiece.
— So only some of us can hear it?
— Only some of us are listening.
He considered music a liberating force: it liberated him from loneliness, introversion, the dust of the library; it opened the door of his body and allowed his soul to step out into the world and make friends.
As long as I've been living
I've had music in my veins
I can't go on without it anymore
...that a rocker is worth more dead than alive. Silly world, isn't it?
You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound. You don't win with a lot of treble. This isn't about quality. It's about volume. This isn't about music. This is about winning. You stomp the competition with the bass line. You rattle windows. You drop the melody line and shout the lyrics. You put in foul language and come down hard on each cussword. You dominate. This is really about power.