Sometimes when I listen to a song over and over again, I have a certain vision or daydream that plays in the background in psych with the song. When the song stops- the vision stops. When the song plays - the vision picks up from where it left off.
My personal discovery of the White Stripes (I have been avoiding this phenomenon for the past year - thinking that they were nothing. I was wrong. Forgive me.) has awoken an interesting dimension of visions and daydreams.
One would think that the visions would be of punk parties, inebriated nights, and breaking hearts. Quite contrary.
My vision involves an older married couple living in a small house with a covered porch in a suburb of Minneapolis. Some people in the neighborhood compare them to Adam & Barbara from the movie Beetle Juice, because they remain quiet and focused on each other. They have a son who is 12, gawky, and totally embarrassed by the fact his parents hold hands at his choir concerts, teacher conferences and school plays.
On the certain Saturday afternoon that I envision, their son is spending the night with his computer geek friend Micah. The couple, feeling nostalgic, start going through old CD's from the attic. After a while, adventure sets in. They change into their old ripped jeans, red bandanas, and stained white t-shirts. Hours later, still in the attic, they put on Seven Nation Army. The husband cracks pen a beer, and the wife breaks out the hidden cigarettes. They start jumping off boxes, lip syncing, dancing, and playing air guitar. The climax of the afternoon is when ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ starts playing. Sweaty, and excited, having just finished throwing an old vase across the room, they look into each others eyes, and together, scream with Jack White:
"Now we're a family
and we're alright now
we got money
And a little place to fight now!"