Summit Wellness: Gratitude -"Darkness on The Edge of Town"

Wellness can be achieved by virtue of completing a journey and maintain a lifestyle. But it can also be magnified by our ability to appreciate and be thankful for the things that we already have! Summit Wellness continues to hum the melody of connection between feeling good and feeling grateful!  

Gratitude is a monthly feature contributed by Matt Anthony, Digital Media Producer and on-air host for the Summit FM. Matt reflects on instances where we might uncover more ways to appreciate what’s in front of us, and how those instances might contribute to our overall health and well-being. 

"Light on the Edge of Darkness"
By Matt Anthony - Summit FM Contributor

My 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass needed a new exhaust-system. It was loud, and its rumbling cadence was beginning to border on ‘obnoxious’. (not to mention the noxious fumes that were beginning to spill into the vehicle’s interior!) I didn’t have the money to replace it.  The money earned bagging groceries at a local supermarket didn’t allow for an easy replacement.

I had my priorities. And one of those was being able to allocate the necessary funds for an 8-track cartridge set-up that included Jensen Coaxial Speakers.  The power of those classic beauties provided ample opportunity for me to lift my music above the nerve-wracking din of a faulty muffler.

Well everybody's got a secret, son
Something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take

Being a 19-year-old wasn’t easy. High school had been uneventful. The future seemed hazy. And I knew that I didn’t want to stock shelves in a grocery store for the rest of my life. It seemed like the only person who understood me, the only person who spoke to me in a way that defined where I was in the scheme of things, was this guy from the Jersey shore, who has been christened as the next ‘Bob Dylan’.

Oh, nothing is forgotten or forgiven
When it's your last time around, huh
Well I got stuff running 'round my head
That I just can't live down

Darkness on the Edge of Town was stark. It was seemingly simple in its construct, but its underlying tone was menacing and uncertain. It was brooding. It was relentless in its honesty. And it posed more questions than it answered. I would take the 8-Track out of the player and stare at the album-cover. Bruce Springsteen’s gaze looked a lot like mine. (and the wallpaper in the background looked exactly like the one we had in our entry-way!) He seemed a bit haunted. Unsure. There was some anger and resentment that hovered under the surface, and an explosion seemed likely to happen if just the right circumstances presented themselves.

Why did this album resonate so much with me? 

And why am I telling you that I’m grateful for it?  

Here at The Summit FM, we often talk about the ‘power of music’.  When I think about music, I can’t help but ponder the effect it had on me during these formative years.  I think back on the hours that I would spend in my attic with headphones plastered to the sides of my head, watching the disc spin round and round and allowing the verbal imagery of Pete Townshend, the mystical nuances of Neil Young, or the bruising, crunchy, distorted guitar-work of Steve Jones and the Sex Pistols to take me places where I’d never been. To show me a world that was slightly out-of-order, and to give me permission to feel OK about acknowledging the fact that there were people out there who felt just like I felt.

Now I'm wandering, a loser down the tracks
An' I'm lyin', but babe I can't go back
'Cause in the darkness I hear somebody call my name
And when you realize how they tricked you this time
And it's all lies but I'm strung out on the wire, in these
Streets of fire

But if I could meet one of these luminaries and mutter a ‘thank you’ for speaking to me on a level that, at the time, nobody else could...If I could somehow stand in front of this person and tell him how often I’d use his words to help me to understand myself…if I could reach out and shake his hand and explain to him how this 10-song, 42:55 masterpiece became a trusted ally during a time that seemed so desperate and uncertain…it would be Bruce Springsteen.  And in my own careful but uncertain style, I would attempt to explain to him how his contribution to ‘the power of music’ was heard and assimilated, time and time again, by a young kid in Canton, Ohio.

In this section of SUMMIT NOW, I’m hoping to share bits and pieces about the various things for which I’m grateful. They may come off vague and miniscule. Or, they may be seemingly life-altering, in the case of that pudgy, error-prone fella mentioned above. (who did, eventually, replace that egregiously loud exhaust-system!)  But my hope is that these reflections of ‘gratitude’ somehow revolve around the power of music.  After all, it’s why we are all members of The Summit FM, right?

Today, I’m grateful for Darkness on the Edge of Town, which was released 45 years ago today.