Well, I just got back from having dinner at Jodi's, and tried to watch a couple of minutes of the presidential debate. Finding that even a couple of minutes were more than my blood pressure and stomach equilibrium could take, I've now decided to post something on my sadly-neglected blog.
And now the die is cast, so it won't matter if I watch it later.
[Funny - I assume that ^ refers to dice and games, but in my mind it's always been associated with die casting.]
So on the way home from Jodi's, I was listening to a mix I'd made awhile back - the first three songs being 1) Neil Young 2) Ry Cooder (from the Paris, Texas soundtrack) and 3) Audrey Hepburn (singing Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's). And halfway through Ry Cooder, I suddenly wondered if I'd still like that track so much, if it weren't associated with all sorts of stuff in my head.
Like, you know how you play a song for someone - one of your favorite songs in the world - and they just don't get it at all? What if it had less to do with the song itself, and more with the fact that they were lacking the good associations you have with the song?
Cause Neil Young - would I have ever started listening to his music if I hadn't been head-over-heels for Kurt when he gave me a cracked LP of After The Gold Rush in high school? Would I like it if I didn't enter a certain mental zone every time I hear it - a zone that is full of high school memories, and also connected with the years I worked at PhotoTime, when Neil's wife would bring rolls of film in to be developed, and my friend Julie lived up on King's Mountain, just down the road from his house - Every time I hear a Neil Young song, all that goes through my head - years of memories. Would his songs seem so full to me if they didn't contain all of those things?
Or Ry Cooder's guitar - which reminds me so much of the western emptiness of that movie that I can almost smell the dirt and sagebrush, ...and of Rob, and living in Menlo Park, and how I used to always get Paris, Texas mixed up with True Stories, and how I tried to get my mom to watch True Stories, but she never did.
The more I think about it, the associations kinda take over, and the actual content of the songs seems increasingly irrelevant.
Here’s a test – the next time someone plays you a song you don’t like, imagine that the person you’re in love with has just told you that it’s their favorite song ever – and see if it improves.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
My favorite Neil Young song is "A Man Needs a Maid" - nothing to do with nothing. . . just thought of it while reading your post.
Funny - that's one of my least favorites. Not because of the lyrics, but because of how many different musical phases the song goes through; I don't like Queen for the same reason - tho they do it much more. I find it emotionally confusing - just when you're getting used to one thing, it changes and you have to switch moods all over again. Irritating.
So wait - I guess if I still don't like that song, it must mean....
;-)))
So you don't like songs that are suites?
I like music that complicates feelings and goes through a progressive change. . . like prog rock (I suddenly understand why it is is named as such).
- O
I guess not - I guess I'm not too keen on the Grateful Dead for the same reason; also cause sometimes they feel kinda directionless. The one band whose 'song phases' (whatever they're called) I can mostly handle is Phish - but I think that's partly cause they stay with them longer, so it's not as internally jarring - you get to actually soak them in before switching.
Springsteen also does some of that changing-mode in his songs - that doesn't bother me either, cause again, he spends long enough in them that you don't feel cheated.
But the "Bohemian Rhapsody" song drives me nuts cause it's like a gazillion 5- or 10-second clips of a bunch of songs that would be really great if they could be developed, but they're in and out so fast that you can't savor them.
Radiohead (another band I like intellectually but not gut-ly), on the other hand, does the same irritating changes not with style-phases, but with key changes (or... whatever it'd be called - obviously I know very little about music) - most of their songs drive me nuts too cause you can't settle anywhere - it's like trying to find somewhere to sit down in a living room that's full of chairs with nails sticking out of them. Which may be what they're going for; I dunno, but I find it hard to listen to.
Couple of years ago I made a mix for a friend I called "RePel" - which had nothing but music I thought other people might find 'difficult' - but I like it, I want to be challenged. I want to have to work at getting comfortable with it and liking the change.
But then again, I have a complicated relationship with change. I dread it in anticipation, but generally accept or even enjoy it when it happens.
BTW, Radiohead is probably only topped by the Beatles in terms of best popular music ever. . . And the Beatles have some challenging songs as well, like "Dig a Pony".
Post a Comment