A Penny for Your Songs (4) - Of Fantasy and Men

Week 4

Hey guys, what's up? I hope you had a great week. Mine was sluggish and lazy with a side of beer, but I reckon that's going to change quite soon. People need to work apparently, or so they tell me.

Anyway, welcome back to A Penny for Your Songs, the weekly post where I share music that's especially meaningful for me, either because it describes a part of me or of my past experiences, or because it's simply something that I've been listening to a lot lately. Today I'm going to post two songs by the same artist, I hope you can appreciate at least one of them!

To grow up or not to grow up?

When I was 14, my musical taste was still very much affected by the artists that my father had "imprinted" on me while growing up. I would spend most of my days studying (yeah, right) and listening to old school rock and prog on the background, or to some of the very few Italian musicians and singers that I found palatable. I had a think for Mike Oldfield in particular, who will no doubt have a dedicated separate post at some point in the future.

Aside from the 6 months that I spent listening to albums by The Offspring, who were quite popular at the time, there are two fundamental albums in my past that changed forever my way of perceiving music (and myself): The Black Album (1991) by Metallica and Imaginations from the Other Side (1995) by Blind Guardian. In this post I would like to focus on the latter.

I could write all day about Blind Guardian, about the uniqueness of their sound, about how much I love pretty much all of their discography, about the early speed metal albums and the importance they had on my generation of metal listeners. However, the truth is that power metal, as far as its musical value goes, has been a relatively short-lived phase for me, and that's true for a lot of other metal-heads that have experienced it as a "passage" towards a whole new dimension of sounds and genres. In truth, the element that will always keep me tied with Blind Guardian is their immortal passion for fantasy.

There comes a time, in life, when we finally have to deal with the idea of finding our own path, deciding what our job will be, trying to form a family of our own, making our way in a cold, indifferent world that goes at a faster pace. Growing up. Everyone reacts to that inescapable fact in a different way. Some may welcome the change, some may even look forward to it. Some, like me, are afraid to change too much in the process.

I'm afraid of losing my passion, losing my curiosity. Losing that spark that lets me see the colors of what surrounds me, that lets me genuinely enjoy life. I'm afraid of losing my inner child. And fantasy, fantasy is one of those things that we tend to leave behind when we become adults. I'm talking both about our own fantasy, and fantasy as a genre, as in playing D&D up until 5AM or spending days reading about distant worlds. That kind of fantasy is invaluable to me. It allows me to deal with the grey, dull parts of life, knowing that I won't become gray and dull as well.

That's what Blind Guardian are to me. Even though a lot of bands compose songs about fantasy worlds, Blind Guardian take the game to a whole new level. No one else is capable of describing that particular feeling with the same intensity.

The first song I'm going to post is, indeed, Imaginations from the Other Side, that describes exactly what I've been talking about. It's quite metal, and I'm sorry for those who are not used to this kind of sound.

Tomorrow Will Take Us Away

As for the second song, it's probably their most famous piece. It's a ballad called The Bard's Song - In The Forest. There's nothing like its live version to understand what the Guardians are to a lot of people like me. Just listen to the crowd chanting :)

Thanks for listening, I hope you liked at least one of the songs.

What about you? Is there any song or piece of music that reminds you of what it means to dream? Feel free to share your meaningful songs, guys, I look forward to it :D