June

Genre: Progressive Rock

Artist: Spock's Beard

Album: Kindness of Strangers

This song is very special to me for many reasons. First of all, it is the song that introduced me to Progressive Rock, Spock's Beard, and Neal Morse. Neal Morse is my current favorite musical artist, and it all started with this song. I first heard "June" back in 2003 during the summer. I went to spend some time with Nate, as I aways do during the summer. He had recently received the DVD "Don't Try This at Home" by Spock's Beard, which was a DVD of one of their concerts. Nate wanted to watch it with his dad, so I sat with them. I'll be honest. I was bored during a good portion of it. I actually eventually left the room. I remember during "Healing Colors of Sound" I thought, "What? This is still the same song?" I was not used to songs lasting for longer than five minutes. But sometime during the concert, before I left the room, "June" came on. I really liked it. The next day, while Nate and I played pool, he played "Kindness of Strangers" and I got to hear the song again. I liked it so much that Nate burned 3 different albums for me to listen to.

The song is very nostalgic. It is imagining a time, lasting only one month, when Spock's Beard hits it big. "The sun came up . . . and never went down at night." Crowds camp out to see the concerts, singing songs by the band. The band members were able to have nice hotel rooms and all the luxuries life could offer, but then it was gone. They tried to get things working again, but then realize it's all gone and they say, "I wish we were still in June."

"June came upon us much too soon, then was gone." I have had many experiences in my life where June did seem to come much too fast and then was gone, leaving me empty and alone. Sometimes, as I think about those moments, I want to cry out with the song, "I want to go back!" Such moments go back to my high school days (which, by the way, I have decided I do NOT want to go back to), and my mission days. June is when I left Jundiapeba, my favorite area of my mission. I had some great experiences in June in Jundiapeba, such as my birthday that lasted an entire week because of everything the members did. But I was transferred during the last week of the month. For me, it certainly came upon me much too soon.

I am really grateful to Nate for showing me this song. It took a while, but it led to me really enjoying this kind of music and discovering Neal Morse and his solo albums, which have given me a lot of hope and peace.