I’ve never considered that Lindsey was playing “schtick” or affecting a personality type. Dangerous ground on these boards, I know, but I grant him more dignity and respect than that.
He is who he is. He identified with Brian, I think, because he saw someone who struggled to be and do something other than what the people around him wanted him to be and do. He identified with Brian's music certainly, but then arguably even more strongly with Brian because he saw someone “aspiring to be an individual” under great pressure to conform.
What leads one to be introspective, analytical, reflective to a greater degree than another? Who knows? Mightn’t it just be something in his makeup..in his personality…? A strong need from within that began very early and that he’s tried (and sometimes struggled) to understand? (I actually think several of his songs focus on that very issue.) Afterall, what leads a six year old boy to become so enamored of a musical instrument that he’d forego the more usual six year old’s activities to sit in his big brother’s room and obsessively learn to play the guitar all by himself? We, by no means, have any real grasp at all on the things that have gone into making him the kind of person that he is. But not having it spelled out for me in an episode of Oprah doesn’t diminish the strength of what I hear coming through in the music. In some ways, it may even add to it.
For my buck, life is essentially a process of searching for the things that mean something to you. Finding the gem here and the gem there, amongst the many falsely glittering objects, balances out the journey and gives you a certain base to hold fast to. But it doesn’t necessarily diminish the desire to continue to search as your life evolves and you find meaning in different areas. Perhaps some people just feel that search more intensely and aren't disuaded from pursuing it because of how "angsty" it might appear to others.
That being said, Lindsey’s far too often pigeon-holed as one thing and never allowed to be anything else. But he is, like all of us, so much else. Being on these boards…any boards with a narrow scope of focus, has the tendency to de-personalize the individuals in this band some times. Analysis of somebody’s every quirk, twitch and blink starts to make them less human and more character. Less some one to consider, more some thing to be judged and dismantled and put in the role we want them to play. But he is, as has been stated before, the same kind of multidimensional person that we all are. Lindsey’s clearly got a very conflicted side. He’s also got a pretty goofy and optimistic side. As the man himself says, “nobody falls into a simple set of labels.”
Interesting topic...