Have you ever had a song that marked a huge turning point in your life?
What were you doing when you heard it?
What was its significance?

For me it was Blue October's "Schizophrenia".

I had bought their album Consent to Treatment before leaving on business to Mojave.  I fired it up during the long drive from LA to the desert and when the song came on, I started welling up with tears and had to pull off the road.  I spent a good part of that trip sitting out in the middle of nowhere listening to that album.  I learned how the feelings I felt weren't that strange (no, not exactly schizophrenia, but similar) and that I could overcome them with some help.  When I got back home, I started seeing a doctor to help sort things out.  I still get choked up when I hear that funky baseline that kicks off the album.

A silver-plated numbing gum
And Jesus resting on my thumb
A hard-to-reach malaria
I've got the mood that seems to scare ya

I'm paranoid -- self-destroyed
Believe me Lord I'm sorry
I've got the mood that seems to bury ya
I've got the nightmare called schizophrenia

I cry, I cry
And I don't know why
The fever becomes my home
I cry, I cry
And I don't know why
The fever becomes my home
Becomes my home
Becomes my…..

I love it when you're holding me
You have a gentle way of calming
I haven't felt that way since 1993
When my mother held me

I bet you're waiting for a long sob story
Of how I was mistreated again
But no I wasn't built that way
I was strong -- desperately brave
I didn't mean to scare ya

Schizophrenia

You know Richard, I've been thinking about this since you posted it…I don't think I have that "one" song…music determines my mood a lot.

If there's a lot of energy in a song, I start feeling like I just got a dose of caffeine. There are some songs that when I'm pissed, frustrated or annoyed, they soothe me.

With songs, it depends on what's going on in my life. During certain times, one song will hit me really hard until I move out of that phase.

I'm gonna have to listen to that Schizophrenia song tho, that sounds really powerful.

Through the miracle of modern chatter technology:

holy shit…now we have youtube embedding? Good work Richard