Notes From a 12-Year Old

Some songs make you want to dance, some, to sing, and in this case, to cry. I’m a pretty emotional person when it comes to music. Sometimes after the first couple of verses, I feel a wave of pure joy and sort of bubbliness that rumbles up inside of me and makes my body feel like its about to explode if I don’t do something. Then my feet just start leaping and jumping and my mouth just opens and closes with no real words coming out but oohs and ahhs, and moments later I’m dancing all over the room. Not noticing that the music has taken me over and I was now pouring out my heart in song.

Sometimes, however, music works in the opposite way and the tables are turned, no longer am I yelping and dancing but just staring at the music that no one else can see. Like air, you know its there but you can never find the exact location of where it resides. On these sorts of songs (which are very rare and should be handled with a great deal of respect) you don’t feel like doing anything but sitting down and becoming paralyzed by the tones, unable to wrap your mind around the song, regardless of its simplicity.

“Shine On” by Jet is the latter of the two. Jet is an Australian band whose first album was released in 2003. The group includes Nic Cester on guitar and vocals, Chris Cester on drums and vocals, Mark Wilson on bass guitar, and Cameron Muncey on guitar and vocals. The song was written to help the Cester brothers to cope with their father’s death. “Dealing with that isn’t something you can read in a textbook,” Chris explained, while Nic just summed it up with, “It was f–king horrible.”

Right from the start of the song you can feel the pain that the brothers are trying to deal with. “Please don’t cry,” rings the cool, blurred voice of Nic Cester, “before I go I want you to know that there will always be a light.” By the end of the first verse, my eyes have started to feel the sting of tears.

Listen to “Shine On”

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Overall, it seems, that Nic sings about the things unsaid between his father and himself. “If I let you down I will follow you ’round until you understand.” In the chorus Nic tells both his father and himself that things will be okay and he will still “shine on” no matter what happens.

As if the song itself doesn’t express enough emotion, then the music video defiantly sums up his feelings in one short 4 minutes and 25 second time slot. The video is set in a broken down house where Nic is sitting and singing in front of an illuminated window. After the first couple of verses, the video switches back and forth from Nic to various crackled scenes of war and protests. Then, all of a sudden the light behind the glass becomes brighter and the wars start ending. The scenes of angry mobs are replaced with footage of two leaders shaking hands. The last image we see is of three smiling people in the bathtub. A father and his two sons, but even when things fade and drift away, those three figures will still be smiling and laughing. A father and his two sons, forever.

“I will shine on for everyone.”

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