The music that defines your life

[Ivan Seeking]

I was thinking the other day [a rare event ] about certain consistencies in my life. As I get older I realize that some things once thought to be permanent are gone; and other influences that I thought were transient factors in life have become permanent. One of the most notable of these consistencies is music. It has often amazed me to hear songs that I once thought were sooooo cool that now sound silly, or childish, or trite. However, it amazes me even more to realize that I still love some of the same music that I did as a teenager. The contrast is quite interesting in this regard.

Obviously we grow and change and gain a broader perspective and appreciation for music, but I suspect that for reasons of culture, popular issues, "a sense of time and place" and a variety of other factors, most people find that some music sticks with them uniquely, forever. It comes to define their life in a sense. For me, I guess this would be the music of Elton John. When I studied music [piano] as a kid, in addition to the standard classics like the three B's, I was also allowed to learn anything by EJ. Some of his music still touches my soul now just as much as it did in 1973; Funeral for a Friend is one example of this. I have probably played and listened to this song a couple thousand times over the years. He’s not the most talented, or the deepest, or the most appealing performer, I don’t rate him along the greats like Mozart or Bach, and I have surely never like his flamboyance, but this man [and Bernie Taupin] can write music that just gets to me time after time. I just never get tired of hearing some of his songs. Especially songs like Your Song, Daniel, or “Candle in the Wind”

How about you? What music defines your life?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Dave Clark says:"Music is the soundtrack of our lives."

You end up places where they play the radio. It isn't your music. Not what you'd go and buy for yourself, but certain tunes work their way under your skin.

Years later when you hear them by accident it pulls you back to the time and place they were running in the background.

I probably have a couple hundred or more of these tunes, most of them: I have no idea of the group or singer's name.

I worked at a bakery for a while where the people played a new Bowie album over and over. There was one song that he sang all or part in German: "Ja, sind Wir Helden! In einer Nacht.", or something like that. Anyone know what album that was? What the name of the song was?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm not sure about the Bowie album...but I bet Tsunami would know. I am a big Bowie fan but she's a BOWIE FAN.

 

[Tsu]

Originally posted by Ivan Seeking
I'm not sure about the Bowie album...but I bet Tsunami would know. I am a big Bowie fan but she's a BOWIE FAN.

It may be a song called Heros. Here's a link for you to see if these are the words:
http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/songs/dblyrics.htm#heroeshelden

 

[Njorl]

For me it is The Rolling Stones. They were never my favorite, but I never stopped liking them ... well. I never stopped liking their old stuff. I haven't liked anything they've done in a while.

I was 2 when December's Children came out in 1965. I sang along with the chorus of "Get off of my cloud". When my kids were 2, they danced around like maniacs to "Paint it black".

Njorl

 

[hypnagogue]

Lots of bands in general-- I think The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, and The Verve in particular will always be up there for me. As for those certain songs that always remain tied to a certain moment in time-- for me a few poignant ones that stand out are "Twilight" by The Verve, "Desolation Row" by Bob Dylan, and "A Summer Wasting" by Belle and Sebastian. I will never be able to listen to those without remembering a certain emotion in a certain moment in time when they were playing. They are all tied into the evolution of my relationship with my girlfriend, from the bittersweet beginning to the very difficult transition to the eventual joyful resolution. (It was all very complicated. ) But I can listen to any of those and be transported back to those various points in time.

 

[Mercator]

Yes, it was "Helden" ,a German version of Heroes, from "Heroes", the Bowie anwer to "Berlin" of Lou Reed. Which brings me to... Pachelbel's canon. A summary of life in 5 minutes.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Mercator
Yes, it was "Helden" ,a German version of Heroes

Any idea what album the German version is on?

Which brings me to... Pachelbel's canon. A summary of life in 5 minutes.

See also the first prelude in C major to the Well Tempered Clavier, book 1. It's Life.

 

[Zantra]

Some of the music that I've stuck with through the years is Billy Joel and James Taylor. I have ecclectical tastes though. Everything from currrent pop,rap, blues, to heavy metal, But those two have stuck with me for whatever reason. And they aren't even from my time.

 

[Evo]

My musical taste is all over the board.

I always have and always will enjoy classical & some operas, as well as Irish/Celtic music - Clannad, The Chieftans.

I LOVE Pearl Jam.

I don't think I will ever tire of The Cure, Cars, Modern English - Melt With You, Tears for Fears, When in Rome - Promise.

Of course I love the "old" Beatles & Stones. Mothers of Invention, Spirit, Jimmi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow, they went downhill after that. Cream - Pressed rat & warthog, ok & the other songs too.

Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed is phenomenal.

Leo Kottke, incredible guitarist, 6 & 12 string.

I also like Incubus, Blink 182, & most of my daughter's music (punk) (the emo kinda makes me cringe though), I mean, why do they have to ruin a perfectly good song by screaming??

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
Dave Clark says:"Music is the soundtrack of our lives."

Ermmm...Did you mean to say Dick Clark?

 

[Tsu]

Originally posted by Evo
My musical taste is all over the board.

I always have and always will enjoy classical & some operas, as well as Irish/Celtic music - Clannad, The Chieftans.

I LOVE Pearl Jam.

I don't think I will ever tire of The Cure, Cars, Modern English - Melt With You, Tears for Fears, When in Rome - Promise.

Of course I love the "old" Beatles & Stones. Mothers of Invention, Spirit, Jimmi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow, they went downhill after that. Cream - Pressed rat & warthog, ok & the other songs too.

Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed is phenomenal.

Leo Kottke, incredible guitarist, 6 & 12 string.

I also like Incubus, Blink 182, & most of my daughter's music (punk) (the emo kinda makes me cringe though), I mean, why do they have to ruin a perfectly good song by screaming??

GOOD GOD, WOMAN! WE WERE SEPERATED AT BIRTH! I've never met ANYONE else who loved (much less even KNEW) Leo Kottke! I have to disagree with the screaming part, tho. That's what a lot of music of our day WAS! Look at Janis - the best screamer that ever lived! Cheap Thrills is still one of my favorites. Ok - she was a little before my time - but her version of 'Summertime' just blows me away... (BTW...I'm baaaack... Camping - this summer - almost exactly 6 miles south of Eureka on the east side of highway 1 - bring dark chocolate! Exact date TBA, but start buying the chocolate now - in case there is a shortage )

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Tsunami I've never met ANYONE else who loved (much less even KNEW) Leo Kottke!

Eh? You said you'd been to Minnesota. All the Norwegian bachelorette farmers want to marry Leo, and all the bachelor farmers want to play like him.

 

[chroot]

I've seen Kottke play in Santa Cruz. :) Very good stuff. I don't want to emulate him though, really.

My favorite bands? Pink Floyd, U2, Sublime, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Incubus... lately I've been into a lot of trip-hop: Thievery Corporation, Hooverphonic, Morcheeba, and others. Plus, of course, classic stuff like Hendrix and Cream.

- Warren

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by Tsunami
GOOD GOD, WOMAN! WE WERE SEPERATED AT BIRTH! I've never met ANYONE else who loved (much less even KNEW) Leo Kottke!

I fear what would happen if we were ever both in the same place at the same time! We do kinda look alike, I think...(takes out microscope to view waterskiing picture).
I used to date a guy that worked at Liberty Hall in Houston (small place for performers like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Bruce Springsteen (before he became famous) and he would let me play the intermission music and I would play Kottke and people would always ask me who it was.

I have to disagree with the screaming part, tho. That's what a lot of music of our day WAS! Look at Janis - the best screamer that ever lived! Cheap Thrills is still one of my favorites. Ok - she was a little before my time - but her version of 'Summertime' just blows me away...

Janis belted it out, but I'm talking "screaming", not singing IMHO. I saw her in concert in Houston, Big Brother and the Holding Company. Ok, I was young, but I was ahead of my time, and I had an older friend who took me with her to the concerts. I saw Hendrix, the Doors, Janis, the Who, Led Zeppelin a couple of times, Frank Zappa & the Mothers (so cool) ok I saw everyone back then. I'm glad I did.

(BTW...I'm baaaack... Camping - this summer - almost exactly 6 miles south of Eureka on the east side of highway 1 - bring dark chocolate! Exact date TBA, but start buying the chocolate now - in case there is a shortage )

People bring something besides dark chocolate on camping trips? How odd...

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by chroot
I've seen Kottke play in Santa Cruz. :) Very good stuff. I don't want to emulate him though, really.

My favorite bands? Pink Floyd, U2, Sublime, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Incubus... lately I've been into a lot of trip-hop: Thievery Corporation, Hooverphonic, Morcheeba, and others. Plus, of course, classic stuff like Hendrix and Cream.

- Warren

Wow, you're pretty well rounded also...

 

[chroot]

Evo,

1100 albums can't be wrong...

- Warren

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by chroot
Evo,

1100 albums can't be wrong...

- Warren

Whoa! I've got to ask...when did you have the time with all of your other pursuits? Come clean, you've figured out how to stop time, right?

 

[chroot]

I'm something of a music collector, and I have found some quite efficient means to, uh, procure music. I tend to download 2-3 albums a night, since it only takes a few minutes.

Honestly, I have far too much music. It would take me quite a number of years to go through and listen to every minute of every album.

Maybe I have an addiction?

- Warren

 

[Tsu]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
Eh? You said you'd been to Minnesota. All the Norwegian bachelorette farmers want to marry Leo, and all the bachelor farmers want to play like him.

This is true, Zooby. But I was very young, and the size/bulk and smelly hairyness of the adults in my family scared the bejesus out of me so badly, so I just hid. (hmmmm...hairy, smelly...no WONDER you want one of them as a mail-order bride! Hope you get one of the female ones! ) Plus, my taste in music at that time was more along the lines of hop-scotch tunes, etc.

 

[Zantra]

Ok so many great muscians listed here I couldn't let it go at billy joel and james taylor.

When I was younger I was into stuff like metallica, green day, stp, nirvana, pearl jam, GNR(briefly), 2pac, LL cool J, just to name a few, I've also been a fan of Blink, rancid, smashing pumpkins, etc. This was the music from my generation. Yup, I'm a GenXer.

I'm also a fan of several decades of music. Pink Floyd and Zepplin along with Jimmy Hendrix, Santana, and the Beatles have a place on my shelf. Clapton rocks with or without cream. I could go on and on. I love Aerosmith, Bob Marley, Soundgarden, michael jackson(in spite of his reputation, Thriller was a classic), the stones, I could go on and on, but I won't

Lately my tastes have mellowed. I have acquired a taste for happy hardcore techno, mostly from my friend's DJ business, but now I'm more into classical(was before, but more so now) and jazz. My fav Jazz is fusion, but I'm learning the classics as well. Ooops.. my age is showing

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Tsunami
Plus, my taste in music at that time was more along the lines of hop-scotch tunes, etc.

Goodness, you were very young.

Speaking of Minnesota and the music of our lives, I wonder how many are familiar with Garrison Keillor, and his Prairie Home Companion radio show? That was a huge part of the music of my life back during my Minnesota years. (And it is from his humorous monologs that I took the notion of Norwegian Bachelor Farmers.) It came to be nationally aired on PBS, live from St. Paul, Mn. every Saturday night.

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by Zantra
Ok so many great muscians listed here I couldn't let it go at billy joel and james taylor.

Wow, Zantra, you also have a broad range of musical tastes.

I feel sorry for the people that ONLY listen to country, or ONLY to heavy metal, etc... They are missing out on so much.

 

[Zantra]

I get "bored" sticking with just one genre. It's a mood thing. sometimes I feel a little bit country, sometimes a little bit rock and roll. Actually I'm not a fan of country... ok I hate it. But I can identify with most everything else.

 

[Tsu]

Originally posted by Zantra
I get "bored" sticking with just one genre.

Same here. I like practically everything from classical to acid rock. While I have enjoyed attending operatic productions, I'm not one to sit and listen to opera - well, ever. Some country-lite is OK (Bonnie Raitt, Eagles etc) - just never cared for the twangy nasal singing that goes on with most of it. I like smooth jazz, but classical jazz is tolerated in only in small amounts. I do enjoy the blues - B.B. ('Nobody loves me like me mother, and sometimes I think she's jivin', too) King has been a favorite of mine, also. Was never really a concert person - hated crowds and being stuck in grid-lock for hours.
Ivan is, IMO, correct in that I AM completely transported back to another time and place, including the feelings that were evoked by many old songs of my past. Light My Fire and The Crystal Ship puts me at a party, dancing with my heart throb of the summer. David Essex or Herbie Hancock puts me in college in Portland, OR experimenting with an "only slightly illegal" smokable substance. Play me a song and I'll tell you a story!

 

[Zero]

What I find interesting is that my musical tastes, while varied, seems to veer more and more towards extremely dark and heavy music as I get older. I started out with pop, then picked up classic rock, shread and jazz as a teenager, switched to blues and alternative in college, was introduced to more extreme modern metal in my mid-twenties, and now I've started listening to a lot of Swedish death metal. What's funny is that I still listen to all those styles on a regular basis, as well as classical at work(thank you, NPR). In any given week, I'm liable to have listened to Steve Vai, John Mayer, Pink Floyd, Alice In Chains, Wes Montgomery, and Slayer, plus about a dozen other CDs, minimum.

 

[Tsu]

Originally posted by Zero
What I find interesting is that my musical tastes, while varied, seems to veer more and more towards extremely dark and heavy music as I get older.

Well, heck. Since we can't seem to stay on topic... (Sorry, Ivan!)
That IS very interesting, Zero. Why do YOU think you've veered more toward dark and heavy music?

 

[BLUE_CHIP]

Reggae Dub is the music that really defines my life and my outlook on life. Artists such as Sublime really are truly me inside and out.

Other music that reflects my life are Ska bands like http://www.spunge.co.uk/index2.html#home .

I also like Trippy stuff like http://www.infected-mushroom.net/.

Thats It Boudoirs...

 

[Zero]

Originally posted by Tsunami
Well, heck. Since we can't seem to stay on topic... (Sorry, Ivan!)
That IS very interesting, Zero. Why do YOU think you've veered more toward dark and heavy music?

I don't really know, except that things have actually gotten better for me over the years, as my attitude has become more and more positive. Maybe I need the extreme music to purge myself of negativity?

 

[meteor]

Oasis, Tears for fears, Bananarama, Metallica, J.M. Jarre, and yeah, Linkin Park

 

[ranyart]

Music is the foundation of of our soul?..but things change, people tend to move with the times.

After reading your post I went over to my music collection just to scan it and see what my mind compels me to want to hear?

First off,
1)Richie Havens - Motherless Child/Freedom (Woodstock)
2)Van Morrison - Wavelength
3)Steve Howe & Annie Haslam - Turn of The Century
4)Mary Black-Columbus
5)The Band & Neil Young-Helpless (The Last Waltz)
6)Spirit - The Times are a Changing (Spirit of 76)
7)Marc Cohn - Dig Down Deep
8)Jon Anderson - Friends of Mr Cairo
9)Al Stewart - Ellis Island
10)Jimmy Hendrix - All Around The Watchtower...leading to Are you Experienced

And some instrumentals to wind down..Mike Oldfield-Ommadawn...Jon Anderson-Ocean Song..Garden of Geda/sound out the Galleon..Dance of Ranyart..Flight of the Moorglade..and finnally my evening closes tonight with The Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield!

A mix n match evening ;)

PS..Just found one of my Ancient Albums Tonto's Expanding Head Band! (both albums) ...I am away as I have found one of my alltime favs..Peter Paul % Mary...THE ALBUM..original and from the ealy sixties.. Dont Forget(Nostalgia)!

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by ranyart
After reading your post I went over to my music collection just to scan it and see what my mind compels me to want to hear?

Wow, a great collection! Unfortunately I have very few of my original albums. My older brother shipped them to Germany when he was stationed there so he'd have something to listen to and they were stolen. He tried to replace them, but it was mostly impossible.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Can't forget the greatest music of all time...

The tunes of Dr. Demento.

Who could ever forget such legendary classics:
Bilbo Baggins by Leonard Nimoy
Hurray For Captain Spalding [the African Explorer] by Groucho Marx
Shaving Cream [unknown]
and of course: Big Bad Bruce.

[Not to be outdone, William Shatner did release one album]

In the early 70’s I listened to Dr. D religiously every Sunday night. However I am off topic...these were much more special then than now...even by my standards.

 

[ranyart]

Originally posted by Evo
Wow, a great collection! Unfortunately I have very few of my original albums. My older brother shipped them to Germany when he was stationed there so he'd have something to listen to and they were stolen. He tried to replace them, but it was mostly impossible.

Hi Evo!
Thats a real shame! I hate to think what I do if my collection(actually I am not a COLLECTOR, I believe music should be listened to..albums..C-Ds..Mp3..DVD), went astray..from Abba to Zappa!

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by Ivan Seeking
[Not to be outdone, William Shatner did release one album]

Noooooooooo. I heard him sing on a priceline commercial once. I still haven't fully recovered from it.