[Songs My Son Should Know] Band of Horses | Marry Song

The third date with a one you've been fancying is probably around the time when you start attaching together pieces of the puzzle that ask your subconscious, 'so, where is this going'?  

But with Melissa, I had already gained that insight.  This gig was going on  a week-long, college-style, fun-bender to San Francisco; away the sultry heat of Arizona with a family-sized back of jerky, a 6 hour playlist that would have to be played twice, a winery map, and one trusty Japanese SUV.  That was it.  That was the third date.  Two unfamiliar people mapping out a future together, immediate and distant, 12 hours or 60 years?

That was the July of 2007.

Two summers later we were off to the other coast, New York City, exchanging nuptials like graduates of La Société de la Fortune, alma mater to the colleges of  Preparation & Opportunity, an imagined Wes Anderson plotline with an ensemble cast of friends and family, thoughtful dialogue, strange happenstance, and most importantly, a poignant soundtrack. 

With every great film score comes the definitive musical crux of the story's plot -- Mark Renton's flop house Perfect Day, Max Fisher's Ohh La La moment, or The Dude's Man in Me.  There is so much derivative meaning in music, and we found it crucial to heighten the emotion of the room set to the climax of our courtship biography.

Not only should the song be hopeful, but also triumphant, peddling towards life's dénouement with the aplomb of an old French man with dinner groceries.  The delivery should not be pantomimed or false or have veiled social critique.  It should not have opposition to the context in which it is be used; Marriage should be its only category.  It should not be clumsy or used; its message aesthetic and pretty.

Though obvious in name, Marry Song is inconspicuous in public ovation.  The meter wavers with both pace and patience, an important characteristic for dancing through a marriage through its seeding and its harvest.  Its message is spartan in its approach, stripped and honest, like a telegram.  It presents love as a humble dowry, weary minds long pursuing peace. 

This was the Express to San Fransico five years ago.  She is gone now, but may she live forever.