Think [the box] ing discussion
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Which tunes always do it for ye?
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As a Waits nut how am I supposed to go past this little discussion? His latest album is almost too much of a good thing. But Alice and Blood Money have rarely been off my CD player since they were released four or five years ago. I read recently that even Dylan is a little embarrassed by how much he idolises Waits.Now, this might make me sound like a bit of a wanker, but it is true. One night I went to watch Mahler’s Ninth with the ex-wife. The only thing I knew about Mahler at the time was that exchange in Educating Rita “Wouldn’t you just die without Mahler?” “No, not really.”
The conductor was an old Japanese man – I’m nearly certain he had a name and I could look it up, but won’t – who conducted the entire piece without music, from memory! Imagine that. Anyway, there is a bit at the end of one of the movements where the time signature changes, the new bit only lasts for about 2 minutes, but this night when I heard it it literally took my breath away. I know this will sound like crap, but it is totally true. Only when the music stopped did I realise that for those 2 minutes I hadn’t been breathing. It stopped and I took this huge in breath and lived (thank god for that, aye?).
It has never happened before or since – naturally I bought a CD of the symphony and that has never done it for me either, even though I really like this symphony now. Music is a dangerous thing.
It would be very hard to say one album that I would take with me (I’d just take my ipod, I think and be damned) but if it had to be just one then probably Ani DiFranco’s Evolve. Isn’t it funny how an album that doesn’t even have your favourite songs from an artist can still be their best album?
Hmmm....it is remarkably similar to a post from Project Mayhem....
Gosh, I hope you're not accusing me of plagiarism... I've never been on Project Mayhem.
Mod
That yer a great appreciator of Mr Waits is icing on the cake heh.
I love yer story of ye almost dying with Mahler ;)
Im not sure what Soph is referring to either.. i thought she meant my original post, but i made it up myself and just meant that i posted it on a different group entirely a week or so back but then i moved it here as i didn't think many people there would want to reply to it.
Oh Ani DiFranco is definitely up there in my amazing artists list too.
i know it's near sacriledge to say this but music is such an after thought with me
i have a hard time intergrating it into my life consistently
there will be settled times when i listen to music daily
and then there are months and years when it's only on the radio or i am at the mercy of someone else's music
it's almost always been so
tom waits was on my brother's stereo (when they were called stereo's) in the early 70's and when he was working the night shift i would go into his room and play them-he was a country aficiando (my brother), johnny cash, walk the line, dickie betts orange blossom, special, willie nelson, that lucky old sun, dan hicks, elvin bishop, pure prairie league,
2nd brother and taj mahal, that blonde british guy who played harmonica, cat stevens, (janis,jimi, jim, mama cass, grace slick and the rest of the pyschadelics were in the 60's when i was a little girl)
third brother and sister kinder gentler, james taylor, melanie, jonathan edwards, arlo guthrie alice's restaurant
dylan and baez in their own catagory
then there were the ex-husband years with rolling stones,beast of burden, the who, my generation, brothers johnson, james gang, funk 49, dc southern drug rock, dozin and droolin, no more thorazine, little feet, dixie chicken,
then nothing through most of the 80's except a little police, u2, cheap trick was a cheap trick when they started, more stones, it was the decade of bad american musice, otis came into my life and billie but limited, back to joan, amazing grace
hmmm-enough
more later
i have a hard time intergrating it into my life consistently
there will be settled times when i listen to music daily
and then there are months and years when it's only on the radio or i am at the mercy of someone else's music
it's almost always been so
tom waits was on my brother's stereo (when they were called stereo's) in the early 70's and when he was working the night shift i would go into his room and play them-he was a country aficiando (my brother), johnny cash, walk the line, dickie betts orange blossom, special, willie nelson, that lucky old sun, dan hicks, elvin bishop, pure prairie league,
2nd brother and taj mahal, that blonde british guy who played harmonica, cat stevens, (janis,jimi, jim, mama cass, grace slick and the rest of the pyschadelics were in the 60's when i was a little girl)
third brother and sister kinder gentler, james taylor, melanie, jonathan edwards, arlo guthrie alice's restaurant
dylan and baez in their own catagory
then there were the ex-husband years with rolling stones,beast of burden, the who, my generation, brothers johnson, james gang, funk 49, dc southern drug rock, dozin and droolin, no more thorazine, little feet, dixie chicken,
then nothing through most of the 80's except a little police, u2, cheap trick was a cheap trick when they started, more stones, it was the decade of bad american musice, otis came into my life and billie but limited, back to joan, amazing grace
hmmm-enough
more later
I've been pushed out of shops by the music they play - but have been with people who don't even notice. I worry about people who still listen to 'classic hits' radio stations. Imagine still listening to the music you listened to in your teens for the rest of your life, I mean, only that music. A complete nightmare. Some people choose to live in what I would have thought was one of the layers of Dante's Hell.
I'm a fan of music. REAL music. If there's lyrics, they need to be sung. It needs to be pleasing to the ear and not cause ear damage or cause the head to pound. I believe that music is vital to life. Every civilization has had some kind of music. It is a way of expressing one's self and connecting with people. To be a great song, there needs to be a moment where you are PART of the song. It becomes a part of you.
Don't get me wrong, I love just listening to the radio, but as a person who sings, Truly magnificent song isn't always in the top 40.
The song Guantanamera always makes me cry. My father loved that song and I can just almost hear his voice singing it. He passed away when I was 10 and of course I've idealized him since. That tune just brings back memories of his presence and the tears flow. It's truly a visceral reaction.We are not Cuban and I have no clue why the place deserves a song about it and I did not understand the lyrics as a child but I feel like it must be a beautiful place to have such a beautiful song written about it.
The first time i heard 'clair de lune', it was truely the most beautiful thing i had ever heard in my small life (i was 10) that i cried from the beauty. at the time i didn't know what it was called and had nearly forgotten about it till 10 years later i was at a friends house and saw the sheet music laying on the piano so i sat down and as soon as i played the first chord i realized this was the song that i had "lost", and i began to cry as i played it. i think the reason i love it so is because it is equal parts longing, loving, loseing and hopeing. songs that have given me near spiritual experiences would be ; "america"- simon and garfunkel, " cominado por la calle yo te ve " - gypsy kings and "nessun dorma" with pavorati. i couldn't live with just one album all my life, i hate listening to anything on repeat.
Music for me is a catalysis to my emotions.Sometimes I will be listening to the radio and a song will come on that triggers a deep emotion that I was not willing to feel. Some of the lyrics will trigger thoughts hidden in the corner of my mind. There are some music that I associate with a particular experience and as some as I hear it I am taken back to that moment. I love listening to John Denver and his beautiful way of seeing the world around us. I can only imagine the songs he would be creating today.
I completely agree charly. that is why some songs are personally boycotted because of the memories.
Whiter Shade of Pale...Procul Harem...does it for me and covers the years from 1968---now. Music speaks louder than words and connects you quicker to the bitter and the sweet that you wove into the quilt that has become or is becoming your life. My taste for music is eclectic but there are forms that leave me oh...cold.
Music fer me is often very emotional, not only in producing emotion but for responding to emotion.
What tunes always tend to respond best to a particular emotion you have? Or do ye listen to certain music to elicit certain emotions..?
Tom Waits, for me both responds to and creates such a range of emotions in me. Drifting, dreaming, loving, laughing, picking me up, taking me away, on top of the world, down in the depths wallowing in the mud with me, drowning me and then clutching me up to floating, rough, dirty and oh so wonderful sex.
What tunes have surprised you emotionally?
The first time i heard The Tarantulas - A Le club Contemporaine I wasnt expecting anything and suddenly i found my body responding to the music by moving and moving and suddenly i was dancing with my eyes closed and grinning like a kid at christmas.
Goldfrapp - Feltmountain lost me somewhere inside my own slowly beating heart.
Years ago i saw Bjork perform on tv, she floated around in a little white shift in her barefeet, playing cups of water.. i was utterly mesmerised. To this day i dont know what song it was she played and i havent heard it again but i will never forget it.
Mozart's Requiem Dies Trae, all surrounding, massive and in the dark, sets me ashiver and in awe.
If ye could only ever listen to one album again, which would it be? Would it be for a particular emotional need or to respond to a particular emotion? Perhaps it would have to be an album that spans as vast a range of emotions as ye experience?
Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner. An emotional tale that i can easily imagine myself in that bar raising my drink to Tom as he and I drink in the experience.