Henry Rollins: The Column! My New Year's Resolution: To Rock Out

By Henry Rollins Thu., Jan. 5 2012 at 3:30 AM

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.]

For many years I tried to make New Year's resolutions. I made lists and shot for great heights: I would show altruism and exert moral strength, patience and all those other great attributes.

For a few weeks I was able to hang in there, be disciplined and do good, as the resolutions dictated. Then, invariably, real life crept in. I would do things like forget to sit up straight, and I went back to the way I was in the previous year.

The only thing I have done consistently for decades is to listen to music damn near every day. I am sure there have been days when I didn't listen to music, but I can't remember any of them at this moment -- they must not have been all that great.

We city dwellers, we residents of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, are for the most part urbanized to some extent. We know deadlines, start times and traffic. We pay rent, we pay the mortgage, and we look ahead to guard our very bright futures. These forces shape our conduct to some degree. To get by, we have to keep a fair fraction of our lives in check, lest we lose the plot through poor planning. Freedom gives you all you need to fail on a monumental scale.

Speaking for myself, and not to put my country in a bad light, but since I was 23 I have thought of America not so much as a nation but as a situation you survive, fail or prevail in.

Never once have I thought that Social Security would be something that would ever be available to me. No "safety net" created by the people for the people would ever be anything I could rely on. Please don't think that I am against these New Deal institutions. I am very much for them. I just reckon I am on my own in the wide-open America and have to be prepared for whatever comes.

Tags:

Henry Rollins, New Year's Resolutions

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billh

Well said. Enjoying my VUM vinyl thanks to your headsup on them last month. Also digging Lair of the Minotaur. Keep those recommendations coming!

lolana

Dear Henry, I was once scolded for mispronouncing your name on the air back in the 90's. Well, I know better now. Listen--music is the only way to stay sane these days, and I think you're on the right track.. but you have a forum here, people read you, and you should know voting isn't going to solve problems at this point---we've been doing it for years now and it isn't helping. And a major reason may be that the voting machines are easily hacked. Two stories linked show how likely it is Bush wasn't elected in 2004. Since the "news" media is really not helping report this story, maybe it will help if people like you know just how much of a charade voting has become...because all I hear is, gotta vote, gotta vote, that'll change things, and,I just don't know about that now. Cheers. http://freepress.org/departmen...http://www.veteranstoday.com/2...

Jennie Vasquez

Finally two New Year’s resolutions we can all stick to. Voting and keeping a thirst for listening tomusic. I can handle that. For awhile I thought my New Year’s resolutionwas going to be to lose a ton of weight because Mariah Carey is squawking at methat I can do it, Jennifer Hudson is encouraging me that I can do it and heckif even Charles Barkley can do it so can I. I do need to lose weight but sinceI don’t get paid to lose weight like they do, I’ll save my money by running moremiles and taking less trips to places like I don’t know, let’s pick McDonalds. I’ll get the same results without paying agiant corporation to tell me to eat less, eat better, and move more.

So many of Henry’s columns feature how music is part ofliving and makes life tolerable. It is atheme that holds true, music does make things better, even at the end of life. When my mom was in the hospital and later inhospice, she wasn’t able to read, didn’t care for tv but I downloaded some tothe Spanish language music she liked and she listened to it for hours. She was totally out of it but even then themusic calmed her and gave her joy even in her darkest hours.

I still plan on keeping my original resolution that I makeevery year. This is the year I will quitmy lifelong nasty habit of procrastinating. I plan on starting my resolution on the Chinese New Year or maybe evenperhaps the Iranian New Year but whichever I totally mean it this year.