Dannyfrom504 wrote –

…a song by red house painters called “medicine bottle”. medicine bottle was one of my staple “oneitis” songs. yet i recently had it pop up on a playlist and listening to it now…i see it from a different angle.

it’s simply about an introvert who’s in love but his lover can’t get him out of is shell (mark kozelek routinely wrote songs that were autobiographical), i’m thinking she’s of the impression that he’s not really all that into her, or can’t deal with his gloominess (and we INTJ’s can be GLOOMY AS FUCK), and leaves him. but what she doesn’t get, is the fact she he let her in in the first place is how we express our affection. we are solid pillars of stone when it come to our feelings. NO ONE gets in unless we’ve screened you beyond any screening you’ve ever experienced.

I took the Myers-Briggs test – two different versions – and both times I scored as an INTJ. One test rated me at 90% Thinking over Feeling.  I  don’t think it’s quite that high, but I am definitely always thinking and analyzing.

I screen constantly and automatically. Everyone does, but INTJs take it to 11. As far as online interactions go, I’m scanning everything you write, watching how you choose your words, who you reply to most and who you ignore. I’m studying your general attitude, what makes you laugh and what pisses you off. I’m scoping out your friends. By the time I leave a comment on your site, I’ve probably read at least half of your posts, and probably seen your comments on other sites. If you comment here and I don’t know you, I’ll go read your latest batch of posts before replying.

I’m not saying I shut out strangers. Far from it. I’ll talk music, movies, and the like with total strangers anytime. But there’s a limit to how far I’ll let someone in before I really know them, and that limit doesn’t go very deep. I discuss little about my personal views until I know someone.

I rarely email someone out of the blue, and always with my WordPress name at first. If I give you my Skype name, you’re on a short list. If you know my name, you’re in a very small club. If you can send me a text message on my phone, you’re probably gold, but it takes a while to get to that level (and besides, why would most people even need to text me? But I digress…).

The thing is, if I do give these out to someone, they usually don’t realize what it means. Once I’ve decided someone is in, I tend to hand out more personal things, not like candy on Halloween, but without hard restrictions. There’s no context to show how how guarded I can be. To a non-INTJ, it probably looks like I’m open (maybe too open), but it actually means I’ve decided you’re up to snuff. Not that anyone would know this. So I have to watch myself.

Interacting with someone in person is different, of course. But that’s a subject for anyone who actually meets me in person.

Danny also wrote “sad depressing music is an INTJ’s heroin.” I’m not quite sure about that, but I do have my share of unhappy favorites. Even as a kid, I never cared much for most love songs – I might like some for the music, but the lyrics were usually too sappy for me. A song doesn’t have to be unhappy, but over-romanticized fluff is right out. Here’s a few favorites of mine, to give you an idea.

Ok, I like some happy songs too.

I’m just gonna copy from What Do You Do For An Encore? because he said it so well, and add a couple thoughts afterward.

Nightsky brought this to my attention. Kids, an inflected form of the “F” word appears approximately 4 times in this song. The “S” word appears once. So, I wash my hands.

The way it happened was I was trying to find a Youtube for Twaughthammer he was telling me about and then I thought that a video of Wax performing live was the one he meant based on the search terms I was using and I said to Nightsky is this it and Nightsky said no but this is good and then he checked out some more by Wax and recommended the above and thanked me for turning him on to it even though it was Nightsky that turned me onto it and the other Wax thing that I did turn him onto was just a mistake because I thought it was the Twaughthammer thing he was telling me about.

So somewhere in there credit is due to someone . . . for something.

Now that I got that out of the way, I like “We Can’t All Be Heroes.” I like to hear rap turning back to soul and horns. Rap is not really my thing (even though I liked some of Eminem’s stuff) but I certainly realize it’s my generational handicap.

In this case, I’m still dealing with the shock of finding a practical, realistic message coming from a rap song, or any song for that matter. [emphasis mine]

I’ve never been much into rap – I did like some of the 80s and early 90s stuff before it all turned into fake posturing by fur-wearing,  champagne sipping poseurs, but most of it was just the same old themes of thug life over recycled music samples. This song is different. There’s a wealth in the lyrics if one really pays attention. This guy is telling his story. The story of a lot of guys.

Read the lyrics. It’s practically a manosphere anthem. Plus it’s got a nice retro-70s style groove.