Music. What does it mean to you? How does it make you feel? To me, the answer to both of those questions is 'everything.' A song is the ultimate time machine. Put it on, close your eyes and you can be magically transported to another place and time.
'Let's Hang On' by The Four Seasons (but according to new findings, it might have been the Barry Manilow version) makes me think of driving to my grandparents house in the station wagon down in Wellsville with my mother when I was like six.
'The Stranger' by Billy Joel reminds me of running errands on a Saturday afternoon with my mother - going to some shop over near East Main Street and North Winton Road.
'Greatest Hits Volume I & II' by Billy Joel remind me of cleaning the house on weekends.
I remember the first time I heard 'Father & Son' by Cat Stevens. In 1988, Maxi Priest released a cover of 'Wild World.' I fell in love with that song almost instantly. When I heard it was a cover, and that my dad actually had the record for the original, I had to listen to it. I found 'Tea For The Tillerman' in my parents record collection (they have a great collection) and was amazed at the lyrics printed right on the back of the cover. I noticed the one song that was shown as a duet, but there was no other artist listed as singing it. I read the words and was quickly affected by them. I brought the album up to my room to listen to it in private. It's still one of my favourite songs of all time.
I remember my brother Chris and I being transfixed by Traveling Wilbury's 'Volume One.' We brought that one up to our room as well.
I don't know how I ever lived before I owned an MP3 player. I do remember one Thanksgiving I brought about twenty cassette tapes with me to my grandparents house because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to listen to during the four days we would be there.
I think it was in fifth grade that I started listening to music when I went to sleep. I remember the one and only time my brother and I had a volume fight on our respective radios as to what was going to play that night as we slept. I remember when my friend Ryan had moved into our house, and on one of the first nights there, he came over to my radio and turned it off after I had fallen asleep. No sooner had he turned it off had I jumped up and asked him what he was doing. From then on he understood the rule of my room: music played at night.
A lot of people say music speaks to them. That they love listening to the stories in the lyrics. I understand that. But when I listen it's not only the words that speaks to me, but also the music, the instrumentation, the background sounds, the 'do do do' of the background singers keeping the beat. I love Springsteen songs where you can hear the entire band playing. I'd do anything to see Bruce playing 'Thunder Road' on piano solo, but to see the E Street Band come alive with 'Sherry Darling' or 'Rosalita' is something else entirely.
My parents raised me in a classic rock and roll tradition: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Boston. There were some pop trappings in there: ABBA, Billy Joel, Elton John. The introduction of MTV was a defining moment in my life. I was swept away with the New Wave that came in the 80s - The Cars, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Nena, Soft Cell. My 6th grade teacher believed that an education without the classics was a waste. He gave us Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. In high school I was drawn to musical theatre - Andrew Lloyd Webber, 'The Man Of LaMancha,' 'Miss Saigon.' An argument can be said that it was the girls I dated that brought me towards country music, three of them were bonafide country music fans. But I think it was a natural evolution of my musical tastes. Sooner or later it was bound to happen.
My first MP3 player was a 30GB Creative Labs Nomad. I got it in December 2006. By December 2008 I had upgraded to a refurbished Creative Labs Nomad with a 120GB card in it. Multiple problems with that forced me to turn to the best of the best - a 160GB iPod Classic. It took me nearly two months to transfer my music. I verified the song information on each song, catalogued it on a spreadsheet and then added it to the iPod. Right now, I have 95GB free. I bring it with me everywhere I go. I get cold sweats if I leave it home or at work. I've even gone back to work at 1am (it was after a movie) to rescue the iPod (it was also a Friday, so I wasn't going to leave it there for the whole weekend!).
So, here's my blog. It's about music and movies mainly. Random ideas that I come up with.
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