So... Why the hell Rick?
It's a long story, that begins in January of 2022.
My brain was extremely broken. Still is, of course, but I am managing it as best I can with medication, and I am much MUCH healthier than I was when this story began.
At this time, I thought it would be funny to make Rick Wakeman in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. I knew nothing about him aside from his part in YES, and decided to try listening to his solo albums. I only intended to do this for one day. Play Oblivion as a joke and do something else.
And then by accident, I was hooked.
The combination of his music and the Oblivion gameplay made for hilarious and emotional moments back to back, and I just couldn't stop playing. But unfortunately, my mind was getting worse and worse. Playing the game with new music proved to be a decent distraction from my problems. I would often get up at 2AM, play Oblivion for hours, and then spend even MORE hours editing the videos of these moments. Then I'd sleep at noon, skip dinner and repeat the whole cycle again. I was very unwell.
Unsurprisingly, I couldn't keep this up forever, and I slowly got worse. I even had multiple hospital visits. But I did recover. It was long and arduous, but I am somehow still here. And I wouldn't have made it if I didn't put all that focus into Rick's music. He somehow, in someway, saved my life! Rick has hundreds of albums, and over the hours that I explored and completed Oblivion, I listened to essentially all of them. I consider myself a bit of an expert in Rick's solo albums.
But don't misunderstand me, this appreciation is not a blind one. I think Rick is a great musician, but boy has he created some clangers. He frustrates me because I know he can be amazing but he often chooses to write, for lack of a better term, cringe! I am not shy about this. I like Rick in a tough way. I want to see him better. I know he can be. Well... I will give him some breathing room as he is in his 70s. But in the 90s there was no excuse!