The headphones put me in the Floyd hole

I'm always a bit surprised when I go into any kind of tech store, and see the amount and variety of headphones they have on offer. But I shouldn't really be, because having your entertainments blasted directly into your earholes remains the one of the most immersive experiences you can have with art.

You don't need any kind of VR kit to give you an overload of sensation, just put on some headphones, crank up the sounds and close your eyes.

Right about the time I started taking music really, really seriously - like we all do when we're in your early teens and grasping for some kind of identity to call our own - I was into Pink Floyd. They were terminally uncool at the time and were for many years afterwards, (I disavowed my Floyd love for years until I got over myself,) but they will always be my first great musical love.

So after having my mind totally fucking blown by The Wall, I made sure that the first time I dived headfirst into Wish You Were Here, it was under optimum conditions. I got hold of a cheap vinyl copy - fuckin' nobody was buying LPs in the late eighties, so you could easily pick up classic albums for less than five bucks - put it on our shitty little stereo system, and put on my headphones.

The headphones I used were cheap crap from the local store, but they dragged me all the way into a Floyd hole that I've never really come out of.

I think it was that chortle that seems to come from right behind your ear, just as the lyrics for Shine On You Crazy diamond kicked in. I genuinely thought there was somebody behind me when I heard it, and felt the real power of true immersion.

It was just so easy to block out the whole fucking world, and just groove on the awesome thrill of music, where everything in the universe fades into nothingness next to the charge of the next chord change.

(This immersion is also part of the reason I also get so much more emotional watching films on planes, with the dialogue , music and sound effects bouncing around in your head.)

For years after that LP experience, I didn't go anywhere without the walkman and the headphones, and had that soundtrack to my mundane life blasting away. I don't do it so much when walking around anymore, and tend to listen to podcasts in one ear, with more interaction with the world. 

This isn't just because I'm trying to heed the lessons Kurt Vonnegut once taught about going to buy an envelope, but because I live in a big city with crazy drivers who you really do need to keep an ear out for.

But every now and then, when I've got some time and space to really and truly relax, nothing beats just putting on those headphones, playing some fave music and going inside my head again. It can be a happy place in there.