How Long Ago Since You Cried Listening To Music?

I just wiped the tears from my eyes a few minutes ago. If this thread didn't exist, I would have started it.

My wife is sleeping soundly and I'm in the living room in the middle of the night spinning vinyl on my Townshend Rock 7, wearing AKG K702 headphones driven by The Raptor Tube amp. Interesting for me to note that this community is where I thought to go right after this experience.

Tonight, I'd been listening to the new pressing of one of my most loved albums, Tea for the Tillerman -- specifically, the song "Into White" stood out above all the other great ones. Aside from being a beautiful song played soulfully and magnificently, the combination of this superb pressing (finally, I'm actually impressed with a reissue) and the "aliveness" with which my system resolved it engulfed me in an experience where the meaning the song had for the artist became palpable. I was helpless, immersed in emotions that reached me more deeply than I could anticipate.

Does occasionally squeezing out a few tears while being completely involved in the enjoyment of music make me a "girlie-man," as one cretin would have it? I'm not going to dignify that with the volley of barbs it deserves -- suffice to say, I'm sorry for those of you who have not experienced this and feel the need to exercise your fragile masculinity by belittling those who have.

Whether it's Cat Stevens on headphones or Metallica at full tilt in your car, I believe that feeling the emotional meaning of the artist is the highest potential of our shared obsession. If that doesn't justify spending as much time and money on our hobby, or crying when we finally get it, what would?

SonicBeauty-- Indeed, yet somehow she still loves me!

Blkadr,

I know that to be true. I played football (soccer over here) for 30 years and I know that when I was on the field with some unexpressed emotion held in my body, my skills were compromised, nothing flowed right. I also recall that when I got on the field after clearing what was previously stuffed down, sometimes by crying a bit (gasp!), my game was fluid, faster, less effort and I scored many more goals.

Men who have the courage to let themselves cry usually experience life at a higher level because they haven't armored themselves against their own feelings, as well as others'. Similarly, being truly affected by music requires dropping one's guard and trusting that actually feeling something won't hurt you. Shutting down your emotions, whether in a relationship or listening to music, is the real cowardice.

And if that wasn't enough, women seem to seek masculine men who allow themselves to feel. What more would a man need to know?