So much of who I am is wrapped up in music. It is a wonder that I never learned to play anything but I have a perfectly good piano sitting here and who knows. Maybe.
My sister saw to it that I was introduced to the Eagles and to Jackson Browne (among others) at an early age; she loaned her albums to me (don't you MISS those?! I miss those cracks and pops that you don't get in CDs.) and I played them over and over. And over. And then she introduced me to musicians. Shreveport is known for producing great musicians. And she introduced me to the folks who recorded the musicians. She was the overseer of my musical education and to her I am forever indebted for that.
I've posted on here before of my total adoration and love for Jackson Browne (well, his music anyway; not sure we'd get along in real life.) My iPod is a perfect blend of Jackson Browne, Eagles, Buffett, Stones, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and others. I find such solace in music that I can NOT find anywhere else. But that's another post for another day. Just know when you find me plugged into my iPod, you should let me be...I need to be there!
Steve and I went to Nicky's for Mexican food tonight, then took a swing by his place to check out his storm damage (one Bradford Pear). My photo is of Steve's dog and her fallen Bradford Pear. When we got back here there was a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on HD which quickly sucked me in. I love those big-haired guitar players!! Listening to that concert reminded me of my old Skynyrd "Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album" which has the most beautiful unreleased version of Freebird. I think Freebird is one of those songs in danger (or already there) of being played out, but this version is so beautiful to me and I think it's because of the piano. God, I love that piano.
At the risk of sounding like my parents, I'm not sure I "get" lots of music today. Some semi-contemporary stuff I like. But hip-hop and rap - not at all. Not AT ALL. It's filled with the same droning bass line and filled with hate. Awful. Give me the big hair bands, the girl bands, the originals, the folks that knew how to write music and perform it. They had talent. Ah well, I don't want to go there, even. Have a listen at Freebird from 1977. Chill.
5 comments:
I hope all of your family and friends are doing well after Ike!
Great post! My lovely parents took me aside today and told me if they heard Christine McVie say "You make loving fun" one more time, they were going to kick me out. I wanted to explain to them that it is all I have to cope with living with them again! LOL Instead I told them I was going to spend the next week playing something they hated so they'd be begging me to play FM again.
I guess it's time to upload it all to my iPod! I do think music is a powerful thing though...I can associate most periods of my life and just about every memory I have with a song, an album, or a band.
I am one of those who has the Muse of Song trapped in a musically inept body.
My tastes for musical is wide ranged, except I don't like RAP. Like they say, you can't spell crap without rap. Rap did have one bit of virtue in my life, because of it I was able to forgive Disco.
I love classical music and just about everything Mozart composed. Mozat was a true musical genius.
In the Movie Amedeus (a must see) there is a scene where the character Antonio Salieri is descibing one of Mozart's songs, where he hears the sound of a leaf as it falls to the ground. You can hear it in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 (Andante). What a beautiful piece of music.
And while you're at it, listen to Bassoon Concerto in B flat
K.191.
Beethoven wasn't too bad either. I love Moonlight Sonata. It is hauntingly beautiful.
I love old twangy country music, especially Texas Swing. Yes, Bob Wills still the King. This drives Pat nuts, and I have to be careful playing country music around her. (Thank you X-M for Willie's Place, located on channel 13.)
I love Rock, especially Southern Rock. Even though I was born a Yankee, I am an Iowa farmboy and have spent nearly 2/3 of my life in the South.
I like some modern Techno stuff, but start drawing the line there.
Pat and I do share a fondness for 1940's style Big Band music. Now this is some real music.
Pat and I have gone to several concerts put on by our local 156th Army Band (Louisiana National Guard), and performances by the Air Force Falconaires (Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs) and the Air Force Band of the West (I think Lackland AFB, Texas). We enjoyed them all, but The Falconaires were just plain awesome. The drummer was unbelievable. During the performance of Louie Prima's Sing, Sing, Sing, he played a drum solo that could rival the late great Gene Krupa, who played a drum solo in The Benny Goodman Orchestra's performance and recording of Sing, Sing, Sing
Like Pat has said on many occasions, "If you don't tap your toes during Sing, Sing, Sing, there is something wrong with you."
For those who don't know Pat personally, I will attest to the fact that she is a facinating person.
When Pat and I first started going together, I realized she had a fondness for music. One night we were IMing each other, and we were talking about music. I told her I liked Jackson Browne, and I think that's what hooked her. She replied, "You, like Jackson Browne?" And we've been dating ever since.
Since then Pat has burned several CD's for me. She made several for me for my trips back and forth from Ft. Polk, when I was on active duty Army. I loved every song she put on those CD's except the Michael Jackson song, I think it's called "I want you Back." But I understand why she put it on there, AWWWWWW!
I came home just about every weekend, didn't I?
Hi, I'm Abby. Steve's dog.
Thanks Pat for putting my picture on your blog. I have a sad story to tell you.
I loved that tree, because I love chasing squirrels, and I don't know how many times I have chased a squirrel up that tree. The squirrel would get to the top, and look down at me.
When Daddy would come home and not see me standing at the gate and wagging my tail, he knew where I was. I would be under the tree, looking up at a squirrel as it was looking down at me.
Sometimes if the squirrel would move to another limb, I would run under that limb hoping the squirrel would fall.
Daddy would laugh when a brave squirrel would take a chance on jumping to the ground and run to the neighbor's fence or to another tree, because I would be within inches of the squirrel's tail.
I've caught one a time or two, but Daddy would yell at me to let the squirrel go. SOFTIE!
Thank goodness he's not around all the time, because what he doesn't know when he's not home...
You wanna hear a funny story? Yesteday, that stupid squirrel that I chase up the tree all the time didn't know the tree had fallen. I saw him and started chasing him. He ran 20 feet up in the air. You should have seen the look on his face, when he realized the tree was gone.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my story. And By the Way, Pat, thanks for coming over yesterday and using the Firminator on me. I must have lost 30 pounds of fir.
god, I miss albums....the needle, the static, the old school sound.
luculent
Luculent,
Being you miss the old needle and static, you may enjoy this.
There was a record shop here in Shreveport that was around the corner from where Pat lives.
Pat can tell you about it than I, because she was probably in there more than I. I think they sell fabric there now.
The record shop's name SOOTO, and that stood for Something Out Of The Ordinary.
It was a really neat place. They had albums upon albums on display in fruit boxes that were held up on boards, the back boards were longer that the front. It sort of looked like a farmer's market for music ablums. When you went to pay for your albums, short people had to stand on an old tree stump to reach the counter.
And they weren't kidding about out of the out of the orndinary stuff. They carried a lot of import albums.
Yeah, you could have gone to Stan's Record Shop and buy albums, but Stan's didn't quite have what you wanted.
So it got to the point, why even bother with the regular record shops, go straight to SOOTO, they have it all. And it was nothing to walk out carrying 5 or 6 albums. And they weren't that expensive either.
Take them home, or in my case back to my room at Barksdale AFB. You would put the record on the turn table, get the dust and lint cleaner and run it over the record while it was spinning, get all the dust and lint off, RIGHT?
Then you put the stylus on the record, and you still got pop, crack, and song.
Anyway, every now and then Pat and I will drive past the building and say, "Damn I sure miss SOOTO's"
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