High Fidelity

What came first? The music or the misery?

At twenty years old, in a serious relationship, this movie had an impact on me. How could it not?

What the hell was this guy's problem? Didn’t he know how many mistakes he was making?

The movie is brilliant. The writing is brilliant, and the soundtrack is stunning. (I don’t know if the soundtrack was ever officially released. I’m not looking it up. You do it. I’m too lazy.)

Can’t somebody see what this world has done to me?

Based on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby, the movie takes you on an emotional and musical journey with Rob Gordon played by John Cusack, and a supporting cast including Jack Black, Tim Robbins, and a cameo by The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

Cusack is perfect for the role, in that he plays the part of a twenty-something lost soul trying to find himself through relationships and music. This sound familiar to anyone reading this?

I went to the theater to see this in West Texas with a girl named Goodenough. The same Goodenough I’ve written about before. Lord knows where.

I didn’t realize until someone asked about old music and soundtracks how much this soundtrack affected me. It stayed with me from the time I saw it with Ms. Goodenough until I met my wife, who also loved the movie and the soundtrack. Between those two there were several more, where this soundtrack would inexplicably appear at times, as all my loves had deep musical sensibilities.

Come to think of it, aside from alcohol, our tastes in music were what drew us together. And proximity.

Anyway, the way the soundtrack is weaved seamlessly into this movie always struck me because of how the music had a profound effect on the main characters.

(I will now sell five copies of the three EPs by the Beta Band…)

The scene in which he describes his recipe for making a mix-tape was perfect.

You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. — Rob Gordon, High Fidelity

But what really struck me about the movie was how the main character, Rob Gordon, is inseparable from his own soundtrack and his own emotions, sometimes being one and the same.

Throughout the movie you see Rob wrestling his own feelings and using music to convey them, confront them, and even control them. It’s an extremely vulnerable look into the mind of a young man trying to figure it all out. Highly relatable to someone like me.

The movie also remains Springsteen’s only acting credit, and I loved Rob’s response so much to Bruce’s advice that I’ve used it since the day I saw the movie.

Thanks, Boss.

Unfortunately, I also took advice from Stevie Wonder at the end of the movie and became convinced that love, and the way we experience it during the early stages of a relationship, are permanent. And I believed all we needed was love. The Beatles taught me that, and I trusted them.

Thus, most of the times I fell in love after that were accompanied by I Believe.

When I look back on how much my life has paralleled this movie, it’s not without a sense of awareness that many people follow these same patterns through their early adulthood trying to figure out the relationship paradigm.

“I believe” has a naïve optimism to it that you need in those years, and this song closes the movie out openly and perfectly.

And I believe this is a good place to stop.

Thanks to Judy Craddock who told me that Rob Gordon is her spirit animal. :)

I’d like this to be a long-term Songstories/The Riff album challenge. I’m tagging John Walter 📣, Terry Barr, Rob Janicke, Kevin Alexander, Gary Chapin, Steven Hale, Vince Coliam, Noah Levy, Emmarie Hodge, Stacy Davenport, and whoever else wants to join. Tell us about your favorite soundtrack and publish anywhere you want. It’ll be fun, and maybe we’ll engage some more people.

Also, if you haven’t already, go check out this story so I can send some love to people who need it: