survival-by-muse

This song, “Survival,” was the official theme song for the 2012 London Olympics. I did not compete in or attend the 2012 London Olympics, but my good friend did, and a piece of my heart was there. If I was ever going to make an Olympic team, that was the second of the two most realistic chances. I was not close to making a team, but I still thought about it a lot. I recognize this explanation makes me sound a bit pathetic, but I’m nothing if not honest, so there you have it.

Regardless of any complicated feelings I may or may not have had surrounding the 2012 Olympics, none of that bleeds over into how I feel about this song. I love this song. Matt Bellamy, the lead singer of Muse, was approached in 2011 to write a song for the then-upcoming games. Officially, it was released as a single for the games, though it was also included in the album “The 2nd Law,” released in 2012. The band played it live at the closing ceremonies, which I admit I didn’t watch because I find the closing extremely depressing. Apparently, a bunch of music critics didn’t like “Survival” when it first came out, but honestly, screw those guys. They absolutely kill any joy found in music, and I feel sorry for them and the sad lives they lead. But to be fair, I have a hard time listening to the song when not in the midst of or on the way to an athletic endeavor.

The song starts with staccato chords, both vocalized and on the piano, followed on the next beat by snapping. Just basic sound and percussion. The opening notes give me full-body chills when the song comes up on a running playlist. These men are musicians first and rock stars second, and they bring in classical influences in a lot of their music. They use it for drama in this song so effectively, I’m almost annoyed by the guitar solo that comes after the full choir. So much of this song is non-lyrical, which only serves to increase the complexity. The lyrics are, by comparison to the music it accompanies, basic and bare.

“Race. Life’s a race. And I’m gonna win. Yes, I’m gonna win.”

Hell yeah I am, and now I’m running through walls and jumping over downed branches and punching opponents in the gut without breaking stride. Now, please go listen to this song in earbuds pretty loud and tell me you don’t feel like you could bust through bricks like the Kool-Aid Man.

But as I said, I don’t often put this on to listen to or have on in the background while going about living my life. This is a running song with opera singers in it. And it’s not just this song. I have so many songs that are running songs or erging songs. Because of one of my college teammate’s deep and abiding love for Britney Spears, “Toxic” will forever be associated with an erg room. And the beat is right, so I don’t hate it. Other songs I can only run to include “Tic Boom” by Leikeli47, “Ride” by the Vines, “3’s & 7’s” by Queens of the Stone Age, and “Countdown” by Beyonce. These are all fine songs, but I can’t just listen to them. I need to be moving. (Oh yeah, throw “Despacito” onto that list.)

I’ve been to a couple more doctors recently who were more positive about my ability to run again. In fact, before they started telling me what I could or couldn’t do, they asked me what my goals were. I’ve since come to learn that this is the accepted approach to sports medicine nowadays, and that the first person I talked to was behind the times. I’m a little disappointed in myself in how quickly I capitulated to her, how quickly I accepted her flawed guidance without argument. I didn’t fight her at all. I stopped running, stopped lifting, took anti-inflammatories that did nothing, and I didn’t complain to her, only to every other single person around me. I gained weight immediately and got depressed, though I suppose those usually go hand in hand for me.

I finally listened to reason in the form of some friends telling me to get another opinion. I went to another doctor who knocked my socks off with her positivity and the forcefulness in her belief that this is my life, and I should live it how I want. If running makes me happy, running should be part of my life. I left her office feeling like a new person, or more accurately, like the person I was before someone tried to put limitations on me.

So not only will I run again, ramping up with the guidance of a physical therapist, I don’t have to lose all these songs that require me to be running to really hear them. I can listen to the Olympic-inspired arias Muse has brought into the world. And I’m reminded of the line before the electric guitar solo that is later accompanied by more operatic voices, “I won’t give in, because I choose to thrive…”