Song 167 - Beautiful Freak by the Eels

Last week I was privilege to read a friend's blog, which was beautiful and very honest about what was happening in her life and it made me think about the jukebox and where to take the next set of songs that I put into the jukebox. Then it came to me after a weekend of feeling sorry for myself having caught my husband's cold, and spending 48 hours curled up on the sofa,binge watching television: I should put in music that speaks to me and almost acts like an anthem for my life; so for the next short period, I am sharing some personal anthems. After having this thought; I did immediately followed it up with 'but if this was a jukebox would you want slower songs?' but in my cool music club that I would have; I would definitely have about three different rooms where one would, of course, be dedicated to the Beatles, one would be disco beats of each decade and the third would be a more chilled beat; where some of the choices would appear. There would probably be a fourth room of the super cool music but lets stop at three, before I turn the Empire State building into a disco tech. Could you image that 100+ floors of music? Legendary (yes I have been binge watching How I met your mother).

Anyway enough about the weekend of colds, the choice for the Jukebox today is the lovely song from the Eels, Beautiful Freak, which was released as a single from their debut album of the same name. Released as the last single of the album after hits like Susan's House, it peaked at number 10 on the UK single chart in February 1997. Written by Mark Oliver Everett, the lead singer of the band, the lyrics, are haunting love song trying to get their muse to accept themselves for who they are - I don't know whether this is what Everett meant by the lyrics but this is how I have taken them. When I listen to this song, it immediately takes me into the head of my main character of the book (that I have been writing/editing for the last 100 years) and this is very much her theme tune. She is struggling to embrace who she is and therefore the characters around her spend a lot of their time trying to make her see that who she is is actually what they need.

Now, I know some of the people who are reading this and will probably be thinking, but you are the main character of your own book so what you've said - do you mean it about yourself?  No I don't, honesty, I really don't because  I am comfortable in my own skin (perhaps a little bit too comfortable as I could do with losing a few pounds) but although there is a lot of things I would like to change or do with my life, changing who I am, isn't one of them because one of the biggest lessons in life is accepting yourself for who you are. Now that may not change how society views you or the perceptions that people have of you, but it does help you change things for yourself if make changes for positive effects. Stay happy within yourself and then anything is possible.

If you know this song, you are probably think, but this song isn't happy; but for me when I listen to it, it helps me to remember what I've said in the paragraph above and helps me remember who I am and what I believe in. That's a lot from one song, but trust the writer to over think it. The song is a lot less complicated.

Hear it here: Beautiful Freak by the Eels

There will be more from the Eels later in the week.